Christmas "vacation"

I had a few days off after Christmas. Instead of taking it easy, Kate put me to work and we painted the girls' rooms. We also moved Maddie's crib into the baby's room as Maddie got a new crib/toddler bed for Christmas. Maddie's room is the purple one and the baby's is yellow. Who ever thought I would have a purple room in a house I owned??

Christmas 2007

Here are a few pictures of Maddie on Christmas morning:

Sermon #2

This past Sunday I gave my second message in "big church" at CBC. If you want to listen to it, click HERE to find it.

Survivor finale

Congratulations to Todd for winning Survivor China. He was the most deserving of the final three. However, Todd owes Amanda a very nice dinner because she lost the game and gave it to him. Todd was the only person that could beat Amanda with the jury. Amanda had 3 or 4 chances to vote him off but never did. Why she took him to the finals I'll never know.

What a day!

Last Saturday we got about an inch of snow along with some freezing rain and regular rain. At night, the rain froze, making for some icy conditions. Today, we got an additional 4 or 5 inches of snow, which I love. We live on a hill which isn't too bad because we have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Unfortunately, we found out today that the 4-wheel drive is not working!

It started when I came home for lunch. I was having trouble getting up one hill so I decided to try another street because the plows had just gone by. I managed to get up that hill (slowly) and got to our street and headed down the hill. When I got to our house, a friend's minivan was blocking our driveway as our friend was stuck (Kate watches her son a couple mornings a week). Because I couldn't get in the driveway, I went down a bit further and parked in the street. Not a big deal since I had 4-wheel drive (or so I thought). After eating lunch, I thought I'll go get the Blazer in the driveway. I went to turn around and the fun began. I got stuck in a neighbor's driveway, where some of the ice was built up. Another neighbor lady came out and helped us push the Blazer into the middle of the street. We began to push the car up the street as Kate steered and spun the wheels on the ice. It was then I noticed that the front wheels weren't spinning. That meant the rear wheels were giving all the power but all the weight is up front. We pushed a little more, mostly in vein. Then the neighbor lady said she had a 4-wheel drive truck. So I went and got that and pulled the Blazer up to our driveway, but we couldn't push it in. Then a guy with a Bobcat came and pushed the Blazer the rest of the way. It only took us about 2 hours to move the Blazer a hundred feet or so.

The one good thing out of the day was that we got to take Maddie out for a quick sled ride. She didn't enjoy it too much because she was cold.

If you were wondering what to get us for Christmas, you can just send money to our "Fix the Blazer" fund. All donations are tax-deductible (ok, not really).

Christmas tree

Last Friday we went to a Christmas tree farm and cut down our own Christmas tree. We had fun even though it was pretty cold. By the time we were all done, Mom and Maddie were ready to get in the warm car. Here are a few pictures:

The most wonderful time of the year

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it is officially the Christmas season. Along with it comes cold weather, hopefully lots of snow, Christmas lights and trees, and all the other goodies. It also means it is time to break out the Christmas music. One of my favorite Christmas CDs is Hanson's Snowed In. If you don't own it, you should go buy it on iTunes or somewhere else; it's very good. And just so everyone is clear on the Christmas music rule, here it is: you may only listen to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Day. On December 26, sadly, all Christmas music must be put away until the following Black Friday. Make sure you listen to it as much as you can!

Halloween Princess

Here is Maddie dressed in her princess costume for Halloween. We went to the church's Fall Festival party and she had a great time!

Annual trip to Denver

We returned from our annual trip to Denver a couple days ago. Here is a recap of our trip:

Saturday: Arrived in Denver and met up with my dad and Diane. After checking into the hotel, we tried to find a place to watch the Rockies in the World Series. We couldn't get into Buffalo Wild Wings so we settled for Old Chicago. Unfortunately, the Rockies lost.

Sunday: Went downtown to the ESPN Zone but couldn't get a seat. We walked to Coors Field and found a place to watch the Sunday afternoon football games. As we left, downtown was filling up with people going to the World Series game. We left downtown and went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game. This time we got in, but unfortunately, the Rockies luck was the same.

Monday: Monday was the real reason we were there. In the morning, we went to the stadium and walked around the Broncos Team Store. In the afternoon, we went bowling where I won 2 out of the 3 games (my dad won the other). We went to the Broncos game and were stunned by the Packers on the first play in overtime. It was a close game, but the wrong team won.

At the game, there were a couple fights, one in the section right next to us. Loyal fans + too much beer = big problems. A couple guys got bloodied up pretty good and another was escorted away by the police.

Tuesday: In the morning, we dropped off Dad and Diane as they headed back to Phoenix. Then we drove down to Colorado Springs and drove to the top of Pikes Peak (that's what the picture is). It's a pretty interesting drive. It takes about an hour each way and the road is steep and narrow in certain places. The temperature at the bottom was around 70 but it was in the low 30s at the top. The higher we got, the more snow we saw. It is a beautiful drive though. That night, we had dinner with our friends, Dustin and Shannon Hanson. It was good to see them.

Wednesday: We got back on the plane and came home. My mom came to watch Maddie while we were gone. They had a lot of fun hanging out.

Are you kidding me?

I am not a "homer" (a fan who thinks his team never deserves a penalty, that if his team loses, it's the refs fault, and so on); I am a realist, a fan who can see his team as they are, good or bad. Right now, the Broncos stink!! They can't play offense, they can't play defense, they can't even get a kickoff return right. Now this doesn't mean that I am not a fan anymore. I am still the biggest fan and will watch every game. Hopefully I won't be watching a train wreck all year, especially when we go to Denver in a few weeks for the Monday night game against Green Bay. At least one team is winning in Colorado right now (the Rockies).