Christmas in Colorado

Yes, it's true. I'm doing a new post. I haven't had a posting-drought like this in a couple of years. And that was only because blogging was a chore back then and all I could muster were monthly recaps. This particular drought has been caused by lack of opportunity. Though there's little to show for it at the end of each day, I've worked my keyster off doing whatever and all I know is that there's not been a second to spare. Some things that have come and gone that most likely won't get posted are: Thanksgiving (our first as just us), my 30th birthday, the snow we got here, our pre-Christmas Christmas in Dallas, our 6th anniversary, New Year's and resolutions, the little rabbit that's taken up residence in our backyard (Emily named it "Bun Bun"). So, yes, posting has been out of the question lately, as has checking anyone else's blogs. Maybe someday....

I've actually been working on this post intermittently pretty much for two days. Thanks to my dear friend, Stephanie, I've found a way to post a lot of pictures of our wonderful Christmas in Colorado without having it be even more gigantic than it already is. Let's just say I used my new camera a ton (like 504 pictures worth) during our vacation and that makes for a lot of sorting through to do. So take note of these fancy collages Danny and I learned how to do.


We got to Denver on Dec. 18th. Mom and Dad Dixon had all sorts of surprises and things up their sleeves. It couldn't have been a better time. The day after we arrived we all headed to Santa's Workshop in Colorado Springs for a few hours. It's a great little amusement park and the kiddos had a blast going on all the rides. Kuddos to Stacy for finding this place!

From the time we knew we'd be heading to Colorado for Christmas, Emily got it in her head that decorating Grandma's tree would be on the agenda. Practically every time we talked to her on the phone Emily asked Grandma if she was leaving the tree-decorating till we got there.

Every day there was something fun to do. Making and decorating sugar cookies was something the kids enjoyed doing.

We went geocaching one afternoon. If you don't know what that is, I recommend you click here to learn about it and give it a try. It's really fun. Ben led us to one right down the street and the we all had a good time looking for it. We took something to put in so we could take something from it. Emily took some stickers and Dallin took a rock. Megan was just along for the ride, but she sure looked cute.

Building a gingerbread house was also must-do for Emily. Again, Grandma came through for us and had bought a perfect little kit. I think Dallin ate more frosting than what went on the house.

Snow to play in was something we'd prayed for for months when we knew we'd be in Denver for Christmas. Our kids had never even seen snow before and I was really hoping there'd be some for them. Since prayers are always answered, we had a good snowstorm come through two days before Christmas. It started falling just after the kids had gone to bed, so they woke up to this. It was beautiful.

They were dying to go out and play. And play we did. It was really a lot of fun. They loved tromping in it, doing snow angels, throwing it, and tasting it. Danny and Ben were good sports and pulled them around in the sled. Stacy was a good sport trying to build a snowgirl with Emily, though the snow wasn't the best for it that day. Ben gets the Uncle of the Year Award for staying out with Emily to go sledding even though he was cold and wet from already having gone with Dallin.

Making Norweigan pastries at Christmastime is a Dixon tradition. They're pronounced Fuddy Mayners, though I have no idea how to spell it. Dallin and Emily were good helpers.

After a delicious Christmas Eve feast, we all got into costume to perform the Nativity. Grandma was the narrator, Dallin was a shepherd, Aunt Stacy was an angel, I was Mary, Danny was Joseph, Megan was Baby Jesus, Grandpa was a shepherd, Emily was an angel, Uncle Mike was a wiseman, Uncle Beaner was the donkey, and Aunt Emily was the photographer. Good times had by all!

Grandma and Grandpa had a gift for everyone to open before going to bed on Christmas Eve. All the boys opened matching flannel bottoms and shirts. All the girls opened matching flannel bottoms and shirts, even Megan and Emily. Grandma, the amazing seamstress, had actually made itty bitty flannel bottoms for Megan and some for Emily from grown-up sized flannel bottoms! They were so cute and I'm sure there's not another baby on earth with her own little flannel jammy bottoms. It was fun to be all matchy-matchy.

