Ice Skating

The new ice rink had their grand opening today in Victor. Jason took the kids last weekend, but Tatum has been dying to go back and show off her amazing skating skills. Cambrie brought her friend Summer with us. Here are the girls getting ready to head out on the ice.

Tatum is really a natural.

Here is Tatum taking a hot cocoa break.

A friend from their class was there too, so they all skated together. Tatum ran into a friend of hers there too and they had a blast skating together.

Cambrie, Summer and Tatum. The sun was really bright in this picture so you can't see the mountains, but there's an amazing view.

The kids used chairs a bit to help them get around on the ice, but mostly they just gave each other rides. I love this picture.

We're fortunate to live in a community where so many volunteered their time and resources to help build this rink. The kids love it. I'm sure we'll spend lots of time there in the years to come.

another day. . .

today began at 1am as jake woke up with the stomach flu . . .
he's been a trooper, but is obviously miserable.

another goal for 2010 ~ get 8 hours of sleep each night {a huge feat for a night owl like myself} i've had more energy, been happier, felt better - and after last night, i can definitely attribute that to getting 8 hours of shut eye.

i whispered to jason at about 3am that i wasn't going to meet my goal, so he lovingly told me to go to bed and he slept on the floor with sicky, sicky jake-man.
on a side note, i've eaten 5{i hope it's only that many} black-bottom cupcakes today! luckily there were no goals about eating, and maybe the training for the '6 events' goal will offset the calories. i can hope anyway.

someone tried to scam me{literally}! this makes me grumpy.

i've rearranged quilt blocks countless times, hoping to start on a new project, but am putting it off until i finish some of my more pressing items on my to do list.

well, i better finish up for the night, i've found it's incredibly difficult to squeeze everything in and be in bed by 10 or 10:30!

good night! and here's to a puke-free tomorrow!

Skiing With Dad

The Winter Sports Program has started, so Cambrie has been spending the last few Wednesdays skiing with the Elementary School. Tatum was out of school today, so Jason decided to take her up and ski with both of the girls. They had a great time. Cambrie is learning to turn while keeping her skis parallel and Tatum seems to be a natural. They both loved skiing with their Dad and can't wait to go again.

When I Grow Up . . .

Tatum's parent-teacher conference was today and this is one of the papers her teacher gave me. She said it was probably the most creative one she has seen. It says: "When I grow up I want to be a CUPCAKE MAKER." I love all the different colored cupcakes on the pan. I credit the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe for this, but who can blame her! That would be a great job.

And here are some of the Cocoa Bean's cupcakes. Can you see the resemblance?

Numero Uno

ONE DOWN. . .

I made a goal to complete 6 different 'events' this year. Being that I live in snow country events can be hard to come by in the winter months, so when I saw a Snowshoe 5k I thought that would be a great way to start out. Of course I've never done or seen a snowshoe race, so I was a bit unsure of what to expect.
Anne-Marie and Cathy joined me. Here we are before the race. Lucky for us there was about 8 inches of fresh powder ~ just what we needed to give us a really good workout. We had a great time ~ I'm so glad that I tried it out.

It continued to snow the entire race. Here we are after.
We actually took 1st{Cathy}, 2nd{Me} and 3rd{Anne-Marie}. No need to mention how many competitors there were. Let's just say, we weren't the only ones.

Here are Anne-Marie and Cathy cleaning off the car. In the hour and a half we were gone, the car was buried in about 4 inches of snow.

FIVE TO GO!
Next up, 10k in California {how nice it'll be to have warm fingers during the event}!

Play Day!

Last Saturday was an amazingly beautiful day... warm and sunny. We hit one of the nearby hills for some tubing fun. The girls even took their skis and we created our own rope tow. They loved it. Tater was determined to learn how to ski. She caught on very quickly.

Here's one group getting pulled back up the hill by the snowmobile. Jason & Jake flew down on the little tube. It was so warm, Cambrie stripped down to her thermals.

The rope tow in action.

Me and Tater on the tube.

Biggest Icicle Ever!

Cambrie was so impressed with this icicle she found out by the chicken coop, so I had to get a picture of her with it. It was HuGe!!

2010 Family Motto

be grateful for what you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.

Loved this . . .

Monday night as we were fininshing dinner Cambrie asked if she could be excused from the table. She headed upstairs so I figured she was off to her room to read or play. We cleaned up the dishes and did a few other things then started gathering the kids to read. "cambrie" no answer. "Cambrie" still no answer. "CAMBRIEEEE" still no answer. We sent Tatum up to grab her and she was no where to be found. Jason went up himself to look for her, and still no Cambrie. Tatum ran downstairs, and still we couldn't find her. I was starting to get a bit worried that she went out to the chickens and maybe somehow got locked out there in the freezing coop. We checked in the garage and finally Jason walked down and looked all over the basement. This is what we found . . .


Apparently at school her PE teacher had told them about the upcoming Jump-a-Thon and the need to start exercising to be in good shape for the event. So of course, Cambrie decided she better get started right away. She went upstairs, changed into her 'workout clothes' then headed down to run. 3 miles (actually 3/4 of a mile-3 laps) but pretty good if you ask me. On a side note, Jake is now obsessed with his headband and left it on for about 36 hours straight. He wasn't exercising, just wanted to jump in the picutre. This was night 2. Yes, the exercising still continues. Love the socks!

Back to School Cookies

Sadly our Christmas Break has come to an end and the girls are heading back to shool tomorrow. What better way to prepare than to let them stay up late and make cookies?! Anyway, they're excited to be going back and even more excited to know there will be Snickerdoodles waiting for them when they get home.

Jake's 1st day as a Sunbeam

He's getting so big. I can't believe he's already in Primary as a Sunbeam. Surprisingly he wasn't very enthused about going to Sharing Time, but luckily Tatum was there to take care of him. She sat by him with her arm around him trying to console him. It was so sweet and such a change from not too long ago when Tatum herself didn't want to go to class. Here he is after church was through - smiling no less which is pretty impressive considering we've started going at 1pm.

Snowshoe Picnic

Today we took the kids snowshoeing for the 1st time. We pulled Jake in the tube and took Hershey too. We packed up a lunch and hot cocoa then set off up the trail. They all loved it. Tatum like with everything else only has one speed. She was either running, falling or laying down. It was such a fun day. Hopefully there will be many more like this in the coming months.

Getting their hands warmed up by the fire.

Sipping hot cocoa.

Tatum after she crashed.

Spa Night

Cambrie received a spa kit for her Birthday and has been wanting to try it out ever since. I told all the kids they needed their jammies and robes on before we could get started. They came downstairs all ready to go - even Jake.
We mixed a vanilla betonite clay mask then put them on our faces. They though it felt so strange as it was drying and becoming stiff on their face.

All of us together. Jason decided to sit this one out.

Cambrie and Jake checking themselves out in the mirror. Jake was hilarious. He wanted to do everything the girls did and just kept saying, "This is for girls and boys, right?!"