Star Valley, WY

A couple weeks ago we went to Wyoming with some families from our neighborhood. Greg and Brooke were nice enough to invite us up to their families cabins for the weekend. The kids were so excited to get away and to have their friends with them too! We had a great time snowmobiling and just hanging out. Ethan absolutely loved the snowmobile and didn't want to get off. Here are some pics from our fun weekend with great friends!

My Snow Men

We have gotten so much snow lately and Ethan has just been dying to get out there and play in it. Every time we go out to get in the car or when we return home he runs out of the garage and immediately goes straight to the snow. The other day I decided to get him all decked out in his snow gear and let him play in it till his heart's content. I even walked him down the street to where Cassidy and a friend were sledding. Cass took him on the sled with her and he LOVED it. He just kept saying "more, more". He had the time of his life!!


He wants to be like his dad and brothers and shovel the snow!


Every time Ethan would stick his hands down in the snow the snow would stick to his mittens and he would come up with these huge snowballs. He thought it was so funny!

I think the snowsuit added about 20 pounds!

Ethan discovered the fun of eating the snow!


I have mentioned before how helpful my twins are around the house. They love to help and do a great job at it. They are anxiously awaiting the day when they are old enough to mow the lawn, but for now shoveling the snow will have to do. One day it was snowing really hard and they wanted to go out and shovel. I kept telling them to wait till the snow let up a bit. Finally after about an hour of them begging to go shovel I gave in. How can you say no to that? The other day Cassidy and Spencer got home from school and Kaden wasn't with them. They told me that he had stayed outside to shovel. I opened the door and there he was shoveling with his backpack on. He hadn't even bothered to take it off! They have been loving all the snow and I have been loving all the help!

Our Christmas Wrap-Up

We have been so busy the last few weeks with all our fun Christmas activities that I have fallen behind on my blogging. In an effort to get caught up before next Christmas, I will hit on a couple of our highlights from the holidays. Warning: LOTS of pictures!!
The kids were off of school for over two weeks and Andy had the same amount of time off of work. I had all these ideas of fun things we would do as a family to fill the time, but we only got around to one of them!!
We had a fun family party up in Morgan(where Andy is from and where his parents still live). We do this every year with his mom's side of the family. We have a great meal, play Christmas bingo, play Christmas carols on kazoos, and everyone opens a present.

The whole fam

Ethan got an Elmo Live toy. He was not so sure about it when it was talking and moving. He had fun watching it move and trying to copy what it did.

Getting used to elmo and being brave enough to touch it!

The kids and their loot!



We went back to Andy's parents house after the party. The boys were anxious to play their new gameboy games and wasted no time doing so. Their cousin Lily wanted to see too so she crawled over to Spencer and laid on him like this while he played. I thought this was so funny!


Andy's parents and brother came down to spend Christmas Eve with us. I fixed a ham dinner and we ate too much! We were so full we could barely eat dessert! We read the story of Christ's birth in the Bible, watched a short 5 minute DVD depicting the birth of Jesus called the Nativity. We watch it every year, it is one of my favorites! Then it was time for the kids to open their traditional Christmas Eve present of pajamas.




The kids in their new pajama's.

They always have to do a silly face picture!

We ended Christmas Eve with a story by the tree. We tried to do this every night while the tree was up. The kids would take turns picking a Christmas book and we would snuggle under the tree for a bit while we read.


We spent Christmas morning at home. Santa brought the kids a Wii and they were SUPER EXCITED!!! We have had so much fun playing games together. We spent the rest of Christmas Day with Andy's family. We had a wonderful holiday season and love all the time we got to spend with our families!





Reading some of his new books with Grandpa John. Ethan would look at books all day if he could!

Having a Christmas snack with his cousin Avery


I had to add this picture because I thought it was too cute! On one of our MANY trips up north Kaden was listening to his IPOD. Ethan loves music and wanted to listen too. Kaden was sweet enough to share one of his ear buds. Ethan just zoned out and listened for quite a while!