It was plenty cold outside, I think the thermometer was reading like 20 or something ridiculous, which is why my fingers aren't visible in this shot, they're tucked safely into my sleeves. My father-in-law took this picture, April calls these kind of shots (me with a camera in my hands) "observing Wende in her natural habitat" like an animal safari or something. 
The older kids suit up and hit the snow like crazy people and Max and especially Sam did too, in fact, Sam was a wild man, would've stayed out there all day if we let him. 
Sydney and Drew loved it too, but Sydney was at an advantage because her dad would carry her up the hill with her sled, so she didn't tire quite as quickly. And speaking of dads, do you know how many moms it takes to sled? Let's count....
ZERO, only dads are braving the cold today.
What I didn't take a picture of, were all the moms warm inside chatting, which I became one of too after catching a few pictures. In fact, I was so relaxed, I completely blew off taking any indoor pictures, I'm a dork. I purchased little a little snow bib and boots for Ethan this year, thinking he would love the snow, but so far he is 100% against even putting the boots on much less touching the snow. 
The above picture was during the two minutes that he wasn't crying, there was 15 minutes of crying before (getting his snow gear on) and 15 minutes of crying after (didn't want to be put down). 
He was a happy camper once inside, he especially loved this little Ethan-sized rocking chair, so cute. We love Oakley, thank Frank and Jenny for a fun day!***EDIT*** Jenny was the only cool mom who went sledding, once down the hill. There were a few psycho moms out there taking pictures, Lisa and Jenny and I, I didn't realize Jenny sledded too! She is a very cool mom and I appreciate the blog correction, I generally don't like misrepresenting anyone! :)
We have plans to go the movies this week sometime (whenever we feel like it because our calendars are blank) to see the second one and since our family missed the boat on the first one we got caught up. I loved it btw, very Da Vinci codish, unrealistic and far-fetched but a fun adventure anyway. But even our visit with Phil and Lauri was wonderfully unstructured and had a nice"what do you want to do" kind of feeling, including whipping up a last minute dinner of pancakes and sausage, love that kind of evening. Today has been more of the same, Apey came over and Makenna was just dying to try out the Hannah Montana game for the Wii. 
So with Allie coaching her along the way, she did really well! Spencer had a special treat today, his good friend Deema didn't want to ski with the rest of his family, so he's hanging out here for the whole day. The boys really got into their Settler's of Catan game that Nate bought them for Christmas, they have been playing board games for the last several days straight.
It's one of our family's favorite things so this is a special treat. And did I mention the sleep I've been getting? I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I have slept in the last two days in a row because everyone else in the house gets up with Ethan, it's FABULOUS! I think I'm starting to make up for all the lost sleep this last two years having a toddler. We have taken showers, but when I got dressed, it was in pjs. Love this time of year. 
The big hits of the day were Ethan's race track with shake and go cars...
It entertains boys of all ages! In fact, Ethan wasn't interested in unwrapping anything else. Taylor unwrapped an amp with a confused look on his face, then a lightbulb went off above his head just in time for dad to come around the corner with an electric guitar! 
His first words were, "sweet, now maybe Sam Gerber (a kid from our ward) will let me be in his band!" When all the gifts were unwrapped I asked everyone if they had a good Christmas. Everyone was in a great mood, "oh yes mom, it's been an awesome Christmas". Then Rich says to me, "hey I think I have one more gift for you that I left upstairs". So he brings down the box, I unwrap it and yell, "oh my gosh, dad bought me a wii! Just kidding, it's for you guys! Spencer started screaming and then cried, yes I said cried REAL tears! It was so great.
He is the one who lines the cars up like that btw, it's one of his favorite things, having cars all lined up like that. Plus, check out those Cars pjs he's wearing, could those be any cuter?
Just about the time your stomach starts growling, it's done. I get to serve a great breakfast (usually with OJ, muffins and fruit) and almost zero work that morning. It was a really good batch too, YUM.
had several visitors and then Wayne and Eileen came over for Christmas dinner. 
Mom taught the kids how to make pinch cake with marshmallows and other surprise treats hidden in each pinch. Spencer has been really into making wierd faces for the camera lately.
