Since I'm wonder mom and all, I decided to take the kids sledding for the FIRST time... aren't I great! Actually, I just didn't know where to go except to Old Powderhorn, and that's a 40 minute drive. My friend, Sue (aka Captain) and my friend Ruth gave me the inside scoop on going to Scenic Elementary and sledding. Finally managed it! If I'd known how much fun they'd have (and how much work they have to do) I would have been there every day this break!!!
BayLea had a friend show up from daycare (not planned, they just were there).
I wanted to get a picture of my kids together, but decided I wanted them closer together. Look how cute Breccan looks here...
and then he made faces at me for the one of them closer! He's still cute though!
Daddy showed up after work...he was a little cold.
They both wanted to try sledding like they were snowboarding...may be time for ski lessons.
and P.S. Can I just tell you how much I love my camera??? Because although I blew out some of the snow, at least my snow isn't GRAY!!!
Love these girls. My good buddies from RME. Never in my life have I laughed as hard as I do when I'm with them. They are so fun.
This is my oldest Bucket friend....okay, not oldest, oldest...just the one I've known the longest. She and I started work at Clifton Elementary in 1994 and then moved to RME when it was built. Pam was opening our bottle of French champagne (a gift from Yeasta Hunny...loooong story, don't ask).
It began to bubble over so she stuck her finger in it! Thank God, she's Niles...clean and neat!
Kim, a.k.a. Jugs, I met at RME and she makes for tons of laughter and fun! She likes to pose like this when I try to take her picture, because she's a nut that way!
These aren't the best pictures technically...I forgot the flash, darn it!
Me, Jugs and Yeasta...Yeasta is the music teacher at RME. She's amazing.
I think this is a beautiful picture of Ruby, aka Yeasta.
Me, Pam (Niles) and Jugs.
Captain (aka Sue) finally got there... and now we could eat!!! Captain and I were pregnant at the same time...Her wee one, Ben, is 6 months older than BayLea.
We had overnight sausage casserole and cranberry and white chocolate scones from me, breakfast strata from Captain, homemade raviolis from Jugs, coffee cake and fudge from Niles, and champagne from France from Yeasta. Tasty yummy.
A group photos...I'm waiting for a picture of the group from Jugs to see if it's better than this one.
We missed our Baby Bucket...I sure hope the Nuggets won, Baby! Hopefully you can come next year...you've missed two years now, girlfriend!
These are the pictures from the water camera. I'm so glad we drove to the other side of town to get this camera before we went to the pool. I love these pictures!
Don't I look lovely? I had no idea I was making this face. I was just thrilled I could go underwater like this. Did you know that you can go underwater in goggles and not get your eyes wet??? The only time I've gone underwater purposely since I was a kid was snorkeling. Wearing goggles at the pool might actually mean I can have fun in the pool with my kids!!!
I joined a group on Facebook that sent me an activity to do for 5 days of the winter break. So far we've managed to do one...and that is the snow painting. Actually Daddy went out with them to do it. They enjoyed it, I think. We put water and food color in water bottles and let them spray the snow.
These are the gifts we received from BayLea and Breccan that they made at school. Breccan decorated a candle holder. He was so enthralled with the gift when he brought it home that he snuck upstairs with it and unwrapped it. Then he tried to re-wrap it with typing paper. It didn't work too well. So I saw that one long before Christmas.
He decorated the jar and picked out the top.
From BayLea I got a bookmark with her cute little picture on it and the class made a recipe book. It was really cute. Mrs. Bergen asked the kids to tell them how to make something and she wrote down just what the kids said. Some were hilarious. BayLea's was cute...but you could tell she's helped me cook some...she knew quite a bit about the process of making cake.
We had Christmas with just the four of us this year. It was very mellow, and very nice. I worried that I wouldn't know how to do it alone, without mom there to make it special. I think I did okay...
Hold on tight...cuz here comes some pictures, folks!
So Christmas Eve Day began as any other...Daddy going to work, Breccan being silly, and Sassy getting dressed up with stickers...
Breccan wearing our 3D glasses from the movie, Avatar (it costs $28.50 to see a 3D movie at night!).
The kids and I went shopping for a couple little things (food mostly) and we did a few crafts.
For dinner we decided that to have fondue...let me tell ya, that's a LOT of work for a short amount of eating time, especially with kids...they weren't that interested. They liked getting the cheese on their food, but they didn't necessarily like eating it afterwards. The meat fondue they weren't patient enough for and BayLea at the beginning, just picked up a piece of steak and popped it in her mouth...we'd neglected to tell her it was uncooked until she cooked it in the fondue pot. It looked fairly cooked (to her eyes) because it'd been marinated.
I have no idea what daddy is yacking about back there...
But here he is saying "fond-ooooo".
Now the chocolate part of the fondue was excellent...we all liked that!
After fondue, we opened a couple presents...their Christmas jammies (because you just have to open jammies) and their present from Great Pa and Great Laura, because I knew they were breakable and didn't want them to get broken in the chaos of Christmas morning. Breccan had already opened his, in his room under the bed...I'm not sure what it was about this present that had him so fascinated...I'm surprised he didn't break it in process, but he didn't.
BayLea actually wore her jammies all night. I don't bank on her wearing them any more though...she's not into jammies with pants...must be a nightgown. In fact the next night, when I was putting her to bed (and she was not happy with me) told me she wasn't wearing those stupid, ugly jammies.
And this is my favorite picture from Christmas and will be on the cover of my Christmas book that I'll make soon.
Santa came!
The next morning BayLea woke up around 5:45 or so. She was wondering if Santa had made it here. We laid in bed for a while, then sent her down to see if he was there. She was so excited. This really has been the first Christmas she was excited. The last years had her just sitting and looking, maybe overwhelmed. She ran and woke up Breccan, and then the chaos ensued!
They got cameras...which take TERRIBLE pictures...I'm thinking of returning them and just getting them a cheap, real camera.
This game is pretty fun. The kids have to pedal their way through different obstacle courses.
Breccan's present from Auntie Julie and Uncle Josh and girls. Big hit.
Later on, we played the wii. That was fun.
We also headed over to Auntie Tina's and Uncle Jamie's to take Jaron and Kaisha their present. They wanted money...and how boring is that? So we got walnuts (my Great Uncle John one time did this) and cracked them carefully, put money in them and then glued them back together. We did small bills, and left some of the walnuts alone, so they had to crack them all to see if there was money in them or not. Jery even did some that had half walnuts and half money. It was hilarious watching them.
For dinner we had prime rib, Pioneer Woman's Crach Hot Taters, and roasted veggies, and home made cranberry sauce (which was a big hit...Jery loved it).
And real pumpkin pie.
Oh and hot cocoa!
And if you can believe it, I'm done posting now! Whew!
