Christmas Time

Whitney liked her dragon from Great Gran! Christmas we always try to be at home so the kids can just relax (and us, too) We had decked out the outside of the house with lights, and the inside with lots of decorations. Scott found a great tree in the mountains for us and we decorated it as well. It was a little sappy, but didn't have the killer needles of last year's tree. In some weak moments, a fake tree starts to saound good, but we love our live trees and are so thankful to live in aplace where we can pay $10 for a permit and Scott can grab a tree at work. We keep planning to go with the whole family, but it hasn't happened yet.  Christmas was a Sunday, and church is at 9, so we planned on just doing stockings before, but everyone was up early, so we just did the presents. All the girls got great things and had fun, and we thank all of you for your gifts. I spent a few days before Christmas purging our toys, so we had room for the new. We cooked a turkey and all the trimmings and just relaxed the rest of the day.

   The day after Christmas, Kim and Jane were able to come down with Christmas #2. Grandpa Kim loves sugar cookies so we made some and got everyone decorating. It was fun. The girls are always up for frosting, baking, and of course, sprinkles. 

 Isabel asked for a Nerf gun and RC car. she got both and loves the truck. The Nerf darts are already MIA, as I expected, but still, Scott and I had fun with them.  It doesn't really work to only have one gun in the house. Perhaps we will get some more. Scottt got an RC helicopter, and it has been a big hit. it is so cool and little, it is amazing to see it fly around the house.  I was a little overwhelmed this year and did not do Christmas cards or neighbor gifts or anything. I felt slightly bad, but I also enjoy simplifying (still feel guilty). Just know that we think of you all often.

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, we took some time to tour another beautiful spot. We have been here once before with my dad and Brigitte, but Kim and Jane hadn't been, and the girls didn't really remember.  Needles Overlook is a beautiful place, and even with a little bit of snow it was a great outing.  The views are spectacular, and I look forward to being able to explore more of Canyonlands as the kids get older.  We all had fun and it was a good day.  Don't forget, if you come visit, we will take you to these amazing places, too! or at least point you in the right direction! 

Fall to Christmas Lights

I apologize, these pictures are out of order.  This is the gang at Temple Square. We ended up going right before Christmas and the traffic and parking were insane. I am pretty certain there was a concert at the conference center acrosss the street (which holds around 20,000 people!)It took hours to get up there, but It was worth it, all the girls are just at the right ages to enjoy everything and the weather was great. The hardest part was keeping the mittens out of the fountains. We saw all the lights and displays, and then headed home, late.

This picture was taken at Thanksgiving, after the big meal we took the girls for a drive to see some Christmas lights. There weren't a lot on, but we went down to the Riverwoods shopping center and it had amazing lights! So we were able to get out and walk and see everything, the girls loved it. They have done a lot of work there, making it nto more of a plaza for shoppers. The decorations were gorgeous, and they also had fountains and lots to see. It was a fun time.

Abby participated in her first year of "real" Junior Jazz basketball. She was on a team with 3rd and 4th graders. She was one of the smallest girls! I am sure that will change over time.  She practiced twice a week, plus a game on Saturday mornings, it was busy. It is so fun to watch these little girls who really have some skills! They can dribble and shoot and make baskets already.  Abby did great on defense, but was a little timid going after the ball. We will work on that ;)  But she had a lot of fun and that is the most important. I don't think they really even kept score most of the time.  Isabel is now doing the instructional league, I will have to get pics of her up soon.  She is having a lot of fun with that, as well.

Scott worked on the sprinkler system for our back lot, but stalled on a few things. Finally, with winter snow threatening, I buried a bunch of the lines, and then had him  smooth it out. We were going to borrow a neighbor's tool to drag out the dirt, but we just improvised with some fence parts and it worked great. Sara had fun helping Dad.  There are still loads of rocks, but they are smaller. Hopefully first thing in the spring we can get the water hooked up and get some grass growing back there. We are pretty tired of the evil red clay mud!It sticks to everything, and it stains.  If we can get the lawn going, we may also do a fire pit if we can figure out a cheap but safe and good looking way to do it. We probably will end up picking rocks on the mountain and doing it that way. It will be so fun to be able to just do s'mores at home whenever we want!  And hopefully my lilac bushes are surviving so they will make us some privacy in a few years.

