Foraging for Food

For Christmas Bumpa gave us all a bunch of information about foraging for your food. He says that that should be a part of our food storage information. I don't know how I feel about eating my backyard, but I'm not starving either! Maybe someday that info. might just save our lives!

The snow has finally melted enough that you can see the ground, and so this morning he took the kids out to forage! They armed themselves with their books and flash cards and headed out. I sent the camera with them, and told Bumpa to get some pictures of the kids. These are the only two pictures he took. They didn't come home with any "food" but they did have a nice hike with Bumpa!

Space Needle Brunch

This morning we took Bumpa and the kids to the Space Needle for Brunch! We went up to the observation level before eating and looked around. It was awesome.The restaurant slowly spins around so you can see all of Seattle while you eat.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve Traditions

We have many Christmas Eve traditions. And even though we are not with all of our family, we still tried to do everything we always do. Of course we made sugar cookies for Santa.

And everyone gets to help decorate.
After decorating cookies, we do our nativity scene. Both of the girls wanted to be Mary, so we decided to flip a coin. They were warned beforehand, that the loser was not allowed to throw a fit, and could then chose to be an angel, wise man, or shepherd. Can you tell who won the toss?? To her credit, when Kennedy saw that Whitley was crying she told her that she could be Mary. Every once in a while, the soft side of Kennedy comes out. Whitley chose to be the angel, and all was well.

Here is our small nativity. Hopefully next year, there will be some cousins around to add to the scene! (Colton made it clear that this was his last year in the nativity scene)
And then it was time to open up just one present. They know every year that they get to open one present on Christmas Eve. And it's always pj's. They know this, they even talk about what their pj's might look like, and yet they're still so excited!

Even Bumpa got pj's this year.

Snow Snow and More Snow

Why is it that I can't find the time, or motivation to post this time of year! Here's a quick recap of the last week at our house.

Wednesday December 17-School got cancelled because it might snow. It didn't! It was bone dry all day long!

Thursday December 18-It snowed! It freakin' snowed all day long. School was cancelled again, work was cancelled, McDonalds was closed, the whole city pretty much shut down. We spent the day hookie-bobbin' with some ward friends. I think we ended up with about 8" of snow.

Friday December 19- School cancelled again because of the snow. Redmond never gets this kind of snow and is not equipped to handle it! Ran a few last minute errands, and got things ready for Landon's dad to come for Christmas.

Saturday December 20-Colton went first thing this morning on a scout outing. I took Whitley to the Stake center for a song practice. Her and Colton are singing in the Stake devotional Sunday night. Landon took Kennedy to the airport to pick up Bumpa (Landon's dad). What should have taken him an hour to an hour and a half, took him almost 4 hours because of the snow. Later that afternoon, we start to hear from our neighbors that we're going to have a wind storm that night. About 5 o'clock the wind starts to blow. It is snowing, and the wind is blowing so hard that the snow is blowing completely sideways! We start to get calls from our home teachers to see that we're okay, and from the elders quorum to let us know that we're only having Sacrament meeting tomorrow. But the bishop says to do what is safest for our family. The way it looks outside, we're not going anywhere!

Sunday December 21-Not going to church. Pretty much just hunkered down, played cards, visited with Bumpa, and watched it snow!

Monday December 22- We decided to venture out today. Once we got out of our neighborhood, the roads weren't too bad. The kids played outside for hours, having snowball fights, etc with all their friends. The kids have been "saving" the snow is our backyard for a snowman. No one has stepped foot out there since it started snowing. There is at least 18" back there! Also, Bumpa has been teaching me how to sprout my wheat! We also cooked it in the crock pot and made wheat berries. Can't wait to taste it tomorrow.

(Our backyard)

Tuesday December 23-We ate the wheat berries for breakfast this morning. We put honey on them, and they weren't that bad. If it comes down to it, we could survive on that stuff. Still working on the sprouts. There is snow and rain in the forecast for the next few days. With the temps in the 20's everything is frozen! The roads are like an ice skating rink. We're headed out this morning to make that snowman in the back yard!

We have been told that this is the most snow that Seattle has seen in over a decade. Lucky us!

Arch Rival

Do you know what this is. It's my arch rival! Every night after dinner, Landon gets one of my 2 cup measuring cups, fills it with ice cream and milk. Then he mixes it all up with a spoon and devours it. It's bad enough that it happens all year long, but during the holidays, when I'm trying not to gain 50 lbs before January?? Help me out here. On a side note, Landon hasn't gained an ounce since we got married. That's right. You hoover down that much cream and see how it works for you. So unfair!

First Snow of the Season

It starting snowing last night, and you would've thought it was Christmas my kids were so excited. They had a snowball fight in the street with some neighbor kids until 9:30 at night. They got up first thing this morning and got dressed to go out into the back yard and enjoy the little bit of snow we did get. I think it was 26 degrees outside, so I took these pictures from the comfort of my family room.

