I am signing off here until we return from Ethiopia with our new baby girl. It's just been a bit too crazy around here for me to try to keep up with this blog when there is so much going on here. I will only be posting there for a few more weeks then I will come back to this blog to start recording the adventures of our brand new family. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year...see you in mid-January 2009.

Yesterday we ventured into the Pike National Forrest to find the perfect Christmas tree to grace our living room. My parents came along to get their tree too they found it pretty much right away. It took us a bit longer to find our tree...it turned into quite the excursion. It took us over two hours of searching in snow and down steep hills. Despite being wet and cold, we had a lot of fun. It made me wonder why we don't go on little winter hikes ever. There was something just magical about the forest covered with a blanket of snow. While Andy was scoping out the perfect tree, Blake and I looked for snow fairies in old stumps and found treasures that we left for the fairies to find when they came back to their snowy home.
We finally found a cute little tree that reminds me of a larger version of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. We decorated it last night and now our house smells like Christmas. It gets me into the holiday mood.

This online holiday radio also gets me in the Christmas spirit...I love it

snow, hot chocolate and chocolate cookies for breakfast

Weather prediction is not the easiest in Colorado...especially not this year. We have had so many warm days lately that I thought winter would never come! We finally got our real first snow on Saturday. The trees were completely covered and our windows iced over when we woke up. We probably got between 8 and 12 inches of snow. Normally I am not so thrilled about the snow (unlike someone)...but this year it came so late, that I was so excited about it...mainly because it meant I could finally wear my new boots. We braved the cold on Sunday and went sledding with some friends.
The recent cold weather has made me want to make all kinds of holiday goodies...chocolate covered pretzels, cinnamon rolls, toffee, and all sorts of cookies. I made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies last week and have been enjoying them and a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast the past few mornings (the breakfast of champions)...it's ok to eat cookies and coco for breakfast in December...right?

Sending some quilt love...

My mom if full of ideas. She had the most wonderful idea a few weeks ago...she wanted to get a group of people together to sew quilts for the babies in the Gladney care center. We will deliver the quilts to the babies when we go to pick up our little girl. We are thrilled about this project and would love as many people at possible to take part in it. My mom has even sweetened the deal with some prizes from Junk Posse Jewelry, her etsy store. Here is what she wrote on her blog:

My most recent hero in the creative world is Joel Dewberry. He is an amazing fabric designer and artist. Find out more about his beautiful fabrics here. Joel was kind enough to send us a wonderful assortment of fabric to create mini '2x2' quilts to bring to an orphanage in Ethiopia in January.

If you sew or know a Sew Sister, Mom, Friend or anyone else that sews please tell them about our contest. We will send each person that enters enough Fabric to Make the front of a mini quilt.You may enter more than once-just let us know how many you would like to create. You finish the quilt with your design, creativity & details.

Mail the finished mini Quilt back by Dec. 20th.

We will be selecting several winners on Dec.31st!

First place $100.00 gift certificate to Junk Posse Jewelry

Second place $50.00 gift certificate to Junk Posse Jewelry

and three runner up prizes.

Sew what are you waiting for? Enter Today and help to give a sweet little one in Africa something to cuddle with.
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If you are interested in being part of this, please email me::brittlee17@yahoo.com. We are very, very excited about this project. This is a very simple project...you do not have to be a pro-sewer to take part in this.

1. Thermal shirts that have the thumb holes built in
2. My new winter boots...please snow, come soon
3. Newton Faulkner CD
4. Fun socks