A new experience!

On Wednesday we headed up to the mountains again for a train ride with Santa. On the way to the train we noticed this frozen lake and people ice fishing on it. We could not pass up this awesome experience, so we too stopped and made our way out on the ice. These are not very good pictures, but there we are in the middle of the lake, checking out the ice fishing set-up. the whole experience was pretty incredible!

Decorating Christmas cookies

Fun in the snow @ Eldora

On Tuesday we went on a snow hunt - and ended up in the mountains at the Eldora ski resort. It was quite warm in Denver the entire time we were there, which meant no snow at Grandma and Papa's. That was ok - we didn't have to shovel it and drive in it - but we still got to play in it up in the mountains. This first picture was taken in the parking lot. Zack and Papa couldn't wait to make a snowman, so this one got made right next to the car!

Noah's first real experience in the snow. He wasn't a big fan, but tolerated it long enough for a picture!

Playing with an icicle that Grandma took off this building!


Zack just loved trying to walk through the snow. He had a great time!

All bundled up!

Noah, Grandma, Zack and Papa

Such a beautiful smile - and so authentic - he had just thrown a snowball at Grandma!

I just had to get a picture of these cute little snow pants that Noah was wearing.

We are so thankful that Grandma and Papa live in such a beautiful location of the country and that the boys can have these great experiences! In a few years they will be visiting the ski resorts, but hopefully doing a little skiing!

Trip to Denver

After opening gifts, the boys, my brother Eric and I got in the car and started off for Denver. It was a very long trip, but we had a great time (and thank goodness for the DVD player in our new car!!!) Kris still had to work, so he was flying out to Denver in a couple of days to join us.

This was the beautiful sunset that was displayed across the sky on our trip. God was really showing off the beauty of His creation. What a wonderful reminder of our awesome God!!

We arrived to Grandma and Papa's house a little after lunch the next day, and after being in the car for over 18 hours, we headed right for the park in my parent's neighborhood. Let the fun week begin!

Our Christmas morning on December 18th

Since our family was traveling to Denver for Christmas, we decided to have our family Christmas here in Texas on the 18th. After a lot of begging, Santa agreed to bring the boy's gifts a week early - we had a great time opening gifts and celebrating the Savior's birth.

Merry Christmas!

Crazy boys! This is about all we can ask for when trying to get two boys to look at the camera and smile!

The order of the pictures is a little off, but we found the baby Jesus, put him in the manger and then Daddy read the Christmas story. Such a special tradition that we have adopted from the Ridenour side of the family.

Here they are putting baby Jesus in the nativity.

Our little Noah's first Christmas!

Let the gift opening begin!

Pure joy!

These next two pictures make me laugh! Who knows what he was doing or thinking. He must have really been into opening his gifts.

Playing with the gifts a few minutes before we hop in the car and head to Denver - where there will be more celebrating and gift opening!

The weeks leading up to Christmas

The weeks leading up to Christmas are always so exciting, magical, and BUSY!!! Here are a few things that kept the Thornton group busy as we got ready for this exciting time.

Mommy and Zack made a bunch of cookies and had a great time!

I am not sure what I was thinking... but I decided to have a garage sale the week before we were leaving for Denver (2 weeks before Christmas)!! We had SO many baby clothes that I was ready to get rid of. Here are the empty boxes that contained the clothes. Of course my boys can always put boxes to good use!

Checking out the snow globe - dreaming of the snow they are hoping to see in Denver!

Basket fun! Isn't Noah so cute?? He is just getting so big and really learning how to enjoy life!

Checking out the tree. Surprisingly, this is the closest he ever got to the tree. Both boys did great with just looking!

And of course... trying to use the potty! A few days before we were leaving, we found Zack on the potty all by himself, and he actually used it! I couldn't do much about it since we were going to be traveling - but committed to start potty training full on when we got back! (More of that to come soon).

And the real reason we celebrate this special time each year ... to adore the precious baby Jesus. This was my Christmas project for the year and I loved the way that it turned out! Who knew that you could print on burlap???