Snow and Celebrating: Happy New Year!

We have a tradition of bundling the kids up and driving north once a year to find the snow.  Mitch and I have great sledding/snowman-building/cocoa-drinking memories from our childhoods, and we want the same for our kids.  This time we decided to combine our snow day with our New Year's celebration.

It was so fun!  Even though it was too cold to build snowmen, we had two days of fun in the snow.  Here are some pictures from our fun in the frozen north.

On the last day of the year we found a beautiful place to play and we were the only ones there.

We were also the first ones to sled here after the recent snowfall, so that meant the boys had to blaze sledding trails down the hill.  It was very cold and there was so much snow, which meant lots of work!

But before long they were flying down the hill and having fun, though at the bottom of this run, Brandt turned and screamed up the hill as loudly as he could.  He'd been blasted in the face with powder at the bottom of the hill and it was quite a shock for him.

Another exhilarating moment for Brandt on this day was his first experience creating yellow snow.  Yeah, that is exciting for little boys.

Adam wanted to make a snow angel.

We saw this sign as we were leaving.  Apparently there is a frozen pond under all that snow and ice at the base of the hill.  Oops. We'd steer clear next time.

That night I decorated our hotel room because I'm a nerd like that.  We celebrated by watching movies, playing a ton of games, and eating snacks.  I had a package for the kids to open on every hour starting at 7:00 pm, with something fun inside: poppers, noise makers, a time capsule sheet, special treats (Tim Tam Slams!),  etc.  Just before midnight we switched on the TV to watch the ball drop in NYC. Then the kids pulled our balloon-drop ripcord, we toasted with sparkling strawberry soda, and lit sparklers in the frozen night on our balcony.

New Years Day we played with fluffy stuff in the hotel room, thereafter employing the vacuum.  The kids played with this happily for over an hour.

In the afternoon we went back to our awesome sledding site.  Though still very cold, it was sunny with no wind, and a beautiful day for sledding.  And since we had made our sledding paths the day before, it was smooth sailing.

  

Since then, Brandt has prayed almost daily, "...and thankful for me to play in the snow."
Bright blessings and happy new year to you all!

Christmas 2012

December was busy.  School and music events and performances, Mitch's formal work party, two church-related Christmas parties, Conjunctivitis, colds, and coughs, doctors' appointments, a backpacking trip, church callings, a concert, hosting two holilday dinner parties; All of this made for craziness  a busy holiday season.  Sound familiar?

Here are a few pictures from December.

 I made these salt dough ornaments as a Christmas gift for the children in our Primary.

I was so excited to have a chance to use this fun decorating idea for a friend's birthday.

Gingerbread houses with the kids.

My family exchanges home-made ornaments each year.  This was mine for this year.  I used the same technique to make poinsettias to decorate a tree skirt I made for the tree in our family room.

I also made balls like these to use for our outdoor lights display.

 Another fun thing we did was create a 12-days of Christmas for our cousins who are living in China, using their guinea pig, Snowball, who we adopted when they left the country almost two years ago.  We emailed them one photo each day for twelve days leading up to Christmas.  It was one of our favorite Christmas activities!

On top of everything,or rather, in spite of all of that, I really wanted my kids to get a sense of what Christmas is all about.  I wanted them to remember the reason we celebrate, and give them a taste of that great feeling you get when you give selfless service to others.  But sometimes it's hard.  Sometimes it's too busy.  The kids aren't listening.  There's so much to distract them.

So I planned some service opportunities.  WAY to many service opportunities for us to get all of them done (the goal was one a day, ha!), but we did get some done and it really made a difference in the feeling in our home around Christmas!

 Here are some of our favorites:
Taped quarters to vending machines
Donated new clothes and toys for local kids in need
Baked these cookies for our local fire fighters (who then graciously gave us our very own tour!)
Taped candy canes to ATMs
Gave small toys to random kids at a playground
Donated food through the kids' school to local food banks
Picked up trash all along the way to school
Donated some of our toys and clothes
Made stuffed sock snowmen to donate

I am so glad we did some simple acts of service.  Although the month was crazy (I literally had to fish a jingle bell out of my youngest son's right nostril one night) I think it really made a difference to the kids to spend time serving others and feel the spirit of Christmas.  I know it made a difference for me.

Lest You Think...

I love reading back over my blog and remembering.  It's fun to see pictures of when my boys were younger, read funny quotes, remember Christmases.

But I was noticing that most of my posts are happy, happy.

Let it be known that I have my sads too.  I have my let-downs, my tantrums, my challenges.

Take today for example.  It was an ordinary day:

I had two kids home with Pinkeye.
One of those two kids refuses to do his business in the toilet and therefore...
One of those two kids ran around the house with a naked bum all day, a desperate tactic.
I have a big zit on my cheek.
I yelled at Caleb this morning.
I felt overwhelmed with upcoming Christmas preparations and activities.
One of the kids needed an emergency bedding wash.
There were already two loads of cold, unfolded laundry piled up.
Brandt and I had a power struggle over him only eating the m&ms in his trail mix.
I gave in.
The aforementioned nuts and raisins were scattered across the kitchen floor.
I got a minor injury on my finger.
I cooked Lime Coconut Curry Chicken over rice and went through the farce of serving it to my family when I knew only Mitch would eat it.
Today when I stepped on the scale it told me that I'm heavier than I've been since I was battling Brandt's baby weight.

