Just Keep Snowing

The Alaska winter has not disappointed this year!  The snow just keeps coming and we are loving it so much.  Kabe and I built an awesome snow cave in the front yard.  It was big enough for both of us with a rear entrance tunnel.  I won't lie when I had to "mind over matter" my clostraphobia a few times - but it was really cool. 

The kids have also built a ride-able unicorn on the front lawn, multiple snowmen (some of them child-eating) and we have enjoyed hours upon hours of sledding.  

Seriously - winter is awesome.  I love snow!

Happy Christmas 2016

December was marked with a lot of FUN!  This year I decided to focus on spending TIME with the kids - so each day of the month they opened a game and a book and we played. every. single. one.  (ok, not EVERY one, we got a little busy once or twice and had to catch up).  It was so great to just enjoy each other and while it wasn't the most service-oriented Christmas (I'm already planning next year a little differently), I really enjoyed the time together.  

One of the games was a silly pie face game.  We enjoyed this one with the Elders.  Noah cried every time someone got cream in the face.  The rest of us thought it was pretty funny though.

Christmas morning is always SO exciting for me.  I am usually the one waking everyone up but after being teased about it this year, I decided I would stay in bed until someone asked me to get up.  I only laid there awake for about an hour.  about. 

Some of our favorites this year included "Ninja and Pippin" the guinea pigs (Ayvri's) and the girls doll house which turns out Noah loves just as much as the girls do.  

Here is my herd on Christmas morning.  We had church on Christmas this year and I didn't mind at all - in fact what a perfect way to celebrate!  We enjoyed opening presents before hand and then moseyed our way over to the chapel for some beautiful music and a timely devotional.  In all, I can't think of a more beautiful sight than these happy faces.  

Cotton Ball Adventures

In an attempt to reinforce the positive we've started a summer program called "cotton-ball adventures".  Tyler found the idea online somewhere.  Basically when the kids do something above and beyond - are especially nice or helpful or have a great attitude, they earn a cotton ball for their jar.  When their jar is full then they get to pick a date with Mom and Dad - anywhere they want.

 Leisl wanted to go out for an ice cream cone.  She was so stinking cute.  Here we are walking into McDonalds at 10 pm with a 4 year old.  The crazy things we do when it's light outside.

Brigham wanted to go bowling.  Thank you "kids bowl free" program for making it easy to say yes to this one.  He had to remind me several times that he beat both me and Dad (and then Dad reminds him he used the bumpers and we didn't).  

When did this kid get so tall?  

Ksenya's adventure was to go out for dessert.  We got ice cream at the Little Miller's and took a drive.  Kabe is still waiting for his archery adventure and both Ayvri and Darla picked a playdate with a friend.  And now we are on to round 2 of cotton ball earning.  I love that they have to nominate each other for cotton balls and can't report on themself.  Makes it a little more outward oriented than inward.  And if nothing else we are having fun adventures one-on-one.  

Slip-n-Slide

We have the best neighbors who have been so awesome to make us feel loved.  One night while visiting with them in their backyard I got an idea - they have a HUGE grassy hill.  I could just picture this:  

I asked if they'd mind us setting up a little slip-n-slide and they were such good sports and even helped with the whole affair.  

This is a 75 foot piece of painters plastic that we staked into the lawn and sprayed with vegetable oil.  It was so much fun and we all slid and played until we were incredibly sore and tired.  

What a blast!  There were a few things we may tune-up for next time.  If we didn't kill the grass?  Even Tyler - who was at work, got to go down.  I did a facetime run with my phone and he got to see the whole thing.  I couldn't walk for nearly a week after as I messed up my knee again, but I guess time heals all wounds because my old body recovered.  

All that gak

One of our favorite activities is making Gak - the kids love to play with the weird textures and blow bubbles and bounce it all over the house.  

We made enough for everyone to have their own color and each batch had a different texture (even though we used the same recipe - go figure).

Kabe was at work with Daddy because he was having a crappy attitude (it happens to the best of us).  I had to laugh because he got very bored at the office later and Daddy found the remains of a business card that had been stabbed to death with the words "courtesy of Kabe" written on it.  Silly guy - next time maybe he won't miss out on the gak.