Back to Back Date Nights

Around Thanksgiving sometime, honestly I’ve lost all sense of time over the past two months, Brandon and I got to enjoy two back to back (Dress-Up Attire) Date Nights. Last time that has happened was…Um, Never. It was a little stressful coming up with two dress-up outfits since I live in ‘Mommy Casual Clothes’ 99.9% of the time and leaving the kids two nights in a row, but it was so much fun.

Night One:

Friday night was a Double Date night out at the Theater Downtown Denver with my Sis-In-Law & Bro-In Law. Our wonderful and always generous Aunt Rose got us tickets to go see The Book of Mormon. Honestly, it is a hilarious play that is boarder line completely inappropriate, but if you’ve watched South Park at all you fully know what to expect. Nothing is off limits. The entire play was all about the stereotypical Mormon Mission Trip, again completely inappropriate and a lot of it is probably not accurate, but it really was a great laugh. My face actually hurt afterwards from laughing so much. It was a great night. We met at the Corner Office Martini Bar Downtown before the show for Drinks and Apps and then headed over to the Theater. Thanks again Aunt Rose it was a blast!

Dan, Megan, Me & Brandon. Fantastic Double Date, we really need to do them more often.

 

 Night Two:

Saturday night was the Annual Lawson Team Holiday Soiree. The Lawson Team is a Real Estate Company that does a lot of work with KB Homes and invites all the KB Sales team to join their Annual Holiday Soiree. Last year was at the Coors Stadium and was nothing short of amazing so we knew we HAD to go again this year. This years Soiree was hosted at the Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Yes, as in the Broncos Stadium. The party was in the club level, there was a amazing Dinner, Dancing, Pictures, Open Bar, and Stadium Tours going every 30 minutes. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. And you can just imagine how stoked my Hubby was about the whole thing :)

GO BRONCOS!

Then it was tour time…

Here is one of the HUGE club level Suite Rooms with an amazing view. I cannot even begin to explain how awesome it’d be to watch a live game in one of these amazing suites.

We got to walk down the hallway the Broncos walk week in and week out to head onto the field.

The Keg Room. The amount of beer they sell at every game is insane!

And then we got to go in and see the Visiting Teams Locker Room.

Goodness gracious it was FREEZING that night. I think the temp was a whopping 2 degrees when we were out there. Brrrr.

Yep, that’s us just standing on the field. No big deal.

 

Thank you for hosting such an amazing Holiday Soiree Lawson Team! So much fun!

And a big thanks to Papa Bruce & Aunt Bev for making two back to back Date Nights possible, love you both SO much!

 

The next couple days after some fun nights out, reality hit and we were in full on Christmas Mode…

‘Cheers’ for Christmas! I swore I wasn’t going to decorate much this year since we were going to be out of town for Christmas, but in my typical Vanessa fashion….I ended up decorating the whole house :)

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving this year was really laid back. It was perfect for the kind of year we’ve had. All our family here in Colorado was at their spouses family celebrating or out of town, so it ended up just being us, my Sis-In-Law, Bro-In-Law, my Niece, and my Mother-In-Law. We actually all fit around the dinning room table with no extra chairs! Between the three families we made a delicious Thanksgiving Feast and all got to take part in wearing ‘Stretchy Pants’ at the dinner table! After dinner was cleaned up and dessert was shared, we all headed to the Movies to go see Frozen as a family. It was so fun and all 3 of the kiddos LOVED the movie, even my 22 month old niece sat through the entire movie flawlessly. Enjoy some pictures from our day.

My OCD even got away with using Plastic Wear :) Sometimes convenience trumps all!

The kids made the beautiful Thanksgiving Wreaths on the wall. They were so proud of them.

The sweet and thoughtful Grammy Pam (my Mother-In-Laws BFF) made these cute little Cookie Turkeys for the kiddos. They were the perfect treat at the movies.

Drinks & Apps for everyone. I made a super delish Apple Cider Winter Sangria and a Cranberry Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip. Pinterest ROCKS!

We are 2 for 2 with the Turkey two years in a row! Brandon and I make an excellent team.

Goodness everywhere you looked.

Turkey, Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole (my Mother-In-Law is the master at making this), Stuffed Acorn Squash, Cranberry Salad, Lemon Green Beans with Pine Nuts, and Stuffing with Cranberries (my sis-in-law did a fabulous job on this).

We felt a teeny bit guilty because we ate while the girls were still napping, but it was a rather quit enjoyable meal. Once the girls got up, we made sure and all sat at the table while they were eating.

Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere.

The kids all got to open their annual Thanksgiving/Christmas gift from Mimi…

Love this face. She was concentrating very hard to hang her annual ornament up.

iPad relaxation time & Pumpkin Pie, these girls LOVE their sweets!!!!

Then it was off to see Frozen. Such a great Disney Movie with a sweet message. Made me miss my Sissy even more!

My best attempt…I tried. Lol.

 

Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We have so much to be Thankful for, even in the midst of life Storm we are blessed beyond what we deserve. Missed all the rest of the family dearly, it was almost too quiet!

The kiddos Thanksgiving School Performances

Owen and Autumn had their Thanksgiving School Performances back to back days. One was on Thursday & the other was on Friday. Whew! I was terribly unorganized both days and forgot my camera, so all I have are some subpar cell phone pics. I know, I know.

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Autumn’s Thanksgiving Performance:

Autumn’s Performance was Thursday morning. The class did some singing together, recited some Bible Verses for us, etc. Then the kids made some cute Oreo Turkey’s and each made a Blessing Mix. It was super adorable. Owen & I had a great time attending.

From Left to Right we have; Leonardo, Emmy, Everette, Eisley, Autumn, Grant, Spencer, & Rigby. They are so precious.

Autumn’s Oreo Turkey, My little Turkey, and Autumn & her BFF Eisley.

Such a cute little idea. I just love Autumn’s teachers.

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Owen’s Thanksgiving Performance:

Owen’s Performance was Friday afternoon. He mentioned they were doing a play on the First Thanksgiving, but he completely neglected to tell me that he was Co-narrating the play!!!! Seriously, I would have taken the nice camera & video recorder if I had a clue what he would be doing. The play was adorable and I am so proud of how well Owen did. His reading is so good and he uses some of the BEST reading expressions I have ever heard from a child his age. After his awesome performance, we headed to the Cafeteria (the smells brought back so many fond memories of Elementary School) for a Thanksgiving Feast that the class cooked together the day before. Autumn and I felt honored to be Owen’s Guests & Cheerleaders.

Way to go Owen Michael, YOU ROCK!!!! Mommy & Daddy are beyond proud of the smart, loving, compassionate little boy you have become.

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I am doing a massive blog catch-up over the next few days, so please be sure to click the ‘Older Posts’ button in the lower right hand on the screen to check out my latest posts from the past two months.