White Christmas (belated)

We didn't have a White Christmas but we had a "White Day After Christmas!" Max woke up and saw the snow and excitedly yelled to Zoey that it had snowed!



We only had about 3 inches of snow all winter last year, so this was a welcome sight for them!





They helped with shoveling the driveway for a little bit.










Lots of smiles!


Same picture... just did a little post processing fun.


And then some sledding on a tiny hill on the side of our house. They brought some new dogs out to play in the snow with them.



They pushed each other which was very sweet.






And Max would just lay and eat snow!





And then Dad gave some bigger pushes down our tiny hill.



Watch out Max!





They played for HOURS together outside in the snow. It was very sweet. They were pretty creative with their sledding. I have some videos I will share. And we did go to a real hill for sledding a couple of days later.


Once inside, it was back to presents! Grandma and Papa hooked me, Zoey and Max up with nook e-readers and we love them!! (Thank you:) I have wanted one forever and just never bought it, so I was excited this Christmas too! Zoey read 2 books right away!



Max at first wasn't too interested. He loves to read and never actually leaves home without a book, but he thought books on the nook would be "too boring." He doesn't like chapter books all that much. As soon as I got him some other things, though, he was won over. A couple days after Christmas we went out to dinner and it was like Ross and I were on a date by ourselves because they brought their nooks to read while waiting. So cute!

And Max loved his games he got this year. He just went from one to the next to the next. Thanks again family for everything.

Christmas

Max thought that December was the LONGEST MONTH EVER!! Early in the month they put together a letter for Santa asking for "something I want, something I need, something I'll wear, and something I'll read." They thought for days about it and were so cute. They came up with book titles and shirt ideas and the funniest - mouthwash! (Santa did not disappoint) I loved that they were content with this list and even excited about it. Ross and the kids then set up an Amazon wishlist to make it easy for out of town family to buy them gifts. It made it fun for them. They really looked things over and thought hard about putting things on the list. The one thing that it did, though, was make them even more excited. They found some neat stuff and as packages rolled in through the mail, the excitement grew.

Christmas Eve finally came and Max tracked Santa on the computer all day long!



Here's our fire place! HAHA! Ross was painting the entryway throughout the holiday so this was taken of the wall for a while.


Before we opened presents, the kids and stuffed dogs, played some Christmas Carols for us!!


The packages from family came in boxes (obviously) and I had to wrap up the gifts, but this one Ross decided to get a hold of. He decided to "Zoey-proof" it. She is totally related to me with the whole shake packages and try and sneak peaks. Yep, I still do it, too. How does Ross wrap? Duct tape, of course!


Max, on the other hand, doesn't touch them before hand. He is eagerly searching one out to open now though!


Ross checking out a new tool from G+P. He decided he was a big fan of the amazon wishlist too!


We really had a nice, relaxing time and enjoyed our little family. We Skyped with my family a couple times and it made me feel a little bit like I was there with them, so that was lots of fun too. I was very thankful for that! Thank you to our family everywhere!

Little Gingerbread Men and some Reindeer Cheer

After the BIG Gingerbread Men, the next day we decided to make some little guys! And these tasted way better!!





They were tiny little guys!








AND a couple days later we had a get together with some friends right before Christmas. We decided to decorate some Guinness to pass along (I saw this on Pinterest)...



so hilariously cute, right?

then, we just kept going and decided to build a sleigh to put them in.

Santa is actually a huge Budweiser can with a hat.



We were initially going to make the reindeer pull the sled, but for tranporting purposes, this worked better.

Gingerbread Family

I tried to gather little activities for the kids to do most days in December. Costco this year had a four pack of Gingerbread Men to decorate!! It was fun for all of us to do one, and easier than a house.

Hard at work!














Finished Products!









Our happy family...

Happy New Year!

Hello 2013!

Although I am not a fan of January... I do love the new year and thoughts of change and progress and goals. I totally buy into it all. I feel the same way at my birthday which coincides with a new school year too! Anyway, blogwise, I still am living in December. It is our last day of vacation! WHAAT??? It goes by so fast. I didn't really blog at all because we were just hanging out and that is lovely!

Before vacation, one morning there was tons of frost on the ground. I bundled up and forced myself out into the cold to take some pictures...


I like this one.


I like this one in color and black and white.






Brr... it just looks cold in this one!!