O.K. It's been two months!

I know, I know, it's been along time since I posted. It almost becomes over whelming when you wait so long because now I don't know where to begin.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at my aunt's house then we sped over to the fire house for dessert since Austin had to work that day. Then I dropped the kids off with my friend Bridgette's husband who let them sleep over (thanks Shaun). Then met up with Bridgette at Best Buys where we sat outside ALL night long in 9 degree weather. Bridgette almost got into a fight with some guy at two a.m. that tried to cut in line, we weren't going to have any of that! We got rid of him and at 3:30 in the morning they passed out the tickets for the "Door Busters" and we got our laptops and printers for 229$! It was well worth it.

Then came December, we (I )do our house up big, we have three full size trees and garland everywhere, even the outside of the house. And these aren't just regular garlands, Oh, know they have balls and bead and bows and lights, which make them even more fun to hang! This year I hung off the second story roof with Austin so that he couldn't say that I make him get up there while I stand by and watch.
I had all of the Young Men and Women over for a Christmas time mutual, they were very respectful of our home, probably because Sis Johnson gave them a good talking to before letting them in. It was great considering that there where about forty teens in my house.

Austin had to work Christmas Eve so the kids and I went to the fire house for dinner and dessert. The kids got their traditional pair of pajamas (actually, Pierce got a robe this year) and then I took the kids to "the best light display in Colorado" personally I think it's a little much but the kids really liked it, especially the train that ran around the property. Then just a couple of houses down his son has his house done up too, I little more to my taste, more lights less stuffed animals/dolls.

Christmas was good, very quite, just us, we had a big Christmas, present wise. This has been our first year that I have felt like we could have a little fun and not worry (as much) about what we spent. From Santa Emma got an American Girl Doll and Pierce got a bike (that he could have cared less about) all that he wanted was "a big Thomas Aqua Doodle" Everything he opened he would say "I don't want this, I want a big Thomas Aqua Doodle" well, thank goodness he got it! Please don't think he's a brat, he just only wanted one thing :-) In fact earlier in the season his request was even simpler, he just wanted a blue present!

That evening we went to our neighbor's for dinner, we had a great time she went all out with the bree and the asparagus in puff pastry and the lemon slices in the ice cubes. I said "geez Heidi, it's just us!"

My Friend Bridgette and I are like bargain sole mates, we have such a great time finding the extreme bargians, we were stalking our target store waiting for them to go 90% off and finally about a week ago they did, I couldn't get there at 8 because I had to get Emma off to school so she call me and said forget our store, get to this other one, they are going to pull out 13 pallets from the back! We stood in one spot for 5 hours while they opened box after box after pallet after pallet in front of us all 90% off and my sweet little Pierce stood their that whole time with his crazy mom. We had five carts worth of stuff (two we took to the car early on) but the other three we drug through the Super Target together with Pierce on the side saying, toot toot, here comes the train," as if we were enough of a sight! One guy jokingly said, "I hate to tell you this, but Christmas is over" so I told him, "I hate to tell you this, but next Christmas you'll be paying full price" We both laughed. But I think I had the better laugh! :-)

Now that I've rambled on for way to long, I will try once again to keep up with this blog!

Nearly 100 children participate in first downtown Castle Rock costume contest

Winners from the 3-5 age group.

Assorted animals, storybook characters, pirates and several spooks filled downtown Castle Rock’s Festival Park on Halloween afternoon to celebrate the park’s opening and participate in downtown’s first costume contest.

Ninety-nine children from ages 0 to 12 entered the contest – organized by the Town of Castle Rock and the Castle Rock Downtown Merchants Association – for a chance to cavort in costume and win one of many prizes donated by downtown businesses.

Festival Park, Second and Perry streets, served as a stop on the Merchants Association’s Trick or Treat Street. While there, children consumed candy and painted pumpkins donated by Castle Rock Gift and Garden to a backdrop of tunes provided by Castle Rock Music. They also enjoyed demonstrations from dressed-up dogs from Golden Touch Golden Retrievers.

First-place winners in each of four costume contest age groups – 0-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 – won Halloween photo packages from Forever Yours photography. The winners, their ages and their costumes: 0-2 – Radley Nance, 2 months, peacock; 3-5 – Caden Calderon, 4, Captain Jack Sparrow; 6-8 – Skyler Gray, 8, wedding cake; and 9-12 – Webster Heyliger, 11, SpongeBob SquarePants.

