cookies

We love making cookies every year. Nothing special, just for the kids to eat. It brings back great memories of my childhood. Every kid gets a paper plate to catch all the spill of sprinkles. It's always fun to see what they come up with. This is the first year we didn't have the mile high icing with all the sprinkles cookie. Makes me a little sad. Those always reminded me of Joel and Brad.

Jared is really into yin and yang, and so he made this creation

snow and ice

We enjoyed some snow and ice last week. It messed up Allen's last week of work. The kids were out three days the week before Christmas break. We got to try out snow at our new place....

they loved playing on the frozen pond

Claire found the perfect hill

they didn't go out to play on the ice day

cuddle wrestling

Something happened this weekend, that happens often in our house, that I want to remember, because it won't always happen.

It is Saturday morning, Allen is still in bed, it is creeping closer to afternoon, so I say to the kids, "will some one go cuddle with dad?". And, every time, three kids go tearing into dad and jump in bed with him. Why do they do this? Do they love cuddling with him that much? Maybe, because they do actually cuddle for awhile. But about 10 minutes later I will hear screams and screeching mixed in with laughter. The cuddling always turns into wrestling. Well, they call it that, but really it is "try to get out of Dad's death grip". He will hold all three tight to him as they struggle to get away(well sometimes Carter just lays there saying he enjoys it). If one happens to escape, the others will beg for help and the escapee will try to help but usually gets sucked back into the struggle. All four of them love this game. Allen admits it is getting harder to hold all three. When will this ritual end? When will we just reminisce about it? Hopefully not too soon.

a room with a view

wanted to share the best part of our house with you:

notice the moon in this one

the lake becomes a mirror
a foggy morning
sunset

after

beautiful

sunset