Meanwhile...

While the girls and I were at the Nutcracker, Landon took Colton for some one on one male bonding. They went to the shooting range! I can't think of anything Colton would rather do than shoot guns with his dad!

The Nutcracker

I use to go to the Nutcracker every Christmas with my Grandma and all the girls in our family. We always got dressed up, went out for lunch and then onto the ballet. I use to love that day. It is one of my fondest memories of growing up. Today I took my own girls to see the Nutcracker.

We got all dressed up and went out to lunch before.

Waiting for it to start!

At the intermission we went out to stretch our legs and the girls each picked out a nutcracker to take home. Kennedy told me that was the only reason she came. She thought we were going to the Nutcracker store, so she had agreed to come to get a nutcracker. Gotta love that kid.

We had a lot of fun, and I love spending time with just my girls. I hope this is a tradition I can keep up with my own girls.

Gifts Gifts Gifts

As a child, Christmas was magical. Not a care in the world except for what to put on your Christmas list, and then hope to heck you'd been good all year to get what you wanted!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas morning. I love to see my kids faces light up when they open up their presents. It's the 30 days or so before Christmas that gets a little stressful. I try to be on top of things, and get started early. I do pretty good with my family gifts. Every once in a while I get hung up on a sister or nephew. It's the little gifts, the ones that you don't want to spend more that $5-$10 bucks on, but look like you did more, that are hard for me. I'm talking about neighbor gifts, VT gifts, and of course teacher gifts.

I think I pretty well have everyone covered with the exception of Colton and Whitley's teachers. They are both men, and to me that makes it harder. You can always do Bath and Body or something for a girl, but men are different. Last time Colton had a male teacher, the class went in and got him a Home Depot gift card which I thought was great. Neither of my kids classes are doing a group gift-I'm on my own.

So help me out. What kind of fun, meaningful, look like you spent more than you did gifts do you do for your kids' teachers???

Colton's First Band Concert

Colton had his first band concert tonight. He is playing percussion and loving it. He did an excellent job.

Stroll Down Memory Lane

When I was pulling out all of my Christmas decorations I came across some old Christmas pictures. Man they grow up fast!

MerrY ChrisTmas!

A Year Since I've had a Haircut...WOW

*WARNING* This post is simply a journal entry that my family and I can refer back to, and also a reminder of the kind of person Landon is. (plus it's long-feel no obligation to read)

When I was younger, I took much better care of myself. Not that I don't do an okay job now, but not like when I was 17 without a care in the world except for if I was going to get asked to "the dance". I had my hair done, did my nails, and went tanning like crazy. I was a cheerleader and had to wear that teeny tiny skirt, and my legs had to be tan-like duh!!

Fast forward 15 years. I haven't had a hair cut since last December. That's right, it's been a year. Why, you ask? Lazy, I lived in the Moe Hole, don't know who to go to, can't decide on a style, who knows. I've been dying my own hair for about 6 months, much to the dismay of my kids. They HATE the color (sorry guys). It's been way to long since I had my nails done, and I haven't been tanning since before I had Colton. YIKES.

Today, today was the day for a change. At yoga a couple of my girls friends and I decided that we were going to go get pedicures Friday night. I also got a referral to a great beautician (do they even still call them that) that I think will do a great job. I have taken an oath to stop dying my own hair (what made me think that was okay anywhere but the Moe Hole?).

Nails-check Hair-check

All that was left was the tanning. For some reason I was really nervous about this one. I knew the girl working at the tanning salon was going to be young and cute and tan, and I WAS NOT. I also new that the tanning world had changed sooo much since I tanned that I was going to have to ask a lot of dumb questions. I braved it anyway, for beauties sake. The girl there could not have been nicer. She answered all of my dumb questions and didn't make me feel old. Then she talked me into spending an obscene amount of money on a tanning pass and lotion. Let's just say that the 13 oz bottle of lotion I bought was over $100 dollars. Yes, that says $100!!! I did say obscene, right??

So I tan, and now I'm stressing out. I know that Landon is going to kill me for spending that kind of money, especially this time of year, especially on a tanning pass! He was in meetings all morning long, and I had worked up several stories and explanations of how I would reimburse him with whatever Christmas money I get. When he finally called,I told him my story, and explained that I felt better about myself today from that one little tanning session than I had in a long time. (Pathetic right?) I'm expecting him to rant about the money, but he doesn't. He tells me that hearing me say that is worth more than all the money in the world. That he would never take my Christmas money from me, and how it was my job was to feel good about myself so I could take care of the kids. (I am in tears again just typing this).

He is the sweetest, most selfless man in the world. He cares more about my happiness and well-being than I could ever ask for. I was reminded again today how blessed I was the day we found each other, and how grateful I am to get to spend eternity with him. Lucky Me Lucky Me!