Snow Days

Snow fell like crazy in December. Having had very little snow last year in Virginia (we got one storm that dropped maybe an inch that didn't last) Kenny and I were so excited for the snow. The kids have loved playing in it, Kenny has loved driving in it, and I've loved watching it fall. When the storm finally hit Logan on Christmas Day it was not a disappointment. It dropped nearly a foot of the beautiful white stuff. The next day we took some pictures to remind us how how beautiful it was.

Driving down 4th North in Logan.

A view of the Temple and the snow covered mountains and valley.

The temple!

Driving down to main street. I think the trees look so beautiful.

On the 27th of December we were still in Logan and my mom was discussing the family pictures of the day before. While taking pictures of my Grandpa's family we had a family picture taken as well. They didn't turn out and my mom was very bummed. Kenny said he could try to take a picture of us outside. We didn't have any equipment, other than our camera, so we called Aunt Cindy to come over and help. We went in the back yard, Kenny set it up and Aunt Cindy snapped the shot. I think it turned out really well. My Mom and Dad were very pleased as well, which is what really matters.

My family!
Gracie, Me, My brother Ryan, my Mom, my Dad, Kenny, Hannah
Sarah Kate and Ben (up front)

Ryan and Gracie taking a test shot.
Don't the snow covered trees in the back make a perfect backdrop?



Another test shots.

Gracie and I ready to go in. Look at all the snow behind us.

We wanted to go home that night, but my mom took the kids to a movie. When the movie was done the snow was falling again and the roads were bad. We decided we didn't want to drive on the bad roads in the dark especially being as tired as we were. We spent the night in Logan again and went home Sunday morning. I'm glad we stayed. Even in the morning the roads were real bad.

Here's the highway leading to the freeway. Notice the speed limit is normally 65, but no one was going that fast.

Another view of the freeway.

Bowling Fun With The Family

I love this picture. The only thing that would make it better is if Hannah were in it.

My cousin Kristin is lucky enough to have her birthday the day after Christmas (OK if you ask her she doesn't think it's lucky, but growing up I always thought it was lucky.) Ever since I was pregnant with Sarah Kate my family has made it tradition to go bowl on that day to honor her birthday. This year Kenny and I were in town and were able to go. I've attended 2 of these bowling outings and I was pregnant both times. I use this as an excuse as to why I'm such a bad bowler.

In the morning we got family pictures taken of my Grandfather's posterity. My Uncle Todd and Aunt Sheryl and family were still in town from California and we figured it may be the last time in a long time we are all together. The pictures didn't turn out so well, but we did get some and they are usable. I guess it's better than nothing. It was still a lot of fun to be together and get them taken.

After the family picture we all went out to Juniper Take-Out for lunch. Kenny and I went to my parents to change first so we were a little late, but it was nice to see the entire family there. After lunch everyone went to change their clothes while we finished eating. We met up at the bowling alley at the Fun Park about an hour later.

The kids had never been bowling and they had a lot of fun. Kenny helped the kids and let me bowl with my family. We're so large that we had to use 3 bowling lanes, one for the kids, one for the girls, and one for the guys. The guys crushed us, but we prefer to blame it on the kids rather than the fact that we, the women, just can't bowl. Everyone had a lot of fun and Sarah Kate was very, very happy she won out of the kids. She's such a competitive little kid.

Mommy and Gracie

Daddy helping Hannah bowl.

Ben using the guide to bowl.

Sarah taking a turn.

After bowling we went to the soft play inside the fun park. The kids loved going down the slide and the adults even got in on it. I did it once and thought that was enough. Big yellow slide are just not for pregnant women! Instead I enjoyed watching everyone else enjoy the slide. It was so much fun to spend time with everyone and do some things the kids enjoy.

Gracie LOVES the slide.

Sarah sure seems to be having fun.

Hannah loves the slide too.

The adults enjoying watching the kids slide.

Here's some more pictures to enjoy if you want. . .

Christmas at Mom's

We finally headed to Mom and Dad's around noon. The normally 2 1/2 hour trip took us nearly 4 hours. The weather was horrible as were the roads. We made the trip to Pocatello with not much trouble, but after that the roads got bad. There was snow everywhere. It was coming down quickly, it was blowing from all directions, and it was piling up on the roads and everywhere else. It was a slow drive, but a safe drive, for us. As soon as we got off the freeway a magical thing happened. The snow stopped, the roads cleared and all we saw was rain. It was the weirdest thing to see, but it made the rest of the trip very pleasant.

