Sledding on Ice

The day before the hill side was still fresh and powdery, but the second day it was all packed down and icy. We didn't sled very long because it was too fast and it was also a lot colder the second day.

Say Cheese!

Those are some amazing red cheeks Hunter. Ashton getting ready to head down the hill in the background. What are you thinking?

Ashton on his way back up the hill. Is that a happy smile, a scared stiff smile, or a "my face is completely frozen" smile. Knowing the temperature I think it is the last.
Dave looking glamorous in his "Men in Black" sunglasses. It was more fun to watch from the top of the hill than to actually put your life on the line and speed out of control down it.

Look into my eyes!

Rachael and Catherine--half crazy! It was so cold Rachael's glasses were fogging up even while we were still outside. Actually she is a space alien in disguise, Catherine probably is too.

Antarctica

Catherine brought snowshoes. We felt very extreme crunching across the frozen tundra in our fancy spiked snowshoes. Ignore the houses in the background--we are in Antarctica. Who knew Antarctica was so inhabited.

Along the coastline of Bear L---heheemmm--I mean Antarctica. We aren't really smiling...our faces are just frozen that way.

We claim this land for US--as in the Ashton, Day, Speirs families.
Land, beautiful land!!

Note: Dave is the strategically placed shadow.

Dance Dance Revolution

James and Paula own a Wii and we had a great time competing against each other in DDR and the other sports games.

Here Niel and James, two of the better players, in a super intense moment of DDR.

Dance little Leprechauns--DANCE!

Catherine and Joy--less intense but very entertaining!
April and Jens getting ready to rumble.
The champions, Neil, James, and Paula, smugly watching as the rest of us make fools of ourselves.
Sweet, sweet Loryn watching all the madness from the safety of grammy's lap.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning at the condo was really fun. Everyone packed into the little livingroom with presents piled everywhere.

Kristen and Loryn were mostly in a state of confusion and awe.

Rise and Shine Kristen!

Loryn wondering what all this stuff is. Allison sitting amidst her gifts.

"What is all this stuff again?" asks Loryn.
As a trick on Jens the tags for his and Rachael's presents were switched. This is Nielson's reaction to Jens receiving a yoga mat. Of course Jens's face was twice as good. He was very confused but trying to pretend to be thankful. Shortly thereafter Rachael, who was in on the trick, exclaimed, "I think this is actually your present," as she handed him an iPod Nano.

You have got to be kidding!

Ashton and Allison enthusiastically help the very tired and less enthusiastic Loryn open our present from Catherine. It was a great dominoes set.

Rip it!

Christmas Eve Nativity Play

Our traditional nativity play starts with Mary (Allison) riding on her donkey (Niel) with Joseph (Ashton) walking beside her.Ashton holding baby Jesus (Kristen) with Allison and the faithful steed, Niel, watching.
Shepherds ( Hunter and Joy) are visited by the angel and go to worship Baby Jesus.
Wise Men (Hunter and Joy) arrive to see Baby Jesus. The angel (me April) in the background.
Brooke and the alternate Baby Jesus (Loryn). Every good production should have an alternate baby.

The INDOOR Pool at Bear Lake

They had a very warm and welcoming indoor pool at the condos we stayed at by Bear Lake. It felt sooo good after being outside earlier.



Everyone took turns holding the babies. They seemed to have a great time playing and splashing around. Dave is holding Kristen and Niel is holding Loryn.


Before I even got into the pool both Allison and Hunter had tried to drown. Hunter had somehow done this in the very shallow kiddy pool to the side of the regular pool. Allison recovered quickly but Hunter, though only under for a few seconds, was traumatized and stayed on the steps except for when we forced him to come with us out into the deeper water. He had a pretty good death grip on us though.

A few people (Paula, James, Brooke, Rachael and my parents) didn't bring their swimming suits. Paula, James, Brooke and Grandma Robin sat on the sidelines for a while watching. Come to think of it now...we should have thrown them in.
Hind sight is 20/20!!!

Ashton enjoyed playing with his uncles and practicing his swimming moves. As he says he can swim under water, it is the swimming above water he is still working on.
Niel throwing Ashton through the air to Jens.

Fly, little birdie. Fly!



Allison loved the pool. Despite trying to drown herself at the beginning, she practiced swimming all over the shallow end.

Smile Princess!



The hot tub was especially great. You felt like a lobster in it about to cook. The sign said the max temperature was 104 but it felt warmer than that. Niel, Jens, Ashton and Dave boiling away in the hot tub.
LOBSTER TONIGHT

Sledding at Bear Lake

For Christmas this year we went to a condo at Bear Lake. We had a wonderful time sledding.
The one bad thing about sledding is that every time you go down you have to come back up again. Jens, Catherine, and Niel making their way up the hill with the beautiful lake and mountains in the background.

