2 SNOW DAYS!

...So it totally snowed and we sooo love it! Samantha's bus was canceled and two days later the school district had no school from all the snow. Our friends got 3 inches but we got well over a foot! I took the picture of the table to show how much snow had been falling but that was before it was finished. Unlike our previous snow days here, the snow is still here... days later and wonderful!

When the bus was canceled, they invited all the kids from town to go to the Town Hall to watch "The Polar Express". They popped popcorn and had hot chocolate. It was super fun and an excellent idea from the other mom's in town.

Since we never have this I made the most of the snow. I drove around the rodeo grounds with the kids and did doughnuts, we made a snowman, and of course we found a piece of cardboard to go sledding.

Sledding was a blast! The cardboard was perfect size and we found a short steep hill for my little ones. They took turns going down by themselves and also with each other and me. KayDee just giggled and giggled as she turned in circles on the sled by herself down the hill. I was the heaviest, so of course I had to make the track and then the trick was to keep the kids from walking all over it. It was so fun watch them being happy together and being excited to pick each other to go on the sled together. It was really sweet.

While making the snowman, Derrick came up with the bucket for the hat and the sticks for arms. Samantha was amazing at finding rocks for the buttons, eyes, and mouth in the deep snow. They requested a carrot for his nose and of course I had to since this might be the only snowman they make this year! KayDee finally decided that it was fun to play in the snow when we figured out how to dress her so the snow hardly touched her.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Gingerbread Houses

So once again we used our "sorted candy" and made some gingerbread houses with leftover frosting from Derrick's cake and graham crackers. It was pretty easy and the kids loved it.

We decided to take a picture of them and then eat them now so they would taste good still, instead of when they are stale at Christmas. There were too many smiles to object!

Men in Suits

I gotta love my boys dressed up in suits. They look so handsome. Derrick's primary teacher told us he goes on and on about how much he likes the suit Rachel gave him. We had to take some pictures of him and his dad together in their suits. That Sunday he noticed the speakers who were wearing suits and one happened to be a young man going on a mission that week! Pretty cool.

(I couldn't tell the pictures were a little blury when I took them so they will just have to do.)

Dog Pile

Derrick is 5!

My kids are getting so old! Derrick just turned five and he will be going to kindergarten in the fall. I made a helicopter pinata for his birthday and we had some friends come over on Saturday for a party. They decorated paper sacks, took turns being Simon for Simon says, played red light green light and Duck Duck Goose. I raked up a huge pile of leaves so they could jump and play in them, which they did very well.

Kevin loved the pinata since he has to be such a tease. He found a pully to put it on in the tree and yanked that helicopter all over the place. Crazy enough, the kids were still able to hit it.


KayDee looked like she would fall over each time she swung the stick and she mostly just hit it when she was bringing the stick back. The kids knocked it out of the tree before it cracked open enough for candy to fall out so Kevin had them get their sacks ready and ripped it open. Candy flew everywhere and the kids were really quick to clean it up.



Justin and Rachel hung out for most of the party and Rachel said she went a little crazy with his present and she did! She got him a very handsome suit. He got a helicopter from us, clothes from grandparents, toys from friends and birthday cake!

We did have our family party at our house with Kevin's parents on Monday which was his actual birthday. It was fun to have them join us for the party.

The Bottom of the Reservoir

Since the reservoir has been drained we had to take opportunity to walk on the bottom of it. There are still two large puddles and a small stream and the ground is still completely saturated. This limited our area to walk around.

I asked Rachel to take some pictures of us for our family picture this year. It was really bright and the mud was sucking us under. Rachel wore flip flops and discarded them quickly, then her feet dove into the mud as she followed us around. We definitely had our laughs, although KayDee was very concerned about Rachel's feet and shin disappearing.

This was an adventure we couldn't pass up. Fortunately we came off the reservoir pretty clean, besides Rachel. She had to hose off her pants and shoes. We went home to get some pictures of us not squinting in the "Grape House", and those turned out pretty nice.