Snowbird

     The kids had a couple days off of school in a row this January so we took advantage and headed up to Snowbird for a few days.  It was perfect timing because we were having the longest inversion in the valley that I've ever seen.  It was so depressing and freezing and gross.  We were amazed to see the beautiful blue skies and sunshine that was greeting us as we climbed the mountain.  It was quite disgusting to look down the canyon and see the gray smog hovering over the cities.  30 degrees and sunshine never felt so good!  

Mark came up a day after me and went home a day early, he had a business trip to go on.  On Monday the kids took a lesson, Charlie snowboarded and Kenya skied.  Mark and I went to lunch with Leila on the plaza deck, the weather was so nice it just felt so good to be outside.  We walked over to chickadee to look for the kids in their lessons.  They were both doing great and having fun.  Charlie unfortunately never got to head over to the bigger lifts because some of the kids in his class were struggling.  He was pretty disappointed but luckily the next day my mom was able to get some passes and he got to go with his cousins on the "big mountain" as he calls it.  He's all about trying to go off jumps, which was how he broke his arm the first time, but what can I do?  I guess just hope that he is careful enough not to get any serious injuries because there's some things I just can't win with that boy.

Ski school, waiting on Chickadee to watch the kids.

Swimming, napping, and playing after a day on the slopes.  I have never seen Charlie fall asleep like that, he was wiped out.  You can see the inversion as I'm coming down the canyon.  I was not excited to come back to that, at all.  It was a great little winter get away.

More Snow

That seems like the theme of this winter.  We've never had this much snow stick around down by us, it usually snows then melts within a few days.  Plus it's been so, so cold.  The coldest winter since 1949.  Our pipes have frozen a couple times.  We must be making up for our crazy mild winter from last year.  This snow storm was a big one and all the snow was beautiful.  It was fun to go outside and play in it but over a month later this snow is still here and dirty and grey.  Ready for some sunshine!

 

Bear Lake

We headed up to Bear Lake the weekend after Christmas with my side of the family.  It was beautiful and freezing up there.  Mark took Charlie and Kenya skiing/snowboarding to Beaver Mountain one day, we did some sledding and lots of playing games with cousins.  A new one this year was when the older cousins (5 and up) would disappear for hours at a time making and editing a movie with their itouch.  The movie was pretty funny, I would've loved to have something so accessible as a kid, making videos is always fun. :)

They trecked it up this ginormous hill and came flying down on their tubes.  It was kind of scary to watch.  Charlie and Kenya both did it a couple times.  Leila was happy to walk up a few feet then slide down on the tube.  She loved it.

We didn't really even plan to do all those cute braids, just kind of happened.

All the cousins on my side of the family, two more on the way!

The frenemies Scarlett and Leila.  Can't wait until their 3ish and playing better for longer periods of time.

Sledding

It started snowing on Monday, Christmas Eve and didn't really stop until Thursday and into Friday too. I loved having so much snow over Christmas and for the break, it just wouldn't have been the same without it.  The kids were playing outside in it a lot, Mark got the 4 wheeler and sled out again and they bummed rides off the Johnsons 4 wheeler and sled after our day of sledding.  Charlie didn't come inside until about 7:00 that night I think.  He was out in the snow for 5 hours straight not including our sledding earlier that day.  I'd say his new snow gear is keeping him pretty warm, or he's just an energetic boy. :)

That night Charlie got invited to sleep over at his friend Brock's so we took Brock's sister Kiley and she had a sleepover with Kenya.  They were both so excited, we don't really do sleepovers, just cousins and a couple select friends.   The next day was Friday and I spent the day packing us up to go up to Bear Lake for the weekend.  I can't believe how fast our break is flying by.  Mark had pretty much the whole week off which was so nice.  He got to go enjoy the powder on Thursday up at Snowbird while I took the kids sledding.  Lucky guy.