But!  On the other hand:
The pink eye is retreating.
The naked-bum tactic really does help!
I apologized to Caleb and we're friends again.
I got our Christmas activities planned for the month of December, and filled our activity advent calendar.
I made a handmade gift for my mom (one for me too).
Bedding and laundry is folded and actually put away.
Brandt and I swept up together.
The rosy hues of the sunset were unreal, and I got to see it because Mitch called me and told me about it on his way home.
Caleb ate all his Coconut Lime Curry Chicken.
I worked out with my husband this morning.
I got to listen to some beautiful music today.
I got Dallin and Adam on the floor rolling with laughter.  They're ticklish.
I helped Adam with his homework.
I put out some beautiful lights around our nativity scene.
My new phone came in the mail.
The dishes are done and tonight I get to go to book club with some amazing, intelligent friends.

I think that when I look back at my life I'll remember mostly the good stuff.  But I think it is good to keep a real perspective too because without a few downs it would be hard to really appreciate the ups.

Thankful

After our feast of Thanksgiving we went on a hike in the Superstition wilderness.
The air was mild, the sunlight, golden.  And it sure felt good to get up and move after such a busy morning cooking and a full-belly feast.

While we walked in the desert splendor, and as I watched those sunlit heads bobbing ahead of me I was momentarily choked with gratitude to my Heavenly Father for my life.  For those boys, and their strong, handsome dad leading us.  For the sun, the air, the path under my feet, and my healthy body.  For everything.

And then Brandt wanted his picture taken, I swallowed the lump in my throat, and life continued.  

But I cherish moments of communion like that like little gems.

One thing my boys like to do is throw rocks, and at home I have to say, "Put that rock down.  No throwing rocks!"  I love going hiking with the boys because they can throw rocks to their heart's content.  And play with sticks.  And climb.

And climb some more.  

And just 

be boys.

They need that.  

On the way back home Brandt fell asleep in the warmth of his car seat and had to be awakened for pie.  Boy, were we all ready for that pie.  And though I was worried because I baked my mom's Apple Slices Pie for the first time, there was no need to be.  Mmmm.

It was a beautiful day.  And I hope your's was too.

Piano, Puppets, and a Pretty Deep Bow

Brandt has been into the performing arts lately.  One day he said, "Mom, I'm going to play you a song." Then he sat at the piano and played freely (with a grape in his cheek here).  When he was satisfied he jumped off the bench and announced that he was done.  

After the second performance I taught him to stand and bow while I applauded.  He liked that.  And then it was my turn to play and then bow while he clapped.

We repeated this scenario a few times.  Sometimes I thought Brandt might tip right over from the depth of his bow.

Not long afterwards, Brandt asked if he could play puppets.

His older brothers arrived home from school just in time to see some of his shows, the plots of which mostly followed this pattern:
1- Character 1 goes looking for Character 2 and, with help from the audience, finds him.
2- Characters 1 and 2 proceed to wrestle or fight.
3- Adam got to determine which character would win, until Dallin got fed up and told Brandt to decide on his own.

These were the best seats in the house.

I loved watching Brandt enjoy being creative and in the spotlight with his older brothers' attention on him.

Mt. Lemmon in Autumn

Recently we took off after Saturday soccer games and drove down to Tucson for the weekend.  Mitch wanted to go see Mount Lemmon, since we've lived here all these years and we've never been there.

It could not have been more beautiful.  The weather was in full cooperation too, and we relished the chilly breeze as we picnicked near the summit.  What a view of the desert floor and rolling brown hills below!  And the leaves!  Each fall I speak of these great plans for getting away to "see the leaves."  See, not many leaves (read: none) turn brilliant colors in my neighborhood and I really miss that part of fall.  So when I saw the gold and red as we flashed by on our way to the summit, I was so excited!

The only bad part was that I forgot the camera!  I wanted to record some of the beauty around us but all I had was my phone.  Here are some of those pics.

It was a beautiful day, and I'm glad my kids got to see those leaves.  They were like gold.  Each boy chose one favorite leaf to bring home and I have them pressed into a book to help them remember.

Halloween 2012

 Halloween breakfast: pumpkin pancakes

 Cowboy, Ninja, Buzz Lightyear, and Alien Abduction

Brandt, I mean Buzz, feeling bashful

 Dallin is being taken, right before our eyes!

Jack O'Lanterns: Adam's/mine, Brandt's/Mitch's, Caleb's (Domo-inspired), and Dallin's.  Notice that Dallin's is eating sweets.

 Howdy!  Have you got any candy?  That's what Adam want's to know.

Caleb melts into the darkness, emerging only for treats. 

Happy Halloween!