A new year.

The day before New Year's Eve we took Lo and Ko to Crave, our local burger joint that we used to go to when it wasn't so local... Lo's 16th Birthday, outlet shopping day with Austin and Britt (towards the end of that long, long post), and pre-Open House for Jase and Lex, to name a few.

Now that it's 5 minutes from home, you'd think we would frequent it more often, but it's one of those places you can only afford {calorie wise} once or twice a year. Everyone in the fam MUST experience it, however, so it was the perfect time for Kody to try it out.

We went early in the day so we could miss the crowds and any potential wait... nailed it.

My apologies, Lo and Ko, for not getting any better pictures haha.

Shi is obviously thoughtfully scrutinizing the flavor sensations going on in her mouth.

On to New Year's Eve.

We had a whole lotta tasty treats going on.

Tay and Bill made jalapeno poppers (sooooooo good)!

Kody convinced Shi to wear a Cowboys jersey.

There was a game going on (don't ask me who... I believe the Cowboys played during our church time - sorry, Kody - so maybe the BRONCOS??) and the only way Kody and Bill could watch it was via our anntenna that only works for that particular channel on the south side of the house. Lucky for us, in all our downsizing we held onto Shi's old TV haha.

Evie was so ready to par-tay.

Behold the food. And Mar and Tay's double chins.

With all that yumminess, I totally forgot I had mozzerella sticks, too.

We didn't miss 'em anyway.

We snapped a few fun pics, enjoyed our yummy food, then it was time for the party girl {Evie} to hit the hay.

 (I know... they all look like they're having so much fun, don't they?)

Afterwards we played games and watched "The best of..." video clips, Studio C, and random memes, until it was finally time to ring in 2018.

A few leftover wedding sparklers came in handy to help with the celebration.

2017 was a dang long year, heavy on mental and physical exertion, so I'm ready for a smooth and relaxed 2018! 
I'll toast to that.

CO Open House.

Lo and Ko's Open House was on the 29th.

Our old neighbors and dear friends, the Weeds, were so gracious to host it at their home.

I will have to admit... around 6:15 I was starting to get nervous that NO ONE was going to show (it started at 6). I was feeling worried that it was going to be a waste of Shilo and Kody's time and airfare (although a GREAT reason to come see family in CO haha). 

These donuts were not quite as sturdy as the ones we served at the UT reception... so those bottom donuts got a tad bit SMASHED. I heard they were delicious. (I was a bit donut-ed out after sampling some from several local donut shops -- and they were not a few -- trying to determine where to order from haha.)

 (Some serious thumb twiddling going on about now...)

Then Doreen and Cheyenne (+ her boyfriend) showed up. THANK YOU, FRIENDS!

Within moments, the house filled up. We got so busy visiting and catching up with people, we didn't get many pictures. Thankfully Bill grabbed a few towards the end of the evening.

 Sadly, some of the pictures turned out blurry. AAAUUUGGGHHH. That's what you get for relying on cell phones. Someday I'll have a quality camera... and I'll remember to take more pictures haha.

It was fun to catch up with Parker peeps, and I'm so grateful for wonderful friends from Castle Rock who made the long trip to celebarate with us, too.

Open House success.

Christmas 2017.

Our drive home from UT looked like this:

Bill and I were in separate cars (I drove to UT a few days before he and Mar could join me), but, luckily, I was in the AWD vehicle... with Mar. Bill was following us in his FWD, and at one point, as we were ascending the mountain right before hitting Vail Pass, I saw him spinning his wheels a little. That would have totally stressed me out.  The big semi truck I had been following started spinning (where are your chains, brother??) and had spun and slipped toward the right shoulder of the road. I thought he was pulling over to chain up, so I slowly and carefully passed him. I noticed that many other cars behind me did the same, but also noticed that the semi truck was still moving forward. Hah! I started a three-wide on a double-laned-snow-packed road. Sorry, peeps! It was about that time that I had notice Bill spinning a bit also,then we lost sight of each other until we hit Denver. It was a blessing that we both made it safe and sound. I hate snowy freeway drives.

We had invited some friends from our ward over for dinner on Christmas Eve, and I neglected to snap a single picture. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?? I've gotta get back on my picture-taking game.

Lucky for me, my friend Janene took a couple of pics that she shared on FB, so I nabbed 'em from there.

Evie was ready for bed after dinner, so she opened her Christmas Eve gift (jammies), then went night-night. The rest of us visited and played a game (Vertellis - heard of it?) for most of the evening - it was a great game that got us all talking. Afterwards, Mar, Tay and Nae, and Simone sang for us. Then our fun company went home and we opened our jammies.

 We got to sleep in pretty darn late on Christmas Day (thank you, Evie!).
We had to wake Mar up, too haha.

Yay! Santa came!
Quite a feat considering the crazy state of mind of one of the Santas at our house haha.
Things may have been a bit of a mish mash this year, but I'm gonna cut Santa some slack.

It was so fun to have Evelynn here for her first Christmas! (We were also lucky enough to have Scarlett at our house for HER first Christmas.)

The poor doggos got nary a thing. Sorry, pups. I'll make it up to you next year.

(Ava's looking a bit sad here... or maybe I just feel guilty haha)

It was a nice morning in our very very cozy piano/front room (next year I think we'll open gifts in the family room hahaha). There were a few fun surprises, one of which I am currently using to update my blog (thank you Billy-my-hero!).

That afternoon, Tay, Nae, and Evie headed to Conifer to visit Nae's fam, so Bill, Mar and I decided to hit a show. ("Are theaters even OPEN on Christmas?" asked Bill. Oh, yes, Bill, they are. And they are PACKED. Which I actually didn't know until... Christmas Day, since I had never gone before either haha.) We wanted to see Jumanji, and upon arriving at the theater 5 minutes from our home, we realized that we should have purchased our tickets earlier. The theater was packed, and the show was sold out. We, naively, thought that we could hit a different theater and have better luck. Nope. We drove to our old faithful Chinese Theater, only to discover that it had been transformed into a reclining seat theater (I'm sorry... I hate those. I'm praying our nearby theater will NOT change to reclining seats), and the only seats available were in two opposite corners. No thank you.

Finally, we drove to the trusty Parker 20-Mile theater, purchased our tickets almost 2 hours early, then sat and waited. I thought, perhaps, that this theater was just a lot slower than the others, but soon realized they just had all their shows start around the same time. Once a line started forming for our show, we hopped in it, and before we knew it, the whole place was packed.

I did think to snap a quick pic as we waited. We weren't attending the 4:15 show, we were going to the 6-something one. We finally made it to the movie HOORAY! It was entertaining and fun, however we all decided it isn't a show we need to see again... unlike THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (which we had seen the night of the 23rd... after that grueling drive from UT). Hard not to compare when you see two shows so close together. 

Next up: 

LoKo's (even shorter haha, not to be confused with "loco")
Open House

*Tay's suggestion for a consolidated Kody/Shilo name: KoKo LoLo
Is that shorter? Maybe not, but it's kinda fun to say, right?