snow!

A couple weeks ago we had our first real snow fall this winter.  The kids were SO excited.  Abby (our outdoor girl) was the first to be ready and out the door.  The first day the kids had a two hour school delay.  Since we live too close to ride the bus and I couldn't get my van out of the driveway we were going to walk to school.  As the morning went on the snow was coming down harder and harder.  Ben made it about 3 miles from our house before he had to turn around and come home (and he was in 4 wheel drive).  I decided to keep the kids home and school ended up being cancelled the next two days (hello 5 day weekend!).  We ended up with about 8 inches.  Our neighbor hooked up a sled to his 4 wheeler and gave the kids rides around our neighborhood.  

 It was hard to get a picture off all three of them looking at the camera because D just wanted to eat snow....and yes we did talk about avoiding the yellow snow. :)

 My handsome eldest!  He is just like his mama - after the first day he preferred to stay inside where it was warm!

 D trying to drive his cozy coup...which does NOT have 4 wheel drive and didn't make it very far.

 When he first got into the snow D gave us all a demonstration on how to jump and catch snowflakes.  

 Abby spent all day/every day in the snow...she loves being outside!

 Trying to sled down our backyard hill.

Fuzzy picture but look at those cheeks and those sparkly blue eyes!  I die!  

cousins!

We were lucky enough to have my SIL and her children visit us at the beginning of February while my brother was on a business trip. They were here overnight and there was much fun had by all!

Having a birthday dinner for Abby. Homemade Mac n Cheese and Ceaser salad with homemade dressing - complete with anchovies (shhh! don't tell the kids - they LOVED it).

My Anna Banana - She and Damien had a couple go arounds. Once I went to the bonus room and she was saying "No baby, no no baby" and Damien was sitting on her. He looked at me like "what?" She is an absolute delight! She is also my phone buddy. She calls me on her moms cell phone and we talk...her mom did NOT know she was doing that by the way...she thought Anna was playing 'calling Aunt Mimi."

Jack Attack! My Godson. Love him. He had so much fun playing with Michael (whom he worships). Being an only boy he needs that quality male cousin lego time!

Lexi is such sweetness. Damien adores her. There is a picture of her on my phone and Damien likes to find it and smile at it and talk to it and then show it to anyone that is around...including strangers at the store.
Kaitlyn...is 10...how on EARTH did that happen? Her mom was pregnant with her at our wedding! It was nice to spend time with her and listen to all the wonderful things rolling around in her head.

mmmmmmm cake

The birthday girl - she was so excited to share it with cousins.

The kids thought it was awesome that it is so windy here. They were pretending they were going to blow over (or not pretending...it was pretty windy that night).

We all went back inside and someone was upset he wasn't in the picture. So we went back out....can you guess who it was?

There was much playing with cell phones. It was quickly determined that Aunt Susan's iphone was WAY cooler than mommy's LG phone...I agree...I agree...

The 4 older kids had a camp out on the floor of the bonus room. We really can't wait for them to come back to visit. :)

SPIKE! [a most unique houseguest]

This is Spike...he is our friends Landon and Olivia's pet lizard. We watch him when his family goes camping. We super love Spike...the cats LOVE Spike....or more specifically his crickets...

Mr. Snowy

So we trekked outside again today...this time to the front yard with Daddy. We have been asking to make a snowman but the snow was too dry to pack - not today though. It was perfect, Daddy said it rolled up like carpet. So we made a snowman. When it came time to name him Abby suggested "Sara" and I suggested "Mr. Snowy"...I won! We spent a long time perfecting him. Abby gave him ears and I gave him hair. It was a lot of fun!

Introducing Mr. Snowy!

Cookies!

I super like to make cookies...you know who else does?...Aunt Amanda! So today Mommy took me and Michael over to Grandma's house and we made cookies while Mommy rested on the couch. Grandma has these really cool kid aprons...Michael's had monster trucks on his. Our cookies we called Russian Tea Cookies and they were super good...Mommy ate them all so now we need to make more for Santa...Mommy says Santa really likes these kind of cookies.

Michael also liked playing with Clare...he super loves babies!

Thank you Aunt Amanda for helping us make cookies!

First Snow!

We had our first snow fall of the year on Dec. 14. It was a dusting but we all got excited and mommy bundled us up and out we went to walk around. The next day we got even more snow and back out we went. Abby and me really really liked making snow angels. We even tried to convince Mommy that Morpheus (our black Persian) wanted to go outside to make his own snow angel...she didn't buy it. We also laughed at Lily (our grey Persian) get all flustered trying to chase the big snow flakes from inside. Mommy was sure glad she got us snow gear this year...we were super prepared! Little did we know that more and MORE snow was on the way and we would only have one day of school this week (Thursday). Our town is not very prepared to handle clearing and graveling multiple streets and with the rural, outlying hills it just isn't safe for school buses. Not everyone lives within walking distance like me.

Gingerbread Time!

Michael and I LOVE decorating our Gingerbread houses.

Fun with Uncle Pat and Corey...

Dad and I went to Minnesota to visit Uncle Pat and his girlfriend Corey. I really liked the Lego store at the Mall of America. We also went to the Science Museum of Minnesota, I really liked the hands on displays and the microscopes. We had lots of fun and I can't wait to see Uncle Pat again.

A boy and his godpapa!

Warners or bust!

At the end of July we loaded up the minivan at 3am and started heading south...to Warner's Hot Springs, California for our annual family reunion. We took two days to get there. The kids did great...we had a portable DVD player but never needed to use it. The kids kept themselves entertained and were model passengers. We did learn that Michael gets carsick - at the end of the Sisqu's he said his mouth felt funny and then threw up on himself. He only got himself and his car seat so we got him cleaned up and laid towels all over his booster and continued on our way. Fortunately our hotel had a laundry room where I could wash everything that night. We had the same cabin at Warners that we had last year and this year cousin Rachel stayed with us. Great Uncle Bob has all the pool pictures...for some reason I didn't take any. He does have a very funny one of all the nieces and nephew playing tug o' war with Ben in the pool - if I can get a hold of it I'll post it. The kids did great in the pool and loved playing with their cousins. I did not get into the pool. My eczema was flaring up and I can't take my medicine when I'm pregnant so it was too painful for me to get in the water. The kids got to go on pony rides...they LOVED that. There was also a barn cat that would chase pine cones...that was actually more fun for the kids than the pony rides. My cousin, Julie and her family came as well and she brought a bunch of craft stuff for the kids to do. We LOVE our time at Warners and look forward to going back next year.