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.