Getting the forest out

Every year we know that we will have the tree and Christmas decorations up for an embarrassingly long time, due to Winter Youth and then life...I was just thankful we got everything down before we were out of January!

 The means to the end when you have a giant tree...chainsaw in the house!

 What took 5 guys to get in to the house, took my one burly husband to get it out. Well one husband with a chainsaw!

Messy, messy, messy

It needed to be in 6 foot chunks in order to get picked up from the sidewalk

And boy was it crispy! I had to leave the room because I was certain a spark would fly out and we were all going to die in a matter of seconds. I'm sure that wasn't annoying at all!

But order has been restored to our house, and I'll be honest, I kind of love the clean look after the decorations are all put away, even though I miss the beauty of the red and gold...til next year.

And now I plan on moving backwards through the season to attempt to record some memories.

Traditions

It was one of those ideas that came to be that added another check to the 'reasons I love my husband' list. We were living at camp and Jer came across a big frame on camp in storage that wasn't something anyone in modern times would ever enjoy displaying in their home. Then an idea was born. We would make a family art piece to decorate a big wall at Christmastime. We needed to paint the frame (which Toby did for us) and then start creating. Year 1:

December 2008

Handprint Christmas tree's. Payden & Lincoln 3years 3 months. Hailey 1 year old.

The next year, just paint over and create again... 

December 2009

Decorated 'ornaments'. Payden & Lincoln 4years 3months. Hailey 2years old. Taylor 7months old.

Ahhh where is that smooshi faced Hailey?!

The idea was to take pictures of the kids with their creation, but we had some computer problems and lost the one of the kids before it could be permanently saved...sad day.

December 2010

This is a 'strand of lights' the kids thumbprints being the lights.

December 2011

I can't get enough of Taylor's face in this picture!

The kids each did two snowflakes out of paper and then we mod podged them on.

December 2012

Whatever, getting them all in a picture is good enough, someone will inevitably be blurry! They were all super proud of their reindeer footprints, and take more and more ownership of the piece every year! By the way, where did my babies go?

Snow Day

Today the kids and Jer had the day off and for, what feels like the first time ever, we took advantage of a family day. We were trying to decide between the beach and the mountain and last night let the kids know we'd be heading to the mountain to play in the snow. They were ecstatic to put it mildly...dreaming and scheming about what they have been planning on doing in the snow ever since it started teasing us a month ago.
We borrowed  a sled from our neighbors, and supplemented snow pants for the little girls thanks to the Mullens and we headed out!

As the trees turned whiter and the snow covered the fields and roads in beautiful white the oooo's and ahhhh's got collectively louder and more regular, and I'm pretty sure Lincoln was singing some song about the snow for a good 10 minutes. 

It was a gorgeous day full of sledding... 

Sliding down on their rears and attempting to climb back up...the giggling took them down a lot at the beginning. 

Smile's around...except Hailey who thought we were doing mad faces. 

Sledding and belly sliding! 

Crazy Tay Tay, loving life! 

My loves! 

All Lincoln wanted to do is have a snowball fight, he found this bunker and it was on!

Making snow chairs for our picnic lunch in the woods...we ended up on the sled and a big branch...it's rather cold to sit on the snow for a while...

We found a snowman friend that had some additions thanks to the Schuies! 

Taylor said, "I really like to eat this freezing snow, it good" 

After the sledding was done we went down the road to Ski Bowl to drink the hot chocolate we brought from home and watch the skiers and snowboarders. 

Cheers 

The end of a seriously blessed day with the family in God's creation. I just kept looking around thinking how lucky I  am that this is my life...it's a little unbelievable. I am so thankful. God is good, all the time!

Oh Taylor

This deserves it's own post. We were hanging out with Amy and Daphne after they got home and Taylor was loving looking through all of the newborn clothes. She picked up every onesie, every sleeper, every sock, and oooo'd and ahhhh'd just taken with how cute and small it all is. Then she expressed her sweet little heart, as is eveyone does holding a brand new baby but in her 3 year old way.

Very sweetly she says "it makes my heart think that I want to be a baby again so that I can wear these things and be under Aunt Amy and Uncle Chris". Seriously, my heart melted, melted away and no longer pumped rational thoughts to my brain because she is so stinking cute! Babies make peoples hearts think lots of impossible things...and I love her honesty and longing, like mine wanting to freeze my babies just like they are today, because, no joke it goes so fast. As I'm learning though, with each stage...it weirdly gets more fun!!! But baby clothes do make your heart think things!

Daphne Marie

So there is a whole lot to catch up on, I'll start with the most exciting addition to my life...Daphne Marie Cary!

She was four weeks early and it's kind of a long story, Amy's story so I wont get into it all on here. What's important is that she's here and both mom and Daphne are doing great. She weighed 7lbs even and 19 inches long, born at 3:59am January 11th.It's safe to say I'm obsessed!

My beautiful sister the night before Daphne's birthday!

I had the tough job of getting to relieve mom and dad by snuggling Daphne for hours on her birthday so much needed sleep could happen for Amy and Chris after days of not sleeping much in the hospital! Man being an aunt is tough!

 

Seriously enamored!

Lincoln was cracking us up unknowingly counting the dilation chart.

Cousins!

Praying for their turn anytime!!!

Home at last...I have so many pictures of her like this with my newborn babies, now it's her turn!

Hailey is about obsessed with babies as a little girl can get, she was thrilled to finally be over her cold and get to hold Daphne, I've got a run for my money in this one!