Rice Krispy Houses

Brenna and her friends making rice krispy houses!  They started with the traditional candy of gumdrops and sprinkles.  As they decoreated I sat at the pantry pulling out what candy I could find.  I pulled out skittles, candy canes and lollipops. I have never seen girls get soooo excited over something so little.  They had a fun time.

New Year's Eve: last day of 2009

Happy New Year 2010.  May your dreams stay big and your worries stay small.....Hanging out with our friends Manish and Katie at the restaurant and at their house afterwards...more on the fun later.

Deep Creek Lake

Robin and Buff invited us up to Deep Creek Lake for the long weekend after Christmas.  We weren't sure we were going to be able to swing it with Tobin's basketball tourney.  Tobin had a great time, played well and came out the champions of the tournament.  He was so excited and I was so excited to watch him.  I haven't seen him play since last season and Tobin really has improved!  But I digress...

So, we headed up after the tournament, Sunday night.  We arrived around 10:00 to a fire in the fireplace and a quiet home with sleeping children.  My children took this as their cue and went to sleep as well.  So, it was pretty much adults only the first night with the exception of Torin, who would probably like to think of himself as an adult.  We woke up to snow, snow, and more snow on Monday morning.  It was so exciting for the children and I  must admit I loved looking out the glass doors and seeing snow on the mountain and the ski slopes. 

Tobin and Noah got ready right away for a day of snowboarding.  We are having a great debate right now about Brenna:  she wants to snowboard and I don't want her to (notice I said "I"  as Andy and I are NOT unanimous about this).  I think skiing is simply safer, not as dangerous, a little classier and Brenna isn't conforming to what her brothers are doing by skiiing, Andy says, "If it's what she wants to do why not let her do it?"  I answer this with, "If she wanted to jump off a bridge would you let her?"  Therefore, just because it's what she wants to do doesn't make it the best thing for her to do!  So, Brenna was staying home with the girls which I actually think was a great decision after it snowed and the wind blew all day long.  The boys elected not to take their cameras in case they got wet, so we have no pictures from the slopes.

The boys left (cousins and all) in a whirlwind and it suddenly felt very quiet.  I do think Bre began to regret her decision but it was too late.  Robin and I had a fun morning of hot chocolate and talking.  We really haven't had a chance to talk in a while, so we had a lot to say to each other.  We talked a lot about our kids which is always fun.  Later in the day, her sister-in-law came over to use the hottub with her daughters and friend.  We had a great time talking with them.  We heard about how her friend, Jan's daughter fell off the ski lift from a height of about 15 feet.  She is Brenna's age and really only had laughter as a response when we asked her how she felt.  She was happy to get right back on the lift.  After seeing her for a little while, I got why she would be ok with this.  She was a crazy, wild child!  She went out in the snow in her bare feet, made snow angels in her bathing suit and created energy wherever she was.  She was fun to be around and I wish they had been there for Brenna the whole day.

The boys came back that night pretty tired.  We got them Ledos pizza and the adults went out to dinner!  This was soooo nice and a great omen of things to come this summer.  Dinner, while the food wasn't that great, was a great affair.  Buff's brother came with his family and their friends, the ones we had met earlier that day.  Even though we had just met them and hadn't seen Buff's brother's family in a while, it still felt really easy to talk to them.  The restaurant had a snowlift chair hanging from their ceiling as decoration which created a lot of references to the chairlift ejection.  Before we knew it we had been there for more than a few hours and it was time to go.

We woke up on Tuesday, sad to know that it was the day to go home.  We tried to extend, but unfortunately the house was already taken for that night.  So, off we packed.  But we weren't ready for our lake trip to end.  So, we went to lunch and then looked at some homes for sale on the lake and on the mountain top.  They were absolutely beautiful and make me wish for some day....  Then we headed home over the lake and through the hills.

Christmas Day

more later.  We had Christmas at our house.  It was a very emotionally charged day and I was greatful to be surrounded by my family after the events of the past week.

Christmas Morning: Peace, Joy and Merriment

Christmas morning couldn't have been more perfect!!  Brenna woke up around 1 am and saw that Santa had come!  She reached across her bed to see her what Santa had brought her in her stockings. I told her to lay back down and that we weren't going to do that right now.  (I was exhausted after only 3 hours of sleep the night before and there was no way I was in any shape to do that part of Christmas right then).  She said, "well, the boys are doing it, their light is on."  I turned and looked towards the boys room and indeed saw a light.  I got up and had so many thoughts dancing through my head like sugar plums and just knew I would end up in tears.  I walked into their room and almost laughed out loud!  Noah must have planned earlier because he had his head lamp on his head so his hands could be free to pull and grab out of the stocking!  If I hadn't been so tired, I would have let him go, but I couldn't! 

So I said, "Noah, we are not doing that right now!  You need to go back to sleep and do this in the morning." 

Thankfully they did!!  I didn't hear from them until 7:30 am.

