January Blues

Usually January is kind of a cold, blue month, stuck in doors with cabin fever. Not this year! The bluest thing this past month has been the sky!! We have had so many sunny, blue skied days in a row, with NO wind!! Yes, cold, but we've acclimatized, I suppose. So we've had some fun times getting out enjoying the sun and snow!! Ryan and I have been able to get out together and cross country ski alone ...Spencer is almost 12, and old enough to hold down the fort long enough for us to ski out at both the sand dunes and the golf course,which are only minutes away, for a nice little work out.


The kids having a shooting contest


The girls having fun skiing in our yard/pasture

Bear Gulch back country skiing...what a FUN trail, with lots of ups and downs to keep the kids moving and challenged!

Martin Luther King Day found us at Harriman State Park. Beautiful groomed trails with a lot to explore. The sun was so warm...it was a perfect day to be out with the little ones!!

Kami and Dallin enjoy the free ride. If anybody out there is looking for an awsome cross country ski vacation, come visit soon and you'll get free meals, room and board, and the most beautiful ski trails around.

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful, very white, Christmas! We even had a few cozy days where we were snowed in...our long drifted driveway + our little mini van and it's non- snowtires = getting stuck!!It's ok though, because the kids have had many a fun day sledding on the neighborhood hill with their friends, and cross country skiing up and down the road.

This year for Christmas Eve eve, our neighbors invited us over for a Jerusalem dinner. We sat on the floor, and ate by candle light, with our hands...salmon, chicken, cous cous, pita bread, artichoke dip, grapes, olives, grape juice (which Porter decided to spill and make a new decorative splotch on their rug). They had each of us tell our favorite story of Christ...it was a special night, and I think we've got a new tradition I want to carry on!

On Christmas Eve, our other neighbors invited us over, including a couple other families. We each brought a pot o soup and a treat to share. The kids had fun playing some games, and some families shared a Christmas story. Then all the kids acted out the nativity (with Lindsey, Porter, and Dallin starring Mary, Joseph, and Jesus) while Ryan read out of the scriptures. So we had a fun little evening before we came home...and the kids opened their jammies from Grandma. They were tucked into their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads I'm sure.


Christmas dinner...dutch oven something as usual...this year it was turkey with potatoes, carrots, and yams.


Ryan and the 4 older kids spent the entire day Christmas eve in the garage...and ordered me to keep out- which I willingly did. When I woke up Christmas day, this bench is what I found! Ryan let the kids cut and sand and help out. What a nice suprise! In fact, Ryan is busy sneaking around in the garage right now, hinting that he's working on something for my anniversary gift! (Jan 3rd). I don't mind staying out of the garage...can't wait to see what's next!



The other fun thing for me this Christmas was sewing aprons for Lindsey and Kami. The funnest part is seeing them use them! These pics are of Lindsey helping with Christmas dinner.


Today the girls decided to be Spencer and Porter's "servants". The boys are in bed sick, so the girls took lunch up to them in their room. Yes, that's shrimp in those cups. I had a fun time with Spencer going to the annual New Years Bash at Aunt Halli's last night....they sent us home with some yummy shrimp! The party was really fun, and Spencer and I were up until 1 am! I think that's why he's in bed with a headache today!

I didn't have time to make Kami a chef hat before Christmas, but she was happy with her princess apron.

Chief Ryan

Well, we've enjoyed lots and lots of snow these past couple weeks...so Ryan decided it was time to go check up on his wiki-up and give it an overnight test. He and his buddy Jeff decided to ski into it at 8:30 in the evening. (Ryan only does things extreme, never sane). They had to break a trail, so it took them 3 hours to go 3 miles. Around 11:30 they arrived at the shelter. They cleared out the snow that had blown in, and gathered pine boughs to make beds. Then they built a fire. The wiki-up worked pretty well but got drippy as the fire warmed it up. (Which felt good since it got down to 0 degrees outside). The report says it was fun, but not fit to take little ones up until Spring. Over the summer Chief and his little wild Indians plan to chink the wiki-up so it will not drip when warmed up so that the kids can sleep in it next winter.

Ready for Christmas!

