Sledding

We found a new sledding hill to try out this year - it's the best because it's right in our front yard!  It's so nice that the kids can bundle up and head out any time they want and I always have hot chocolate waiting for them when they come in.  Next year we are going to mow the weeds before it snows and it should be even better!  Here are a few pics from the last month of sledding fun.

We finally got Trysten a coat that actually fits him - it's a little easier for him to move around when he's bundled up now ;-)

This is probably one of my favorite pictures...

Here are some pics that I had taken with my old/broken camera - what a difference!  This was the first time we tried out our sledding hill, I wish the pics had turned out.

You probably can't tell in this picture, but Trysten didn't like it one bit - he screamed and cried!  He sure came around and loves it now - he scares me a bit because he doesn't have any fear now!

It's really a shame my camera wasn't working because this was a beautiful sunset a little later that night.

Thanks for visiting!

Christopher Pop-In-Kins

Our Christmas Break just flew by - it didn't help that either David or I was sick for most of it, but it was really the best time to be sick since we didn't have anywhere to be.  David had the last two weeks of the year off from work and the girls were out of school until the 4th so we had a lot of family time together.  There were a lot of days that we didn't go anywhere at all - it was actually kinda nice to be cooped up inside.  We went back to 'normal' yesterday so now I am going to attempt to play catch-up on all the fun things we did manage to get done over the holiday!

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We added a new Christmas tradition to our family this year - we welcomed Christopher Pop-In-Kins into our home.  The kids LOVED him - even the older girls got really into him.  They had so much fun looking for him every morning and would get so excited when someone found him.  They can't wait until he comes back next year.  Trysten still asks for him once in a while - he calls him 'Pop' ;-)

Trysten got a hold of the camera one day and went looking for Christopher.  It was set on video mode and he pushed the button to take a picture and started a video instead.  You can hear him looking for Christopher (aka Pop) and see him looking in some of the past places he had been hiding in before - the Christmas tree, bathroom shower curtain, the garage, etc.  And if you look really carefully right at the end of the video, he catches a quick glimpse of Christopher - can you spot him?  Just to warn you, the video is a little shakey, it was of course the work of a 23 month old - I hope it doesn't make anyone sick ;-P

Thanks for visiting!

More hats, flowers, and other goodies!

Happy New Year!
I have lots of posts scheduled to catch up, so here I go!

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We've had a couple of girl birthdays lately - here is what we've been giving as gifts - I love that these are good for girls of any age!

...for a 1st b-day...

She can switch out the flowers on the hat or wear them in her hair.

...for one of Brianna's friends' 8th b-day - Brianna picked the colors and made the looped yarn flowers - like above she can switch the flowers on the hat or wear them in her hair...

...for their cousins Alauna and Teagan - we had their family's name for Christmas this year...

...and for Brailee's birthday - cake stained face and all ;-P

Here are some that I made for my girls - I also made matching ones for their girl cousins for the family pics we took at the Family Christmas Party last month.  On David's side of the family there are 23 grandchildren - only 6 are girls (3 of which are ours) so that's why I chose to do something special for the girls.

Two awesome ladies made some beautiful stars to add to our tree this year.  The star on the left was made by my mom, Jeannee and the star on the right was made by my dear blogging friend, Jeanne.  I received them in the mail one day apart - great minds think alike ;-)  Thanks ladies, love them!

Here are some quick treats I made for some friends - found the idea HERE.

That's it for now, but I'll be back.  Thanks for visiting!

Merry Christmas!

Here's a quick pic from our morning - I am super sick so this is it for now, but I'll be back with more...eventually!  I hope you all had a wonderful day!

I'm a REBEL now!

Santa came early this year and I ended up getting a new camera since I've had problems with my previous camera.  I've had so much fun starting to play with it - can't wait to really get to know how to use it!  Here are some pics of the crazy kids as I've been getting used to it...so glad they're willing to smile!

Isn't he just adorable...

I took this one from across the house - love the clarity of my subject!

...can I take a picture?

PLEASE, Mommy!