We were late to Logan, but we made it before everybody left. It was nice to see family and the kids enjoyed playing with cousins. After a few hours my Uncle Rod and his family left and it was just my Mom's siblings and their families. My uncle Todd and his family were in town from California. It was nice to have everyone together. Later that evening my cousin Kristin came with her boys and we opened presents. My kids got more from Grandma and Grandpa than they got from us. They enjoyed their gifts from everyone and we were grateful for all we received. After opening presents the adults played Bunco. I never had a desire to play Bunco, but I must admit it was more fun than I thought. It was nice to spend Christmas with family again.

Hannah with her giraffe from Aunt Cindy.

Ben playing Star Wars with Uncle Ryan. They were both in heaven.

Luke, my cousin Daniel's son, and my cousin Sam.

The only picture of have of people hanging out. I didn't do a good job of taking picture that night.

Christmas Morning

Waiting at the top of the stairs for their turn.

This year was a short, but great Christmas morning. After staying up until after 2:00 Kenny and I were very happy when the kids slept in until around 8:15. I don't know how many more years (if any) we'll have of the kids sleeping in, but we sure appreciated it this year. The kids all got up and were ready to see what Santa had brought them. It's tradition in our family to have the youngest go first and then on up the line. This meant Gracie went first. She wasn't too terribly impressed, but that's to be expected from a 14 month old. Hannah came next and loved her presents, her favorite being her Snow White dress. Ben was up next and he was the most impressed. He had the best face for everything he found. Sarah waited patiently and when it was her turn she wasn't disappointed. She found her gerbil and wouldn't leave it's side. She didn't even realize she had other presents for probably close to an hour.

Ben discovering his gerbil.

Hannah discovering her Snow White dress.

Sarah with her gerbil 'Snowflake'

Gracie loved the gerbils too. Here she is with Ben's gerbil 'Speeder'

While the kids played with their toys, I made monkey bread for breakfast. We were going to my Mom and Dad's later that day and because the weather wasn't good we had to hurry our Christmas morning along. After a little more than an hour we headed upstairs to open a few gifts. We opened gifts from sibling and from Mom and Dad along with a few others. The kids loved all they got and were so excited for it all. Thanks to everyone who helped make our Christmas wonderful.

Hannah opening her gift from Ben.

Gracie eating the wrapping paper in true 14 month old fashion.

Sarah and Ben opening sibling gifts.

As always I have too many pictures so here's a slideshow of our Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve

Opening Christmas Jammies on Christmas Eve.

We had a crazy Christmas season this year. Actually we did a very poor job with Christmas this year, but there's always next year right? Kenny's been working none stop this month and I was feeling really sick none stop this month. That made for 2 parents who didn't have time or energy to do many Christmas things. We still managed to squeeze in a few Christmas activities and shopping, but discovered on Christmas Eve morning that we still had about half our presents to buy and not much time. Kenny went shopping while I stayed home with the kids. Luckily we knew pretty much everything we wanted to get the kids so the shopping didn't take too long.

Christmas Eve evening we headed to Kenny's brother Michael's house to spend a some time with his family. We still needed a Hannah gift so we ran to Walmart 45 minutes before closing and it was a mad house. Next year I'm not going to wait that long. I was amazed at how many people were still entering the building as the doors were about to close. The last minute shopping made us late for Michael and Sarah's, but we made it safe and sound and only about 45 minutes late.

Opening cousin present at Uncle Michael and Aunt Sarah's.

Sarah (my sister-in-law) made us some wonderful snacks and we enjoyed eating, visiting, opening cousin presents, and watching our kids play together. It was a lot of fun and even though we only saw them for just over an hour it was nice to have been able to spend a part of Christmas with them.

Gracie opening her doll from cousin Cadence.

Ben's Transformer gun from cousin Alli!

Sarah's new Webkinz from cousin Zack.

We made the 45 minute drive home and arrive just before 10:00. Being that Christmas had been so rush and it was so late we weren't able to do much our are normal Christmas Eve activities. Kenny and I talked with the kids about the true meaning of Christmas (Ben's first answer was presents and his second was Jesus' birth, Sarah got it right the first try) we put cookies, Egg Nog, and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer, we choose a place downstairs for our stockings, and we opened our Christmas Jammies. It was a busy evening full of lots of fun, yet somewhat rushed activities.