So I guess that was our busy fall!

Hovenweep and the big Loop

We took Scott's parents on a big loop around this corner of Utah and Colorado. We started by heading to Hovenweep, which is around an hour away.  It is a small valley with many Pueblo ruins surrounding it.  Some are still in very good condition. It is a National monument, so they had little booklets the girls could do to get Junior Ranger badges and certificates. They enjoyed looking for things and doing activities, and they got to take an oath and everything.  The trail is easy and you just walk around and look.  It is somewhere we hadn't gone, still interesting to see these places and wonder about the people who built them.

The next leg of the journey, we drove across the reservation, through the towns of Aneth and Montezuma Creek to arrive at Bluff.  We went for lunch at the Twin Rocks Cafe. I had seen an ad for it, and it was a cool place. They have a good restaurant, a store and a trading post as well.There isn't much in the town, so this place is a nice suprise. The owners were super nice and gave the girls free little sheriff badges and Indian necklaces.  We had fun looking around. We then went to the old fort. We have been there, but Kim and Jane hadn't, so they got to look around. It is always a fun place to go.

After Bluff, we took a drive towards Monument Valley, to a road Scott knew of, called Moki Dugway. It goes up very steeply with switchbacks, and has great views.  The picture above is from the top.  After we got to the top, it was just some more driving to get back to familiar territory.It was a long day and a lot of miles, but really cool to see all these places. Monticello may not have much in the way of entertainment, but it's hard to compete with the things you can see within a day's drive.  Speaking of entertainment, Grandpa in the back set loved watching all the Dora and barbie movies with the girls! 

Halloween seemed to last months this year! We decorated the house up, and also got some cool inflatable pumpkins for the yard. We put them in the back since no one really goes past the front of our house.  The girls loved plugging them in.  There were many parties, including Sara's preschool party, church trunk or treat on saturday, school carnival, and regular trick or treating on monday.  There were amazing amounts of candy, which are thankfully almost gone!  Whitney found her new favorite food group, which used to be cheese, but now is candy! She asks for it so nicely, it is hard to say no. 
We took a trip to Grand Junction for a little visit with old friends, some shopping, and the Pumpkin patch. I didn't take my camera, but we had fun in the corn maze and got some good pumpkins.  It was hot, But it was a good trip.  The girls had been asking about going for months, so it was nice to finally be there.  We carved the pumpkins the week before halloween and it all went pretty well. The girls got busy in the goo and picked out ever single seed for us to roast.  Usually I grab enough for a pan full, but this year we had two full pans! And every seed was gone within a few days.  Whitney stayed strapped in her seat and helped pick out seeds, so she had fun too, away from the knives. 
We invited Scott's parent's down for the weekend because we had the Trunk or Treat\Chili cookoff on Saturday and the Primary program on Sunday, where the kids sing and do a little part in church.  So that was exciting.  We spent the day very busy and came back in time to grab a few things from the grocery store and get cookin' chili. Last year I won 2nd place, this year I wasn't even sure if i was going to make any, but I signed up, made my chili and won the Golden Ladle! So I was happy about that, although now I have to babysit the ladle for a year and not lose it. In this house, that may be tough.  The party was pretty crazy, and the tunk or treating went quickly, with most kids making two rounds of the parking lot before we ended it. Whitney figured it all out VERY quickly and had a great time. She was so cute.  She was a cupcake.  Abby was Brittany Chipmunk again, although she lost her ears 5 min before and I found them 2 days ago.  Isabel was a lion, and sara was an Ice Cream cone.  At the school carnival, she won a prize for "most unique" and was so happy. She got a jack o lantern bag for a prize.  We all had fun at the carnival, and Sara won the cake walk and got a cake, too! She was lucky that night.
Sara Says:   I am an ice cream cone. and don't lick me! and I love love candy and I love halloween cuz there's candy. My favorite part was the halloween carnival. I liked the fishing (game) and I loved the treats and the cake walk cuz I won a cake. and the most thing I love is the coin search and that's it.
We took the girls around close to home, then the little ones stayed back and I took Abbby and Isabel up to a more populated street. i let them run alone and I followed in the van. I think they had a good time. We got a bout 5 kids at our door, so they got a lot of candy. 
So after a lot of anticipation and planning and incessant asking about wearing costumes and how long until halloween, coupled with dressing up fully twice, we had fun and are happy it's over.  well, I am ;)

