Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Snow Dayz

The snow is dumping down like crazy here.


Does it snow where you live?
It's such a beautiful experience to see everything be transformed by a sparkly white blanket of fresh snow.

I'm always reminded of Narnia.



As a kid growing up in California, snow was something we intentionally drove to for the sole purpose of "going to the snow".
There were "bibs", "moon boots" and gloves involved.
Oh and chains were required to get us there.
It was a production and at the end of the very long, fun but extremely cold and tiring day we would come home to a bare driveway and pack the snow gear up for the next planned snow day.
Not here people.
When we get home we shovel the PILES of fresh snow off our driveway before we go inside to make dinner.  
And the snow gear lives in the entry way for 6 months of the year.









We live in the snow.

It's so different than visiting once a season!


It is so beautiful. 

One of the perks to living in a place that snows is having an opportunity daily to appreciate another one of God's amazing, creative and majestic miracles...instead of grumbling about the shovelling.
{not that I would ever do THAT}



This year we are choosing JOY!


The fluffy white stuff floats down like feathers.
Everything is silent.



Incredible!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Insta-Friday New Year's Edition

This year we decided to hold a family talent show two days before the new year.

A few of our girls danced but asked me not to take photos {divas}.


Grandpa played Christmas carols on his violin and we all sang along.


Mike and Bri were awesome sports.
{by the looks of this pic, the BIG BROTHER won for best gangham style...yes?}



There was a big untangle the knot game


We played some Ticket To Ride Europe, among other things.
I hope this will become a tradition!


Every year I give the kids lots of scraps of wrapping paper and other papers and they snip it all up into confetti during the day on New Year's Eve...



Watch the ball drop in Times Square, toast "Happy New Year"...


And then throw the confetti everywhere like crazy!!!




This year we celebrated with the Mendes family.
It was a blast!


Games

Fun!




The moms getting buried while trying to get a cool shot of the confetti throwing extravaganza.


Cheers!
Mikayla and Makenna have been dance and school friends since grade 1.

They did a bit of dancing to pass the time leading up to New Years.
So fun to watch!



This is Mikayla, Makenna, and Mak's little sister Teghan performing the dance from the Christmas Eve service.  So cute.  It was "a brand new baby" to the tune of "call me maybe", sung by a shepherd with dancing sheep all around.  


This cute guy made it to about 12:30 and then tucked himself into bed.



These cute girls were put to bed at 9 and got to throw confetti the next day.
They were just fine with that:)




We celebrated my niece Jenaya's birthday on Jan 3.
Visitis with the Stangs are less frequent since they moved to Armstrong.
We love them:)


Skating with the birthday girl!



More braids...
{this beautiful hair is on my new sister in law Meghan's head. Brian and Meghan live in California now, he is going to chiropractic school.  We loved having them up for a visit!}



We've gotten in lots of game time.
Our new family game this year was Catan Junior.
It's a great family game for kids 5 and up.

It feels great to start to catch the blog up with what we've been doing!!

Insta-Friday December Recap


Our December was full of fun.  
Here's a few of our favourite moments..


Popcorn stringing


Nutcracker Ballet with the big girls


Gingerbread cookies


Card making


Unhappy babies on Santa's knee and one unwilling 13 year old not in the picture.


Sending love to friends and family in the States.


Cute little treats for Mike's office


Discovered some new braids


Made some to-die-for hot chocolate


More beautiful braids


Lots of extra time to play with Caity


This girl danced in a big Christmas Eve production at a church in town.
The commitment was huge the two weeks before Christmas.
She had a great time being a part of the show.  She is always looking for new opportunities to dance!


Only 5 kids checking out the Christmas lights due to above dance commitments:)


Mads dressed up for Christmas Eve service.


Opening a little family present.
{we have an advent quilt. In past years I have filled it with little presents but this year I stuffed a note with an activity for the day written on it.  All the activities you see above were announced to the kids in the quilt on the appropriate day.  Some days, the kids were given a family gift..this one was a new Christmas CD.  Another day it was a new family game.}


Tradition for many generations in my family.
But I'm pretty sure they never used coconut sugar or spelt flour:)


Sweetie pie in her Christmas dress



Mikayla bought each of her sisters a book for Christmas.
She thoughtfully picked each one.
Both girls loved their books and read through them very quickly.


Taylor Swift tickets!!!!


More braids!


Cool snowman.
Caleb is awesome at rolling gigantic snowballs!


Playing with Bree's new mermaid Lalaloopsy.
Now she has one just like sissy...which makes bath time much more peaceful!