Growing up WAY too fast...

Can't we just freeze them right where they are? All my lovely kids are at the perfect age -- still completely innocent, think their parents rock, enjoy the little things, have a 8 o'clock bedtime, can clean their messes, love family home evening, think the "s" word is stupid and the "f" word is fart, love Santa and the tooth fairy, can still be carried up the stairs to bed, want to spend every minute with their mom, ski for free, aren't afraid of saying what is on their mind, can wear the same outfit 3 days in a row and still want to wear it again, have toothless smiles, get discounts at Disneyland, sneak into bed with me at night to cuddle, want to be read bedtime stories, sing in high pitched voices, let me fix their hair, carpool for play dates, love learning, have a special relationship with Christ.

Seeing this picture of Addy makes me realize that these precious moments are fleeting. With every day she gets smarter and stronger and braver and confidenter (I know it's not a word but it makes for a great parallel listing of information -- wink). So, bring on the cuddling, the loving, the giggling, the messing, the hair brushing, the books, the singing, the playing, the whining, the dancing, the gaming, the carpooling, the needing to spend every second of the day with mom for confirmation that they are the most wonderful, crazy, loving stinkers that are mine -- all mine!!!

Love you!!!!!!!

Let it SNOW....

Three feet and counting! Yippee Ya-Hewey! I just love the snow. In my opinion, if it is going to be cold then there should be at least 2 feet of snowball packable, snowman making, igloo fort building, gloriously white snow on the ground (but not on the roads so I can at least get out to go shopping).

On Thursday, since there was no power and they had to cancel all of Ian's surgeries, Ian took the boys for a masculine weekend of fishing, hiking, hunting, etc. Little did they know that they would be evacuated from Roosevelt due to a flash flood and that all the roads to get back home would be closed due to rock slides, avalanches, etc. So, they are stuck in a little town of Pumkin Center (notice it is not pumpkin -- it is pumkin -- AZ hick at it's best) until at least Sunday afternoon if they are lucky and if they are unlucky, not until Tuesday. Hope you are having fun boys.

Us girls have hunkered down for a long, warm winter playtime. Addy, Bo and the neighbor girls (yeah for the Updikes moving into town and across the street) built a 6 foot fortress slide with a hidden tunnel that is "Girl Only" (well at least until the boys get home and take over). We've learned to make a fire in the fireplace, found all the flashlights in the house, charged the portable DVD Player and have the kerosene heater all put together just in case the power doesn't come back on for hours.

Yesterday I had to hire the big guns to plow me out of my drive so I could get to work. The simple plow on the front of the truck did not work (he actually got stuck in our driveway), so they brought in the beefy Caterpillar. Cute side note -- I told the boys about the Caterpillar digging me out and Kadan said, "No Way. A huge caterpillar is digging you out of the snow. Since it is so cold in Lakeside, I thought that they were in hibernation for the winter." LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the literal imagination from a child.

We are loving our "state of emergency" and cannot wait for the power to come back on at the Ski Resort and for the roads to be cleared so we can keep playing.

A few more Pagosa Pictures....

this time with Bo in them too. Some funny Bo moments -- Brandy took Bo out to visit her brother during our little trip. From what Brandy tells us, she had them rolling the whole time. One such example was that she wanted a straw to drink her hot chocolate. When the reply was "Sorry Bo, we don't have any straws." She promptly said, "Well, you didn't even look." Then (I am sure fearing the famous Bo temper tantrums) she had all adults looking through the cabinets to check for the much wanted straws.

She also loved skiing -- up and down the magic carpet like a champ. Her favorite part -- hot chocolate and fishy crackers (always a much needed snack after a long day of skiing).
Hunter became Mr. 4-wheeler. He took to the bikes so quickly and is a champion rider. It always makes me happy when Hunter is able to find something that he can enjoy with little effort. Snow boarding at Wolf Creek was much more difficult than skiing at Sunrise -- with longer runs and thicker snow, he was definitely challenged on the slopes.

Kadan took to his air soft gun like no other -- setting up targets, shooting Ian (that was so FUNNY -- he even got a welt to prove it) and chasing Harrison. He also was partners in crime with Harrison in the only 4-wheeler incident of the trip -- laying the bike down since they took the corner too fast. We are proud to announce that there were no injuries. Tuckered after a few runs of boarding, Kadan, Hunter and I ate loads of junk food, drank gallons of hot chocolate and took silly pictures and videos of each other while we rested at the lodge. Harrison -- fly swatter extraordinaire (we had a huge fly infestation at the cabin -- total yuck). He rocked at boarding -- the only kid to keep up with Grandpa B. He was an amazing help the whole trip. I keep telling him that he is my 5th child.
Addy is fearless -- riding faster and faster on her bike, sledding down the largest hills, racing down the slopes (I couldn't even keep up) and venturing on to moguls (thanks to Ian). She is definitely in her element when she is in the snow.

Yummy, I just love....

this favorite American treat -- well, not really, but I do have a funny story about it.

A couple Sunday's ago Hunter announced that Kadan got a cool treat from his teacher. Just seconds later, Kadan bounded around the corner, lifted up his cylindrical treat wrapped in tin foil and announced,

"Look mom, I got a Nick Knock?"

"A what?" I snickered.

"A Nick Knock," Hunter and Kadan said in unison.

Almost unable to control my belly laughter enough to speak I said, "You mean a Ding Dong?"

We just laughed and laughed. Sharing the little story with some friends as we walked out to our car kept the laughter alive.

Kinda sad that my 10 year-old and 8 year-old boys don't have a clue what a Ding Dong is but love how it was introduced with this hilarious mess-up!