Hungry? Why Wait?

Many of our readers have had the opportunity to dine at either Cafe Rio or Costa Vida. It is, for lack of a better term, Mexican Food Cafeteria style. It is usually in the form of a smothered burrito or salad. We are fans of the Costa Vida here in Denver and since we hadn't been there in a while, Janna slow-cooked some pork and re-created Costa Vida. She had hers Salad-style and this one pictured was mine. I ended up wrapping it up and eating it as a burrito. They were as good or better than Costa Vida easily.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We hope everyone is out there having a wonderful Christmas full of snow (4" here so far since this morning and it is still coming down), presents, good food, family, and fun. Van threw up on the laptop keyboard and the enter key doesn't work anymore so I had to order a new keyboard today, Merry Christmas Van. Therefore all of the blogs and emails are a single, long, paragraph. It also eliminates my ability to IM on google as you have to hit enter to send a message. I have not found a send button to click on. It feels like I am in a glass house where I can see you, you can see me, but I cannot talk back. Really frustrating. We have had a great day watching the boys open presents and opening some really thoughtful gifts from family and friends. I am really grateful to be surrounded at this time of year by so many great friends and family. We live in a nice house that we get to take care of, a beautiful part of the country that enjoys freedoms not seen all over the world, and we have the ability to find happiness wherever it may be. I hope that everyone feels as fortunate on this Christmas. Have a wonderful day.

December pictures

We made gingerbread houses the other day. It was a lot of fun. The boys love it. What is more fun than candy and frosting? Rusty kept trying to eat his house. He thought if he just used his tounge, I wouldn't notice.
Rusty fell asleep on the stairs by this Christmas lights.
Van is getting so big. He can sit by himself for a while. He also has started army crawling. He goes right for the Christmas lights.
This is why we have children. To paint the kitchen for us.
We had a big breakthrough last weekend with Stone. We got a babysitter for the kids while we went to Luke's work Christmas party, and for the first time, Stone didn't scream and run after us. I hope he keeps that up.

Lee Christmas Letter, 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

We have gone from mailing our Christmas Letter, to emailing it, to posting it on our blog. Nearly everyone we would mail it to reads our blog, so we figured this would be easier, quicker, less expensive, and funner. If you want a hard copy to hang on your door then feel free to print it off, there will be no copyright infringements.

What a fun year we have had. We started it off packing up the apartment and preparing to move to Colorado. Luke took a job with Kiewit Western as an engineer building roads and moving dirt. In July there was an opportunity to transfer within the company to Kiewit Building Group and he took it. He is currently working on a 15 story office tower in the Denver Tech Center area and getting ready to break ground on a 5 star J. Willard Marriott Hotel in the same area. He loves his job and the adventure every day brings. Every day he wonders when he will be ready to start his own construction company.
In May Van was born and with him came the challenge of the 3rd child. Janna is doing a good job adjusting and it is amazing all of the things she can accomplish during the day while having to shop, clean, cook, chauffer, wipe 3 bums, prep & paint the kitchen, and do all this while still nursing a baby and having to entertain 2 rambunctious boys. They read a lot of books and watch all of the new Max & Ruby episodes. This year the boys have really taken a liking to the Superfriends and the Legion of Doom. For Christmas we are decorating their new room with all of the Superheroes.

We spent the first 10 months in Littleton at a nice 3 bedroom apartment. This fall we found a few houses we liked and were able to get one for a pretty good deal. It is a corner lot with a good sized yard. It is a little older and has a lot of out-dated colors and things, so we are slowly working our way around the house.
Janna and the boys spent the summer going to the pool, 6 Flags, riding the train, going to the many different parks, the zoo, walks, playing on the grass, eating popsicles, saying hi to people walking dogs, throwing corn on the cobs at cars driving by, and a trip to Vail with Janna’s family. They also took trips to the library, went to friend’s houses, Rusty had his last year in nursery, Stone’s was in the CTR 5 class, and they both had birthday parties.

