Playing in the Snow

Grandma came to visit so we decided to go play in the snow.  We went sledding and walked on the frozen lake.  

Luke's Snowman

Luke loves to play in the snow.  He spent all day after school building a snowman on his own and was so sad when I made him come in for dinner.  We made sure to go back out and snap a pic to send to dad though.

Shoveling the driveway

Luke was so cute shoveling our driveway.  He worked so hard and did a great job.  Then I told both boys they should go across the street and suprise our new neighbors by shoveling theirs.  They were both so willing to go help and boy did it make me smile!

First snow of the season

While I was off enjoying the sun and fun in San Francisco - Todd and the kids were getting pounded with snow.  More snow than we had all last winter I think.  It pretty much snowed the entire time I was gone.  I'm sad that I missed the first snow of the year and seeing my kids get bundled up to play in the snow.  And I missed the first necessary hot cocoa of the year - but at least Todd was sending me pictures the whole time. There is something so cute about kids bundled up in snow clothes.  I love it!

Another day of tubing

The next time we went tubing we had a lot of kids and not enough spots for adults to go.  We had 13 kids and 2 adults with tubing passes.  So we had most of the adults man the bottom.  They would pull the kids off the run, get them through the line and hooked up.  Then I was at the top of the run and I would pull them over to a lane and push them down when it was time.  It was about a 20 minute turn around so I had a lot of extra time between kids coming up.  I just started helping out the lifties at the top and other mom's with kids.  They all knew me by name - it was classic.  And they gave me a thank you of 1/2 price skiing if I wanted to come back because of all my hard work.  Ha ha.

Brianhead - Day 1

Technically this was day 2 - but the first day consisted of driving and eating.  The drive was quite crazy.  We made it about 2 hours out and Jan's car made a funny sound so we pulled over and found she was missing a belt (or 2...) So she was going to get it fixed and rather than have her stay in a tiny little place alone Todd stayed with her.  So the kids and I drove to Vegas and picked up Adam.  We were going to wait there but they were about 2 hours behind so we just pushed on.  The directions I had for getting to the cabin from the south took me up a canyon 20 minutes to find a closed snowed in road.  So I turned around and went another 20 miles up the freeway to take a different route.  Unfortunately, between having Tayson as a co-pilot and my lack of being able to understand the crazy directions I got lost again.  I got a hold of Steve and he gave me good directions so I finally made it to the cabin.  Almost 10 hours in the car with me and 5 kids wasn't the best way to start the vacation.  A good meal and fun games made it all better though.

Todd M. got up early to get a little fishing done in the freezing cold water.  He caught 3 fish but didn't keep them because he wasn't sure if my dad was serious or not when he said he'd clean them if Todd caught them.  We still aren't sure if he was serious or not.

Wyatt playing in the snow

Carson trying out the sledding course they built out front.

Jeannie hooked us up with some tickets to go on the tube run.  It was a blast!

Sophie trying to make a snow angel in the packed snow

Parker and Trent - ready for some sweet tubing 

Owen pulling his tube around

Luke & Emma

We had a pretty big group of people

Todd and I didn't have our snow gear yet so we had to make due with other stuff....crazy clothes I know.

Amy heading up for her first run

Sophie absolutely loved it.  She never had to get out of her tube. 

Pulling Claire off the run - don't judge me for my crazy outfit it's all had.

Tayson

Talon

Todd and Trent racing - I believe Trent won this run.

Grandma got to get in on the fun too.

After 2 hours of tubing we headed to the lodge for lunch.  It was crazy with all those kids!

First Snow Day

The kids were so excited when they woke up to snow this morning.  I had to go get all their snow clothes out of storage in the basement and it took them longer to get ready than they played outside.  I love how cute they look in their boots and hats.  So dang cute.The best part of snow days is coming inside to a warm cup of hot cocoa!

Once there was a snowman

It snowed on Sunday...not a lot of snow but good thick heavy snow. The best for snowballs and making snowmen. So right after church the kids all bundled up and went outside to make a snowman. They used pretty much all of the snow to make it but our little Frosty turned out great and the kids had a blast. The kids were very happy to be a part of grandma's first snowman and help her get pictures for a winter scrapbook page. And to top it off we had a great reason to use our new hot cocoa machine.

Luke

Claire - still in her church clothes
(just add boots, coat, gloves and hat)

The finished product - I think he looks PERFECT!

Since Claire and I were still in our church clothes I thought I'd get a quick picture.

Sophie slept through most of the fun - but she really wanted to get bundled up and go outside at the end.

Easter Morning

We woke up Sunday morning to lots of good snow. Ryan came over and said they were having a snowball fight so my kids hurried and put on their snow clothes. They had so much fun!

No teams at the start - it was a free for all fight. The only rule was be nice and no hitting Claire. Steve of course joined in the fun. I left Sophie inside and came out in my PJ bottoms, boots and coat to take pictures.

I love this shot of Luke hitting Tayson and Claire trying to get Allen in the background.


Allen got a great shot on Steve and the snow went right down the back of his coat.


Claire had so much fun!
And EVERY time she made a snowball she showed serious crack. Hilarious!


After I went in for a few minutes Sophie wanted to come out to get the kids with me so I carried her outside to get them in her PJ top and diaper. She was having nothing of me holding her and I thought if I put her down she wouldn't like it and would let me carry her back from Steve's house (where the snow ball fight ended up for more fresh snow). She could have cared less than she didn't have shoes or pants on. Tayson was hot so he took off his hat and gloves so she grabbed those and I helped her put them on. She was grabbing the snow and throwing it and eating it and cracking up. She didn't fuss or cry once in the whole 5 minutes she was outside. It was so cute. I feel like a slacker mom but it really wasn't my intention for her to play in her diaper.


Then we came inside for Conference and drank hot chocolate and ate pancakes. What a great day!


Speaking of Conference. It was amazing! Pretty much all I heard in every talk was "parenting is key" and I need to do a better job. I loved the talks and I loved the focus on family but it sure did add extra pressure to me to step it up as a mom and do more to teach my kids the gospel. It's time for me to ensure my kids know how special they are and how much I love them and that they are children of God. I'm going to try a little harder to do a little more. I can't wait until I get the Ensign so I can read all the talks again.