More Fun in the Snow...

For Presidents Day weekend, we took the family to visit Aaron's grandparents in Star Valley! My kids love this trip! Grandpa Lindberg uses the tractor and made them a little sledding hill, that the girls used over and over again. Carson wasn't so sure about sledding, because he is too occupied with the tractors, snowmobiles, and all the farm equipment.

Even Aunt Sherry was a great sport and went sledding with the kiddo's. (She also has a very sore foot, so we aren't really sure she should have been sledding at all!)

Carson climbed on top of the sled hill and played for hours. He kept saying he was "digging," in fact he was digging so much it took me about 8 pictures, to get one when he was looking at me! He is not an easy boy to get a picture of because he will not sit still for a minute.

It is a tradition at Grandpa Lindberg's house to line the sidewalk with ice cycles, and color them with food coloring. Grandma Jackie and Aunt Sherry started doing this with the kids a couple of years ago.

The kids loved being pulled around on a sled behind the snowmobile, actually Carson only liked riding on the snowmobile. He left the sledding to his sisters! They were great sports, Aaron would take them over jumps and dump them off the sleds, and they just kept going back for more.

The entire weekend, Carson was asking Grandpa Lindberg to start the tractor. He wanted to help Grandpa put the chains on the tractor tires, and no matter what we would tell him, he would not stop asking. Grandpa did take him for a ride, and the little boy was in heaven. This kid loves to play with little tractor's and dump trucks all day long, so this was quite a treat for him. Thanks Grandpa!


Here is a little video of my little boy happy as can be!

Ralphy!!

On Presidents day, my hubbo had the day off from work! We had spent the weekend visiting his grandparents in Star Valley, so I was busy cleaning and unpacking. Aaron asked Carson if he wanted to go outside, and he was of course all over that, I went about my cleaning and a little bit later looked out the window and found this little dude!

He is Ralphy, the orange slices eyed, pvc pipe armed, blue paint bellied, snowman. Oh, the creativity that runs in this family! Carson has been a little sad, as he checks on Ralphy every now and then, and the warm sun has not been all that good to him.

I wouldn't be sad if it was actually warm enough to make Ralphy disappear!

What is a Yurt??

So, it seems I should have been a bit more clear. It seems maybe yurts are not all that popular and well known. So, for all of you who asked, here is what a yurt looks like!

A little day of traditions

Years ago, my family started a little tradition of heading to Island Park in the middle of the winter to stay in the Yurts at Harriman Park. To my parents, this was a great idea for a family activity. I was a little slower to join them in the excitement. It sounded like a ton a work, and then you have to sleep in a yurt! Not exactly our kind of fun. Although I might not have had the greatest attitude, my opinion of this little activity changed. It was relaxing, and my kids loved it, and especially liked going with the cousins.

Unfortunately, as our family has grown, we no longer can fit in the yurts. We have changed the tradition to a father-daughter (we only had girls in our family for a long time!), day trip to go cross-country skiing. This year my parents talked me into sending Paige for the first time. I was worried she would not be able to keep up with everyone, but she did great and loved it!

It was a beautiful day, and they saw tons of swans in the river.

As tradition goes, we cannot have a ski trip without a mighty duel! at the end. Here is the barricade that everyone made to protect them from the opposing team, Grandpa Rich. I don't understand why no one will be on his team, he just gets attacked by everyone.

My kids look forward to this trip like they look forward to Christmas! Hopefully, someday when all the kiddo's are old enough, maybe the mom's can join in on the trip again as well!

Pretzel/Donut Night

This was not the same night, it is just getting hard to figure out ways to keep these kids occupied, so we are making plenty of treats. Friday night we made donuts to have for treats with our game night. They were really easy, a little greasy, and unfortunately one of my daughters threw up later that night!

So, I guess I will skip the "post the recipe" part. They had a great time, and I loved that it took me a week or two to get all of the sprinkles swept up. I tried and tried but those little things just keep rolling around.

A couple of days later, the kids were bored so we made soft pretzels. My little girl Paige loves pretzels, she asks us whenever we drive up to the mall if we will buy her a soft pretzel. She was quite excited about this activity. They look a little burnt and brown because I used half wheat flour. (I was trying to be healthier than donut night, especially trying to avoid the sick daughter!) They were quite yummy and we had a great time making them.

This is a picture of our lovely handiwork! These were crafted by Aaron, Morgan, Paige, and Carson. Morgan tried to make a snowman, Aaron and Paige stuck with the traditional pretzel look, and Carson thought we were still making donuts!

Just thought this boy was pretty funny all dressed up like Bob the Builder

Burrito

Carson and Grandpa Rich have a little game they like to play called "Burrito." It consists of wrapping Carson up in a blanket, and then Grandpa will pull the end so he spins and rolls out. It is a bit rough, and sometimes we tend to have injuries. The little guy still keeps wanting to play though.

While Zach was visiting, we tried to talk him into taking a turn. We almost had him ready to go until Carson hit his head on the floor, and them Zach wasn't all that interested in playing anymore. (He might be the smart one here!) After Zach declined, they decided maybe it was time for Grandpa to have a turn!

After Grandpa had such a great time, Carson decided his Daddy needed a turn. Thanks for Aaron and Grandpa for being great sports!

To Shower or not to Shower....

So, I had thought my little Sunbeam had outgrown a bit of his naughtiness. He has been pretty sweet, even though he can be a bit messy. This morning, it got quite messy. I almost always shower at night because I don't want him to do this.

This morning I got in the shower, fixed my hair, and when I came out it wasn't pretty. He usually gets into food, but today he cranked it up a notch.

I might have to blame my brother-in-law Shae, for this unfortunate event. On Christmas morning, he had a Sharpie. The idea was to put a "C" and "Z" on every toy that the boys opened that was the same, so they could tell them apart. It worked great, and they got along so much better this year.

During the shower, he found a present that was for Morgan, that had not been opened. He took it out of the wrapper, got the dry erase markers out, and tried to mark her present. He must have gotten bored after that, because next he marked my fridge, wall, piano, and rug.

Lucky for me it wasn't a Sharpie, and I was able to get all the marker out...I wonder if I will be as lucky the next time???