Take a Deep Breath - Here is my Update!

Pretty Sad that I am finally getting around to updating my blog and I am starting with a photo about our first snow fall, with spring right around the corner. Now I can't even stand the sight of snow!!!! I keep hoping Spring will just come already - I think it's trying to make it's way here. Anyway the first Snow fall didn't bring a lot of snow, but it did bring enough to make a baby snowman. Eliza helped me, she was so cute to watch her reaction to the snow. With her help as with all little kids, she actually ended up decapitating the baby snowman, but we got the head back on. I think Janel got that part on film. The birds took off with the carrot nose and twig arms by the next day, but we had fun!




Then came Christmas!!! Which meant Denise and her darling family came to visit. I had been looking forward to this visit all year! I think one of the things I like best when they come is just staying up late talking, like we used to do growing up. Some of our conversations get a little zany, which is when the guys make an exit!!

Denise is showing off her apron that mom made! -- Very Cute
Mom always make one homemade gift for us, which we always look forward to!

Alexa got a cash register- what a cuttie, she sure can light up a room!

Eliza in her new Kitchen! She was making up orders all day, her specialty is Grilled Cheese!



Tess showing off her MP3 player, that she was so excited to get!



And here is Grace with her new baby doll, she was the envy of all the little ones!



And my favorite gift was- An advent Calendar that my Mother made. She actually made one for all the grand babies. I was afraid that by the time I have kids she would be worn out and wouldn't want to make any more. I kept making her promise that she would make me one when I had kids. When we would go shopping she would point to other advent calendars (ones not as cute) and say wouldn't this be OK? I thought for sure I would never get one, so it was a great surprise when I opened this up! There are 25 tiny pockets with hand embroidered very detailed pictures on each one, with surprises inside. One pocket held the presser foot for my sewing machine that I had been wanting! Very cute, my Mother does such a good job. The other gifts that I really liked were new running shoes. I went with a new brand (new to me) - Asics, and I really like them. They are now dirty which I hate! I tried to keep them clean, I think I can run better when they're clean, funny I know! And the Hollinger family gave me a beautiful necklace, that seems almost too fancy to wear!




For the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend we headed up to Aspen Grove!
We had a lot of fun. Mostly we just hung out inside and worked on projects -crochet, needle work, watched MacGyver- Mom. We are not really snow people or should I say cold people so we didn't do any skiing. It was just fun to get away!


Mom working on a puzzle!


Everyone else getting in on the puzzle! It was a Fall Amish scene, so it was pretty difficult. We needed the expertise of the babies for sure!

We did try to go sledding the first night. It got dark pretty quick and then the babies got scared. We were able to go down the hill a few times. Apparently when Ammon and my dad went down the hill with the babies they put their feet or hands down on the snow to slow them down. No one informed me of this. So when I went down with Eliza we went flying. At one point we were airborne, landed with a thud, up onto the side of the sled and then finally straightened out. Everyone watching thought we for sure were going to wipe out. Needless to say Eliza was done after that! It didn't help that because it was getting dark it was hard to see where we were going and what was in front of us, so when we did hit the bump that sent us into the air it was quite the surprise!!!

Here is the little play house that is so lovingly referred to as "boggy house" I am sure there is something wrong with me, but then again it runs in the family-we like to scare the little one. Janel and I took a short cut to the the play area and hide inside the house. We closed up the shutters and when everyone got close we through them open and screamed! It didn't faze Eliza, she's used to it, but Grace didn't want to go near the house after that, too much scaring!! Here she is with her daddy slowing getting closer and closer, she did end up going inside!

Most of the kids area was covered in Snow. Here is the Pirate Ship that they could climb on.

On the other side of the park is a small western town. Half of the shops were closed up, but a few were open.


Here is Eliza and Grace in Jail!

And the guys of course found their own entertainment. On top of the school house was a bell. The game was who ever hit the bell with a snowball first and got it to ring, won. Sorry guys I can't remember who won!



And to some it all up Here is baby Johnathan or baby John-un as Eliza likes to call him. He is a really cute baby. Such a cute round head. He seemed to be chunky right from birth, which is the way I like babies, they are cuter that way. I don't know how Jillian feels about giving birth to a chunkster, but he's here!


Eliza was so cute after she got to see baby Johnathan for the first time. She kept asking when her turn was to hold him. Before she met him she would carry her dolls around by their arms, but now she tenderly holds her baby doll in her arms.



I will really try hard to keep you updated Denise, but don't hold your breath!!!!!