Second- and third-place finishers and those receiving honorable mention received gifts from these businesses: The Olde Towne Creamery, The Cat’s Meow Flowers and Gifts, The Mind Garden, They Just Keep Growing and Colorado Community Newspapers. Office Max and Castle Rock Feed and Western Wear also helped sponsor the event.

Winners from the 6-8 age group.

The rest of the winners:

Second place: 0-2 – C.J. Kimberlin, 1, duck; 3-5 (tie) – Pierce Blanchard, 3, and Emma Blanchard, 6, Jack and Jill, and Macy Whisenand, 3, cat; 6-8 (tie) – Alyssa Whisenand, 6, Mary Poppins, and Nicole Buckley, 7, teapot; and 9-12 – Eric Kearney, 11, reaper.

Third place: 0-2 – Weston Vildibill, 1, pirate; and 9-12 (tie) – Jessica Moore, 12, baby, and Alyssa Gregory, 9, clown.

Honorable mention: 0-2 – Sam Smolen, 2, horse/cowboy; 3-5 – Ashley Estes, 5, Wonder Woman; and 6-8 – Madison Mackey, 8, witch.

My new business!

Our web sight is almost completely finished. Check it out!

www.consignrepeatafterme.com

Words I must use a lot

I have been noticing things that Pierce says and then I realized that I say them all the time..

1. Actually "Actually, I want to wear my boots." "Actually,I don't want to color."

2. Well He starts a lot of sentences with this. "Well, I was playing with my trains." "Well, I just want something to drink." etc

3. Oh My! "Oh, my that's funny"

My Marathon Running husband!

So this weekend Austin ran the Denver Marathon. He had sort of prepared for it. He would go out once a week or so and run a long distance. The furthest I think he ever went was 18 miles and as you probably know a marathon is 26! So him and his fire buddies get there it is FREEZING cold (it snowed in Castle Rock but only rained there) he had no poncho no long pants and no gloves. He ended up cramping up at mile 9 and ran 17.2 miles with BAD cramps! To technically "finish" the race you have to do it in 6 hours Austin finished in 5hr. 59 min. and 45 sec. That's right 15 sec to spare! He came home and sat it the tub with the jets on for 2 hrs. He even ate is dinner in there. The next morning he couldn't even get out of bed and had to call out sick. He barely got out of bed for two days. The back of his knees swelled up so bad. I asked him if he'd ever do that again he said, "maybe a half marathon," Oh, brother!

We just got Booed!

So Austin left for some training in Vegas today and I'm all alone. I don't mind being alone but when my doorbell rings after dark and I ask who it is and know one answers, I get a little nervous. I called a bunch of neighbors and no one answered then my minds starts to wander, "they've all been killed and I was next but I didn't answer the door." So finally I called the neighbor across the street and said "watch me I'm going to open my door" and to my surprise there were a whole bunch of treats in cute Halloween bags and a Witch Barbie for Emma. My kids and I have been on a high for the last hour trying to decided which two families we should get!

A fun Friday on the train

Yesterday we went to Georgetown, a darling little town in the mountains, they run a train there in the summer time called the Georgetown Loop, it used to carry the silver from there to Silver Plum. Considering that Pierce has been obsessed with trains for nearly a year I wanted to go ride it before they closed it for the winter. The kids didn't have school yesterday and Austin was off so we squeezed it in one week before they closed. We had a great time! The first part of the train ride was not as enjoyable as the second part, we were sitting in the front and the whistle was really loud it was scaring Pierce. But the second half of the ride we were sitting in the very back and wow, the scenery was beautiful all of aspens are golden right now and the weather was perfect, we went over a three hundred foot bridge called Devil's Gate it was breath taking to look down at the river beneath. Then we went into the museum and climbed into to trains that I don't think we were supposed to considered Austin kept telling me to get out, we were respectful but I really wanted to explore! One of the trains had velvet seats and reminded us of the passenger car from polar express, it was both erie and beautiful and we laughed at the tiny little toilet (people must have had smaller butts back then) because it was small! But the funny part was that when you went it was just a straight hole to the ground, so I would guess if you wanted to be polite you would wait till you passed through a town so you wouldn't leave them a present!

Before the ride we stopped in Silver Plume population 200, what a cool, strange little town. It looks like time stood still around 1890, that is the age of most of the houses. The roads are still gravel and aside from the cars and the occasional street sign it would be very easy to feel like you stepped back in time, we ate at this darling little bakery that used to be a feed shop, everything was fresh baked ever the kids hot dog buns! What a treat!