Almost there...Huff, Puff...gona' make it!

We Love Snow Clothes!
Hunter loved sledding, except the time he went down behind Catherine on his back. Here he is showing off his new gloves and wearing the Big Bird hat from when I was his age.
Allison going down the hill with Niel.


Hang on Tight!

Joy, Paula and James... It's ok Paula. You can open your eyes. You haven't gone down yet.


"Race ya to the bottom!"

Ashton speeding down the hill. (Be sure to click on this one for a closer look of Ashton's face.)
At the bottom there were some snow banks, then an asphault road, and then landscaping with two trees and a light pole. Several people hit the road and a few (Paula & James, Cath & Rachael) actually met the trees.

"aaahhhh!!!"

Longing for the Warm N.C. Beach

It has been cold and snowy lately so it has been fun to look through the pictures from our trip to North Carolina in July. I am sorry I am not adding more current stuff, but remebering our vacation has been a lot more fun. I added a few more pictures and journaling to the July entry. You can get to it quickly by clicking on the "July" link under the "Archive" section to the right.

Playing with HTML

In case you haven't noticed, I have been playing with the layout of this blog. By trial and error I was able to change the HTML coding to make the page layout wider. That was my one gripe about the standard layout I chose. I am so excited, but this is a little addicting. Stopping before I completely mess it up is probably a good idea.

Bathroom Make-over

BEFORE: The old boarder that had seen better days, and bland sponge painted walls.

AFTER: NEW, FRESH, FUN, CLEAN!!
I just cleaned the bathroom and now that it looks all nice and clean I want to show the before and after pictures of my latest painting project. Back in early November I took off the previous owner's flower-and-bird-'90's wallpaper boarder and repainted a fresh, clean, green color (Behr "Grass Cloth"). I also added a shelf with hooks in the hopes that it will help the kids hang up their towels. I think the green goes well with our ducky shower curtain and rug (not pictured).

P.S. After posting this I realized my blog background matches the bathroom walls. Actually the color in the bathroom is more muted than it appears on the computer screen.

Old Posts

Last week I posted some pictures from our trip to North Carolina in July. It is posted under a July date.

Maneuvering Stairs

This is truly a happy day in our home. The twins have learned how to go down stairs on their stomachs. Several weeks ago they learned how to climb up, but as all climbers know, coming down is a lot harder. We tried baby gates, only then Hunter's mobility was unfairly limited, and ultimately the baby gates would be torn down. We tried all kinds of baskets, chairs, boxes, and so forth in front of the stairs, but those babies were obsessed and eventually they would figure out how to squirm through, especially Loryn who rivals Houdini. They also love perching at the top of the stairs and make a beeline for them as soon as they are set down. As a result they have both had some bumps from thumping down a few steps. Luckily our stairs are only half a flight long. Happily those days are coming to an end and we can all start living our free-to-walk-up-and-down-the-stairs-without-obstruction lives again.

Happy Bathroom Wall Poetry

I saw this poem at Kohler's supermarket about a year ago and had to put it on my bathroom wall. By this I mean I typed it on a cute piece of paper and framed it. It just kind of makes me happy.

I wish I were a glow worm.
A glow worm's never glum,
'Cause how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum.

I hope everyone has a great day!!

Nine months and counting

Left to right: Loryn & Kristen
Sitting on the floor eating cookies together.

Loryn --She makes the funniest faces when she opens her eyes really wide and smiles.

Kristen--Sitting in her saucer. She is harder to catch smiling on camera. This was a great shot.

The babies are so cute. They are nine months old and starting to try to stand on their own. Loryn learned how to stand without using any external support this last week. With their new mobility comes a lot of bruises though. Someone is always falling and bumping their head on something.

Gingerbread Houses

We made gingerbread houses with Grandma and Grandpa while they were here. They were also promtly eaten. Gingerbread making teams: Allison and Grandpa, Ashton and Grandma, Hunter and Me

Allison's had some structural problems but we were able to fix it. It tasted just as good as the others.

Feeling so Impressive

Wow!

I feel so important and impressive now that I am officially a "blogger".

Karen recently sent me Amy, Eric, and Emily's blog sites and I was instantly drawn to the concempt. I hope this can be a kind of online journal/scrapbook because I don't currently do either. Be patient with me though and we will see how this goes.

Here is Allison dressed up as a pilgrim for her kindergarten Thanksgiving feast.

We had Beverly and Orville here for Thanksgiving. They came Thanksgiving Day and stayed until Monday. We had a great time with them.

I wish I had taken a picture of our turkey. I brined it using a recipe from Emeril Legasse (sp?) off Food Network. It was extremely moist and tasty. It was also cooked all the way through, which didn't happen last time I cooked a turkey. But that is a tragic story for another time.