All about Christmas time

Fun in the snow

Tanner hates snow powder in his face. If you could see his hands, you would notice that they are covering his face! He still loves sledding though.

When he gets to ride with someone else he goes down backwards and holds on for dear life.

Gracie was a tough girl! One of her first runs landed her in a puddle of melted snow at the bottom of the hill.

Braden soared down. This kid loves to fly.

And no mountain is too high for Braden to climb.

Our crazy bunch.

On Christmas Eve we take a ride through town to admire Christmas lights. Santa usually makes a quick delivery while we are out so we can have new matching jammies to wear to bed. This year was no different. Here's the tired crew.

And Christmas morning after a long winter's nap...

Christmas at the Compound 2009

This year our family visited the compound two weekends in a row! The first weekend was for extended, EXTENDED family and the most recent visit was with my family. Usually we do some extreme sledding but the weather didn't cooperate with our timing this year. When my Dad decided to take the kids down to the frozen lake we decided to improvise.

All of the grandkids ages 3 and up received these bouncy balls for Christmas. Us adults enjoyed them too.


Ryan kept trying to sneak away for a little winter's nap but the kids and I wouldn't have it. Instead we threw a party on Dad's bunk.

And stay tuned for more updates. Our internet has been down (more often then it has been up) lately so I'll have to see what I can post before the full Christmas festivities are underway.

Until then, here's a recap of our first weekend at the compound with more pictures:

Tanner playing ping pong with Grandpa Mark (my Uncle). They matched up with my cousin and his daughter Rylin.

Gracie got to shine in her violin performance of Joy to the World while I supervised Braden's video taking.

We also crafted. My kids came home with about 3 painted wooden treasure boxes each (thanks to my Aunt "Queen Becky").

And my Aunt received our homemade gift this year. Braden happily helped to hand out the gifts.

Small Town Thanksgiving and Christmas

This is my brother Tyson. Last year his wife Calley was given the responsibility of bringing games for the kids to play after Thanksgiving. Being the clever girl that she is, she picked up a plastic beak and some feathers and designed a game where her husband would have to run from the kids who were trying to take his feathers.

This game is entertaining and hillarious. It's everyone's favorite because it's a great outlet for little energetic bodies.

We made the kids close their eyes while Tyson the turkey found a hiding spot.

After running Tyson ragged, he conceded and they plucked him clean. My brother claims he is going to train for next year's game.

My parent's neighbors thought something crazy was going on. My family has lived in that community for 23 years now! Now the neighbors know a little bit more about how crazy we really are.

I am such a small town girl. I love the sense of community that is felt at small town functions. Tonight was the tree lighting ceremony at our town square gazebo. Santa came. It was freezing outside, so our stay lasted 30 minutes-tops!

We're off to "the compound" this weekend for my Dad's family Christmas party. Like many families, ours has A TON of holiday traditions, so let me outline the next few that we will be enjoying this weekend.

*St. Nicholas' Day is Dec. 5th. He leaves goodies in good girls and boys' shoes.

*Christmas at the Compound is the big (about 60 people) party with my Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and their families. We will have four generations at the church ranch this weekend. Everyone sleeps in the lodge and we visit and play games all weekend long. Traditionally we exchange homemade gifts. Here's what our family is bringing. Shhh. It's a secret.

Merry Christmas.

The setting

We live in a rural community just west of the mountains. Our city has a small town feel without being too far from bigger city amenities. (I love that I can get to Target, Wal-mart, and Costco within 15-20 minutes.)

Our favorite thing about our home town is the trains. Every weekend restored engines and passenger cars mosey through town. As a mother of two boys IN LOVE with trains, I feel this is a fabulous place for kids. At least once a year we board the trains and take a 50 minute ride through two towns and past some beautiful falls.

The schools are another perk. When Braden turned three we had some concerns about a few things we felt he might be behind on. At the suggestion of a friend, I took him into the school for some screening and they determined that he qualified for some help through the school. That meant that he would receive free preschool four days a week and bus service to and from school! Braden was so excited to be going to school with his big sis. I was thrilled that they were willing to help him out with the few things they were concerned about. This program has helped him excel in so many ways. Now Braden is finishing his preparations for Kindergarten and is starting to read and do math! Tanner has joined Braden in the preschool program as a tuition student. I will be forever grateful for the great start that the school district provided for my sons.

Tanner and Braden dressed for the Preschool Barn Dance Fall 2009

As soccer fans, we couldn't be happier with the youth soccer program in our area. Almost every family has children involved in soccer. It's huge here. Ryan has coached Gracie's team the last three years and loves the chance to pass his love of soccer on to "his girls". This year he bribed the girls with a package of Starbursts if they scored a goal. It's amazing how much a package of candy can motivate a group of 7 year olds.

Beautiful moutain views and lush farm country shape our community. Ryan grew up in the mountains and I grew up in farm country. This perfectly combines our favorite surroundings as children. Quick side note: When I was little, my dad would tell crazy stories of why things were the way they were. One of my favorites was the Marshmellow farm explanation. Many hay fields in the area, roll their hay and wrap it in white plastic to keep it from getting wet. These rolls end up being pretty large. While the farmers are in the process of collecting and wrapping the hay you can see random white rolls in the field. As a child, my father told me that these were marshmellow fields! A couple of years ago, while we were on a family drive, our kids noticed those white balls in the fields and asked what they were. I quickly told them they were marshmellows and while they were amazed at their sizes, it has stuck. Ryan and I always chuckle when we drive past the hay fields in the late summer and hear the marshmellow farm commentary from the back row.