Random

 Dinner with Tia and Brooke.  A night at the Cheesecake Factory and shopping.  Despite the fact that they kept coming back and telling us they were out of half of the stuff we ordered it was a great night. :)

 Part of Charlie's gifts to his friends.

I grew a lot since my last picture.  December 19,  24 weeks

 We went to Les Miserables the day after Christmas, all my siblings, my mom and Rick and my dad and Christine.  Almost filled up the entire row.  It was so, so good.  I didn't expect to cry throughout the whole thing.  My new favorite movie and I think Hugh Jackman is now officially my favorite actor.

 Charlie showing my mom his piano skills while I was doing her hair.  

I put her to bed with mini oreos in her hand, books, toys, sippy...she is definitely the third child.

Christmas

Can't believe it's come and gone already!  Even Charlie this year said how fast Christmas came, which I thought was unusual for a kid, it usually goes by so slow.  He was savoring every moment.  This year was really fun with all of my kids ages because they were all so excited about it.  Leila loved opening her stocking and gifts.  Charlie woke up at 5:45, Leila 6:15 and they got Kenya out of bed at 7:00.  No sleeping in around here.  I think Mark was just as excited as they were though. :)  

Christmas jammies and opening stockings...

She went through a whole pack of gum in a matter of minutes.  She was excited for her "colors" from Charlie and her pillow pet, which she won't sleep with though.  I was hoping it would replace the scraggly bunny pillow she sleeps with every night that's falling apart but she won't part with it.

Kenya got the cinderella carriage she asked Santa for and was thrilled.

Leila got a baby cradle and Charlie got Madden 13 and a sled from Santa.  Santa brought our family a soda maker.  I love their faces in the picture below when we told them what it was.

 This was a big surprise for the girls, and Charlie was so excited to get his Red Ryder bb gun.  He looks so old in the picture below on the right, it's freaking me out.

Last but not least the kids each opened a Disney ornament and a box filled with balloons and a paper that said we're going to Disneyland!  They didn't catch on at first but once we told them what it was they were thrilled.  We head out February 1st.

And the aftermath, mess and playtime...

  She ate a lot of pez packs too.

Charlie did really well shooting it with Mark, he had a pretty good aim for his first time.  That day was nice and relaxing.  We didn't have anywhere to go until 5:00 so we ate breakfast, played, ate lunch, watched a show, took a nap, cleaned up, and got ready to go to Cami's for dinner.  

Cami's house also ended in a talent show with singing and dancing cousins with a dance party finale by all the littles.  It was pretty entertaining!!

Gifts from grandpa.

Entertainment by the twin 2 year olds.  Scarlett was hilarious dancing in her underwear.

Christmas songs by the 5 year old triplets.  They all have the same kindergarten teacher.  Kenya kept getting after Knox because he wasn't doing the actions to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus."

And the dance party...

Another memorable Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 We had our traditional bowling fest with the Poulson side this year at Boondocks.  We had to wait for an hour to get our lanes together but since we were at Boondocks it was fine, we just ate lunch and let the kids play games until our lanes were available.  Then we had an hour of fun filled bowling.  The kids loved it, I loved the tiny bowling shoes Leila got to wear.  Charlie lost by 1 point to Sailor on the older kids lane and Mark won on our lane, not sure about the third lane but it was probably Luke, he is the bowling professional. :)

The triplets, Kenya, Greta and Knox and the older cousins.

Love the pose she kept giving me.  Look at those tiny bowling shoes.

We had Mark's family over for Christmas Eve dinner that night.  It ended with a little talent show of my kids singing all the Christmas songs they learned at school this year.  Leila wanted in on the action and got up a few times when they were done to sing "Twinkle Twinkle" or as she says "Winkle Winkle"  she knows the melody really well but doesn't get very many words right.  It was pretty cute.

The kids opened up their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas and we got them to bed around 10 I believe.  We noticed Santa came later that night so I took a few pictures of what was left for the kids under the tree.  He ate our cookies, answered Charlie's questions (sort of) and left a little note for the kids.