Stone turned 5 in October. He was able to start preschool in September and quickly broke out of his shell. He made some new friends and knows all of the letters in the alphabet and his numbers. He has started to sound out words and loves to color and paint pictures. He is a big helper and loves to help us while we have been painting the kitchen. Stone will start Kindergarten next fall.
Rusty turned 3 in August. He is Mr. Smiles. He always is happy and even smiles in his sleep. He is learning to be a good big brother from Stone. He likes chippies (chips), Goo-goo (soda), bacon, and pretty much anything with sugar in it. He loves our new house that we moved into in November. He can often be found sneaking into our bed at night so he can sleep next to someone. Rusty will graduate from Nursery at the end of this month. It is hard to believe that he is old enough to be in Primary.

We welcomed Van into our family this past May. He has been a pleasant addition to our family. He hardly cries and he, like Rusty, always seems to have a smile on his face. He started army crawling this week in addition to his already fast rolling. I don’t mind him taking his time growing up; they always seem to grow up way too fast. Van loves to be next to his brothers wherever they are.

We hope life is treating you kindly and that you have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year. Please bookmark our blog and come back often to see what we are up to. We had our 3000th hit today since starting it the week Van was born.

We love you and hope to hear from all of you.

Love,

Luke, Janna, Stone, Rusty, & Van Lee

Typical Ute Fan

6 Hotdogs- $12

Designer Shorts- $96,

Souvenir Boots from Laramie- $150

Having this guy NOT be a BYU fan ... PRICELESS

This must have been a home game, they wouldn't have let him into Lavell Edwards Stadium with those shorts on or coffee in his mug. FYI-before you get mad at me Ute fans, this was sent to me by a UTAH GRADUATE.

November Pictures

I know this is a lot of pictures, but everyone wanted to be on our blog. I hope you enjoy them.

Van rolled into a box while we were packing.

We just barely unpacked him, he was in one of the last boxes-kidding!

Moving Day

Sliding down the stairs with their mattresses.

Notice the lovely shade of brown carpet and linoleum- So hot right now.

Van eating carrots for the first time.

Stone playing in the snow in the backyard.

Oh Shankle!

Changing a flat tire in the middle of Wyoming on the way to Utah.

The boys with Great Grandma Hart

Van and Cookie

Twin Cousins

Temple Square with Sadie.

Megan and Van

Maddie, Steve, Zach and Stone

Mindi, Jessie, Suzy and Van

Luke and Mark

Janna and Lorlie with babies

Happy Baby

I took this video of Van and Janna a couple of weeks ago and just finally pulled it off of my phone. The video isn't the best quality b/c it is off of my phone, but he is still cute. He sure is a happy kid.

I took these other pictures this past weekend in Utah at Grandma Hart's house. He continues to be such a happy kid. He always has a huge smile on his face and is so curious about everything.

4th down and 18

Yes, my beloved BYU won this weekend over rival Utah. It was a defensive battle won by the team with the blue helmets. Thanks Scott and Lori for letting us come over and watch it with you at your beautiful house. Stone is still talking about how much fun he had. Also thanks for letting us spend Thanksgiving with you.

We left for Utah Wednesday just before noon. We stopped a couple of times. Once for a potty break for Rusty, once to eat, once to put air in our low tire, and once to fix the tire that 15 miles later blew out. Yes, we had a flat tire. Fortunately I decided to put in my good 2 ton jack and tire iron before we left. We also have a 12 volt air compressor that I always leave in the minivan. This came in handy when I realized the donut only had 10 PSI and needed 60 PSI. The worst part about the flat was that it was in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, and with the windchill it was probably somewhere around 5 degrees. I did also put in my Mechanix gloves and had a stocking cap. Who said I didn't learn anything in Boy Scouts?

Thursday I got up early and drove with the donut still on (we drove about 300 miles on it total) down to Draper to play football with Janna's cousins(and cousin-in-laws). It was a lot of fun. There were 33 guys there to play TACKLE football. We broke up into 4 teams and played 2 games. We won our first game and lost our 2nd in OT. It was a fun way to build up an appetite. I had a couple TD's, one thanks to a sweet hook-and-lateral from Parker and the other a TD catch.

As I said above we had dinner at Scott and Lori's and it was awesome. So much food and football to watch on their Big TV. We also watched a movie. The boys loved it and made some new friends. I played my first round of Guitar Hero and am proud to say I hit 88% of my notes on my first try.

