FINALLY....Our Holiday Fun...and more!

Starting off with Christmas Eve....

Anna and Carter decided to have a little fun while I vacuumed and cleaned the house to get all ready for the fun. (I am weird like this: before we leave home to go anywhere, or before a big event, and always before each Sunday, I HAVE to have a clean home! One of my quirks!) I regularly clean under the couch cushions and rotate them around for even "wear" and it is the BEST day for my kids when I do so! They love to put all the pillows and cushions on the floor and play! (This picture shows you how small our living room is!)

After so much play, I tried to get Carter down for a nap.....see how successful I was? Anna fell asleep on the couch and look who is still awake! AND bugging his sister too! How sweet!

Later, after Carter FINALLY went to sleep (he still gets out of bed, doesn't cry, but just plays with his toys! I put him back in bed, and a few minutes later he is out again, playing in the dark! Sometimes it takes 4, 5, 6, and I lose track, before he finally decides to go to sleep!) Anna helped me decorate the cookies for Santa. She pretty much did it ALL! And very creative, I must add! She told me we had to leave carrots for the reindeer, and she decided to dip them in the frosting! What a treat, eh?

And then, the BEST fun of all is watching our kids experience the "magic" on Christmas morning! We had to wake Anna up, and we couldn't get her out of bed!!! Finally, she woke up enough that the excitement set in and she had so much fun opening presents and helping everyone else open theirs too! The favorites for Anna were her two twin babies who she named Tessa and Addy, and then her new doll house, which she wanted to take to Pocatello with her to grandma's house!


Carter just LOVED everything! He played with everything and was just a cutie bug!! I'd say the best fun he's had so far is with his Superman bop toy. He is always hefting it around and rolling on it and sitting and bouncing on it with Anna! Thanks to their cousin Halle for getting him such an awesome toy!

"Joy and Delight"

Anna...getting some badly needed shut-eye from too much play, no naps, and late nights. The holidays always get us off our regular schedule and it has a bad effect upon my children....especially this one! I am a scheduled, routine kinda mom, so as much fun as we have, I am soooo HAPPY to get back home and back to the reality of life!

Russ....does this picture do him justice as to how excited he was to get a paintball gun?!!!

Carter, checking out some tools he got from Santa. Anna and Carter kept using them to pinch their noses!! And mine!!

After Christmas was over, we went for a fun little trip to Pebble Creek after new year's day. It was the first time Russ and I had ever been snowboarding and so we were so excited! Here is a view from the top of the mountain in the parking lot.

And here we have Jordan (he's an adopted brother, I think, of the Meredith's!) Dallen, and Jake. They were studs on that mountain! Chelsea, my sister-in-law came with us, along with her friend Phil Wright, and then Russ's brother Geoff came, and Rob too with his boys, Dallen, Jake, and Carson, and Carli came too! Also, there was Ben, Rob's brother-in-law, and his son Gavin.

Chels and Phil!!!

Russ and I, before our trip home. It was kinda funny, but while I was on the chair lift with Russ, he said something about us not being able to go on a date together for awhile, or being gone from the kids for so long too! When he said that, I told him if he hadn't mentioned Anna and Carter at the moment, I would have forgotten I even had kids! We had so much fun and it was such a blessing to know our kids were in good hands and we didn't have to worry about them. Thanks Grandma and Aunt Peg...and Olivia too! You guys let us have to BEST date of the year!!

Here is Carli....let me remind everyone that this was her first time snowboarding and she did so great! It was the best to watch her get up on her board and take off down the hill for a few feet before she would sit back down in the snow! She was such a trooper!

I love this picture, looking up from the parking lot at the chair lift. It was so nice that night, no wind, and lots of new snow!

As Geoff would say, speeding down the hill, "Woo-Hoo!" He was amazing on his snowboard and had a blast! Thanks, too, Geoff for all the great tips! Geoff is a great teacher!

My first thing to check off of my "To Do" list for January.....go snowboarding! We had a BLAST! Russ and I caught on pretty fast, and we made it with no terrible injuries, and are seriously considering buying ourselves some snowboards now! We did suffer from some amazingly sore muscles over the nest few days, but I think I just might have found my new favorite sport!

We had so much fun spending time with our family and making memories.

I am so happy to hear from so many of you, and to know that your holiday was a great as ours was. Russ and I couldn't be happier right now, especially as we reflect upon all the many blessings we have. What a joy it is to be a part of this world and to experience life, with all of it's joys and heartaches, and everything in-between! As we begin a new year, I want to start each day of mine finding joy in life's everyday miracles. We were counseled this past conference to find Joy in the Journey....and I hope we can all do just that!