Gracie and Sarah in their new jammies.

Hannah's cute butterfly jammies.


Ben and Sarah being silly in their new jammies.

In some ways I'm grateful my little family is getting not so little anymore. It's so much fun to watch our kids at Christmas rediscover the true meaning of Christmas, be excited for Santa, and just enjoy being together. It really is a magical time of year.

Cabin Fun

We spent the weekend of the 20th and 21st in Bear Lake with some of Kenny's high school friends and their families. Kenny's friend Andy owns a cabin up there that he rents out to people. They had the weekend free of renters so they invited us and another friend, Tony up for some cabin/Christmas fun. We had a blast and it was fun for Kenny to see his friends whom he hasn't seen in almost 3 years.

Gracie and Ben taking a ride on the 4-wheeler

We arrived mid day on Saturday and decided to take the kids sledding. It turned out to not be the best day for sledding. The weather was cold, windy, and just not good. The kids were troopers and stayed out longer than I thought they would. Andy had brought his 4-wheelers which made the sledding experience much more pleasant and probably made it last longer. As a treat for staying out so long we took the kids swimming at the area pool to warm up. Once Ben got brave enough to go under the water we had a great time, but my camera was too fogged up for pictures.

Ben and Daddy trip down the hill. Looks fun, doesn't it!

Oh no! This can't be good!

Now that looks cold. Ben was a good sport and when Daddy got his face wiped clean he was ready to go again.

Sarah Kate having a blast despite the cold weather.

Ben and Jaxon ready to head up the hill.

Sarah and Dylan getting pulled up for another trip down.

After swimming we went back to the cabin to have some dinner. Tony and his family and Andy's sister Ginger (who lives there in town) and her family showed up after dinner. There were a total of 12 kids (and 2 pregnant mom's) whose ages ranged from 9 to Gracie's 14 months. We had a blast and the kids had a blast as well. Ginger went home that night, but left her daughter so around 11:00 we put all 11 kids to bed upstairs in the loft filled with bunk beds.

The 10 kids (minus Ginger's 2). The blonde's are Andy's, the tan ones are Tony's and the others are ours.

Gracie and Berkeley staying warm inside with the big kids were sledding.

The adults went downstairs to watch some TV and talk. After awhile the women went to bed and the guys went out into the hot tub. They stayed up until 4:30 in the morning talking. I guess they really did have a lot to catch up on. They enjoyed their time together, but when the kids got up at 8:00 the next morning they quickly saw an almost all nighter may not have been the smartest idea.

Saturday's bad weather sledding.

Sunday's good weather sledding.

The next day was spent sledding again (in much better weather), hot tubing, eating, napping, playing games, and just hanging out. Sarah Kate took quickly to Andy's 2 oldest boys who are 9 and about 2 week older than her. Ben tagged along and kept up pretty well with only a few fights. Hannah and Gracie played with whomever they could find. It was nice to see all of our kids playing together, but I think it was nicer for Kenny than me. It meant a lot to him.

Sledding with Daddy, what fun.

Hannah was having fun even though you can't tell in this picture.

Ben finishing what looks like a fun ride.

The second day of sledding was much better than the first. Gracie and I even went down the hill and loved it (though I don't think I'll be doing much more sledding the further along I get.) It was a lot of fun to listen to the kids, especially Gracie and Hannah, giggle as they went down the hill. Being a parent can be so much fun sometimes.

Tony and Shauna had to got home that night, but we stayed with Andy's family for one more night. The next morning we woke up to a sick Daddy, a snowy day, and a lot of packing to do. Kenny slept in because we was NOT feeling well. When it came time to leave we discovered our van was not made for the amount of snow we had received. It took us about an hour to get out of the driveway and that was with some major help from the 4-wheeler and Andy's 4-wheel drive truck.

We finally made it out of the driveway and started our journey home. We got stopped in Logan canyon because of a college kid who was driving to fast and didn't quite make a turn. Luckily there were no serious injury's and after waiting for over an hour we were able to head for Logan again. Logan was as far as we made it. We stopped at my sister-in-laws house to drop off some Christmas presents and Kenny was so sick he didn't want to try driving anymore. With the weather the way that it was I didn't want to try driving so we spent the night at my Mom and Dad's. It was a great weekend that ended up being longer than expected, but we were glad we had chosen to be safe.