cancooon!

Chichen Itza

I'm tired of trying to figure out my mac and photos - I thought it was supposed to be easier. I only have patience to load one photo - but the trip sure was fun!

st. george

I would say St. George is our families favorite place to relax. It certainly helps that we can usually stay at my in-laws house - without that I would say the St. George would be 70% less enjoyable. We spent Valentines there playing in the sand or the "galaxy", pulling the kids around in the burley on our bikes or pushing them on runs, visiting the Dixie Art Show (my uncle is in the show) making valentines for each other and leaving them at the door, and taking naps. Cody made sure we put Cars tattoo's on all his "shoulders".

no i not free, i four!

Cody thinks he is four - but on Feb. 4th he turned three! I hadn't planned anything but the day before it dawned on me that skiing would be a perfect way to celebrate. It was Thursday, which is our weekly playgroup anyway, it was a warm, sunny day, and the rope-tow is free.
The only thing I keep trying to figure out is how I used to teach a handful of four and five year old "never-evers" as we called them. I remember having everything under control - getting everyone up the tow rope and on the lift by the end of the day. But now, let's just say it was a good thing I had three other adults there to help - and it was still pretty chaotic.













Favorite food: anything he can get by climbing up the pantry shelves.
Favorite toy: Lightning McQueen "race car", and basketballs
Favorite saying: "No I not whining. I. Just. Talking!"
Calling Ellie, "Hun".
Loves to do whatever Ellie is doing, loves to wrestle dad, still loves the tag on his lambie, loves to play with his friends Ethan and Emily.

it takes a village

i miss this!

"I'm a mermaid mom." -Cody
Summer 2009, New Jersey

"am i five yet?"

I can't belive that Ellie is 5! I love her soooo much, I think I was more excited about her birthday than for Christmas. There was lots of playdough cakes around our house the week after Christmas in anticipation.

The Invites:






The Party:
We took Molly, Ellie Pie and Kelty to Magleby's Fresh for breakfast. They each got an upgraded fabric crown and all you can eat french toast and oj. The party was done in an hour and that was that!















At Night:

We had butternut squash soup, avacado-pear-pecan-gorgonzolla salad, and kneaders bread for dinner. My mom and dad and cousin Sarah came and it ended up being really nice to just have them.






After dinner the kids slept at my mom and dads and Justin and I went to Avatar - one of our all time favorites.

naps on the couch, on a sunday, in the sun

christmas!

Christmas was nice. This being my first semester back in school I felt like I didn't really get into it like I did last year. That's okay though, sometimes it's nice not to feel like you have to do everything.



I did make homemade granola for some gifts. There were a lot more people that were meant to get these but we ate it so fast we ran out. Everything you need for this except coconut, flax and wheat bran are found at Costco. The recipe is here.







If you read the fine print on the bag of the tag it says this is great with milk, on yogurt, ice cream, and kefir. I totally made that up. I have no idea what kefir tastes like or even what it really is - but it sounded good.

we love the rope tow!

We had a great day skiing with our kids. Who knew I could love the rope tow more than powder? Well, almost.


Getting used to skis.


We found our friend Ellie Pie and had some snacks.


Cody wasn't realy interested in doing "pizzas" to stop. He likes to go fast and crash into you. He also likes to ski under your legs, as seen above. Two year olds are actually pretty easy to teach because they have such a low center of gravity they don't tip over.


By the end of the day Ellie could ski with her hands in her pockets!




Skiing is hard work for a two year old.

party

Today I have invited a guest blogger, Cammie to tell us about our kids Christmas party yesterday! Ok, really I just stole her html from her blog:

We try to have a Christmas party for our kids each year. We are 4 girls who have known each other since we kids. (12, 13, and 18 were my ages when I met Court, Heather and Emily, respectively) We still like each other very much and enjoy any time we can spend together. We try to get together as often as our schedules will allow all year long and we love that our kids are friends.

Heather hosted the Christmas party this year and it was a great success! We're so happy it wasn't a repeat of last year, suv+semi=death to suv (that was me).
The kids played games, decorated candy Christmas Trees, played more games, ate more treats, destroyed the house, and opened wonderful presents.
Heather had a number of games with prizes, but I didn't crack out the camera in time. She had Holiday Bingo from Crayola. It was fun and the m&m's were super tasty bingo chips.

Courtney had the kids play "Pin the ornament on the tree"

Ethan spinning

Molly trying to find the tree.

I think Courage found the tree, but I love his and Ellie's faces in this picture.

Canon decorating his ice-cream-cone Christmas Tree. Brilliant idea Em!

Ethan's snow marshmallow's were my favorite.

Trace ate his marshmallows

All the trees