Andy and I came down, turned on the lights, turned on the Christmas music, turned on the video camera and called the children down!

This was the best Christmas ever!!!  Our children loved/liked everything we got for them and what Santa got them.  Brenna got a frogquarium, Noah got a razor bike, and Tobin got a Flip video camera from Santa.  They all loved these gifts; when I saw the flip camera I wasn't sure this morning, but he was really excited!!

And then we moved on to opening up the gifts from us.  They really were excited about everything.  I feel like this is the first year that has happened with all 3 of them.  Noah got an ihome for his ipod that he jumped up and down for, Brenna got Chrissa an American girl doll, and Tobin got a monogrammed team jacket and knapsack for his b-ball team.  This was a total shock to me that he loved this so much!!  In fact Noah opened his up first and Tobin was visibly "in love" with it and I could see he wished for it!  That is when I felt Christmas enter my heart this morning.  Their excitement was all the appreciation I needed!  Truly, it was perfect.  And then I opened my Coach purse and wallet and my heart did a somersault!! 

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve 2009

Andy's family came over for our traditional Christmas eve dinner.

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What I loved about this night was really the after party party that the 5 of us had in your rooms as you were getting ready for bed.  We talked about the next day, the excitement of having presents to open and hardly being able to stand it, wondering about Santa's time frame, and I'm sure other things that have escaped our mind.  We said a prayer and cuddled together.  It was a great moment with all of us and one I will treasure.

Later on as Andy and I lay in bed reviewing the day, we "thougtht" we heard something.  So, we got out of bed around 1:00 am to check on the children.  As I went into Brenna's room, she saw her stocking at the foot of her bed and knew Santa had come to our house!  She exclaimed excitedly and started to reach out and see what was in her stocking!  I was so tired and emotionally drained from the day and I knew that I didn't have it in me for her to look through her stocking.  I didn't have the excitement it required, just then.  So, I told her, "Brenna, we're not doing this right now.  I know you're excited, but I am so tired and we just can't do this right now.  You need to go to sleep and do this in the morning."

Brenna must have been puzzled because she said, "but the boys' light is on."  At that moment, I really wanted to cry.  I just knew that the exuberance of a child at Christmas was no match for my bone weary desire for them to go back to sleep.  I told Brenna to lay her head down (I may have even physically done this for her to let her know I was serious) and headed to the boys' room ready to cry.  And walking into their room, I stopped short and wanted to laugh, but again, no energy.

Noah must have planned this before bedtime and neither Andy nor I noticed it!  When I walked into his room, Noah had a head lamp on his forehead and he was elbow deep with both hands into his stocking.  Man, we he maximizing his options to take full advantage of the stocking without having to reach over to turn on the light!!  It was a picture worth a thousand words, and I have no picture because I was really that tired.  Luckily, he was a good sport when I told him that we weren't doing this right now--that I needed some sleep even if they didn't.  I told him he needed to wait until he went to sleep and woke up when there was some semblance of light coming through their windows.  And I think because he did, Brenna did.

Thank goodness, that is exactly what happened!!  I didn't hear anything from them again until it was 7:30 am on Christmas morn!  Again, I am reminded by this of what great kids I have! 

Snow pictures from blizzard 2009

      The blizzard was the "blizzard of the decade."  That was only because it did this in December as opposed to January or February.  I was only grateful it came.  We got 22 inches of snow.  And the only thing to do with that much snow is to go sledding.  So, here are our pictures to show you how we spent our time during the blizzard of 2009.

The day afterAndy took Tobin and Brenna to the hill at the middle school where Katie teaches.  Manish, Katie, and Meatball (Manish's cousin) were there as well with Delaney and Jaiden.  It was definitely a popular place to be.  Noah was with his friends Eli and Christopher.  Unfortunatley, there are no pictures.   :(.  Although when I looked out the window, Noah, Eli and Christopher were having a snowball fight using their sleds as shields.  Brenna and Jaiden went down together many times and would have fun laughing all the way.

On Tuesday, December 22 I took the children to the local middle school to do some sledding. Tobin brought his snowboard and made a ramp at the bottom to practice for the real slopes!  Noah and Brenna went to another hill on the other side of the playground to this amazing hill.  It had snowed 2 weeks previously and we realized then that we weren't snow prepared with boots, gloves, etc.  and I promised Brenna I would have it for the next big snow, NEVER imagining it would come a mere two weeks later.  Well, we still weren't ready, but as they say Necessity is the mother of invention and we decided to make do or do without.  So, Noah brought his boogieboard (for the beach) to do some sledding.  It was a great thing too, because by the end he was standing up and going down the hill.  We had Brenna's friend Faith with us.  When they announced no school for Tuesday, we called Faith to have a sleep over.  So, Faith, Brenna and Kate went sledding together.  We had a great time.

The beauty is that we got off of school from December 21-23rd with the blizzard.  We were able to start our break early!!  What a great Christmas gift.