Snowcapades

Adam exausted after all day in the snow with the scouts playing games and sledding and tons of fun!

Adam's first run down the first hill of the day. many more runs and hills to come.

End of the day for John, he didnt want to have a picture taken of him being sooo tired.

Here is the sooo tired picture, I was dragging him to the car.

Joe and I

Johns run

Helmet getting a little lopsided from all the fun

Sammi at the end of the day

Sammi going down the slide

Having fun

Sam's drawing

 Boys and Joe in the iderod pull, the boys pulled the sled

Adam pulling

 The start

 Snowshoeing

 Building the fire

 building the fire still

 and another angle

 one of the hill for sledding

 group picture of all the cub scouts and family members that could go

 John's first run down the sledding track

At the end

We went as a family last weekend to the scout camp and spent the whole day in the snow. We woke up at 5AM and dropped Ty and Ian off at a friends house so we could go up the 5 of us.It would definitely not be fun to have had the little ones there, too cold and long of a day. We got home at 6PM. It was a wonderful time together and we had tons of fun with Adam's cub scout troop. Definitely will happen next year. 

Ian turn 2 in November....oops

 Got himself dressed, arms and head were in the correct holes.

1st day home

Well, I didn't post anything about my baby Ian turning 2. I really feel bad.  He has really been a joy. I wanted to share a few things I think are cute he has done lately. I was outside with Sam, Ty and Ian They were playing kings and were capturing Sam and I and tied us up as prisoners. I looked down to Ian and said "Please good king, untie us and let us go free". Without hesitation he said, "no I a bad king, HAHAHAHAHA!"

I couldn't keep a straight face after that and "broke" my bands and gave him a big hug.

I was trying to have Ian and Ty take a nap the other day and while Ian is in his crib looking at me lying with Ty in Sammi's bed, every second he peaks his eyes back and forth between being covered behind the crib rail and looking at me just to make sure I was awake or something. So cute.

He is discovering new words everyday, and loves to say the prayer, I helped him say the prayer today for lunch and for him to bless the food, and he said bless the chips and cheese. I corrected him  and he said it again, and remembered that is what was in front of him for lunch.

Ian is spunky, loves to laugh, is brave, loves all animals, loves Sammi, and wants her probably more than he wants me, loves his blanket Grandma Nancy gave him a few Christmases ago. He WON"T be parted from it.He is a great friend to Ty and plays great with him. He has the sweetest voice right now, I would love to capture it and share it on the blog. It makes me smile when he talks it is so cute. My baby is growing so fast, I will take the time to wright down the adventures this year if I lose my memory I will remember that I wrote something down and look back and see my beautiful children and their adventures.

I can't believe how time just flies by sometimes, I remember holding each of my children when they were just born, and Sam is almost as tall as I am at 10 years old. I am grateful to have these children that the Lord has given to us to raise. I hope I can do my best everyday to help them become the people they are meant to become. With as little damage as possible from the mistakes that I make daily. I cherish the moments I have with each one of my children and have started again implementing mom and me time once a week. I did this in Indiana and the kids love one on one time to talk and play individually with me. I think they act more kind when I do this. I have also remembered to slow down and listen to them about whatever they want to talk about and that is important to all of us. I can really get overwhelmed with all the noise in our little house sometimes, and this is one way to help my mind not rattle (so much).

Happy late birthday my baby!

Sharing the kids drawings

I thought I might add a few pictures of John's to the blog. I get pictures daily of he and I. This is one where he put Joe in it as well.  My hair took over.



This picture is of John and I out in the snow if you didn't realize that. We made a snowman.




This is a picture John made for Ty. They are having a conversation, and John is the taller one.




This is a picture Sammi drew and of course has a lot of detail. You might want to enlarge it and see the detail.


The kids are having tons of fun drawing and keeping busy. Last week the kids had a Christmas concert and the theme was Hawaiian. Sammi knows Jingle Bells in Hawaiian very well and I will post a recording of her singing it soon. At the concert Adam wasn't feeling very well and wasn't very energetic. We were able to capture those moments with the video camera. We are grateful to have that because I cherish the things they do and the sounds they make, make me smile.



Joe, Sammi and Adam

The season for bow hunting elk is now over. Joe has gone out every weekend during the hunt to try and get our family an elk. With not knowing a lot of the country and being our first time here to hunt, it can be very difficult, and anyone that knows elk they are very hard to hunt with the bow. Well, Joe had a 2 wk window to hunt in Dec, and the first time he went up for a few days with a friend of his from wk and stayed in his camper. This time Joe wanted to take the kids up. He only had a few hours to hunt so he thought it would be perfect to take them on a short hunt. The day was very wet and Adam got cold way too soon. They did see lots of fresh sign but no elk. So they hunted for a while and then they decided to play a little. The kids had fun trying to pull the bow back alone, and together. They had dad hit a tree from about 60yds away.They all had such fun and were so glad they took the time out in nature. We have really wanted to instill that in our kids. The love of nature, not being afraid to get dirty, learn how to enjoy being out. Nature will not be a stranger to them. Both Joe and I love hiking and cant wait to take the kids on long hikes for a few days camping. I really am grateful for the love of the outdoors, and am thankful for my parents and friends like the Grewes that took me backpacking.And all the years I spent at girls camp that I loved immensely.  The pictures of the kids and the elk, are a herd of about 80? that they got to see in a field on their way back home.

Fun in the snow

We had a lot of fun going up to the mtns a few weeks ago. There wasn't a lot of snow to be found, but we did find a great spot.

We have had trouble with the new vehicle because the fuel pump was bad, so the adventure to the mtns was in the borrowed minivan that was horrible in the snow. We have our truck back now and love it.

We went to the mtns with friends we have made here and had a blast with lunch and sledding, snow ball fights and ultimately finding them a fresh tree to cut down. I should have had the camera when we found the tree it was beautiful and large. you should always find one that is about your arms wide and not much taller than yourself in the field. We didn't do that and the tree now takes up their living room even with huge trimming that they did when they got it home. Not that we didn't approve of the tree, we helped find and cut it down. The deception of nature.

Thank you for the wonderful trip.