That's the One!!!

Look at those.......BRAnches!! (what did you think I was going to say)

Well here it is in all the glory of the forest, before we chopped it to the ground! Our 5th annual tree cutting trip was successful again, we did have a few more tears and whiney children this year, but I am choosing to forget that part so that I will want to do it again next year.

We were on a mission to find a soft Douglas Fir, mainly because of the neverending pokes and scratches from our last years tree as we were trying to decorate it without drawing blood!

The kids found this cute little cabin to play around in!

We all loved spending time, we had lots of laughs, a few tears, and every year wouldn't be the same without this tradition!

Random pictures!

Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving day with cousin Jack, Madelynn and Bett, me and Mr. Evelo, Mr. Evelo putting up the lights, and our covering of the coffee table to make it into a foot stool.

We went to Drew and Madelynn's bball games today, but I forgot the camera, so that will be next time. They both won their games and played awesome! Rick is helping to cater a dinner at the club house tonight, he is quite the jack of all trades these days, he goes from snow plowing to serving dinner for the members holiday parties! We are going up to cut down the Evelo family tree tomorrow, pictures to come!

Birthday

My Andrew turned 12 on Thanksgiving this year, along with his Grandma Mary (who turned 60)

They have a special bond since their birthday is on the same day and she was in the delivery room with us when Andrew made his entry into this world!

All day I just kept looking at him and wondering where the last 12 years have gone. He is an amazing person, very kind hearted and fun loving! If you are not smiling, he will find a way to make it happen. We are so blessed to have him in our lives, and are lucky to live close to Grandma Mary to share their day!

I was reminded by me sweet mom that I didn't post any Haloween pics of the kids,

so sorry!

Drew is a bag of Jelly Belly's

Madelynn is a witch

Tyler is a Wardog

Rick is goofy in the background!!

"you need sugar to be healthy" Tyler Evelo

So last week before the flu hit my happy, healthy home, Tyler decides to join me while I'm doing Pilates. He is so funny, and coordinated I might add, he asks me to pause the DVD, so I did. When he returns he has a hand full of candy. I ask him why he has so much candy at 8:30 in the morning, to which he matter of factly replies< "because you need sugar to be healthy". Well ok then, apparently his older siblings have told him that sugar gives you energy, and so before Tyler exercises, he needs to have a healthy dose of SUGAR!

Time passes too quickly

Well here is what has been going down in the Evelo house.

Nov. 3rd
Rick's 35th birthday! We celebrated with dinner, we had a busy night of running kids to and from activities, so the birthday celebration was on the short side. Rick did get some yummy pistacios and some new tennis shoes.

Nov. 8
Andrew's playoff game against a Houston team. They lost the game, but still were awarded a State Champs trophy. They had a write up in the paper about Pop Warner football and how good the War Dogs did this season. Andrew really liked it for the most part, he loved being the kicker and punter for the team.

Now Madelynn and Drew are busy with basketball practices, yea an indoor sport!

Okay so that doesn't seem like much, but in between the weekends the days just seem to fly by. We are getting ready for the Holidays now, and can't wait for the snow to fly to use all of our new snowboard/ski wear.

Finally, a party for mom and dad! (that is what Tyler said)

I didn't get the group picture with everyone, (technical difficulties) but here are a few of my friends that were there (everyone looked amazing)!
Rick and I went to a Haloween party as Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sparrow (or pirates). We had a blast, the Bullocks always put on a great party, food, games, and lots of laughs!
Rick actually grew his facial hair for two weeks just to have some authentic stubble for his costume, we had to color it in, but it looked great!

Disney Pictures

Well I guess my captions didn't get saved to my pictures, so I had better explain the slideshow on the previous post!

Yes it is of our trip to Disneyland!

We had a great time from the minute we hit the airport to the minute Grandpa and Grandma picked us up.

Our week was non-stop fun with two days at Disneyland and California Adventures. A day trip to Universal Studios. Two days spent with friends from college, shopping, the beach and lastly a day at Sea World!

We were definately not ready to come home, but we were so exhausted at the same time!

Our little family made some big memories and are looking forward to the next time we can get away from our normal lives to have some fun!

tag~ I'm it!

Well here is my picture! This is right after I ran the Bolder Boulder 10K in 2006. Of course I had showered and changed already, I don't allow pictures of me post trauma! I love running and have just recently rededicated myself to it! So after a night of everything chocolate I ran 4 miles this morning! If anyone wants to join me, let me know!

I tag Kadi, Amy, Angie, Natalei. All you have to do is pick folder #4 and picture #4 in that folder and then tell us what it's about!

This is one of the many pictures Grandma Mary took of us last Sunday. We are having more done tomorrow to have that holiday chore checked off the list!
(This is the view from #4 green on Rick's course)

The Wardogs are 2-1!

They lost their second game, but won game number three, they started the game with a touchdown in the first 5 minutes! Just thought I would give you an update!

Madelynn and Tyler ran in their second race. Tyler didn't eat dirt this time (yeah) he ran the whole way and beat his previous time.

Madelynn was careful not to start out too fast and was able to shave almost two minutes off her time, she came in at 8 min 25 sec.! They have one more next week, I'll keep you posted!

T.Y.L.E.R.

The night before his birthday, his first tooth was lost! You can see that he has two teeth that just couldn't wait their turn!

Yes, Tyler had a big day yesterday.

