Happy Birthday Ali!

Dear Ali,

You are cool. Have a lovely day. I hope you do something momentous to welcome in the new decade!

Love, Us

A birthday party, a ski day, and a trip home...

While home, you know... the other one, we had a birthday party for the four cutest kids on the planet (I am somewhat partial). It was fun, we went to Arctic Circle to play on the toys and have a lime ricky or two, then we had cupcakes and presents. Who can complain about that?

Please look closely in the above picture, and take note of Violet's drinking methods...

Here is a closeup...

I love it. She drinks out of the side of her mouth so that she can still see what is going on. Clever girl.

Here is Kate loving on her frosting. She only eats the frosting no matter what it is, toaster struddle, cinnamon roll, cupcake... you get the idea. She has a serious sweet tooth that comes from her dad, who got it from his dad and a double whammy from his grandpas...

The Cute Kids on the Block (did you catch that? My sisters and I loved NKOTB when we were younger, so much that my dear mother took us to their concert and all I have to say is "Joey... Joey..." sidenote, Jonathan was my favorite, so that wasn't me... but I know who it was!)

We also went skiing a few times. Cory and I were able to sneak off twice on our own, then he with my brothers, and took Tanner snowboarding once (no pictures because I didn't go) and we took him skiing when M came up. This was our last run, he was just goofing around.

Tanner and I on the chair lift...

Pop and Grandpa were watching the kids for us down in the ski school, so Cory, Ali, and I took a few runs. When we got back, Teresa was watching the kids because Grandpa forgot he was watching the kids while Pop went out to take a run. He called halfway home to let Teresa know he forgot. Too funny. It's cool though, because Teresa is another mother that I have known my whole life. When we came in, they were running the office. A stapler was the phone, and they were putting post-it notes all over everything with notes on them. Then I had to settle an arguement about whether paleontologists dig up dinosaur bones or teach about them. I said they do both. Ali and me...

Cory and Tanner...
The deer in the area are getting out of control... on the way home they were in the fields like cows, hundreds I tell you, this herd was on the side of the road this wasn't even zoomed. They just stare at you like "What are you looking at?" and the are big...

We flew back in the afternoon and had the play area to ourselves for a while. Then we went and ate and had ice cream. The kids did well on the flight back, fortunately, Kate slept the majority of the long flight both directions. It was very nice of her.

Well, things that are not pictured, I was able to get together with my friends from high school for an evening. Thanks Jennie! It was nice to see them. We never see eachother anymore, we all live in three states, and the two in the same state are on opposite sides of the state, so it takes planning and effort to all be together, so thanks for taking the time out girls! We were able to meet up with Matt and Elyssa for lunch, good to see you guys too! I am sorry to all the friends I had meant to see, but didn't, sorry, sorry, sorry...

and Congrats to Andy, my little brother, for getting his Eagle Scout while we were home. It was fun to have cousins and grandparents over for dinner before. Nice to see you all as well! And thanks to Uncle Scott for taking pictures while we were there because none of us thought to bring a camera! And it was nice to meet their exchange student, Veronica, from Rome. She is cool. Congrats Em on that cute baby. And Jared and Brielle on their cute baby.

We saw Tangled, I loved it. My mom and I took Tanner and Kate, but Kate didn't even make it through the trailers before I called Cory to come and get her, he was pretty much driving past the theatre on his way home from Targhee with my brothers, so it worked out well.

I don't know what else we did, I can't remember, but we had fun, and thanks to everyone who hung out with us and to our families for letting us stay so long, and to Sam and Preston for giving up their rooms for us!

Enjoy your Friday! There is only one left this month can you believe that? Stay tuned, we have entered birthday season! Speaking of which...

Happy Birthday to Brad the other day, sorry I didn't get you anything!

Happy Birthday to Carla yesterday, we love you!

and Happy Birthday to Neecie tomorrow! We miss you!

Until next time!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig...

We are home from being home, strange how home can be in so many places, huh?

Well, before we left, we visited Macy's in downtown Minneapolis. They had a fun little display called "A Day in the Life of an Elf", you walked though and they had little mechanical displays that moved around. My favorite was this one called flight school. The reindeer moved up and down. I thought it was funny.