The neighborhood in which we live is a fabulous place for a family. Some of our kids' best friends live within five houses of ours. Because we live in a newer community, everyone knows each other and is extremely active in getting to know each other better. When it's not raining, it's common to see kids on bikes or powerwheel cars out front. We've had six cars (mustangs, corvettes, jeeps, backhoes, gators, etc.) going at one time before. Our kids LOVE riding bikes and driving cars.

There are plenty of sledding opportunities in the winter too. Our neighborhood park (less than a half mile away) is the home of an igloo everytime it snows. We still haven't been able to figure out who builds it, but everyone loves playing in it.

A few other unique opportunities that our community offers are the rec center and pool about 10 minutes away (with a great swimming, dance, art and more soccer classes), the opportunity to serve the lower community during flood season, and the quick walk to the library.

Hard Copy Profile

I've been learning the art of Digital Scrapbooking this week in preparation for our Hard Copy Profile that the Agency will have on file. Sheesh, it has taken me a long time to figure it out. These aren't perfect, but they are my first attempt, so I'm pretty proud of how they turned out. When you take a peek remember I am a novice. Oh, and I can't take credit for the layout of the first one. I purchased a template to help me get started. :)

Traditions

There's a bunch in this house so get comfy. To break it up, I'll list them in weekly, monthly, and annual sections.

Weekly:

Monday nights are family nights. We have a rotation chart that helps us keep track of who is doing the gospel lesson, music, prayers, activity, and treat. This is a great way to spend time with the kids one on one because we make the treat together and I help them serve it to our family afterwards, or we color something or create a game for the lesson, etc.

Friday nights are movie nights. We either rent, purchase, or check out (from the library) a movie that we haven't yet seen and veg on the couch as a family with a big bucket of popcorn.

Saturday mornings Ryan loves to make the kids some kind of egg breakfast. Sometimes it's scrambled eggs with cheese, eggs and bacon, eggs and hashbrowns, eggs and toast, fried egg sandwiches, and occasionally pancakes or waffles.

At least once each weekend we make a trip to the park for hide and seek, tag, playing soccer or racing the dog. Penny, our mini schnauzer, loves coming along.

Monthly:

One Saturday every month we do something exciting for the whole family. Last month we went to a local farm/carnival and played in the pouring rain all day. The kids jumped into the hay jump, rode the roller coaster and train, sang with the entertainer, picked out pumpkins, fed the animals in the petting zoo, and rode ponies.

Other Saturdays have been spent at the Science Center, Zoo, and the Children's Museum. (We just bought an annual pass!) Camping, fishing, hiking, and swimming are some other examples.

On average we get together with my family monthly. We try to celebrate everyone who has had a birthday that month over dinner and presents and ice cream.

Annually:

We attend two family reunions. They are always held over a weekend at a state park or other campground. Our family camps out in our little tent trailer. It's not the fanciest but it keeps us off the ground, has cushions to sleep on, two outlets for electronics (or a space heater), and a small, cold-water only sink. It also allows us to bring more bikes and toys along. During the reunions we usually spend lots of our time swimming at a lake or river, riding bikes with cousins, playing card games, hiking or visiting nearby parks, and sitting around the campfire. We also usually have a large family paintball battle, which is a lot of fun.

We also try to go camping a few other times every year. For example, we are some of those annoying Memorial Day weekend campers. It's the first weekend of camping season and after staying indoors for the winter, everyone is pumped to get outside. There is also a large church ranch up in the mountains that we like to go to. We get to go fishing, ride horses, and paddle around in canoes while we are there.

We go sledding. This started a couple of years ago when we noticed a lot of snow in the mountains and wanted to go play. My whole family came along and the competitive nature of the men started bubbling. Pretty soon we had this huge, snow-packed jump they had built and were trying to see how far they could fly off of it. Lately we've combined our sledding excursion with my family's Christmas party, which generally involves staying at some small cabins at the church ranch.

Don't worry. No one laying on the ground after the jump was hurt in the stunt. The sledder cleared us all. Although I must say these men are ALMOST professionals. Don't try this at home.

Sometime during the holiday break we typically spend time with Ryan's family in New Mexico. Most people think it's hot in NM all the time. Not where they live. They almost always have snow for Christmas. Traditionally we do game nights, snow ball fights, more sledding, rockets and ice skating/swimming among other things. When we go visit in the summer, we love to go swim at the community swimming pool that is 2 houses away, where Ryan was a lifeguard in the summers.

At our house birthdays are a special day. We allow the special person to pick their favorite dinner, cake and ice cream flavor, and then they eat off of the CELEBRATE plate. While we eat, each person in the family gets to share something that they love or appreciate about the birthday boy or girl. We also do candygrams for the birthday person.

Family Pictures

The last time we took family portraits, we ended the day with letting the kids snap their own pictures. I was pretty pleased with the outcomes.

Gracie's picture:

Braden's picture:

Tanner's picture: