Christmas 2017

What a great holiday season it's been. We wrapped up a fun Thanksgiving holiday where Aunt Jenny and Uncle Justin came out and took the kids (all 7 nieces and nephew) Christmas shopping on Black Friday.  The kids' time was pretty epic, and Emma Rose wrote this little piece...

In brainstorming what all she would write, we saw that Jenny and Justin almost made the cut!

The first day of December brought one of many hilarious Rudy happenings,

... Christmas wish-lists (including "butter" on Emma Rose's list),

... a decorated house,

... and ugly sweaters.

The kids, Corey, and I got to brainstorm several Christmas activities we wanted to complete over the Christmas break, and we threw the suggestions in a hat and drew: going to see a Christmas movie, baking cookies, and ice skating.

The kids also had fun putting together a gingerbread train with their neighbor buddies:

Meanwhile, Rudy continued with his shenanigans around the house: 

Christmas Eve was spent celebrating with cousins at Nana and Papa's:

Here's a video of the kids opening gifts that they picked out for each other with Aunt Jenny and Uncle Justin:

The next morning, Santa came to the house!  Here are some pictures of the kids opening their gifts:

That morning we headed down to Monument to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma was one of Santa's helpers this year...

We are so blessed! Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Jesus!

With Love,

The Sowas

Fall

Man, have these last few months flown by! The kids have adapted so well to their new school and are both loving it, and their Leyden Ranch neighborhood.  Corey and I feel so blessed to have such fun, outgoing, kind, fun (and really fun, too) neighbors! If it's not a block party with face painting, or a chili cook-off and pumpkin carving contest, or a Halloween party, then it's happy hour.

In not-so-fun news, I had my second labrum repair surgery completed in September.

No easy task, and while recovery has felt slow, partially due to some frustrating set-backs, I am grateful to my family, neighbors, husband, kids, and Daisy (Duke looked at me, I guess) for helping me, feeding my family, and making me feel loved, and I hope to start jogging in January. 

Both kids have had incredible seasons playing soccer, Porter for the first time in a competitive league, where he continues to improve, and Emma Rose, who ended her season, again, as the high-scoring team member of the Diamond Dogs.

These are pictures from a tournament where Porter's team took 1st place:

And, for the last game of his fall season, Porter ended his with a hat-trick, scoring the final goal of the game, and putting his team back in the lead!

All the while, Emma Rose has been busy losing teeth!

And Halloween was a fun time for all.

Here's a picture of the gang that the kids went trick-or-treating with this year:

Looking forward to some snowy days, reading by the fire...

Back to School

Summer ended all-too-soon, but we made the most of our last few days!

The kids got to enjoy a fantastic day at the lake with cousins Alec, Josh, Charlie, Ava and Owen. 

Porter was in "boy cousin" heaven and talked about how much he loved it for days!

We took the kids on a beautiful hike the weekend before heading back to school/work around the Eldora Mountain area.

... And just like that, summer was done, and Porter started 3rd grade, and Emma Rose, 1st!

They started at their new school, Lincoln Academy, in Arvada.  

While Porter knew his best bud from our new neighborhood would be in his class, and nothing could make him more thrilled, Emma Rose was pretty nervous.

I am so proud of the kids' transition to their new school. Porter says he wishes he could go to school on the weekend, he loves it so much, and Emma Rose made good friends with a girl named "Fisher" on her first day, but a couple days later realized that the girl's actual name is River. She comes home every day with teacher remarks on her good behavior, and with stories of new friends, so my heart is much more at ease.

And this past weekend, transitioning into 1st grade at our church, Emma Rose received her first "big girl" bible from our pastor.  

She was so excited she started reading it during the little ceremony!

While we're all getting back into a routine, we're still enjoying the sunshine and weekends.

This is how the neighborhood boys ended their massive water fight:

Planking contest! The little guy won!