Isabel goes short!

Could she be any more beautiful?  After many a hair-brushing battle discussion, Isabel decided she wanted her hair "short like Abby's"  Well, I didn't want to go that far, but I was happy to take out my scissors and lose a little length.  We also lost a lot of blonde! I think it turned out well, not perfect, but she was happy with it and it has definitely been simpler every morning before school.  Both girls are pretty good about doing their own hair, so we're all happy with it.  Isabel also has a wiggly front tooth that she is anxiously waiting to lose, this is a BIG DEAL.  love our Isabel.

The Dollhouse

A few weeks ago we had Scott's dad over for the weekend to help finish up the Blazer. Also in town was one of Scott's colleagues and his family who live in St George.  They wanted to go somewhere cool, so Scott decided to take us all out to a place called The Dollhouse.

It takes a good couple of hours to get there, with the majority of the trip on very bumpy and windy roads.  We set out after lunch and it just seemed to go on forever.  The road took its toll, and by the time we finally arrived most of our stomachs were not feeling wonderful.  But if it was easy, it wouldn't be an adventure.  So we got out and headed down the trail. The top photo is of the steep decline to the ruin.  This ruin is really cool because it is so well preserved and not many people know about it. The house has two tiny rooms. There is also still ancient corn cobs in them.  The wood and stonework is all amazingly preserved even though it has been centuries since they were built.  The girls had a lot of fun running around, and loved having Grandpa to ride with them in the back of the suburban.  After we looked around, we headed back to the cars for a snack.  The trip out seemed a little shorter, and better because at the end, the road was paved and smooth.  I am thankful we could go out there and that Scott knows about all these amazing places, but I also am not planning to go out there again any time soon! After we got back, we were able to take Grandpa out for steaks at an amazing little place outside of town, which was yummy. The girls got to play with the babysitter, which they always love.  It was a busy day but great memories were made.

Yard work, continued

 Scott trenching

fun things we find in the dirt

The lilacs

"Madame Lemoine" lilac double white flower

"Sensation" lilac, purple with white edges

We got the back lot plowed again to get rid of the weeds. We want to get in the sprinkler system and then plant grass seed before winter.  Hopefully in the spring, the grass will choke out the weeds some, and in a few years we will have a nice lawn back there, instead of mud and weeds. Our neighbors planted seed when we did sod, and it has come in quite nicely, so we are optimistic. We are also planning for a garden area, and the lilacs are to be a privacy hedge. They are supposed to do well in our terrible soil, so we hope the deer will leave them alone long enough to get established. They have already nibbled most of the leaves off. But a bunch of websites said they were deer resistant, so we'll see.  We bought the plants a few weeks ago on our trip north to the zoo.  There was not enough of any one type, so we alternated the white and purple.  Hopefully it will be pretty and they will grow quickly.  We are still planning on a few fruit trees, but we have so much going on, it's one thing at a time.  Scott has worked for days doing the sprinkler system and getting everything set up.  It will be nice to have it done.  Anyone who wants to donate to the cause, or feels like doing some manual labor, or who loves picking rocks, give us a call ;)