Fun in Keystone

Ski season is officially underway here in Colorado and we are enjoying every minute we can on the slopes! James has progressed to doing black diamonds and moguls and I am comfortable on most blue runs now and doing the snowplow less and less every day. I don't know if I'll ever be able to keep up with my husband but it feels good be picking up some speed finally. We got the chance to try Beaver Creek last weekend and it was an amazing experience, so beautiful there that we were sad to Leave the Beav at the end of the day! Here is our home away from home - the top of Dercum mountain at Keystone... James, Mimi and Papa took the girls, Joseph and Andrew on a sled ride while Bradley, Jolene and I went skiing - looks like they all had fun! Here is James pulling Sophie, Bella and Joseph...

The little kids all sledding together

Sweet little Sophie enjoying the snow

I almost wanted to say that this is the whole crew - but we are missing Mimi and Papa in this picture, no wonder the people who live below us think there is a herd of elephants in the condo - we have a rather large group :)

Ah, nothing like some Captain to warm you up after a long day on the slopes!

Andrew, Bella and Sophie in the tub - so fun watching the cousins play together

Our new obsession is "nigh nigh" time to go to sleep, but just for pretend, they never actually want to go to bed!

The kiddos all really enjoy playing together and it is great that we finally decided to put Andrew in with the girls for naps and bedtime, although the room is crowded with 3 pack n plays we are all sleeping much better now! Unfortunately Sophie learned how to climb out last weekend... so far she has only done it when she is done sleeping and not in the middle of the night so we are hoping she can stay in there for a little while longer. It was quite a shock to open the door and see her standing there the first time she did it! Andrew and Bella were just looking at her like "whooah that is cool, can you let us out now!"

Santa Visit

Last year...
What a difference a year makes!

Christmas Cuties

The girls are loving all of the Christmas decorations and activities so far! They both say "wooooow!" everytime we see christmas lights, so we took them to the Westminter city building where there is a Santa village and lots of lights - they loved it! We also took them to Blossoms of Lights at the Botanical Gardens, but it was freezing cold that night and not quite as much fun since we kept them in the stroller. They have had a great time at the Christmas parties they went to and at Uncle Bradleys graduation party (Congratulations Bradley!!!!!!!!!!). It's great to see them being more social and playing with the other kids (they were so clingy 6 months ago we used to have to hold them the whole time whenever we went anywhere!)

Around the house they have been playing with our little snowmen and a singing penguin. The other day I walked into the living room to find all of the snowmen laying down covered with washcloths and the girls saying "shhhhh" - they were putting the snowmen to sleep - so cute! As far as the christmas trees, they have been doing pretty good - we kept some ornaments within reach for them and they like to look at them and try to pull them off :) But so far no destruction, which is a good thing! They did however get into some of the presents and there are a few gifts that are partially unwrapped already!

I'm not sure who is more excited for Christmas - the girls or us... We can't wait to see them play with their new toys :) And we are looking forward to spending the holidays with my grandparents Otto and Marion again this year! Christmas just wouldn't be the same without them here. And it's fun to pick out cute clothes for the girls to wear when great-gramma and grampa come to see them!

Holly Paccione Session - 17 months

Winter is here!

We are so happy winter (and therefore ski season) is finally here! We have been able to hit the slopes a few times but can't wait to see the snow really fly up in Keystone, so far it's mostly man-made and icy :(

We have been cooped up inside the house the last week with frigid cold weather and snow around town, so it was very nice to get out and go to a Christmas party last weekend. Here are the girls all dressed up ready for a night out on the town! Bella is giving Sophie a hug, how sweet

Being stuck inside almost always ends with them trying on our clothes and shoes - they love it!

We took them sledding around Keystone a few weekends ago and they really liked it while the sled was inside (going up and down the hallway), but once it hit actual snow Bella got a little scared when she fell off!

Mimi pulling the girls (and the dog) while I tried to take pictures...

By the end Sophie was saying "sled" and having fun, and Bella gave up and just ran around in the snow for awhile. She mostly likes to eat it, not ride a sled through it!

Yummy Noodles

From the looks of it the girls enjoy their fideo noodles! Our kitchen had fideo EVERYWHERE after they finished eating, we even noticed the dog was covered in noodles when she walked by :) They kept eating and eating and they were shoveling it into their mouths going "yum yum!" and laughing, so cute.

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween I borrowed Red Hatter stuff from great Gramma and James was an old man! Our little chicklets looked adorable too :) We had a great time hosting our annual halloween party on Friday night, there were lots of great costumes and we played a fun new murder mystery game to mix things up a bit. There was a winking killer on the loose, and if someone got winked at they had 3 minutes to act out their death. At the end of the night there was a prize for the best death (Papa in his gangster suit with his machine gun) and for the best costumes (the wizard of oz crew). It was funny to have random people jumping off chairs, melting to death, banging their heads into walls and catching fire all night! James sister Becca spent the night with us and we spent halloween morning watching scary movies and playing with the girls, it was lots of fun!

Halloween night we trick-or-treated a few houses in our neighborhood with the girls and then went to see Carrie, Christian and Pete - the turtle :) There was a halloween festival with bounce houses and then we had some great pizza and wine. It was a wonderful weekend, the only downfall being that the girls now have a taste for candy and they LOVE it!

Home Sweet Home

Sometimes it just feels good to spend the day at home together! Here are some random pictures from around the house...which by the way is looking really good lately after James and his Dad put a new roof on and James replaced the screens, repainted the windows and stained the pergola again! We have officially repaired all of the hail damage from that summer storm.

This is our patio after an October blizzard! We couldn't wait to hit the slopes after seeing all that snow!!
The girls first time in their little snow-suits, playing in a much lighter snow fall earlier that week. They love the snow!

They were sitting inside these barstools and racing across the floor

Cutie pies!

We spent Sunday morning reading the paper together, it was pretty fun for all of us!

Cousins!

Montana Visit

I had so much fun taking the girls to Montana with Mimi and Papa to spend some time with everyone there. Funny how the plane ride seems to quadruple in time when you have a little one on your lap, but the girls did fine and we survived yet another airplane ride with twins :) We realized on our last night there that we forgot to take any pictures the whole weekend, but we had fun visiting with Great Grammy and Papa, going to Staacks Suzuki shop, visiting with Auntie Geri, Steve, and Wendy and Ed, JoAnne, Brian, Erin and Bradie, and going to Lydias for Great Gramma and Grampas 60th wedding anniversary. Auntie Geri and Great-Grampa babysat the girls one night so we got to go out to dinner and enjoy some time with Great-Grammy. Geri had a blast with the girls and by the end of the night they were all running around screaming and laughing :)

The girls spent lots of time running up and down the hallway...then stopping in the corner to shriek and laugh - so cute


They enjoyed playing with Uncle Ed. He taught Isabella how to do this crazy cough where her whole body shakes and she looks like the incredible hulk, she still likes to do it constantly!

Sitting with Mimi and Great Gramma in their little ballerina pjs

So much fun to see them on Great Grampas lap, I remember when I was little there was a whole line of us cousins waiting to sit on his lap! The best seat in the house!

We were packing up getting ready to go to bed on our last night there when we discovered Great Grammas enormous collection of Red Hatter stuff. It was Mimi's idea to put some of it on and go surprise her!

We laughed so hard, what a great way to end a fun vacation! We will miss everybody in Butte and hope to get back again soon

Just before the trip to Montana Mimi and Papa went on a hot air balloon ride for Mimis 50th birthday and Papas 52nd, just wanted to throw in a few pictures from their adventure.