Winter Running

Running in the snow.

I stopped running after my half marathon in August.  I was burned out and life took a lot of unpleasant turns and I just stopped running.  I decided in December I would start running again   I wasn't terribly consistent, but some running was better than none.  I've never ran in the winter so it's all new to me.  Kenny was proud of me for running one day while the snow was falling that he decided to take some pictures of me.  I was totally surprised, but I thought it was so nice of him.  If only we knew at the time that this little amount of snow and slightly cold temperatures were just a small taste of what this winter would be.  :)

Decorating the Tree

Our 2012 Christmas Tree!

We were a little late getting our Christmas tree decorated this year, but we finally got it done on December 13th.  We used all decorations from last year and new candy canes.  The kids enjoy getting the ornaments out and remembering when we got them, when they made them, or just knowing that they are theirs.  Its such a fun tradition that I love doing every year. It might not be the fanciest tree, but I sure love our Christmas tree.

Adam decorating the Christmas tree.

Hannah adding a candy cane to the tree.

Dan playing with one of the Christmas tree ornaments.

Gracie, Ben and Sarah taking turns decorating the tree.

The kids in front of the finished tree.

Really Late Turkeys

Every Thanksgiving for the past few years we've been making cookie turkeys. I got the idea from Hannah's speech teacher when we lived in Idaho Falls.  The kids love doing this and look forward to it every year.  Because our Thanksgiving plans changed last minute this year, we weren't able to make the turkeys on Thanksgiving as planned.  I was planning on making them over Thanksgiving weekend, but we all had the stomach flu and cookie turkeys were far from my mind.  So on the 12 of December, we finally got around to making our turkey cookies.  It wasn't the same, but the kids still enjoyed it and were glad they got to make them.

Ben having fun designing turkeys.

Hannah's turkey.

Adam didn't care too much about making the cookies, though he did enjoy eating them, instead he just played while the other created interesting 'turkeys'.

Gracie showing off her turkey creation.

Dan putting frosting on his cookies. This was the first year Dan really enjoyed making the cookies.

Sarah wasn't too into turkey's this year.  She preferred to make her own creations.

Aquarium

The kids showing me how they breathe under water.

What do you do when your off track, it's cold outside, all your friends are in school, and you're bored.  Get your siblings together, make an aquarium and then design breathing apparatuses.  My kids are so creative sometimes.

Each kid in their own little section of the aquarium.

Stringing Popcorn

Watching the movie while stringing popcorn.

Every year we string our own popcorn and cranberry strings for the Christmas tree. It's become a fun little tradition in our family and the kids look forward to it every year. This year we decided to add a little movie into the mix.  I had read A Christmas Carol to the for oldest kids in early December and we though it would be fun to watch the Disney version while stringing the popcorn. It made for a fun evening and the kids did a great job stringing the popcorn.

Popping the popcorn.  Always a favorite.

Dan and Adam were so excited to watch the popcorn pop.

One of Ben's popcorn strings.

I helped Gracie a little, but she did most of it on her own and did a great job.

After all the stringing was done it was time to put them on the tree.  Ben got to do the first and highest one.

Hannah had fun putting her string on the tree.

Adam putting a popcorn string on the tree with a little help from daddy.