"Let It Snow, Let It Snow , Let It Snow!"

My sister, Alison, was down for the weekend and we all decided to go sledding. It snowed all weekend which made it perfect sledding weather! We took the snow machines so that we could be spoiled and taken to the top of the hill after sledding down. The brother in laws had so much fun pulling each other up the hill as fast as they could to see who could make the other fall off. My dad came and got bombarded by the grand kids to sled down the hill with them. All of the kids had so much fun. Chandler lasted the longest out of all the kids. She found out that if she laid down she could go much faster and went down by herself over and over. I finally had to talk her into going to the car with the rest of the kids to warm up. While the kids were all warming up Alison, Sharla and I went sledding together.

Alison, Chandler and Joey!
WE LOVE GRANDPA!!
My little Popsicle!
You can't fool us Gabe!
Chandler fell in a big hole on her way to the car!
Who ever said, "the more weight the faster you go", was lying!

Brandon wrecking!

Chris pulling Brandon up the hill!

CREPE KING!!!!!

Every Christmas morning My dad, to his dismay, makes crepes for the entire family! It takes about two hours for him to make them all. Two hours of making and two minutes of divulging! It is so worth the wait! I mostly posted this one for all of my sisters who didn't come home for Christmas to see what they were missing out on. Mom does not approve of my doing this, she thinks I am being mean. I guess you will all come home for Christmas next year! Did I mention we had all of the toppings imaginable for these delicious skinny pancakes?

Christmas Morning!

We set the alarm for 7:00 a.m. Christmas Morning, just in case the kids slept in. I couldn't wait any longer, so right before seven I woke Chandler up and told her that Santa had come. She quickly woke up her brother and we waited at the top of the stairs until daddy got the camera ready. They didn't quite realize that we were video taping, that is why you hear them saying CHEESE the entire way down the stairs! The first thing they wanted to see is if Santa ate all of the cookies we left him. Sure enough they were satisfied. Then they found there open gift with there name on it, ( which is a tradition in my family to have one open gift with a name tag by it) and started to unwrap. They loved all of there gifts and we spent the next hour undoing all of the little, obnoxious twisty ties on every little part of every little toy! Listen to Chandler's excited baby talk, "Santa... bring me presents, that's a cute one"! It makes me laugh every time!

Christmas Eve!

On the day before Christmas we played in the snow! There is so much snow this year. We built a fort for the kids by building snow walls around the tramp with one little opening to get in. I need to take pictures of it. My batteries to my Camera weren't charged, so I wasn't able to take a picture. It took Chris and I awhile to build but it was so much fun to play in. I was hoping it would snow even more so that Christmas day we could play Fox and Geese, no such luck. Christmas Eve we called Grandpa to remind him of a made up tradition. We told Grandpa that every Christmas Eve he orders Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza and that we all eat pizza and watch a Christmas movie together. He asked us if that was really a tradition, we all complied with a big smile and a loud YES!! I guess it's not a lie if we make it a tradition from now on, RIGHT? Well that is exactly what happened. Grandpa brought the pizza and we all watched Home Alone in our new Christmas Eve P.J.'s. After the Movie we went home to make Santa Cookies. The kids had so much fun guessing where Santa would create a fake chimney in our house to deliver all of the presents. We left the cookies, milk, and a note. Santa must have been really hungry from all his travels because every cookie was devoured!

Making Gingerbread Cookies!

Every year we make Gingerbread cookies for our Christmas tree. Last year I tried to save them and it didn't quite work. The coldness from the basement where where they were stored mixed with the warmth of the upstairs made the cookies crumble. Gabe found the old cookies in the garbage from last year and before I caught him he had practically all of them devoured. I wish I had taken a picture of the look of disgust on my face when I realized what he had done. We had so much fun making the new batch of cookies. The kids had the most fun hanging them on the tree. I still have to remind Gabe not to eat the cookies off the tree. Every now and then I find a cookie with a missing head or leg, laugh to myself and move it to the back of the tree.

Ward Christmas Party!

I hate to brag but we have the best ward ever!!! We are always doing such fun activities in our ward and this years Christmas party was my most favorite of all. We all woke up Saturday morning for a breakfast feast. Every one wore there pajamas and ate muffins, fruit and every breakfast casserole you could think of. The best casserole would have to be the German pancake one, it had blueberries and cream cheese in it. It was divinity! The best part of the morning was when Santa came in and all the kids went running over to him. Gabe, however, dashed under the nearest table and hid from the jolly old impostor. Chandler kept asking Santa where he parked his sleigh and if she could see the Reindeer. We had to occupy her until Santa was out of site! Chandler finally coaxed Gabe into sitting on Santa's lap.

RIBBONS AND BOWS!

My friends and I have been making ribbons and bows like crazy. I think all the girlie projects like this make having a sassy little girl worth it. I love making them in every color so she has a new headband or hair bow to go with every ensemble. Here are just a few that I made. I still have more that I have been working on to add to my collection. They are super easy and fun to make. For new born baby girls, the nylon material is perfect for the headbands.

Our Exciting News!

We wanted to let everyone in on the exciting news that I am PREGO!!!

Chandler's response to the news. "Are you telling the truth Mom?" " Yes, I'm telling you the truth, you are going to have a new baby brother or sister ." She then yelled up the stairs to Gabe, "Gabriel we are going to have a new baby sister!" I had to explain to her that we did not yet know the sex of the baby and that it could be a boy or a girl. She started sobbing her eyes out," I don't want another brother, I want a sister!" I hope that she won't be disappointed! She also continues to ask if she can feel the baby kicking me. She is certain that she can feel it even though I have not yet felt it myself.
Gabe's response to the news. "You have a baby in you belly?" "I'm going to eat that baby!"
I don't know about you but I think that means they are both as excited as we are!