Just the TWO of us

What a day we had up at Crystal Mountain. Andrew and I had so much fun going down the bunny hill. This was Andrew's first time getting on a chair lift and skiing down a real ski slope. Ski lessons last year were fun, but this year the real stuff begins. He did great getting on and off the chair lift and didn't fall. The first run we spent holding hands down the slope. Then the rest of the day was spent skiing side by side while we worked on slowing down and turning...and of course I was taking lots of pictures and video. Check Andrew out:



Falling with style and a happy face!



By the end of the day Andrew could ski all by himself, slow down, turn left and right, and get up after falling down. YEAH...SUCCESS!

Christmas DAY

Christmas morning started out so fun...no one was up too early. In fact, I peeked in the boys room at 7:30 to see if they were awake. As soon as they saw me they shot out of bed and ran to the stairs. The gate was up, of course, to keep sneaky little kids from going down the stairs too early. They sat at the top of the stairs surprisingly well while we waited for Dad. Here is a video of our excited kids on Christmas morning:

After eating candy from our stockings and enjoying presents from Santa, we sat down and ate some yummy cinnamon rolls...a tradition we enjoy on Christmas morning. Then after everyone quickly stuffs those down, we head for the Christmas tree to unwrap every gift under the tree. The boys were quick to grab the presents and hand them to their rightful owner. However, they were sometimes too quick and we had to search for the right wrapping paper to see who it was from. Emma resorted to biting the paper off if she couldn't rip it off...it was pretty funny to watch. Here are some more pictures of our fun-filled morning.

Christmas EVE

On Christmas Eve, in between cooking things for our Christmas Dinner, we get to make our sugar cookies. The kids get to roll out, cut, frost, and sprinkle their own cookies. They each pick one to put on Santa's plate and then they eat the rest. They all made some great creations this year. Emma was so enamored by the sprinkles. If they fell off the cookie, she just had to eat those too. Even the ones on the floor were found being picked up by this little one. After dinner, we read from the scriptures and then the kids got to open one gift - the traditional Christmas pajamas. This year we started the Tradition of opening up a special Christmas book for the year. This year's winner was Frosty the Snowman. After the story, we watched the Polar Express and then headed to bed. Well the kids did anyway!

Baby F O U R takes the stage

We are so excited to announce the great news of another baby coming to our family in the early summer. July 3rd is the official due date, but of course I am hoping for an end of June baby. Andrew and Emma both arrived early so I consider my odds pretty good! So what is life going to be like with FOUR adorable, but very active children? Other than the days of little sleep heading our way, I truly think it will be nothing but fabulous to have another sweet spirit enter our home. We are so grateful for the wonderful children we have and pray this baby will be just as healthy!

First S N O W

We heard it was going to snow but we weren't sure we believed it until we saw the biggest snow flakes we had ever seen. Since it doesn't snow very much here, you never know how long it is going to last or if it will even stick. So, we quickly got on our warm jackets, hats, and gloves and played in whatever came down. The kids were mesmerized by it all and I know that they wished it had snowed harder so we could have enough snow to build a snowman....maybe later in the season we will be so lucky. Andrew just kept telling us to stay off the grass because he didn't want the snow to go away. Oh yeah, and the bikes did come out even in the snow. I guess it's been too long since we've played outside with all the rain we've been having! Today was a great way to start out this December and the Christmas season!