Skiing

Boy have we been waiting for this day to come.

Sam and I decided that from now on the Christmas present from us would be a family memory oppurtunity. So, this year, we decided to take them to a ski resort that is fairly close and has awesome hills for the kids.  We hardly ever go skiing so everyone was super excited.

Soome wonderful friends let us borrow their ski equipment so we didn't have to rent anything but Sam's stuff and we headed up to the mountains last Friday.  We stopped on the way out of town for breakfast at Chick-Fil-A.  The kids have been dying to go there (it just opened up here) and since we had some free coupons we thought why not!  The kids thought it was okay, and said our breakfast burritoes at home were much better but they loved the "hasbrowns" (nothing like tater tots in the morning :). Silly kids!

As soon as we got our gear on we headed over to the Magic Carpet to make sure the older ones remembered how to ski and so we could work with Kathryn and Luke, who have never skiied before.

 After several "I can't do this" and crying and being super frustrated most of them got the hang of it. 

 Snow plowing is definitely your best friend.

 Thank heavens for "wedges" for Luke's skis that kept them permenantly in the pizza shape.

 (Sam does really know how to ski well)

 By the end of the bunny hill it was time for a break for Luke.  Can you tell?

After that we headed into the lodge for some lunch.

(such a cute guy!!)

After lunch it was time to hit the slopes.  This ski resort has the best run for beginners.  It's wide and not super steep and it's called "milk".  That's where Sam spent his entire day, working with Luke.  He was a great sport about it.

 I spent almost all my time with this little lady.  The first several runs she held onto my pole all the way down, but by the end she could make it all the way down by herself and even tried several side runs and did great.

 Sarah and Sam on the lift.

 Seth and Sarah on the lift.

 Seth, Sarah, and Kathryn getting ready to head down "milk".

Me with the kids getting ready to go down.

On the way home--tired but happy.

What a great time we had.  The kids did awesome, I was so impressed.  Luke ended up going down 5 times and only threw 2 fits.  By the end Sarah and Seth were cruising pretty much everywhere by themselves and we loved being in such a beautiful place together!

Sam's 37th Birthday

This is a little late in coming, but hey it's finally done.  This guy turned 37 last year (seems weird to say :) and we had a party. A small one but a party all the same.

He decided that he wants to celebrate his birthday on New Year's Day since his actual birthday is taken up with a lot of partying and staying up late.

 This year I gave him a gym membership (promise that was his idea!) so there wasn't really anything to open on his actual birthday except for some really sweet cards the girls made him.

I love those kinds of things. And they love to make them too.

He requested no desserts (he's super easy to please!) but some kind of seafood for dinner.  I made him shrimp pasta with his favorite breadsticks.  We invited some friends over to help us celebrate and had a wonderful time hanging out, eating some yummy food, and celebrating.

Sam thanks for being such a great father and husband.  We love you!

Cousins...

I have been terrible about taking pictures (Jenny if you have anymore I would love to have them!!).

After Christmas my sister and her three kids came to our house for a little visit.  We had a great time together and it was so nice to have some cousins around to play with.

 We did many things to keep us (really them!!) entertained.  They played computer games, played in the snow, played with the cat,

 we had a dance party on the wii,

 went shopping, played lots of games, colored, ate icesicles, played at the gym, played with Grace (which I can't believe I didn't get a picture of because she is an absolute doll), worked out at the gym,

and even hired a babysitter so the adults could go see "Les Miserables".  I loved that movie. Balled like a baby but Wow! did we enjoy it.

Thanks Jenny for coming down.  We sure had a great time.

Snow Day

The day after Christmas it started to snow.  We haven't had snow at our house for a whole year and even then we never got enough to even play with.  

So we headed outside to make the most of it.  Sam and Seth shoveled ours and our neighbors driveways (in between Sam trying to throw snowballs at me because I was taking his picture).

 The girls, Luke, and I set to building a snowman.

 Boy snowmen are a lot of work.  We decided to go small because we were getting tired of bending over and rolling the snow ball.

Didn't she turn out cute? 

 Then of course we have to have a snow ball fight. Kathryn nailed Seth with that one, pretty good shot.

 Seth trying to hide from the girls but then he nailed Sarah in the head so she got a free shot at him.  What a great time the snow is and the best part.  The snow is still outside and has snowed even more, so weird for Twin but we are loving it.

Oh that cat...

 See this cat.  It is quite spoiled, especially with all the kids home for Christmas break.  He loves to sleep with Sam and sleep in the sun (we thought this was so funny because it looks like he is nursing the sheep from our nativity set).

Also over the holiday we were asked to babysit 6 different fish.  The kids thought it was pretty great.

 That is until we found the cat doing this anytime he was let into the house.  So we stuck all the fish back in our bedroom on our tall dresser.  And there they stayed, very safe, until a bench got left next to the dresser last Friday night.

I walked back to our bedroom to find one of the fish bowls knocked over on the floor with no fish to be found.  I screamed and yelled for my sister (she was visiting and Sam was gone with the kids--thank heavens) and there was the cat sitting there licking his paws.

Bad kitty!!  

(Sam says I can't call him that because he was just following his instincts)