And just to compare, I took the following picture from the same place, same lighting, etc.  Here it is with my OLD camera:

and the NEW camera:

Much better!  Thanks for visiting - and just to warn you, now that I have a working camera again, I'm back to taking LOTS of pictures ;-)

Flashback Friday

David started putting up our outside Christmas lights last night - it's going to be a little different than it has in years past...first of all, our house is much taller and we need a bigger ladder to get the highest points on the house, and second, we now have a metal roof, so no more walking on the roof and doing our traditional lines across.  Here is a look at how we decorated outside in years past - we were often called the 'gingerbread' house and David had the nickname of Griswold.  Last Christmas we didn't get a chance to put up lights outside, just a few big ornaments on the tree and our reindeer, but he's going to make up for it this year - David wants to see if we can see our lights from the highway ;-)

2005

2006

2007

Brailee is laughing at Daddy and Kaylee on the roof ;-)

2008

I'm excited to see what it's going to look like this year!

December Already!?!

I can't believe it is December!  I know I say this all the time, but seriously, where does the time go?  I hope you all had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.  We were supposed to go to Utah to spend time with my family and see my Grandparents who just returned home from serving in the Nashville Tennessee Temple, but as last week started we wondered about the weather.  We were going to try to beat the storm and leave as soon as we could on Tuesday, but then Kaylee ended up getting sick with a fever and sore throat.  She started complaining that her chest hurt to breathe, so I took her to the doctor that day and she ended up testing positive for Influenza B.  Brailee was also sick but hadn't been nearly as bad as Kaylee, but since we were there we ended up testing her as well - another positive.  Then the next day Trysten woke up sounding yucky as well, so our Thanksgiving feast consisted of 3 kids on Tamiflu :-(  It was actually nice to get to stay home and relax - this was the first time we have EVER done Thanksgiving on our own, and we enjoyed it despite the sick kids.  So at the last minute I got to plan my menu and hope the store still had turkeys ;-)  This was the first time I've cooked an entire turkey all by myself, and the first time I've ever made pumpkin pie, and it turned out delicious! 

This is Trysten and our Christmas train - he currently LOVES trains.  We spent Thanksgiving Day cooking and putting up all of our (inside) Christmas decorations - still not sure how we're going to do the outside, we're not quite sure what the wind is going to do to it here!  We got a lot of other things done around the house - FINALLY hung up some pictures on the wall, but only because they've been sitting on my piano for the last couple of months and I needed to clear that space for my Nativity collection ;-)  Now I just need to find the *right* mirror for the space above my piano between my two wall fixtures - I'm thinking either small square mirrors like THIS or one big 3-4 foot circle mirror, or if I can find a big rectangle mirror in the right price range then that might be nice - thoughts?  I'm looking forward to family pictures this month with an AWESOME photographer so I can have some more things to hang on the wall! 

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The kids and I made pinecones out of egg cartons:

Plus, I got a lot more hats made while snuggling with sick kiddos and David got the sheetrock up in Kaylee's room, so it was a productive holiday!  Brianna and Trysten are David's biggest helpers ;-)

He loves power tools!

I'm so disappointed with my pictures lately - our camera is acting up and our old Kodak is still packed somewhere so I don't even have a back-up, so most of our pictures aren't turning out.  If I try to use the flash the pics turn out really dark, but then if I close the flash they turn out bright, but blurry.  If the subject is perfectly still, my pictures turn out just fine without the flash, but we all know with kids that just doesn't happen!  We're trying to work it out and get a new one for Christmas - any suggestions?  I have my eye on the Canon Rebel and tried to order one with a nice telephoto lense on a bundle that I found online but I accidentally transposed the numbers in my address, so they couldn't verify my info to place the order, and by the time they notified me more than a day later, the lense was out of stock.  So, now we're just trying to decide what to do.  Any suggestions?  Here's an example of what the camera is doing - here is a pic WITH the flash:

 and here it is with NO flash -

As I push the button to take the pic I get the notice 'Raise the Flash!' on my screen so I end up yelling at my camera a lot lately ;-P  Not really, but it's just so frustrating to have no pictures, especially around the holidays, since I love to take pics, and I take a LOT of them!

Okay, so I only had one person guess (thanks for playing along, Jeanne!) but here is the reveal!
#1 - this is ME!  I think it looks so much like Trysten, just with lighter hair.

#2 - this is BRAILEE, but Trysten looked a lot like her as a baby!

#3 - this is BRIANNA, but she looks so much like her Dad when he was younger, just a blond hair, blue eyed version.

#4 - this is KAYLEE, and she used to look a lot like me when I was younger - I don't see it so much anymore, though.

#5 - this is my brother, Spudd, holding Brianna (7 years ago), though you wouldn't recognize him now!  But in this picture I was amazed how much Spudd looks like my Grandpa Lancaster from some of his younger pictures that I've seen.

Thanks for visiting!