Time with Grandpa

We are lucky and get to see Grandma about every 6 months or so...unfortunately we don't get to see Grandpa very often. We hadnt seen him in over a year. Conner is smitten with him and has been looking forward to his visit for awhile now. Conner has even named his special bear Grandpa over a year ago now. Pretty special to have a favorite bear named after you. WE were ALL spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa! Thank you guys for all you do!

Santa's Village 2010

I think this place is awesome! We enjoyed this park last year and i think this is going to be our family tradition until the kids get too big! However, we saw plenty of teenagers here with their parents still enjoying it! Grandma and Grandpa got to enjoy the park with us this year! How many amusement parks do you know stay open in the winter? (ok this doesn't include all the warm region ones). It snowed most of the time we were there but not once did we hear the kids complain about how cold they were! What a great time! Bumper cars and the ferris wheel were the big hits! Kaitlyn finally sat on Santa's lap! She hasn't done this in years!

A hiking we will go

We went hiking while Grandpa and daddy went skiing! What a gorgeous day with God's beauty surrounding us!

Conner LOVES the snow! He just throws himself in it as much as he can! Here he is trying to lick the snow! Look close for his little tongue!

Cabin fun

My friend let us enjoy her cabin again. It was much different this time then when we went in the summer this year! It was fun to experience it in both extremes.
The kids played forever on this big mound of snow created by the snow plow!
This is their backyard! Oh how creative God is! Look at His beauty!
This is the same lake that we went swimming in a couple months ago! Don't think I want to venture into this water now!
I love the mountains in the background! It was sooo beautiful here!

Winter Wonderland--in our backyard!

Like i said previously, We got about 2 feet of snow the day after Christmas! There were blizzard warnings! It was windy. Here is kind of an idea of the amount of snow.
Here is K groin deep in the front yard. She loves to get stuck in it and try to march out of it!
Snow angels are always a favorite!
I know I have mentioned before that we have a perfect sledding hill in our back yard. Right between our house and three of our neighbor friends homes. We love this hill (except when you have to mow it----but no mowing now!). Up and down this hill tired me out the most! We had so much fun and it was great sharing the snow with Grandma and Grandpa!

Cootie

Big C loves this new game from G and G!
The kids made our family. Can you guess who is who?

Kennebunkport

Conner wasn't too happy to document this trip! Oh well....
We took a day after Christmas drive up to Kennebunkport, Maine and had lunch. It was beautiful! We made it there and back before the blizzard started! We got about 2 feet of snow and it was awesome and just absolutely beautiful!

Our party for Jesus

We have been completely blessed!

This is who has been keeping us busy!

Oh have we been having sooo much fun!

First run of the season

So this is Conner's big year! He did awesome. We decided to take them after school yesterday. We went to the little ski area in our town since it is like 7 minutes away. Let me tell you I didn't win a Mommy of the year award! I don't think I can teach skiing. I didn't learn to ski til college and then it was Tim taking me to the top of a double diamond and wishing me luck to get down (K maybe he wasn't that mean but it was on a diamond!) So i am not a pro and I just pray i get down the mountain so to put a 3 or 5 year old with me probably isn't the smartest thing. We all survived and nothing is broken. The learning area has a pull rope to get to the top. That is probably the worst part for me. I have never used one of those. So i decided to try to stay calm and happy instead of impatient and the last run of the day paid off. This is why i say i can't teach......I told Conner just to go and i would go behind him and pick him up if he needed me to. So off he went and instead of encouraging him to do pizzas (snow plow) I yelled after him just fall down to stop!! Oh i hope I haven't ruined his skiing career. He did make it down by himself though! Pretty proud! Here's to an awesome season of skiing!

Thank You!

Our neighbor's mom is so kind! We have been blessed with some of her creations. Do you remember the hats she made for the kids? She made me this towel and hot pad. I love them. They are so pretty! Thank you ..Thank you... Thank you!!!

a bunch of angels

Today was the day I got to go into Kaitlyn's class and read the story of Jesus' birth! How exciting! I wish i would have done a bunch better and asked the kids more questions. I think of all these things afterwards but i was just happy to get a chance to share. After the story, we were able to all make an angel. K's class is full of a bunch of really great kids! K's teacher has taught them well and she definitely has order in the classroom. It is fun to watch the class in action. I think the kids had fun! I also think their favorite part of the craft was definitely the glitter glue!! I felt bad when i left because some kids got carried away with the glitter pens and i just hope the stuff comes out of clothes. Isn't it just totally amazing how Christ came to us in the form of a baby! What a miracle....a miracle I am so thankful happened!!

neighborhood party

I had all the neighborhood kids over for a little Christmas celebration. The house was filled with 9 kids again ( different kids from the last time). We all made the ornaments and opened a few presents. Our neighbors were overly generous to us! Thank ou guys! I lost my camera for most of the party so not many shots which if you know me frustrated me some. I found it after all the group pictures were done(thanks for the pic Kristi). Bummer!

Craft time

Conner has 103.3 temp today so we didn't get to go anywhere. I saw this craft on one of the blogs I frequent (click on the title above and it will take you to megan's blog where she gives you step by step instructions). We decided to make one and see how it goes and then we will make it with all the neighbor kids when we have our get together next week. If I was to do it again i would choose smaller ornaments. The big ones are good if you have older kids but K's hand is small. I think it turned out really cute. Now we are going to use this as a Christmas gift! It is a totally easy and cute craft. You should try it!! i wish i would have thought of it when Karis was here!

Angels

So we are officially in the public school system. I miss K's Christian education. Now she only has Sunday School and of course home. At K's school they have been talking about celebrations around the world. They spent a whole week on Hanukkah and I am sure Kwanzaa will be next. When they talk about Christmas it is snowmen, christmas trees and gifts. It make me a little mad! So I asked the teacher if I could come into the classroom and explain what our family celebrates when we celebrate CHRISTmas. So this Wednesday I get to go into her class and read the Christmas story and we are going to make angels for a craft. Conner made this angel at school and K and i practiced making them today. This should be interesting. I will post pictures later on how it turned out! I do praise God for the opportunity to share His story with 18 5 & 6 year olds plus a teacher!