Christmas 2017!

Oh, how I love Christmas!!

This year, as it's done for the past two, it snowed Christmas Eve!  We were so glad to wake up to at least a little snow...a little is better than none!  Hopefully mother nature will deliver soon because we are waaaay behind in our snow pack this year!

 This year, some exciting gifts were:

A record player for Haley.

iPad for Morgan.

Bed tent for Piper.

Mountain bike for Rory.

Another successful year in the books!

Christmas 2016

What a magical Christmas we had!

However, always leading up to it I feel a bit frazzled and think there is NO WAY I'm ever going to pull everything off in time...but in the end it all falls into place.  

I try to make sure I remember the true meaning of Christmas and partake in all the Christmas-y  things leading up to the big day...and I do say, I think I'm getting better at it every year!

We spent Christmas Eve at my brother Matt and his family's home (as per tradition).

We got home that evening and got the kiddos into bed...I don't think the older girls actually fell asleep until maybe 1:00 in the morning!  Which made for a late night for us!!

But around midnight the snow starting falling and we all knew we were going to wake up to a Winter Wonderland!

 Christmas is my favorite!  Honestly, it's just the absolute best when I have children to share it with!  Growing up my mom always made Christmas morning magical, truly she did.

As a mom now, there is nothing better than seeing my children come down the stairs to find out that Santa actually came!!

 The little ones fell in love with their American Girl dolls.

I cherished my own growing up and I hope they do the same with theirs.

Piper wanted Mary Ellen and Rory, Samantha (which is the one I had growing up).

 Haley and Morgan scored big with new bikes this year!  (It's kinda nice having a husband in the industry!)  Morgan has been talking about racing road for a while now, and of course you say those words in this household Ryan is ALL over it!  Ha!  And Haley, has been dreaming of her own beach cruiser.  We've ALWAYS told her no way...complete with a list of reasons why; they're too big and don't fit well in the garage, way too heavy and we can't take it anywhere, yadda yadda.  So you can imagine her total shock when she came down the stairs.  In fact, we told her "no" so many times she didn't believe the bike was actually for her!

 The girls have always participated with gift giving growing up, whether it's artwork or a craft they've made or cards, they seem to always have something under the tree for other family members.  But as Haley and Morgan get older its been fun to see them actually shop for others with money they've earned here and there.  

It was the most relaxing morning!

Later that day we cleaned up and my family came over to celebrate.

I served up a ham feast and we did more gift exchanging.

 And of course the day wouldn't be complete without Rory falling asleep somewhere...she found a good spot with grandpa.

 Morgan had been wanting a trapper hat with matching flannel shirt...her wish came true!

I think she wore that shirt for a week straight!  And she wears that hat every day!

 Jeff and Jess.

My mom with my little niece, Rowan.

What a wonderful weekend!

Christmas 2015

 Ryan and I got to bed around 12:30 after finishing all our little tasks that need to be done Christmas Eve.  As a child I remember being so excited it was hard for me to sleep...and now as an adult, I'm just as giddy...I'm just so excited to see my girls' eyes light up when they wake up and come down stairs.  Christmas is just so magical with children!

After Ryan and I went to bed we got a visit from Morgan about every 30 minutes until morning.  She would come in and say, "I can't sleep.  Is it morning yet?"  And we would respond the same way..."Does your clock say 7:00?  Then it's not morning..."  

Poor thing...I remember feeling her pain when I was her age.  Little did she know, I was just as restless with excitement!

But morning indeed came!

And so did Santa!!

Some top gifts were Penny boards and Polaroid mini cameras for the older girls, and new Razors and dolls for the little ones.

 The girls and I in our new Mexican house dresses.

It's all about the Pit Vipers this year.

We had my family over Christmas evening for a ham dinner and hot chocolate bar dessert...and MORE presents!

 It was a beautiful day!

But we missed my brother, Andrew, who's living in Big Bear.  Bummed he wasn't able to join us...next year, right Andrew?

This year has been loads of fun and I'm pretty sure 2016 won't disappoint!

Happy New Year ya'll!!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning we woke up to SNOW!!!  And lots of it.   We hadn't had any in the Valley yet, and we were hurting pretty bad at Sundance for skiing.  So it was a Christmas miracle!!  

Santa Came!!

The kids...well, okay, Haley got up at 7:00 Christmas morning and pretty much paced around our room until we got up.  We woke everyone else up (which is sooooo hard for me to do when we had such a late night the night before...but you know, gotta do what you got to do!)  

The girls were thrilled!

Favorite gifts have to be the Zoomers that Haley and Morgan received from Santa.

Piper and Rory were thrilled to get princess dolls  from Grandma and Grandpa.

I gave Ryan a skateboard (he's been wanting one to use for quick trips to the market or taking the girls to school...also it's pretty nostalgic for him...he can reminisce about his old skater days).

And my big give was a Fitbit.

I get a D- for picture taking.  Not sure what happened...shame on me.

But the day was good fun!

I'll try to hunt down some more photos!