Lindsey was reading Treasury of Christmas Stories in her bed tonight, and called me up to read me a poem she liked. I thought I'd post it because it is really cute, and pretty much sums up what we've been up to lately!

Day Before Christmas by Marchette Chute

We have been helping with the cake
And licking out the pan,
And wrapping up our packages
As neatly as we can.
And we have hung our stockings up
Beside the open grate,
And now there's nothing more to do
Except
To
Wait!

Welcome Winter

Winter arrived in all its glory this weekend. Friday night a nice storm hit. The kids have been so excited that it will be a white Christmas!! It won't be quite as exciting in May when the snow is still here, but for now it is fun!!

Lindsey really loves reading the American Girl books. In her Kirsten book (about a family who comes to america from Sweden in the 1800's), Kirsten celebrates a Swedish tradition called St. Lucias Day.
Here is a segment from wikipedia:
Saint Lucy's Day (Santa Lucia, Saint Lucia) is the Church feast day dedicated to St. Lucy and is observed on December 13.
In the Lucia procession in the home depicted by Carl Larsson in 1908, the oldest daughter brings coffee and St. Lucia buns to her parents while wearing a candle-wreath and singing a Lucia song. Other daughters may help, dressed in the same kind of white robe and carrying a candle in one hand, but only the oldest daughter wears the candle-wreath.
If you want to read more go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy's_Day

We have Swedish ancestors, so Lindsey decided that this year she wanted to celebrate it, Lindsey style. Instead of lighting the wreath with candles, she hung a bell from it. Instead of the buns, she whipped up some gourmet instant oatmeal. Guess I don't care what it was...I got breakfast in bed!


After the luscious feast of oatmeal, we went to our church Christmas party. The kids sang a couple songs, and got to sit on Santa's lap. All but Dallin enjoyed the big red bearded guy.


It's been snowing big fluffy flakes this evening , and Dallin was so cute to watch it out the window~!



Well, Spencer and I did something scary today. We played "Joy to the World" as a violin duet in church!!! I think it sounded just fine, though my hand with the bow was shaking and making a new vibrato sound that I hadn't known I could make! Lindsey took this shot for us a couple days ago during our practicing. She wanted us to walk out all fancy, so that is why we are being silly.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree...

Well, we got our big ol' tree up. It was pretty heavy and took a couple tries, but amazingly it stayed up!

Making Ginger bread cookies to hang on the tree.

Setting it up just right.

The kids getting it all decorated.



"Santa" and his sleigh.

Yahoo! Christmas is a comin' and the goose is gettin' fat! Come December 1st we decked our halls with boughs of holly and started listening to our Christmas music.

Today was a way fun day. The young women in our ward held a service project where they offered to watch children ages 3-11 from 9am to 1pm while us parents went Christmas shopping! So we got up and out the door, dropped the kids off, and Ryan and I had a fun time in Idaho Falls trying to fit in all the stores we needed to hit before we had to be back. We had a great time and Dallin was so good sitting in the car and shopping cart while we cruised about.

Then, we went and picked up the kids, who had had a wonderful fun time filled with crafts, activities, treats, even lunch! We dropped by our house real quick to grab snow pants and tree cutting tools, and were off to find the perfect Christmas tree. We decided to go up to where the kids built the wiki- up with Ryan. So our first mission, of course, was to find it.


Mission accomplished! The kids were so excited to see that it was still there. No one had discovered it and ransacked the place. It is still standing nice and sturdy with the firewood inside. Next task was to find "the tree".

It didn't take the kids long to spot"the one". They each took turns sawing, and finally it went down.


That thing is huge! Ryan and I tried pulling a few of our canoe hoisting moves, and we got it up there, but boy, was it heavy!! The kids wanted to find the biggest tallest tree they could find, since we paid a permit for a tree up to 20 feet. I think they about did it!! Our car made it home ok, but I'm sure she was sagging a bit. We decided to save the putting up and decorating for Monday since our energy was sapped! The best part of the trip was reading our current family entertainment Calico Captive in the car on the way up and back. It's about a family in the 17oo's who is captured by Indians on the brink of the French and Indian war. They are separated, sold to the French and....well, you better read it to find out what happens if you haven't yet!!