We served them WITH dinner. In fact, I was so excited to eat the treat part of dinner, that I forgot to photograph the wonderful ham and potatoes meal. Is is just me or does ham and potatoes just seem right on Christmas day? It has to be one of my favorite meals, I try to serve it more than just once a year. So, that's it, Christmas was good, I'm so glad to have this blogging outlet now to record the details. I will record more about the family parties, Christmas Eve and other happenings later. For now, I'm going to see if there's anything in 
Of course, we often have a white Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Valentine's Day, but you know, it's worth it.
But of course they know. I do new pjs for more than one reason: 1.nice pictures on christmas morning (especially when they were smaller and I could get away with matching sets), 2. they have new pjs that count as part of the Christmas not clothing budget, and 3. I love that they have something to open on Christmas Eve, a tradition. Love traditions.
This was an SPT earlier this month that I missed, so now you know. This is our door as of yesterday, by the end of the month it will be totally full, I LOVE that! I love getting Christmas cards, especially the pictures! I'm always shocked at how much people have changed in one year! 
Then of course, there's special Oreo's, dipped in white fudge, peppermint bark, pecan logs from the neighbors, c'mon! They're killin' me! How do you say no to these kinds of things?
I never get tired of the story of Joseph and Mary and thinking of what it would be like to ride a donkey nine months pregnant! And how hard it must have been to deliver in such filthiness, with animals, I don't even like dogs! But even more, to think of the reverence of it all, it's hard to put that into words. My favorite song is O Holy Night because I love the lines "the weary world rejoices", and "the soul felt it's worth" because they are so personal to me and a wonderful testimony of what we would be without Him. That's why Christmas feels so good, right? 
Allie gave these cute jars of gumballs which were inspired by 
The boys were way too manly to give cutie jars of gumballs so they opted for bottles of Sprite (which I got on sale super cheap at Thanksgiving time) and a smarties launcher - have you seen these things? They're sort of like a Pez dispenser but instead they hold smarties, you can pull back the lever and actually shoot them across the room. Actually called KLIKs. Big hit with the boys' friends. 
For piano, guitar, primary teachers and youth leaders we gave out the 
We made these little vinyl blocks that say JOY attached with a picture of our family on a tag (not pictured) that I made in photoshop and printed at Costco in wallet size - easy! and cheap! It took about two total hours to deliver everything, and thanks to the DVD player in the van, Ethan was an angel until the last three minutes.
But it's DONE, all delivered, that is such a good feeling! Today I need to finish up my sister in law gifts which I'm excited to post after Christmas, wrap up their teacher gifts to take to school tomorrow, deliver visiting teaching gifts and then I'm officially done - minus the wrapping for Christmas morning, but whatever. Yesterday when I was in my pajamas and looking so cute, not, April brought me a fun a little surprise!
She knows that I love peppermint and hot chocolate and the carmel apple cider is from Pier 1. Then, the best part are these darling daisy mugs! Anyone who knows me well knows, I can hardly pass up a darling daisy and the funniest thing is that I saw these dishes the other day when I was at Pier 1 and I thought strongly about asking for the whole set for Christmas. So I was super excited to see my very own daisy mugs! I am feeling like a heel because we agreed NOT to exchange gifts this year, but April is kind of a rebel wanted to do something anyway. Cute girl! Patsy stopped by with a package for under the tree, I am excited to open the gift "that changed her life" on Christmas morning....hmmmm. Ok, this is a forever long post, I need to do the dishes, I should've photographed my kitchen when I was done with everything yesterday. Let's just say that we didn't eat dinner until 8:30 and it was cold cereal. Nice. But productive and that counts right?