Friday I woke up early and headed to Les Schwab for tires. I got 4 new winter tires since the van's back tires were pretty much bald. It was a tiny rock that caused the flat, the type of rock used for traction on icy roads. Cha-Ching. There went the budget for the trip. Hopefully I will be able to get another summer out of the 2 front tires and only have to buy 2 new ones next spring with rims.

The rest of the day we spent visiting family and friends. We saw my cousin and his family and my cousin Paula Ora and her family. Both have little boys we hadn't met yet. I really enjoy visiting family and friends and catching up.

We had dinner with one of my best friends from BYU. We were in the same ward and both lived in V-hall at DT. We ate at Los Hermanos in Provo and I had 2 cheese enchiladas ala carte. We sat and reminisced for nearly 2 hours. Lucky for our waiter his shift was over after we paid so he didn't lose money with us staying, some other unlucky waiter did.

On Saturday we were able to watch the big game and Janna's twin cousin Cori and her sisters Amy and Linzi and their babies came over to visit. We hadn't seen them since their babies were new and they are both so big now.

Saturday after the game we went and saw Lorlie and met her husband Matt and daughter Sienna. I can't believe how big Van seems now after seeing a 6 week old. He is huge. After visiting them we met our friend Robb and his fiancee Kim and their kids for dinner at Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square. I wasn't sure if I should have carried my .357 on me just in case, but I decided against it. Sad to think some idiot did that. We had a nice dinner with them and got to know the future Mrs. Lewis. After dinner we all headed down to Temple Square to see the lights. That is one of my favorite things during the holidays, to see the lights at temple square. I don't always get to see them but am glad when I do. I am looking forward to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional next weekend. Also Sadie drove up and met us for dinner and Danny drove up and met up with us at Temple Square. It was the first time meeting Van so we were glad they were able to make it back before we left this morning.

We spent the better part of today driving back via Wyoming. We made good time and it took about 2 hours less to return. We had a fun trip and are looking forward to another long weekend where we can go back. Hopefully then it will be a lot warmer.

Headed Out of Town

We are headed out of town for the weekend so don't expect any posting til Monday at the earliest. We are headed to Salt Lake and hoping the roads are dried off when we take off this afternoon. We woke up to 1-2" of snow this morning, just as the weather man said we would. Lucky for me I leave early for work and didn't need the extra 10 minutes I gave myself to get here. We don't have snow tires yet for the van, so we really are hoping for dry roads. Work is ending at noon today so hopefully at least half of the drive will be in daylight.

I hope everyone has an excellent holiday. May your turkey be moist, may your pie be your favorite, may you be injury-free after your Turkey Bowl, may the Dallas Cowboys win their game tomorrow, may BYU beat Utah this weekend, and may you sleep well in a warm bed. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Getting Settled

Getting settled is only half of it. We spent the weekend breaking down boxes, setting up the Dish, watching movies, football, Janna selling ModBod clothes, church, etc. We still have a mess of boxes in our room and another 12-15 on the main level. The weather was beautiful fall weather this weekend, staying in the 60-72 degree range.

It is clearly evident that one of the first things I need to do next spring is build the boys a sand box. They have already been out in some of the dirt in the back yard digging with their beach toys. Fortunately we have a good fence and no cats around, so the sand should stay feces-free. The pellet gun will guarantee that it stays animal-free.

The lesson in Gospel Doctrine discussed the Epistle of James. It was our first time hearing this teacher's lesson and she was very good. We talked about the power of words and how both wonderful and damaging our words can be. I have given that a lot of thought over the past 24 hours. The words we speak allow others to better understand what type of people we are. I hope my words will reflect the type of person I want to become.

Moved

For those of you wondering, the move was a success. We closed on Friday and got the keys and garage door openers. We then dropped off the Honda and let the boys run around for a bit, then were off to a dinner with my work. We were up late breaking down the beds and packing more, then sleep.

We had 4 guys come from our ward to help us pack. 2 of them were in the Presidency with me. Thanks guys for your help. You are great. We got most of the things loaded in about 2 hours. We had to pack more stuff, then came all of the miscellaneous stuff that you missed, forgot about, or didn't know how to pack. That took another couple hours. Then the boys and I drove over to the new place. There were about 15 people waiting to help us move in. By the end of it, which took about 40 minutes total to empty the truck, we had almost 20 people there helping us. It was really humbling. I had never experienced love like that. My last 3 moves only had 1-2 people showing up to help from the new ward. So this was unreal for us.