Christmas morning was great. Here we are opening the stockings. Emily had asked Santa for a Snow White doll, a Belle doll, and the movie "Beauty and the Beast". Dallin had simply asked for a book.

Moving onto the gifts. For whatever reason, Emily really wanted to get a "Cougar shirt" for Christmas. She and Dallin asked Grandpa to get one for them and, of course, he did. They were thrilled.

Grandma had arranged for a special guest to come over on Christmas morning. The night before, we'd found "Christmas Dust" from Santa on the front door step. It was a baggy containing dry oats and glitter, and a slip of paper instructing us to sprinkle the Christmas dust on the front lawn. It explained that the glitter would sparkle in the moonlight, helping Santa to find our house and the smell of the oats would guide the reindeer. The kids did the sprinkling before going to bed on Christmas Eve. Then, after all the gifts were opened on Christmas morning, there was a knock at the door. We hurried the kids to the door to answer it and they were shocked to see Santa standing there. He came in with a bag and explained that after he'd delivered all the gifts around the world, he'd found a few presents on the floor of his sleigh that had fallen out of his bag. He came to give them to Megan, Dallin, and Emily. Dallin unwrapped some books and Emily unwrapped her movie. They LOVED it and were just eating it up. For me, that was my favorite part of the whole day.

Among many other fun things, we played Rock Band Beattles a lot and the boys played Wii. Emily's favorite song was "Yellow Submarine", and she and Dallin learned every word. They sing it all the time. Just today during lunch she sang the whole song.



I most certainly cannot post about this holiday without giving major props to Mom and Dad Dixon for such a fantastic time. Mom spent countless hours before anyone's arrival preparing meals and activities and gifts, etc. Dad forked over a lot of money getting and having us there for so long, not to mention for all the gifts. The aunts and uncles also get major props for playing and helping with the kids just about 24/7. The crazy thing is that they LOVE it and never get sick of any of the kids' antics or demands or whims. I loved watching them love my kids. So, thanks for that, Mom, Dad, Stace Potate, Uncle Beaner, Mike, and Emily. We really had the best time ever.

Busy, Busy

Well, let me just say that we have had a VERY productive few weeks since moving in. All (and I mean all) of this productivity is acredited to my blessed mother, who left yesterday. Thus, today is a day of mourning at our house. If we had a flagpole with a flag, it would most definitely be flying at half mast.


1. We have our Christmas shopping done. We live two minutes away from excellent shopping: an outlet mall, a brand new regular mall, and a huge shopping villiage. Woo hoo!

2. A few days after moving in we got the carpets cleaned. We decided to move as much furniture as possible, so we shoved most of the house (all but the beds and dressers) onto the tile flooring located in the kitchen and the bathrooms. It was moderately annoying, however, to move everything off the carpets when the house was completely empty just a few days earlier. We have the homeowner to thank for that one.



3. Five days after arriving, Danny went to Boston for 8 days.

4. My mom helped take our family picture. It's easier said than done, trust me.

5. We got Baby's first portraits taken.

6. Danny took the kids to see Santa.

7. We've all been hit, one after another, with a nasty cold.

8. We finally went to the right ward on the third try. Let's just say neither our ward's website nor the folks from one of the other wards were correct in the information they gave us.

9. We obliterated an enormous colony of aggressive ants living under the threshold of our back door. Thank goodness for Dad Dixon's recommendation of Anhydro. It really works. The ants in this picture represent just a fraction of what was under there.


10. I bought a new camera - a nice camera. I got the bug and obsessively researched SLR cameras every night for a week. I'm really excited to not have junk pictures any more.

11. We got most of our pictures hung on the walls.

12. Danny and I went on a date, twice! Now that's something noteworthy. We spent a quiet, romantic evening at a monster truck rally and a very boring couple of hours at the Bodies Exhibit. No, I'm being sarcastic. There's nothing quiet or romantic about a monster truck rally. Being first-timers, we regretfully didn't take earplugs. So, we plugged our ears with our fingers the whole time and hardly said a word to each other. On the upside, we did get blasted with AC/DC and Guns N' Roses for two whole hours. As for the Bodies Exhibit, it's not boring at all. It is SPECTACULAR! I very highly recommend going.

