half acre. foot of snow. what to do?

 Pink gloves mom.  Really?

 So one day I was feeling creative and I got this idea for a new game.  We took our freshly fallen snow in the back yard and created pathways.  Some connected. Some were dead ends. Then I took 6-8 items like balls, shovels, and other toys and placed them around the maze.  Then we all started at the beginning and I gave the kids a 10 second head start to collect as many of the items and bring them back to the start without getting caught by me and put in jail for 10 seconds, but they had to stay on the paths that we made.  They could jump tracks if they could make it but I could not jump from path to path.  It was actually a lot of fun for all of us and having the kids work together to distract me made it actually quite challenging to catch them.  Great game for a cold afternoon!

January. The. Most. Boring. Month. Ever. :)

 What good is a scrapbook without a naked bath photo!

 Cordelle's been trying to recreate his own protein shake (FROM SCRATCH) in the mornings.  It tastes....not great.  But its cheaper than shakeology. :)

 

 

 K.  These pictures have a funny story to them.  Cordelle and I were on a date and we had to run in to the store and get milk, so as we were walking down the isle, I tell him, "lets race, first one to the milk wins."  At that very minute I gave him a little shove to throw him off balance, which actually ended up throwing him a lot off balance knocking him straight into these jars of Chocolate sauce which fell back and got jostled but luckily did not fall on the floor and shatter.  I had no idea the scene I caused because after the shove I bolted, so he took pictures of my menacing act of violence.

 A little wrestling.

K.  We do own a TV and a couch, but I found these two watching a show on my tiny kindle (on the counter in the kitchen) sitting on the floor as content as could be. 

Cold weather during Christmas break leaves us finding things to do indoors....like the Children's museum

Oh December.....

 Christmas lights are up.  I miss the really bright ones around the top of the house....but apparently 50 year old lights are considered a fire hazard.  (still used them on the porch though!)

 Don't really remember why this pic was taken.  But he was happy and eating. What better of a combo?

 "Sneezin's Greetings" - Our neighbor gift was a box of tissues.  We are cheap.

 So one day BEFORE it snowed Cordelle went out to get the mail and had a key to open the bigger package drop off box.  Well he got distracted and vaguely remembered hearing a something drop.  It then snowed A LOT the next few days.  And after not receiving a package we were expecting he started to remember that something had dropped out of the mail box and he wondered if it was the key to the package box.  So I loaded Collin up on a sled and we went and dug in ice and snow for a good 10 minutes, but we found the key....that was totally rusting. But it still worked on the big package box, so we were able to get our package!  I felt like a champion for finding it!  Cordelle couldn't believe it had actually been dropped and that I literally found the needle in the haystack.  :)

Frozen blueberries.  New.  Favorite.  Food. (Wanna guess how badly blueberries stain everything?)

More frozen blueberries!!

"Friend" Christmas party with the Christians

 Johnny Christian and Collin

I really don't know what is going on here, but they have so much fun together all the time so I'm sure it was worthy of getting out my camera.

 Nothing like Christmas break to help organize Dad's extra Dittobug announcements!

Sometimes sleep has to come first.

December's calendar of events!

CHRISTMAS!!!

We finally did it. After almost 11 years of marriage we had our own Christmas at our home, with no company. (Well ok, Cordelle's parent's came up on Christmas Day which was so great, because by that point we were all bored of each other...But the Christmas eve and morning with just us was SO fun!!)  We totally got to enjoy our kids and their gifts and vegging and doing nothing....it was so great. I think we'll do it again next year.  (AND with three kids its too much to bring everything with us, anywhere.)

 

The LOOT!  Before the kids woke up.

A fun tradition carried on from my home is that with their stocking, Santa brings their favorite cereal and yes I don't enforce no sugar....come on, its Christmas.  I'm not that grinchy.

Another Tradition my mom always did that I loved was, every year she took pictures of everything we got that year by the Christmas tree.  I hope my kids will one day love to look back and say, "oh, I remember getting that."

Seth -Christmas 2013

 

Collin - 2013

 

Jaquelle - 2013

Favorite Toy?  The enormous, incredibly soft, big DOG!  So cute!

Cordelle lounging next to my hand made fire place I made last year.  Still can't believe I drew and painted every brick.  

One out of focus, pic pre-presents, post stockings. 

I loved this one, because the older kids were repeatedly just as excited for Collin's gifts as they were their own.  So fun watching their interactions.