Christmas and the End of 2013

This was such a great Christmas!  Everyone was healthy and happy.  Jason got most of the week of Christmas off and it was just so wonderful to have fun together.  By Christmas Eve I had decided everything was not going to get done, thanks to the car accident, so I could either fret about it and spend the whole day working to finish up last minute things or just forget it and have fun.  I chose the latter and we had a gorgeous day at Snowbasin, our fun new Christmas Eve tradition.  It really is a great way to pass the time for kiddos that are really impatient for Santa to arrive.

In the evening when it was time for the kids to act out the nativity, Kaitlyn was really sad Skyler had gotten too big to be the baby Jesus.  Instead he was Joseph this year and loved to kiss the baby.

Then it was time for Christmas Eve pajamas.  (I know this picture is a little silly with Skyler poking Andrew in the eye!)

And finally it was off to bed.  Unfortunately morning came way too early.  Even though we told the kids they couldn't get up until after 6:00, Andrew and Jared woke up around 5:30 and woke Skyler up so there was no sleeping after that.  Skyler was exhausted all morning and didn't enjoy the presents too much that day.  Everyone else seemed thrilled with what they got.  I never get very good pictures at Christmas.  Maybe because that amount of excitement makes it impossible for my kids to sit still for half a second.  Here are a few that turned out.

My brother Ethan and his wife sent all the kids marshmallow guns.  They were a hit for everyone, including Skyler and Dad.  A couple days later these hats came in the mail from them in Germany.  Cecilia crocheted the hat for Katilyn and Skyler's came from the Christmas market.

We spent Christmas vacation playing with all the new Christmas toys, skiing, going to movies, dinner and the Christmas Village downtown.  The kids loved the new movie Frozen.  Andrew spent the new year at a church youth party at Weber State and the rest of us enjoyed a game night at home with Jason's mom and step-dad.  All too soon the holidays were over and it was time for everyone to go back to work and school.

Gift Ideas?

Do you have someone in your life who you never know what to buy for? Jason's step-dad is one of those people. Every time I need to buy him a gift I am asking my mother-in-law for ideas. I usually resort to buying gift cards but I prefer to give real gifts. This year when I was at a loss for what to get him for his birthday again Jason suggested we take him skiing for a day. We had a great time taking him to Snowbasin Saturday and the kids loved skiing with Grandpa! It was a beautiful sunny spring like day and we were roasting in our coats. The only thing that could have made it better was a few inches of new snow. I hope Darrell had as much fun as we did!

Another highlight of the day was Kaitlyn taking her first trip to the top of the mountain. She also seemed to lose her sense of caution and was going down the mountain as fast as she could! Jason took her on some pretty hard stuff and I was amazed at how well she did. When it got too steep and she fell she would jump up and try again without any crying or complaining! Here she is at the top of the Needles Gondola before her first run down.

We had to fight the crowds there this weekend with all the people coming to watch the Dew Tour finals. It was pretty fun to watch the professionals doing tricks on this huge half pipe. It's much more impressive in person than watching on TV!

Busy with Life

The other day I went for a run with a friend I haven't seen in a few weeks and she asked what I'd been up to. I really couldn't think of anything to tell her which seemed strange since it seems like we have been so busy! I guess we have just been busy with life even if it is nothing big or eventful! Here are some recent pictures to keep you posted.

I'm not a huge fan of bathtub pictures but this was just so cute and G rated with that many bubbles. Someone put a few too many bubbles in the tub but it sure was fun!

Andrew is in the middle of his Jr. Jazz season and loving it. He's got a lot of great friends on his team again this year.

Jared was so excited for the skit his den was preparing for pack meeting this month! He talked about it for days before and he was thrilled Jason could have a break from Young Men's activities to come watch. Here he is looking so serious in his part in a Native American tribe!

Jared also got his Bobcat award that night. He didn't want to give me the pin. He thought it was better than the patch and wanted to keep it for himself but I convinced him to pin it on!

Andrew's first court of honor. Jared thought it was a little dull without all the crazy things they do in cub scouts.

I thought some of you might be interested in an update with the pet situation. We've had Herkey almost three weeks now and at least he is still alive! He's been a little more challenging to tame than Charlie was. Maybe he hasn't been handled as much or maybe it's just personality... He's also a lot noisier than Charlie-not sure yet if that's a good thing! The best news is that he doesn't bite!

I know I already posted a bunch of skiing pictures but this was just such a beautiful picture of Mt. Ogden that I had to include it! It was one of the worst inversion days in the valley so it was great for the boys to get up to some clean air. While the boys went skiing Kaitlyn and I went to a girls' day with my mother-in-law. Of course her couple hours project turned out to be a couple days project for me so I'll post a picture when it is finished. My goal is to have it finished before spring so I can actually use it this year (it's a winter decoration!) Like everything my mother-in-law does it is very cute so keep posted for the finished work of art!

One more note on skiing. Yesterday Kaitlyn informed me that Little Cat (bunny hill) was boring and she wanted to go up Becker(intermediate lift). I was a little worried but she was persistent and when we gave it a try she did awesome! She was so proud of herself making it all the way down without help and told everyone that would listen including all the ski patrol we ran into! After she had seen a few adults fall she turned to me and asked "Why are all these people wiping out and I'm not?" Then she laughed!

Think Snow

Winter used to be my least favorite season. We lived in North Carolina one year and it only snowed one day that winter. I didn't even miss the snow. That was before I learned to ski. Now when the leaves start changing color I get really anxious to start seeing snow up in the mountains. I still don't enjoy being cold. I was just hearing from friends of ours in Iowa this week about the bitter cold temperatures there. (It was something like -18 degrees Fahrenheit this morning.) I really don't miss that at all! After moving back to Utah I decided that we have almost the ideal climate here. We get to enjoy all four seasons without having the bitter cold of the Midwest or the heat and humidity of the South. So when it is too cold to do anything else I love that we live so close to the mountains with lots of snow. This week has felt almost more like March than January but hopefully we'll get some more powder soon. Here are some recent pictures from Snowbasin. We love the benefits of Jason's job there! Not only do we love to ski but it is great to get out of the valley on the bad inversion days and see some beautiful blue sky!