This is the place.

Yesterday morning after dropping the kids off at school, I noticed how beautiful the sunrise looked over the mountains. I climbed up a little bit on the hill behind our house to take this picture. I'm so grateful to live in such a pretty place; I just love the way the mountains make us feel like we're enveloped and protected. I also noticed while I was up on the hill that there were fresh mule deer tracks. We haven't been able to see the deer during the daytime yet, and I've been watching for them ever since the snow has been driving them down lower from the mountains. They must be sneaking down at night, but I'm sure sometime soon they'll start spending more time grazing down here closer to the house and I'm really looking forward to it.

Sweet baby grill.

At some point this evening, when she was supposed to be in bed, an elf snuck out of her room to place a Magnadoodle message where we might find it...

(In case you have trouble reading her writing, it says: "I love you mom and dad, litll grill Sophia."

Snow Day.

Well, technically not a snow day, more of a FREAKING FREEZING day! At 6am I was startled awake by the phone ringing: school cancelled due to the extremely cold temps. As soon as I heard the kids waking up at their usual time to get ready for school, I went in to tell them the good news. Sam and Sophie were disappointed, they wanted to go to school. So we found ways to fill the day, including a big breakfast complete with homemade biscuits, green eggs (with zucchini) and bacon. I wasn't too sure how the green eggs would go over, but luckily the kids all wolfed them down and wanted seconds!Then we made homemade play-doh. The kids helped with the stirring and kneading, and we made red and green for Christmas. That kept them occupied for a couple of hours. Sam's best friend called and asked him to play at his house in the afternoon, where he got to go sledding on the big hill in his friend's yard. While he was gone, Chris and I made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate later on when Sam came home. I put some different colors of frosting in little bowls, gave the kids clean paintbrushes, and let them decorate the cookies any way they wanted. Nick had so much fun "painting" the frosting on that by the time he finished with his allotment of cookies, Chris referred to them as "Nightmare Before Christmas-Cookies", because the colors of the frosting all melded together and thickened in a brown and reddish mess! It was so cute to watch him enjoying himself.Noah was able to have his friend over for a couple of hours in the afternoon, which kept him happy. Then, this evening Chris watched Fred Claus with the kids while they ate their dinner. Now they're in bed, I just finished making a couple of dozen cupcakes for an Achievement Days activity tomorrow morning, and I'm getting ready to go school Chris in a game of Trivial Pursuit on the Wii. ;)

Christmas program.

Noah, Sophia and Samuel ready to go to their school Christmas program.

Before the show started, I got this picture of Noah being "cool" with his friends. They needed the sunglasses because Rudolph's nose was too bright. ;)

Here's Noah during his class' square dancing routine. He looks enthused, doesn't he?

Sophie singing "Up on the Housetop".

Sam waiting for his class' turn at the mic.

Festival of Lights Parade

Tonight we went down to where Chris' brother and his family live because their town was having their Festival of Lights Parade. We all ate dinner at a yummy pizza parlor, then headed downtown to see the parade. They started it out with a few fireworks, which the kids especially liked. It was pretty cold, but the parade wasn't very long, so it was okay. After it was over, we went to Weston and Stacy's and just hung out and talked a bit while the kids played. They don't get to see their cousins too often, so they always have a lot of fun when they do get to be together. I love this time of year!
Look how cute they are watching the fireworks.

Weston holding Brooklyn, Chris and Stacy enjoying the fireworks.

Allie is such a cutie!
Stacy with little Brooklyn.
Chris thinking Nick is loving the fireworks; he looks a little frightened to me!

MaKenzi and Sophie giggled the whole time.

Sam, Noah and Jaeddenn always have fun together.

It's snow fun!

Saturday we woke up to a beautiful layer of snow, that continued to fall throughout the day. Of course, being early in the season, it looked so fresh and pretty. (I'm sure by about February I'll be fully prepared to ditch this place for a warmer, sunnier venue!) The kids were in a big hurry to get out the snow pants and head outside. Unfortunately, just as Chris was getting up for the morning, settling in on the couch to enjoy some breakfast and relax on his day off, the phone rang and he was called out to work; there were a lot of slide offs and accidents on the freeway. Luckily he only had to work a few hours, but it's a part of his job that we don't particularly look forward to each winter.

My how things change.

Today is our Sophie's 7th birthday! She is such a loving, thoughtful, spiritual child, and we're so blessed to have her in our family. I don't know what I'd do without my girl! Here she is at 1 year old...
And today...
Happy Birthday!