Finally...it feels like winter break!

Sam's "Snow Dog"!

Merry Christmas!

We all had a very nice Christmas day, especially the kids who are all enjoying their new "stuff"!  Here is the amazing sign that our awesome brother and sister-in-law made for us ~ we love it and can't wait to be able to hang it outside by the front of the house. 

Here we are sitting down to a simple Christmas dinner.  As you can see, the kids didn't even get out of their jammies all day.

As predicted, Noah received coal for Christmas.  ;)

Here is Nicolas opening the boots he asked for.  He wore them all day.

The hot gifts for this year included lots of Legos (of course), Pillow Pets and video games.

The kids only got one main gift from Santa this year: Lego Rock Band with guitars and a microphone.  It's so fun to listen to them "Jam!"

 Here are the sweet, hand-made gifts the kids gave to us - candles, hot pads and bookmarks.

  



Christmas eve with the Bakes!

 

Getting in the Christmas spirit...

Today at church was the Christmas program, and it was a very nice way to begin the week leading up to Christmas day.  After church, we got out the Fisher Price Nativity, and the kids used the toy figurines to act out the Christmas story while Chris read the account from the scriptures.  After that our home teacher came by with his annual delivery of Mrs. Powell's giant cinnamon rolls...and the kids are in heaven!

The Day She's Been Waiting For...

Today my sweet 8 year old girl had her special day: she was baptized.  She is such a wonderful child, full of the most loving spirit I have ever known.  I could tell she was being very thoughtful and emotional throughout the day.  She loved having family and friends who took the time and made some small sacrifices in order to be here and help her celebrate this special occasion. 

Last night she was so excited, she was having the hardest time falling asleep.  She finally ended up crashing on the couch sometime after 10pm.

 I just love days like today, when we're together as a family, and we get to share in something momentous and meaningful, such as it was. Chris is such a good, loving daddy, and Sophie was glued to his side the whole time we were at the church.

Afterwards, we enjoyed an afternoon back at our house eating and visiting with family, while all the cousins played, and played and played. We ended the day with most of us (minus the littlest kids) watching the newly released Eclipse DVD. Great day! :)



Snow days, sick days and more snow days.

It's really been kind of a crazy month around here.  It started off like a typical November, and we made it through our trip to Colorado and the awesome marathon experience with picture perfect weather, but we did have the issues with the stomach flu virus going through our family.

That has all changed, though.  For the past couple of weeks, we've been experiencing extremely cold temperatures - lows have been in the negatives, and highs in the teens - and tons of snow!  Coming into this Thanksgiving holiday week, the kids had a snow day from school on Tuesday, and so have been home for 6 days!  The roads are terrible, and Chris has stayed busy at work.  We were able to make it out to the in-laws of one of Chris' brothers for Thanksgiving day dinner, though the drive to their house (about an hour away) was a stressful one.  Once we got there, the kids really enjoyed getting to play with their cousins, and we had a wonderful time visiting with our family and enjoying some really good food!  When we left, we brought one of the cousins home to spend the night - a special treat for Sophie - to get to spend time with another girl!  Today we woke up to more snow coming down, and it still hasn't stopped.  And even though I have been very healthy for months, I think all my training has finally caught up with me and I have a terrible sore throat today.  So, we stayed home from church today, enjoying the peace that the fresh snowfall brings, and are going to do a Family Home Evening tonight with the kids since Chris is home from work.

On Saturday, Sophie will be getting baptized and so we have a few family members coming over for that.  I just hope the weather doesn't make it impossible for them to come.  She is so very excited to be 8 and to get to have her special day.

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Rim Rock Marathon, 2010

We just returned home last night from an incredible experience in Colorado.  Even though some of our family members were afflicted with a stomach virus, we still enjoyed some amazing sights, food and memories with friends and family.  My first marathon was a success: my friend and I finished the marathon and I'm minimally sore today!  It was an emotional, mental and physical challenge, but the feeling of accomplishment is indescribable.  I'm feeling extremely grateful right now for such a loving and supportive husband, and also the friends and family that have helped and encouraged me along my journey.  We were able to celebrate our sweet daughter's 8th birthday while we were there, and now we look forward to helping her get ready for her upcoming baptism.  I've posted a more detailed account of my race and the days leading up to it on my other blog: www.amarathonmom2b.blogspot.com

Here come the holidays...

This year we decided to be both thrifty and frugal with regards to Halloween and it's festivities.  I told the kids about a month ago that we weren't going to be buying any new costumes or accessories this year.  At first, they griped...for about a minute.  Then they spent several hours rummaging through bags and bins of dress-up and play stuff, and here is what they came up with:  We have a hiker, a hunter, a hula dancer and the cutest puppy ever!

We also didn't buy any pumpkins to carve.  We had a garden full of sugar pumpkins this year, so since they are not great for carving, we let the kids paint some instead - equally entertaining!

Our main Halloween activities took place today.  We started out going to a "trunk-or-treat" this afternoon at a shopping plaza parking lot where businesses were handing out candy. 

Then, since we had a couple of hours before time for real trick-or-treating, we went to the dollar theater and saw "Toy Story 3".  (The kids already saw it with grandma and grandpa when it first came out in theaters, but Chris hadn't seen it, and the kids were more than happy to see it again - it's a great movie!)

After the movie, we headed back home where the kids had a quick pit-stop, then I took the three older kids out trick-or-treating while Chris stayed at home with Nicolas, who said, "I have enough candy, mom!"  :)

After the kids had their buckets loaded up with sweets, we went home where I made some homemade vegetarian pizza (yum!), and we watched scary movies.  As you can see, a couple of the kids didn't last too long at that point!

So, in the end, we spent:

$0.00 ~ Costumes and accessories

$10.00 ~ Gas to drive into town

$12.00 ~ Cheap movies

$0.00 ~ Pumpkins

Total = $22.00

Much less than in years past, and we still heard, "Best Halloween Ever!" from all of the children.  Now on to planning for a frugal Christmas!  :)