Snow Day!

 It started snowing last night around 6. We lost power at 9 and slept in a cold house! Luckily it came on at about 7:30 this morning. A Friday snow day means a LONG weekend with no school Monday and Tuesday. The kids and I had a blast. It warmed up fast, most of the snow is gone, but we played and played and played.

 I am officially in love with my new camera. I am still super inexperienced at using it. I love that I got the snow spraying up in Noah's face. He was not so happy though...

 Sophie, Alison Mullahey, Walker and Ella Joyce, Grace, Zach Mullahey and Noah

Jason calls these boys the 3 marauders...they play hours and hours together.

 My sweet Grace, what a girl! In the boy's birthday package my mom included some books from my childhood that I loved and read over and over. Right in the middle of the party Grace started reading Chester the Worldy Pig. You can see Luke still unwrapping in the bottom picture. Today Grace read "the best book ever". She literally read every minute she was home from school until she was finished. It was a mystery/ghost book. I kept asking her if it was scary, she finally just told me no mom! It is intense, but not scary! We will see at 3am just how intense it really was. Jason actually had to tell her to put her book away at dinner. She had it on her lap trying to read and eat at the same time.

The other night during scripture study we were reading in 1st Nephi and Jason asked the kids rhetorically if they could imagine wanting to throw their brother off into the ocean. Gracie just giggled and said yes!
She did give her gerbil to Luke over Christmas break. She is tired of taking care of it but it is still sweet to me that she wanted to share it with her brother.
Sadly, in the past 2 weeks Grace has told me that her eyebrows look funny and she has a big tummy. The other girls in her class are all skinnier then her and it makes her sad. Breaks my heart, and makes me mad! Jason and I are working with her, I hope it was just a bump in the road and not something she is internalizing. 8 is way to young to not enjoy her awesomeness! Plus the fact that she is still super little for her age. I wish I could just journey into her brain and see where those thoughts are coming from. Faith, prayer, patience. Repeat....

Happy 6th Birthday Luke & Noah

 It is hard for me to believe these guys are 6! It doesn't seem like that many years ago that they were my tiny baby boys, just born and so sweet.

 

These guns been played with almost constantly since the birthday party. Add some nerf guns that shoot darts and a basket ball hoop  outside and you have some happy and busy boys. When others call his gun a rifle Noah corrects them and says it is a civil war replica musket!

What joy these boys bring to our lives. I am so grateful for them.

Christmas 2012

 Christmas Eve

 This is the "Feeding Station" the kids made for Santa's Reindeer. They even came back out and put name tags so each deer would know which snack was theirs.

 

Putting out the magic Christmas key.Santa needs it because our house does not have a chimney.

 Christmas Day 2012

 Stocking treasures

I over heard the girls telling a friend last week that on Christmas day they could eat whatever they wanted all day long. Today was FULL of chocolate. I am not sure anyone ate much else, even the delicious ham dinner I cooked.

Santa brought every one bikes this year.  It was beautiful today, warm and sunny. Not very Christmas like, but we had fun riding bikes outside for a long time.

Christmas Best plus One

Poor Luke is sick again. He woke up with a fever of 102. So these are the kids who went to church today, plus Luke. He is feeling a bit better after sleeping all day.

Contentment

This is what I see most mornings now when I take Molly for a walk. It is not snow, or majestic mountains, but it is beautiful. I am working on choosing to be more content in life. But seriously, I miss the snow.

Update

 This is our bedraggled Christmas wreath. I loved it when I got it 10 years ago. I tried to spruce it up when we moved here by adding some metallic flowers and leaves. It looks so ugly to me I didn't even put it up last year.

This is my made-over wreath. Makes me happy when projects actually turn out! Yay to Target for cheap and fun Christmas things and for my reunion with my long forgotten hot glue gun.