too long!

sweet times have been had in the last month. a lot has happened.
going home for  a week to bake cookies, be with family, laugh with friends, carry on fun traditions, lay on the living room floor for hours, stay in the house all afternoon with those with we love was exactly what the doctor ordered.
coming home to our home in colorado and our life here felt right as well.
it was not to sad to leave because in the course of the first 2o days in jan our house will be filled to the brim with fun company.

i luv luv my friends we have set a goal of doing whatever we can to be together there are a few people missing at our christmas gatherings but it was a treat to bake cookies late at night, and exchange gifts over a warm bowl of soup .... i am so blessed. now if i can convince some of them to move to CO.

keeping up is hard but oh so worth it ..... i <3 steph shirley
 



in all the years of this little ones life i have celebrated christmas with her and gone to her sweet little christmas play this year she was the angel that told of the good news ! i love her  like she is mine and was so glad it snowed and the play was delayed so i could be there.
yesterday i talked to anya on the phone she told me her new years resolution is to learn to ski ( that girl is just after my heart) .... good news my second family is coming to CO for a week in march


my mom and i bought this same shirt across the country and i walked up stairs to go shopping we both had it on .... so awesome!!


woke up christmas morning to a white christmas .... cant really remember many of these in my life


while these two snoozed taylor's brother spencer called me and told me to get the family on skype so we could talk....spencer was spending christmas with melody in Montana for christmas.... he said WAKE THEM UP NOW...

im glad i did because . great news they are engaged so excited to have another sister i always wanted a sister i got one in 2009  and i <3 big families! congrats to the newly engaged couple
they stopped in denver to hang out with us, it was a treat to get to meet melody and get to know her, she will truly be a great addition to the ratliff family. she can hang in awkward funny moments when most freeze she joins in. i love her already








for a couple that got engaged a day after their first real date their  love is REAL and beyond clear.... i love taking pictures of couples in love freezing an emotion that is alive  is there are no words for it