A trip to Colorado in winter wouldn't be complete without sledding on Pike's Peak. The boys had a great time and even Zane didn't seem to mind the cold weather. 
Wyatt loved sledding this year! He seems quite different from our little boy who just two years ago didn't want anything to do with snow!
We drove to Colorado Springs the weekend before Christmas for an early Christmas celebration with Danny's parents. It was a quick trip, but we enjoyed getting to celebrate with them, and as you can tell from the picture, the boys had lots of fun opening presents!
Danny and the boys loaded the bike trailer with the gifts we needed to deliver in town and spent the afternoon playing "Santa". The boys had a great time, Danny got some exercise and I got one more thing marked off my "Christmas To Do List"!
The boys had a lot of fun painting our wrapping paper this year. Zane even got to help a little bit, although he wasn't as excited about it as Wyatt and Colter!
They decided to paint with their feet this year and spent a long time walking back and forth over long strips of wrapping paper.
In the end I'm not sure which was the prettier work of art - their feet...
or the paper!
Colter loves to wear his belt. If his pants have belt loops then he thinks he HAS to wear a belt! He also loves these particular jeans and as you can see they are starting to get rather worn. The other day, referring to all of the holes in his jeans, I said "Colter those jeans are just going to fall off of you someday!" He looked at me and said "No, Mama, Colter has belt on!" 
We went to the Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock for their Christmas celebration. The lights were beautiful and the boys had a fun time.
Colter, Papa, Noni, Aunt Megan and Wyatt looking at the lights. 
They had lumenarias lighting all of the paths. Wyatt had a great time trying to figure out exactly how they were working!
Zane has discovered the joy of using his hands to find things to put in his mouth. He will grab anything he can reach - toys, fingers, clothes - and stick it straight into his mouth. He loves to chew!
The boys visited with Santa to make sure he knew what they wanted for Christmas. Colter wants "a sharp-nose airplane" and Wyatt wants "a telescope and a microscope". Wyatt told Santa that Zane just needs "a toy that will be good for him to chew on".
The boys had a great time putting the ornaments on the Christmas tree this year. They were very independent with their decorating and knew exactly where each ornament should go.
Of course, that meant most of the ornaments ended up on the bottom-half of the tree, especially this poor branch which was Colter's favorite spot. It was almost touching the ground by the time he was finished!
I just love this picture! Wyatt has always been fascinated with the Christmas tree lights. I have another picture of him doing the exact same thing three years ago! 
We met Danny's parents in New Mexico to cut down our Christmas tree. This is always one of our favorite Christmas traditions and we are happy that we get to do it in a real forest now! We found the perfect tree and the boys helped Danny cut it down.
Wyatt playing a drum set of his own creation...
Colter cutting and glueing his latest masterpiece...
and Zane just hanging out taking it all in! I love just being home with my boys!
Even though he had already had his party and opened presents, Colter's actual birthday didn't go by unnoticed. He enjoyed his favorite meal (hot dogs and watermelon!) and ate some leftover birthday cake. Now he's really three!
Our first snow of the year was right after Thanksgiving. Danny and Wyatt decided to go on a bike ride that afternoon. Wyatt snuggled under blankets in the trailer and enjoyed seeing snow on all of the trees!
food...
football...
and family (this is our four generation picture - Gummie, Dad, me, and the boys).
We took these pictures of Zane and Abi on Thanksgiving Day. As soon as we sat Abi beside him, Zane reached over and grabbed her hand. He's already being protective!
As everyone knows, one birthday party is just not enough! We had Colter's "family" party later that evening after all of the aunts and uncles arrived from Lubbock. He had an airplane cake and...
opened presents (this was his favorite - an airplane, of course!).
After opening his presents, Colter went back to finish his cake while everyone else...
played with (or put together) his presents! (Noni and Papa are putting together the airplane, Aunt Cathryn, Aunt Kim and Wyatt are boxing with his "socker boppers", Uncle Jerod is putting together his basketball goal, Daddy is reading his airplane book, and Aunt Megan and Uncle Craig are observing all of the action.)
We had Colter's 3rd birthday party a couple of days early this year so that we could work in around Thanksgiving. He wanted a "sharp-nose airplane" party. So...
I made airplane cookies...
he and his friends searched for airplanes hidden in the "clouds"...
ate all of Colter's favorite foods...
and opened presents. It was a fun morning!
We spent a long weekend down at Big Bend National Park. You can see more pictures of our desert adventure on Danny's blog www.griffisfamilyoutdoors.blogspot.com.
This is Colter's favorite shirt. We didn't buy it; he found it in a box of hand-me-downs someone sent us and quickly claimed it as his own. It has trains (and trucks, but he just cares about the trains!) on it, so he calls it his choo-choo shirt. He would wear it everyday if he could!
This is one of Zane's favorite toys. I actually have pictures of Wyatt and Colter playing with this same mirror!
Wyatt is spending entire afternoons outside enjoying our beautiful fall weather. He stays busy climbing trees and just exploring around our yard. He loves looking at all the different colors our leaves are turning and has learned exactly why leaves change colors and what chemicals that make them those colors!
There's a chill in the air and we have lots of wood for the fireplace! One of our favorite cold weather activities is reading bedtime stories by the fire. 
We waited as long as we could, but the need for more space finally won us over. In September we traded Jen's Honda CRV for a Honda Odyssey. The extra space has been wonderful and it has made road trips much more enjoyable! 