13. I found our new pediatrician and took the kids to get their H1N1 vaccinations.

14. I gave Baby her first taste of rice cereal. It's way too early for my liking, but these 30 minute cat naps all day every day are enough to drive me nuts. I thought maybe she needed a little more sustenance in that chubby belly of hers.


15. There has been lots of baking going on: 3 loaves of banana bread, ginger bread with lemon sauce, two loaves of whole wheat bread, and (my personal favorite) store-bought cherry turnovers.


Thanks for coming, Mom! We couldn't have survived without you!

The Move

Well, we made it to Texas! We drug our feet having to leave Alabama. We loved it there and really enjoyed ourselves during the past eight months. We decided to make the 10-hour drive over two days (mostly for my sanity's sake), but the whole process actually took much longer.

These first pictures have nothing to do with the move, but I wanted to post the pupmkin carving we did before we left. The kids had a lot of fun doing it and loved seeing their jack-o-lanterns out by our front door.

Day 1 (Oct. 26)

Danny and I worked late into the evening packing the things we'd need for our drive. My mom arrived to help us with the move. She's a SAINT and has been a tremendous asset! We definitely could not have survived any of this with out her.

Day 2 (Oct. 27th)

Fortunately, Raytheon provides an excellent relocation package which includes a professional moving company. On this day, the movers came and boxed up all our stuff except our beds, bedding, and towels.

Day 3 (Oct. 28)

The movers came back and loaded everything onto the big truck. It was weird seeing the house all empty.
We ate our leftover lasagna lunch, etc. on the floor.

We forgot to keep out any paper cups, so we had to drink out of some paper bowls.

We drove to Decatur, a neighboring city, to spend our first night in a hotel.

Dallin came down with something and was SO sick, the poor little guy.

Day 4 (Oct.29)

We left Alabama and drove through Mississippi, up through Memphis, and made it to Little Rock, AR with no problems (4 different states in 5 hours). The kids did WONDERFULLY, in spite of the fact that Emily was also sick by this point!!

We had torrential rains driving through Arkansas both days. Danny was a great driver and we prayed hard for safety.

My mom, the baby, and I sat in the middle seat.

Dallin and Emily sat in the very back. We had a very nice ride in our van. We love it.
We stopped for lunch outside of Memphis. We could've eaten here....

...or here. Can you guess which one we chose?

Yeah, Steak 'n Shake won, but we thought the name of the other restaurant was funny.

After a bath in our hotel in Arkansas.

Playing cards.




Day 5 (Oct. 30th)

We left Little Rock and drove the rest of the way to Dallas, again in heavy rain. It seemed to clear right up as soon as we crossed the Texas border. I didn't take any pictures of this day - the excitement of the trip had worn off and I was just ready to be done traveling. The kids did great again and the day went smoothly. It had all just gotten old.

Day 6 (Halloween)

Our belongings arrived on Saturday morning. Emily and Dallin did GREAT keeping out from under foot by playing outside by Daddy for nearly two hours. So, with these moves, the movers put stickers on every box and other large items that go onto the truck. Every sticker has a different number so they can keep track of our stuff. Danny's job was to check off each item on the number sheet, 283 to be exact.

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating that evening.

Emily was Snow White.

Dallin was a policeman.

Megan was a ladybug, with wings and all.

"Trick or treat!"

Megan was lulled to sleep in Daddy's arms as we walked from house to house.

Since Arriving

The kids have had a hay day playing in all the packing paper!

Due to a scheduling mix-up, we didn't have our gas turned on till Tuesday the 2nd. Having no heat wasn't a problem at all since it's not too cold here yet. Having no hot water, however, was a pain. We had to boil water on the stove and add it to the cold water in the bathtub in order to wash ourselves relatively comfortably. It only ever filled it a few inches high, though. Needless to say, none of us bathed as regularly as we'd have liked!

We've already been out around the neighborhood taking walks in the morning