The ward really is awesome. The RS President brought us dinner and had a ward list if we needed any help with who to call. They are really on top of things for only being a ward for about a month. The thing that is most impressive to me are the attitudes of everyone I meet. They are all positive and upbeat. Everyone is willing to jump in and help at a moment's notice. What great examples to me and my family. We are excited to be here.

Moving, Work, Life

Well if you are wondering why we are slacking on our blogging these days it is because we are getting ready to move this weekend. We are moving into our first house on Saturday. Janna is doing a great job of packing and she said Stone has been really good at helping.
Van is getting big. When he is on his belly, he pushes himself up to where his hips are off the floor so he can see what is going on. He has a death grip. He likes to grab everything and watch out if his fingernails are long.

I am still working on the Palazzo Verdi building in Greenwood Village, CO. Since I got here I have helped supervise the placing of about 4000 Cubic yards of concrete. These are pictures of some of the recent pours we have done. Above is a 1 foot thick slab on the first floor. It took 210 cubic yards of concrete to complete.

On the upper floors we do topping slabs. These are set to a finished floor elevation and then power-troweled. The trowel you see above is the burner. He trowels at a high speed and actually gives it a burned-in finish that is so shiny it is reflective like Zambonied ice.This picture above is the building after they finished placing all of the structural pieces of precast, or the "shell." That is a concrete pumper pumping up concrete to the 11th floor. We have only 2 more topping slabs to do on the building which will be tomorrow and Friday.

This piece was left out so several pieces of mechanical equipment could go inside using the crane. This piece had just been setting on the roof, waiting to take its place. Technically once it was put in, the structural shell was complete. I was one of the few who actually saw it.Ever wonder what it looks like from the top of a crane? Here you go. I was actually in the building, but it is a good view from the top down.These are the front pieces for the entry way canopy. They were the final precast pieces on the job. They aren't structural pieces, just cosmetic and to keep the precipitation off of the entry way.This was the pour this morning. You can see the crane and concrete pump were in pretty tight quarters. The crane had to finish setting the canopy and the pump only has access through the front curtain windows. Everything worked out fine.

Happy Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. The kids went trick or treating at Luke's work in the afternoon. Stone was Spiderman, Rusty was a pirate and Van was Batman. They looked so cute. That night we went Trick or treating with our friends in their neighborhood. It was really cold and Rusty didn't want to walk so I was carrying him. Then Van started crying so we held him and put Rusty in the carseat in the stroller where he fell asleep. Stone got tired too. He kept saying he wanted to go home. They got a lot of candy.

Maroon 5 at the Fillmore

Last night we were able to attend the Maroon 5 Concert at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. It was a sweet concert. Other than being on my feet for another couple of hours during the concert, it was great.

The Fillmore is basically a huge ballroom/dancefloor with some stadium seating on the upper levels and a stage at one end. The seating is general, first come-first served. This means too that you can go just about anywhere in the place. We were able to be about 10-15 feet from the stage. This made for some great pics and video of the concert. I only have a few pics from my phone that I can put up right now, but I will put up the video and other pics when I get home.

Adam Levine, the lead singer who also plays some lead guitar, is a remarkably talented performer. He has excellent vocal range. They played some of their well-known music, some of their new stuff, and a couple covers. They convinced me that Purple Rain (by Prince) is a pretty cool song. We had a great time and still have our hearing since I was able to find 4 sets of earplugs in my car as we were leaving our apartment.

On a side note: You would be wise to never go to a concert without earplugs--if you know the music will be loud. With them you can actually hear the music and not just loud bass and blaring and screaming. Janna didn't have them at the Gwen Stefani concert and had them last night and said she could actually hear the music this time. I learned my lesson after going to a Creed concert back in '99 and having my right ear ring for a season.

Off my soapbox, what a good time. We were able to get a 2nd set of tickets and Tim and Shannon met us there so we had a great time together. I think Tim is the newest Maroon 5 fan. Their music has its own sound. When I try to describe it I think of a jazz/modern/rock. It really is easy to listen to and when I hear it I have to sing along.