Christmas celibration 25th

 Jon and I both worked on Christmas day.  When we got off from work we opened our stockings.

 Jon received $45 dollars in cash of 1, 2, and 5 dollar bills.  I got candy and it was my favorite kind.

Even the dog enjoyed it.  Merry Christmas.

Cookies

 Today was our 2nd annual Christmas cookies for the neighbors.  First off Olivia started her Christmas cards for her class.  Then we started off with Sugar cookies.  Mmmm

 While these were cooling we backed, strawberry shortcake cookies and double chocolate cookies.

Then we decorated.  Olivia did most of them but I did help with a few. 

There were a lot of cookies at the end of the day.

8 plates of cookies already to be sent.   Only one was delivered due to nobody home.

Olivia's creative song

Olivia learned this lovely song in school.  It is cute, funny and still wrong.   Enjoy.

Christmas Tree

We went to the National Forest to cut down our tree today.

Jon let Olivia steer while we were on the back roads.

 We hiked a half of a mile before turning around and getting the first tree we saw.

On the hike, there was lots of giggling, snow ball fits and lots of fun.

When we got to our tree, Jon showed Olivia how to saw one down.  This years tree was a lot bigger.

 We hiked down with our tree to the car  and loaded it up.  Then we made a snow man.

Then the snow man got tackled.

After dinner we decorated the tree.

So much fuller this year.

Tis the season!

Snow Flakes

 Jon and Olivia made snow flakes for all of our windows.  What an easy Father daughter craft.

Christmas Ornaments

Today's craft, Olivia decorated a wooden Christmas ornament.  Simple and did not take a lot of time, when you have no time.

Advent Calender

 We are trying a new crafty advent calender this year.  All you need is towel paper rolls or paper towel rolls.

 Crape paper, stapler, and imagination to create.

 I hung them up and later this week I will fill with candy.  Fun and kid friendly.

I love Christmas and all the crafts you can do to decorate the house.  We have one fun filled craft a day when we have Olivia.  Our house is going to be the coolest.

Sleep Over

 Last night Olivia had her first sleep over.  There was lots of squealing, laughing and playing until 10pm last night.  The girls awoke this morning at 6:20am.  Wow that is early, but they were very nice and let me lay there for almost another hour. 

 The cat and dogs were the main attraction for play time.  Pick up sticks was there favor game.
Tea Party with the cats, did not go well, so they invited the dogs instead.  Lemonaide and Rite's Crackers made for a great snack.

What a great night to remember.

Thanks Aubrie and Brianna

 

Worlds smallest kite

 Olivia's Smallest Kite that our friends gave her when they were over seas in Ireland.

 The kite needs 5-10 miles per hour wind and today we just have guest but it still worked.

 What a beautiful day to fly a kite

Past week

 Last Saturday we went to the Denver zoo for there Free day.  We had a great and the crow was not bad at all.  You can see in the penguin picture there is a light reflection on the rock.  Somebody was using there phone to reflect the light and the penguins were following it, even under water.

Olivia really enjoyed the reptile area.

 So this month Olivia is doing horse back riding lessons.  Sh eis loving them and looks forward to it every day.  Her horse even has a funky hair cut.

Olivia got to ride backwards

We have one more week of horse back riding.  Then we have a break before our next activite.

Paramedic of the Year award

Jon was Nominated and won Paramedic of the year in Colorado.

We went to Keystone last Saturday for his award.

Below are the pictures and the letter that was written to nominate him.

 In 1986 a young man was riding his motorcycle in Boston. A car pulled out in front of him. The young man’s motorcycle crashed into the driver’s side door of the car. The young man was catapulted over the handlebars and through the driver’s side window; his forehead hit the door jam on the way through. He came to rest sprawled across the driver and passenger. He was unconscious and quickly became pulseless and apnic.

Luckily for EMS in Colorado, that is not the end of the young man’s story.

 He was one of the very small percentages of people that survive a trauma arrest. Several years later he had moved to California and again had a life changing event on his motorcycle. He rode by a volunteer fire station. He turned around and went back and volunteered on the spot, he felt a need to give back for his life being saved. In 1996 he was certified as an EMT and fire fighter 1 and continued to volunteer in California.

In late 1999 he had moved to Montana for paramedic and graduated with honors from Montana State University. He was also working for American Medical Response in Montana.

 In 2000 Jon Webb transferred to AMR in Colorado Springs and has been a valuable team member since. Jon is a practioner and an educator, in 2002 Jon completed both the primary and assistant instructor courses. He was a field instructor for many years before being promoted to field supervisor.

The above paragraph is a pretty dry distillation of Jon’s time in Colorado. I could include many letters of thanks and appreciation, lists of his classes and credentials. Many paramedics in Colorado have these same lists to their name, I will instead tell you of two more items that separate Jon from the rest of the many excellent care givers in Colorado.

 Shortly after 9/11/2001 Jon felt a strong desire to serve his County, in addition to his Community. Jon’s beloved father had been in the Navy (but we are in Colorado….) This didn’t stop Jon, he joined the Naval Reserves and has been proudly serving for almost ten years. His rank is E5 and he is certified as a hospital corpsman basic.

Jon was the founder of the Colorado Springs AMR Honor Guard. He saw the need for an EMS Honor Guard in Southern Colorado, to honor EMS colleagues as well as being a good will ambassador of EMS to the Community. Jon spent over a year gathering info, presenting his plan to management, enlisting like minded “EMS”ers, interviewing for positions on the honor guard, training and finally, during EMS Week 2009, being able to present “his” honor guard to the Community in a badging ceremony at Memorial Park. Since then the honor guard as assisted at several funerals for agencies in New Mexico, Woodland Park, Wescott and Colorado Springs. They have marched in parades and presented the colors and numerous community events- Colorado Balloon Classic, Sky Sox baseball, graduations and the EMSAC Fall Awards banquet.

Without Jon’s first experience with outstanding EMS in Boston, none of his contributions to EMS would have been possible. None of the accomplishments, none of the thank you letters… Jon has given back to the Community tenfold from his second chance. I hope you will consider Jon Webb for Colorado Paramedic of the Year.

I am so proud of him and all that he does.

Thankful Tree

We brought it back again.  We traced out hands to make leaves for the tree and wrote what we were thankful for.  Olivia got a little more creative and did one for each dog.  Then I joined her and did one for each cat.  lol  It is a great decoration for the kitchen window to look at during every meal.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Update on the run

 I looked up the official times yesterday and Olivia did her 5 k in 45:20 and got first place in her age group.  I wish we stayed to get her prize.

 Jon did great with a time of 31:46, 93rd place over all and 4th in his age group.  Way to go for the both of them.