Friday is always a whirl-wind because it's early out, which I LOVE because I'm the crazy mom who loves to have her children home, but it also means I have to run errands quickly, which I am incapable of doing. Apey and I went to the Gateway mall on Friday to do some Christmas shopping and it was SO flippin' cold that I found myself crossing the street just to make sure we were walking on the side of the road with sun. I swear it was ten degrees warmer on the side of the street, brrrrrrr. I couldn't even bring myself to dig out the camera to get a picture of the bundled babies until we were safe and warm inside one of the stores. The babies loved being outside, Ethan is never concerned about the weather, maybe because I'm psycho about making sure he's warm enough, in fact, maybe one of my kids should blog about how bothered I am when they choose not to wear a coat in winter! I can't blame Ethan for having fun, it really was great to get outside and see the decorations and all the shoppers, I love Gateway mall being outdoors, it really is a fun place, fresh air and all. Apey always makes shopping fun too, I tell her she should do it for a living because she is really good at finding what you're looking for. All you have to do is say, "Apes, I can't find the right size of jeans for Rich." Then she proceeds to search, dig and even climb her way around the store until she has them safely in her hands. Seriously, you think I'm kidding but she should be a personal shopper. She even remembers sizes from the last time I sent her digging, incredible, because every time I buy a pair of pants for Rich I have to call him and ask him, "now what's your pant size again?"
We took several self portaits in the beautiful winter light, but none of them saved except this one, have I mentioned how much I dislike the purse camera? Thank goodness it was a cute one, but again, what's up with the size of my head? Do I really have a big head and no one is telling me? Later after Rich came home from work, we tried to finish up our shopping, but we are still chasing that last gift to get for the thirteen year old boy. We have no ideas left in our brains, any suggestions?
A few pictures I forgot were on there from when Allie had her 12 yrs old well check last week. We had way too much fun sitting in the office waiting an eternity for the doctor to come in, she is just so much fun, mostly. Lately Allie and I have been butting heads half of the time and completely enjoying each other the other half, nothing in between. I've been making a huge effort to pick my battles with her lately, I know that it's about growing up and gaining independence and that's ok with me, oh and did I mention hormones? Yup, I think we've got plenty of those flying around lately too. It's all good, hopefully she knows I LOVE her, I think she does. She is such a good girl, love this girl, love love love this girl, she absolutely blows me away with her talent and charm and general sweetness. So, I was just tickled to find these funny pictures of her waiting at the doctor's office. It was a sweet little memory of a fun day of hanging out with Allie that I had tucked away but kind of forgot about until I saw these. We actually we're gearing up for a self portait of both of us, but my battery died, dang it! Sweet girl.
I grabbed my camera to take some photos of him because I haven't for a while and I was just so surprised by how big he is getting and how tickled I am about how much he looks like Rich. 
When Rich and I were debating about having another baby, he said no way, and I tried really hard to just let go of the idea of having number four because I knew it stressed him out to even think of it. But then I would come down the stairs and see this absolutely adorable picture of Rich as a little boy (one of these days I'll scan it in so you can see it to, have to find it first) and would think to myself, "no way, I just have to have one of those in my house!" So, the tickled feeling comes from knowing that "one of those" is exactly what I got! A little mini-Rich, that cute adorable boy from the picture was sitting at my counter today eating peanut butter and jelly, it was kind of a shocking feeling and made me feel joyfully happy all day long.
He really is a handful but a happy-go-lucky kind of handful and he is such a joy to all of us, I'm grateful that my wish came true. Spencer even put up our tree for us at the end of the day because his mom was in a good peaceful place even at the end of the day that she could handle one more thing like decorating.
It ended up being too late to actually get lights and ornaments on, that will have to be a weekend project, but hey, at least the tree is up right? I love days like this. 
While the kisses are still melty warm, place a few m&ms on top, then place cookie sheet into the fridge for cooling. Once they are cooled, the chocolate is more set up and they are perfect size for popping them into your mouth. YUM!
That's it! They were way delicious, I absolutely LOVE chocolate covered pretzels, mixing the salty and the sweet, you get the best of both worlds, as Hannah Montana would say! :) Then we made heavenly chicken lasagna which I forgot AGAIN to photograph, and she stayed for dinner. We always have such a fun time together, we laugh and laugh, especially at our cute boys who are becoming such good friends. I'm grateful to finally have sisters! I totally hit the jack pot with mine, they are all so much fun. Believe it or not, we have more to do tomorrow, maybe I'll remember to take a self portait of us, tomorrow, when I have clean hair.