Snow Day!

We spent the week after Christmas up in Eden. We wanted a nice little retreat and a break from the world. While we were up there it snowed and snowed and snowed some more!! That put smiles on our faces and then we put our snow clothes on and went outside for some fun.

Emily and Allie enjoyed making snow castles with their little shovel and bucket.

The snow was still coming down while we were playing but that didn't stop us from having fun.

Josh liked playing on the driveway where it was shoveled otherwise the snow was too deep and he couldn't move around.

Snowball fight! I don't know if they actually ever hit each other with a snowball but they had fun trying.

Christmas 2010

The rush! The thrill! The anticipation! Oh, to be a kid on Christmas morning! Actually, I quite enjoy watching my kids on Christmas morning.

Joshua was the 1st one downstairs to inspect everything out. Well, actually the only thing he was interested in was his basketball hoop. This kid LOVES balls so he was absolutely in heaven when he saw what was waiting for him.

For family home evening a few days before Christmas we all wrote notes to each other and then put them in an envelope, sealed it up and then stuck it in that persons stocking. So the first thing we did Christmas morning (besides Josh shooting some hoops) was read those letters. It was so nice reading those letters and it brought a nice spirit into our home.

Now let the mayhem begin!

The girls both got helmets to wear when they go skiing.

Josh loved his Woody and Buzz toys. About 1.5 weeks before Christmas Josh noticed Woody and Buzz on his wipes container and carried around for days and even had to go to bed with it. I thought these little guys would be more fun to play with and snuggle with than a wipes container.

We spent the rest of the day visiting grandparents and great-grandparents.

Puzzles and books to keep the girls entertained. Wahoo!

Sleeping bags from Grandma and Grandpa Conlin!

We had a great Christmas. Let us not forget the real reason for the season!

Christmas Eve 2010

Like every year in the past we got together with Tyler's extended family on Christmas Eve for some tasty food and for the kids to reenact the Nativity. Emily and Allie were angels and Joshua was a cow.

Then Jordan, Tyler, Jeremy and Andy sang us a few Christmas songs.

And Tyler and Andy yodeled for us all.

And as per tradition all those who are newcomers to the group (or somehow have evaded the embarrassment in past years) go up and perform The 12 Days of Christmas- with actions.

The part the kids most enjoyed was seeing Santa and telling him what they wanted.

Tyler and I even joined in on the fun.

New Name

Allie has a hard time dealing with things when they don't go exactly as she wants them to go. It can be quite challenging for the rest of us(mostly me) to say the least. The other day something set her off and she was throwing quite a fit. Joshua and Emily were trying to eat their lunch while Allie was hollering away. Now understand that Joshua does not talk a lot, although he is becoming more vocal. So as he and Emily were sitting there eating their lunch Josh turns and points to Allie and says "Whaa, whaa". That was his name for her the rest of the day. Every time we would ask him what Allie's name was he would say "whaa, whaa". We all (minus Allie) got a chuckle out of it. If only that was enough to teach her not to throw fits.

Gingerbread Houses

As per tradition we had our annual family gingerbread house making night. Well, I think it is a candy eating night combined with a little house decorating.

Emily and Allie had a lot of fun decorating their houses.

 Emily said her house was like the witches house in Hansel and Gretel.

Allie house was named the party house.

Tyler created a trailer park masterpiece. He said the little brown chocolates represented all the dog poo around the park and the broken grahams where piles of trash laying around.

Joshua had fun munching the treats and playing with dad's trailer park teeth.