Happy New Year!!

It hasn't snowed in over a week, but it we haven't had temperatures much higher than freezing, either. So, we still have several inches of snow in the yard.

I didn't get pictures of the the arctic fox, but look at all those tracks in the backyard! We saw him dart across the front lawn, too! Here's our little snowbunny, Sadie. It doesn't matter the temperature, she's out there playing!

Brian thought it would be fun to play Bocce ball on Saturday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day (we got up to about 37 degrees!), so we headed out to the backyard.

We really enjoy this game. In the past, we've only played in the summer time. Now, we know why.

When you throw a white ball into white snow, it tends to get lost. Again and again and again...

Morgan was a trooper, though. Each time she threw it out into the snow, she'd carefully step all around where she thought she threw it until she finally found it.

I guess we just found a new "twist" to this classic lawn game!

It Snowed Again!

Before we moved to Colorado, we did our research. The weather is supposedly similar to Utah's and everyone said, "Oh, it snows. But, it's almost always melted by lunchtime, so it's not that big of a deal." "Okay," we thought. 3 of our 4 Christmases it has snowed. A Lot. And, the one that it didn't, we were in Arizona!

So, here are the girls, out shoveling snow again. (This is 3 of the last 4 days, we've been out shoveling)

Sadie even thought it was fun to put her face straight into the snow!

She also got her own shovel out to help.

But then, decided it was too much work, so she took a break.

Here she is, supervising her Dad's shoveling. I don't care what she thinks, he did a fabulous job! Thanks, sweetie!

Morgan wanted to "save" some snow in her bucket. We told her it would turn into water, but she continued to fill it up. Now, there's a bucket of water in the garage.

And, the 6+ inches we've received over the last couple of days made for perfect sledding snow. Our neighbors have a nice slope in their front yard that goes into our yard, so we asked them if we could use it for our sledding hill. Brian got a new sled for Christmas, and he wanted to try it out.
They even let us borrow their sled so we had two.

Sadie is adventurous!! She couldn't get enough sledding! We'd just lay her in the disk and push her and off she went!!

Morgan, on the other hand, prefers to be a little more cautious.

Look at Sadie's knees. See how deep the snow is?

Here's Mackenzie and Sadie in the sled. Lots of fun!

If we could stay home and play in the snow everyday, we'd love it!

Merry Christmas!!!

We went over to the Mulberry's (a family in our ward) for Christmas Eve, so I made these cupcakes and displayed them in a "tree". We had a lot of fun and Morgan thoroughly enjoyed the gift exchange. She ended up picking a fondue set, so if anyone is interested in dipping melted chocolate with a 3 year old, I'd be glad to bring the mess to your house to enjoy with her!

Here's the girls on Christmas Eve, sporting their new jammies. They say, "Big Sister" and "Little Sister".

With small children in the house, very few items can be left safely under the tree before Christmas. Hence, the bare tree in the previous picture, and the generously filled tree below.

Fast Forward about 12 hours to Christmas Moring (yes, a full 12 hours. Our kids didn't wake up until after 7. Even then, Morgan was more interested in sleeping until we pulled her out of bed about 7:15).

Morgan dumping out all the goodies in her stocking.

The girls forgot to leave out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer, so Santa left them a note saying he helped himself to some in the kitchen.

He was, however, kind enough to leave part of one on the plate and the girls helped him finish it off.

In order to have room to open our gifts, we moved the table across the room. So, we decided to have a french toast picnic on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.

Isn't Sadie adorable?

Sadie's first gift (and the only one she actually opened, I think) was a stroller from Morgan. Now, they each have a doll stroller for their babies.

And, Sadie was content for quite some time to just push her stroller around.

About a week and a half ago, Brian's biggest present came in the mail. I wasn't expecting the box to be THAT big, so we had to leave it in the living room (where would you hide that?). After 10 days of torture, he finally got to open it.

The surprise? A TV antenna. I know, kind of anti-climatic, but he was actually pretty excited.

Oh, I lied. Sadie opened 2 presents. This one's a new book that we've read to her several times each day since. I've got it memorized, if you'd like to hear it!

And, here she is, reading her book. It's called "Fifteen Animals" by Sandra Boynton. And, I'll give you the cliff notes version: They're all named Bob, except the turtle.

Sadie wasn't too thrilled about all her new clothes, but the box, on the other hand....

Morgan dubbed herself the gift distributor, and, somehow, she thought they all had her name on them. Hmmmmm....

We made Sadie at least sit down when we opened up her gifts for her.

And, she pretended to like them, temporarily. But then, she was back to her stroller.

Or, her book. Here's Brian reading it, again.

Morgan's highlight was CandyLand. She's never played it until now, but has been talking about it daily for about a month. So, we played. 3 times.

And, that about sums up our Christmas. We are so blessed to spend this time together as a family, but most importantly, for our Savior, and the opportunity we have to teach our girls about Him and His example.

Teaser

I'll get to posting more Christmas pictures soon! I promise! Here's the girls in their Christmas PJ's.

Snow Day

Aren't vacation days great? Brian had 1 day left this year and we don't have big plans for the Holidays, so he took Wednesday off. It was perfect. There was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground for us all to play in and nothing that had to get done. Our highlights included playing in the snow, going to lunch (Morgan chose "Olove Darden"), and reading the Christmas Story out of the Bible. And, to top it off, we rented a RedBox (Julie and Julia was pretty good--I recommend it).

Here's a quick recap of our snow playing/shoveling adventures!

Here's the snow plow crew, ready to brave the cold!


While Brian did most (okay, ALL) of the shoveling, he had two supervisors right next to him, doing quality control the entire time.

And, when you step into the snow and fall down, you're bound to stand up looking like this (covered in snow):

Now that the girls are getting older, playing in the snow is lots of fun.

Here's Morgan making her snow angel:

And Sadie making hers.

Sadie found the golf set that never got put away at the end of the summer (an October snow always throws us off on our yard cleanup) and decided to play a couple rounds.

Meanwhile, Morgan finished off what her Daddy had left behind. (Actually, it was still snowing, so this is the new accumulation.)

Sadie wasn't pleased with the idea of going inside, so she started walking down the street and decided to camp out in front of the neighbor's house.

All the while, Morgan continued to shovel...

Saturday and Sunday Morning

Despite the current weather conditions (we've gotten 6+ inches of snow over the last 2 days), last weekend was gorgeous! Well, as gorgeous as barren trees, dead grass, and 45 degrees can get.

We spent some of Saturday morning at the "seesaw" park. Sadie has finally decided she's brave enough to go down the slide by herself, but only if it's feet first, on her belly. (Would you believe me if I told you she doesn't have any reservations when climbing on top of tables, banisters, etc.??)

The majority of our time at the park was spent on the seesaw. Hence, our name for it--the seesaw park. Sadie doesn't like help anymore. She thinks she's a big girl and can do it all by herself. Brian didn't stand more than about 2 feet away, though.

Sunday morning rolled around and, since we don't have church until 1 p.m. (only one more Sunday, yay!!), the girls got into their dress up clothes. Here's Dr. Sadie. (Don't ask me how she walked around and didn't trip over the way too long pant legs!)

Morgan decided to gives us her best impression of a reindeer. (If you ask me, it's more like the "deer in the headlights" look. I remember it all too well from last Christmas.)

And, Sadie, post Christmas fudge. The bishop's wife is my visiting teacher and she and bishop spoiled us by dropping off yuumy cinnamon rolls and fudge the night before, so we had that for breakfast!

And, the girls found Mommy and Daddy's shoes. They loved walking around the house in them!