Then we visited Santa, and I think Macy's will be our only Santa from now on. I understand why it inspired a movie. They were so good about it, the kids went into a room to meet him, the other people waited outside, and Tanner was so enchanted by him. They let him stay and talk to him for about 5 minutes, and Tanner explained that we would be gone and asked if he could find us at Nana's house in Idaho. It was really sweet, I was surprised that he was so comfortable with him. Anyway, it was a great experience for him. Kate was just grumpy the whole time, oh well.

This is Tanner's graham cracker house, we hot glued it together because I didn't have enough powdered sugar, so the frosting is really runny, I guess it is a warm Christmas for this house...

Then we left early (really early) the next morning... Kate didn't want to be up yet, but at least there was a McDonald's next to out gate and the guy gave her a little toy when I only bought an apple juice.

The kids did really well traveling, I was relieved, along with every other person on the flight.

Tanner and Kate gave an impromptu performance on Christmas Eve...

They are so talented...

Christmas morning was great, Tanner was very happy that Santa found us.

Here is one of his favorite presents...

and Kate playing with boxes instead of hers... notice the swimming suit she had to wear for the occasion, although it is inside out and upside down...

Tyler took Tanner out for a ride one day...
Then we had New Years!!!! Cheers!

Well, I will get to the rest of our adventure next time, but I am sure you are tired of looking at my pictures and I am tired of putting them on here. So until then, I hope life treats you well, and thanks for stopping by!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

All our bags are packed, we are ready to go... I hope you know that I was singing that too.

Well friends, we are off. Heading back to the homeland for the holidays. The kids are very excited and Tanner has earned enough stickers on his chore chart to get his present for the journey. So, hopefully Santa finds the note and can get our presents to us elsewhere... wink, wink.

We as a family hope that you all have a glorious holiday season, and that you all get what you deserve (good or bad... hahaa.) Be good. Be safe. Remember the true reason of the season.

Baby it's cold outside...

Well, we did it kids, we made it all the way up to 0 degrees outside. Yup, that isn't what I call warm weather. But really, who wants warm weather? Christmas is a comin' and I want snow. Well, after this weekend, I don't want anymore, but I do want it to snow in Idaho so that we can have some serious ski time. Allow me to share why we haven't left our building for 3 days.

This is mid storm...

A few hours later

The drifts covered one windows...

And this is what it looks like today, if only they had mountains, this would be awesome.

Fortunatly Santa came to see us a few hours before the snow started.
Then we decorated gingerbread men and made little pinecone Christmas trees. It was fun, Tanner thought Santa was pretty cool, but he didn't tell him what he wanted. Oh well, a lump of coal it is!


Tis the season, be good.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I think I will use a Christmas song phrase for every post this month...

Well, here is our Christmas tribute this year. We didn't bring our tree, decorations, ornaments, anything really. But I did bring our stockings. So we made a tree out of wrapping paper and I let Tanner decide what shape and colors the decorations would be. We had a good time making it, and Kate has a good time un-making it. We enjoy redecorating it as we come across the makeshift ornaments around the house.

We have also had a few snow storms come through. They have each dumped a decent amount of snow. It is expected to start snowing again around 11:00 tonight. That is right kids, our weather people are so good that they can predict the time of the snowfall. It makes me laugh because they are fairly accurate, I think it is the lack of mountains that helps. Anyway, Tanner and Kate (really just Tanner) wanted to go out in the snow, so we pulled out all of our snow gear and went out. It was fun. And cold. As it turned out, through all of my careful packing, I only packed one of Kate's gloves, so she had to wear mine. Not to worry, we have since found replacement gloves.

Tanner loves to build "ice sculptures" in the snow. This is his tunnel through the mountain "ice sculpture".

"It goes all the way through, see?"

He was so proud, as was I...

I am glad that my children enjoy the snow, because it is here to stay. But I am not complaining, it is just getting me excited for Christmas, and with Christmas, we get to go home and go skiing, see family, and open presents. Probably in that order... just kidding Nana and Grandma, we will come and see you long enough to drop the kids off! Wink. Wink.

The End

Do you see what I see?

I have felt, for some time now, that Kate and Bill Murray share a common feature:

Her hair is seriously out of control serveral times a day. I love the little wings she gets over her ears. And I also love "What About Bob?".