Snowshoe Adventure!

It really was a Winter Wonderland.

Very beautiful!
I even made a snow angel.

Dad it washing pans.

About 25 of us left Monday AM to snowshoe into the "Peter Grubb" hut. (Primative). It was about a 3 mile hike in and out. It was snowing going in, but really beautiful coming back out on Tuesday. It was fun. (When my feet and hands weren't freezing).

Stuff we've been up to...

We made gingerbread houses! I had 2 other moms over with their kiddos and we made houses. But I had extra stuff, so the girls made houses again with Rod that night. Can you guess which one is Rods'?

Just in case you weren't sure.....it's this one:

On Sunday we celebrated our Christmas, opening presens to each other and from you guys! The girls loved everything, but I think for Lizzie, her boots from Grandma were the creme de la creme:

These are the gifts the girls made for each other. Caitlin (and I) made a blanket for Lizzie's bear:

And Lizzie (and I) made a dress for Caitlin's bunny. Both girls enjoyed learning how to use the sewing machine. And Lizzie sewed the button all by herself! They both felt like quite accomplished sewers.

We went hiking up to Red Rock Canyon last Saturday. It was a lot of fun! Check out the snow! The girls loved the "winter wonderland"...

Abby loved hiking! And her hiking backpack was awesome! It's a $5 yard sale find and we've never used it before, but it's really comfy and sturdy.

The girls with Santa at the ward party. Lizzie refused to sit on his lap.

Isn't she ADORABLE???????

The Sin List

Cameron continues to entertain me this holiday season. He takes the naughty and nice list very seriously. He came up with the Sin Chart the other day. He has it hanging on the wall in the living room, and whenever any of the kids commit a sin (Cameron is the judge) they get a tally mark. For example, when Audrey reaches 40 marks, she gets one less present at Christmas. Somehow Audrey has tons of marks, and yet Cameron has a few. Hmmm. The chart created angst among the siblings, so Audrey and Devon decided to make their own charts. They spent the next 24 hours next to their charts marking tally after tally and yelling at each other. Good times.

Holiday Happenings

Just some pics of my latest happenings...which also include Clark! :) We've been busy doing holiday things! We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, went ice skating at the Gallivan Center, went to a Christmas sweater FHE decked out in cool sweaters (courtesy of Clark's Mom's wardrobe), went caroling at a care center, saw the Nutcracker. We also went to this house where you turn your car radio to a certain station and the lights go with the music...crazy! We discovered there is an IN n Out in OREM!!! I knew there was one in Draper, but when we drove by it when we were in Orem, it was a nice suprise! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Can't wait to see (most of you) soon!

For the girls' co-op school that we do, we have a public blog that occasionally people post pictures on of what the different classes have been doing. There's a few of the girls in case anyone wants to see it:

http://freedomacademy09.blogspot.com/

Ahhh....Indian Summer

I took these shots the beginning of October, it was early evening and the sun was amazing! I love the one of Alex and Sasquatch. I miss those warm Indian summer days.

He knows if you've been naughty or nice....

When I got onto the computer last night, this is what I found:

I guess Cameron is having some doubts as to whether he's on the naughty list or not. And why does my 8-yr old know how to do a Google search?

I'm a Brunette!

I decided to take the plunge: I went from "dirty dishwater" (great descriptive by Brooke) to medium-light brown, with a few light brown highlights. It's actually very close to my natural color, with a little more actual color in it. When it grows out, I shouldn't have huge-contrasting roots, which is one thing I was trying to get rid of. I did this all at home, from a box! Including the highlights!

I did "before" and "after" shots, in true TV-fashion:

(just in case it's not obvious: the bandage is a joke....)

Pumpkin to Pie!!

I Have turned THIS:

Into THIS!!

For the complete process and more details on my experiment click HERE

I love to see the temple...and Em and Brett on Skype

My laptop crashed a few weeks ago. Aparently it was an issue with the motherboard...sounds pretty serious huh? It wouldn't have been worth it to fix it. I bought a new computer- I decided to get a desktop. Here's a picture of it while I was talking to Em and Brett.

We went to temple square last week to look at the lights. It is so pretty and brings lots of people to see the lights every night.


While we were walking to temple square I ran into my old BYU roommate Jessica and her husband. While we were talking our other roommate Amanda and her husband walked by...Crazy! It was a fun little reunion.

Choo Choo!!

Over Thanksgiving we went on Amtrack from Martinez to Old Town Sacramento with Mom, Dad and Travis. We had a great time. Alex was so cute on the train, he was loving the ride. The museum is reall awesome. It was fun to walk through the old trains and see their sleeping quarters, dining cars and the kitchens. There were train enthusiasts with their tables set up and trains running around, all decked out for the holidays. We walked around the cute 'town' and saw some cute shops. Of course the favorites were the candy store and the fudge. We also got to watch them make salt water taffy on an old machine. We had a great time, thanks mom and dad!

Here's the latest surgery's pictures. They removed the hardware from Rod's arm, taking out the metal stuff and screws. He's recovering great, the best part of which has been not going to work for a whole week! We've basically been partying all week with good food, movies, and family outings to Red Rock National Park and these cool desert demonstration gardens call Springs Preserve. Prepare to be grossed out:

Disney or bust!

Here's a few pics from our trip. We had such a wonderful time! Thanks mom and dad. The kids will be talking about it forever!

The girls looking out the window of the shuttle to Disneyland. Caitlin was clapping her hands exclaiming "Disneyland!" How cute are they?

Is the shuttle here yet?

I think Brett wins the facial expression award.
What a group!

It's a good thing Travis has so many helpers with his slice of cake. I mean, what would he do? sidenote: I DID NOT take any of my brothers cake. (I think it was gone by the time I set my camera down.)

A little Thunder Mountain anyone?