First and almost the Only

Here are some pics from our first family ski outing of the winter, and sadly it was almost the only. After this great snow fall in Nov we had some crazy 40 above weather and rain that proceeded to melt almost all our snow and then it turned freezing cold and we have not recieved any snow since. Out of desperation we went for a ski over Thanksgiving but there was barely enough snow to cover the rocks and since Thanksgiving we have had below feezing temps almost every day. Example, it is -36 now as I type so it has been impossible to get the kids out. So needless to say we are VERY anxious to go home for the holidays where we can finally get out and play!

Ring Around The Rosies

This is one of the boy's favorite games to play and play and play. Thank goodness for AWESOME big sisters!

Being 8 is Great

So this is WAY overdue, but despite being horribly late I still wanted to post a little about our wonderful daughter who turned 8 on Oct. 30th.

I can't believe our little girl is 8 years old. Ali turned 8 on Oct. 30, so of course, I'm a little late on writing about this, but she needs to know how much we love her and are so proud of her. Ali is such an amazing girl and is growing too quickly for her mom and dad. She is a wonderful big sister and always includes Saige in everything she does and is sometimes a better mother to the the boys then I am. She loves to play with them and make them laugh and is always watching out for them. She is incredibly smart and loves to read and always tries her hardest to do what's right. Our bishop from church encouraged Ali to pray about the decision to be baptized. In our church children can be baptized at the age of 8, that is the age set forth by our church that children are old enough to start being accountable for their actions. We also encouraged Ali to pray about the decision to be baptized because we wanted it to be her decision and not ours. So she prayed about it for several nights and then came back and told us she felt good inside when she would pray about the decision and wanted to be baptized. We are proud of her for making that important decision. It was also so cute, a few weeks ago she got up in church and all by herself went to the front and shared her testimony about how she knew Heavenly Father and Jesus loved her and how thankful she was for her family and that she could get baptized. We will forever be thankful to have such a sweet, special, beautiful girl as part of our family. We love you Ali!!!

Halloween Fun 2010

Here are some pictures from this year's Halloween.

This one was taken at the girls Halloween Carnival at their school. Canyon is the crying tiger and Hayden the giraffe. The lion was a friend we were watching because her mom was at the hospital having a baby.

My mom sent the girls these great houses to make for Halloween. They had a blast and Saige even took her's to show for show and tell.

These are from the Halloween party they had at our chruch. Here Ali was a unicorn and Saiger the dog. They had fun games for the kids to play and then they got to go around to the class rooms for trick or treating.

It did not take long for the boys to figure out the whole trick or treating thing. Put a bowl of candy in front of them and give them free rein and it was all over!!! It was funny to watch the differences in them. Someone would hold out a bowl or bag and Hayden would go over and take one piece of candy and then here Canyon would come, and before anyone could stop him he would reach in as fast as he could and grab two fistfulls of candy. What a character!

So we didn't go trick or treating on Sunday, but we had our Alaska Grandparents over, the Groses, and had a fun Halloween dinner. The idea for the monser apples and bone bread sticks came from a good friend Tammy, who had us over for a Halloween lunch, and the ghostly goolosh I found on the internet. We then let the girls go trick or treating to the doors in our house and called it good for Halloween this year. Whew!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Jeff had a meeting this past Friday night so the girls and I decided to make this funny video for something to do. We're excited the holidays are here!

Ice Skating

We did our first ice skating on Oct. 18th this year. We have this great pond just down the road from our house that is perfect for the kids to skate on. We met up with some friends and after a little shoveling had our ice rink cleared and the fun was on. Saiger did great for having only skated a couple times last year. We should be strapping on the skiis pretty soon next!

The boys had fun being pulled around in the sled. Hayden in front, Canyon behind.

For Brando, my Mom, and Anyone who's Bored

One of my brother's, Brandon, has just left to serve a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (if you would like to learn more about our church you can check out their great website at http://www.lds.org/), in Tempe, Arizona. He lived with us this summer while he worked here in Fairbanks saving money for his mission. Anyway, we won't get to see him for two years so I'll be trying to put some videos and a few more pics so he can keep up and see how our crazy clan is growing. Most of them aren't really about anything, just a chance for him and my mother to see the kids in action. We miss you Brando and hope you're doing great!