He awoke at the crack of dawn to accompany dad to work (always a favorite thing to do), then he came home long enough to change his muddy clothes and eat a self made ham and lettuce sandwich, and then off to school! After school he invited a friend over to play and have pizza and open presents. He loves football these days (looking up to his brother no doubt), so he was thrilled to recieve shoulder pads and a jersey, more fun items included legos, remote controlled tarantula and the ever popular cold hard cash/check! Mom and dad were busy carting kids to and from various after school activities, so between football practice and after scouts, we celebrated and had cake and ice cream with friends from the neighborhood and friends from church.

I am holding onto this time when Tyler still wants to cuddle with me and be tickled and just doesn't grow up too fast.

Go Landsharks!

Madelynn and Tyler started doing the running club at school. What does the running club do, you ask? They run and run and run some more, and then they do a race with other clubs from different elementary schools. Monday night was their first race and they did awesome! Tyler had a rough start, he got going just a little too fast and tripped, but he hopped right up and took off like nothing happened. Madelynn did great, she started slow like I coached her (slow is my middle name), and she finished with that beautiful smile on her face~


Tyler and Madelynn getting all stretched out before the big race!
Tyler finishing his half mile race! Good form don't you think?
Madelynn finishing her mile race, also has great form!
Madelynn and her friend Denae, soon you'll see these two leading the pack!

WARDOGS 1-0

Andrew is playing football this year(#4) instead of soccer. Yes I had my doubts and worries, I mean look at those twigs he has for arms and legs! But he loves it, and I love it, we had so much fun watching his first game Sat. night at UCCS under the lights! They are the Wardogs, and they won 27 to 0! Andrew plays defense and a little offense, he also is the punter (one other boy does the kickoffs). He has done such a great job learning the rules and all of their plays, now if we can just keep him away from the big guys, and out of the E.R. I might just be footballs newest fan!

Rainy Day Baking

So today is going to be one of those wonderful cloudy, wet days, where you just want to stay inside and curl up with a good book or a movie (or even better, your hubby)! But since my hubby has to work, and I've read all the books in my house, I thought I would make some comfort foods.

We just bought a case of yummy peaches and they are ripening faster than we can eat them, so I ran across this recipe for peach crumble. Soooo deliciouso (I've made it three times already)

(i doubled the crumble part)

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

5 Tbsp. butter, cut into bits

1/2 cup pecans

mix all together and chill for 15 minutes before sprinkling on top of freshly sliced peaches or apples, or any other fruit you have lying around. (use about 4 cups of fresh fruit in a greased 8x8 inch pan)

bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes. Enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream!

And of course chocolate chip/butterscotch cookies to go along with my peach crumble! I made cookie dough the other day, and my family has eaten almost the whole bowl, so I thought I had better actually make some of the cookies, I only got about 10 cookies out of it! Hopefully I won't eat them all, but if I do (oh well)

I am definately working out today!

just catchin up

Labor Day at the Air Force game!
While dad worked at the ski shop, Grandpa took us to the Air Force game. We had great seats and the weather was my kind of football weather!


Rick's sister and her family came to town this weekend. Here is us at the Rockies game, it was a little chilly, but we all had a blast!

Chance, Andrew, Riley, Madelynn, Tyler.
The kids all waited down by the baseline before the game and got autographs from a couple of the players, that really made the game for the kiddos!

Well, between Drew's football and Madelynn and Tylers running club, that is all we have been up to lately! Just remember, no news is good news when it comes to the Evelo family!

Happy Anniversary

Today it has been 13 years of wedded bliss for Rick and I.
So, here is a few pictures of our ring ceremony/reception, and our wedding day in Idaho Falls.



Jump ahead 13 years, and we are still loving life together as much or more than ever!
I was the luckiest girl at the water park in Aug. 1992, (where we met). Someone had a plan for us before we even new it! I love ya baby

Well, the weekend is almost over already!

Friday night our friend from Arizona flew in to spend the weekend with us, but mostly to go the Broncos/Cowboys preseason football game. It has been fun catching up with Paul, he is a flight attendant so he gets to travel when and where he desires!

So, since Rick and Paul were going to go golfing and to the game on Sat. I decided to make it a fun day with the kids. I finally took them school shoe shopping, they were so appalled that they didn't have brand new shoes on the first day of school. I promised them that nobody would notice what shoes they were wearing, and it was still nice, so they could were flip flops still. Anyway, we went to Famous footwear and spent enough to keep them in business for a few more years! I don't know how large families keep their children fed and clothed, if we had any more kids, they would definately be naked and hungry!
Then we were off to the movies, we saw the new Mummy movie, it was ok, the kids loved it so that is all that counts. When that only took until about dinner time, we went home and just hung out and played games and listened to the neverending rain. I had a huge headache, probably from the movie, so it was nice to just veg!

Rick and Paul just took the kids to Garden of the Gods and the Air Force Academy, so I have some time to myself! Tomorrow is already a day off of school for Tyler and Madelynn, so that means I am babysitting the neighbor boys as well, hopefully it is nice enough for them to be outside all day! I hope you had a fabulous weekend and stay tuned for more of nothing real exciting on our end!

Tylers big day!

Tyler is officially a Kindergartner as of yesterday afternoon! He finally had his first day, he couldn't wait to be at the same school as the other kids! His teacher is Mrs. Orinack and Tyler thinks she is nice. He said his favorite part of the day was recess!

This was how exhausting Kindergarten must be! We had only been home for about 30 minutes when I found Tyler on the couch with his snack fast asleep!

I did get a little choked up as I was leaving him at the school, I will miss my little buddy for the three hours he is there, but I know he is so ready for all the fun and learning that I just can't offer him!