Merry Christmas!

So, a few weeks ago I had this dream.  

I was probably stressed about everything that needed to be done this month, and with starting work again my time is little more limited.  

So yeah, the dream.  I dreamed that we needed to get our Christmas cards done and to save time I had everyone get together to take a quick selfie with our phone.  I slapped it into a Christmas card and wrote, Have your "selfie" a Merry Christmas! 

I woke up loving that idea and got to work...

Behold, our Christmas photo for 2014.

Hey, it's December people!  It's all about survival at this point!!

And I might add that this was the easiest photo we have EVER taken as a family...it was meant to be!

And I do hope you have your "selfie" a Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours!

Had to share.

I know Christmas is over and no one wants to look at anything Christmas related for a good 11 months at the earliest...or is that just me?  But I had forgotten about these pictures on my camera and wanted to share.  

Morgan had been begging to make Gingerbread Men this year, but my schedule was so busy during the break my answer was always "Maybe tomorrow." when ever she asked to make them.  The days flew by and I was never able to squeeze it in.  So one day when I was making a mad dash to Costco to pick up Christmas dinner stuff I came across these already made GINORMOUS Gingerbread men.  They came four in a box...how perfect is that!  I know it's not the same as making them from scratch with my kids, but when times get crazy us moms just have to do what we can...to survive.

I thought they came out pretty darn cute...and they made fantastic decorations for the mantle!

Tomorrow and Saturday I'm working...and maybe just maybe I won't have a lesson in there somewhere so I'll be able to take advantage of some this fresh pow we've getting for the last two days!

Happy Weekend!

Christmas 2013

Wowee...what a week!  I've been crazy busy over here...hence the lack of posts!  I've worked everyday since Christmas so that has been taking up my days and then hanging out with the family in the evenings so I haven't had a chance to catch up...on anything!  I'm really enjoying work, although I do go through quite a bit of guilt being away from my family...but I won't be working this much once the holidays are over.  

Anyway...back to Christmas!  By the way...I did have Christmas Eve and Christmas off...which was a very much needed break!  Being a ski instructor has got to be one of the most grueling jobs!  Picking up children, lugging skis, hiking up the tow hill...bottom line...it's a work out!  But that's a post for another day.

Okay, back to Christmas...again.  We had so much fun!  I just love Christmas!!  The girls were super excited and Haley woke up several times throughout the night "to check to see if it was morning."  So needless to say Ryan and I didn't have to best sleep...but that is to be expected the night before Christmas.  We woke up with Haley and Morgan pacing in our room around 6:30 and we got the little ones up about 6:50.  Not too bad.  

Santa Came!!

(Please excuse that blanket on the couch...I wished I moved it before I took the picture.  It's for a sneaky dog that likes to sleep on the couch.)

The girls with their Christmas jammies that they opened Christmas Eve.

When Piper wears hers I want to shout out, "What does the fox say?!"  

Some things Santa brought...

Haley and Morgan:  ski helmets and goggles, doll wardrobe (perfect for their American Girl doll clothes and accessories), legos and new books.

Piper and Rory: Play-Doh, Duplos and a new book.

 After opening presents we had our traditional breakfast of monkey bread, sausages and eggs...nom, nom, nom!  Later that afternoon my family came over for a ham dinner.  We were especially lucky not only to have my mom and dad in town, but my other brother Andrew too!  So I was able to have my whole family together at the same time!!  I just loved having everyone together!

At one point in the evening we had a massive dart gun fight!

The pictures just doesn't do it justice as it was a pretty crazy affair...seriously...it was nuts.

 The girls with their cousin Jett.

I love how the majority of my children are still wearing their jammies from the morning.

 My dad and a couple of my brothers, Matt and Andrew.

And last but not least...my crazy family.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  Tonight we are gathering at my parents' house for New Year's Eve!  We'll see how late my children can go before they have complete meltdowns!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

The past week or so.

Seems like life just got crazy...or crazier anyway.  

I decided to do a quick update with some photos from the last week or so.

Rory's very impromptu birthday party.  Seriously, it was so spontaneous that Ryan and I ran out and bought her a present literally an hour before it...with her in tow.  Thanks to my mom who was totally cool having all of us bombard her house to celebrate last minute.  And the only reason it was last minute was because the rest of the week was too crazy, plus my dad was flying out of town...it was kind of then or it wasn't going to happen.  Hopefully she won't remember it being too lame.

She did an awesome job at blowing out the candles...only a little bit of spit hit the cake.

We have been getting slammed with the snow fall the year!  And the temps are crazy low!  Like highs in only the teens and lows in the negatives!

Of course the dogs love this time of the year because they now live in the house.

And of course Haley spoils them rotten.

I started working on Friday...I'm currently three days in.  Still finding my groove, but I enjoy it.  Although, being on the mountain when the high is only about 10 degrees is a bit out of my comfort zone.  When I get home I'm I cannot warm up...it isn't until I take a very hot, scalding shower that I feel better...and hot chocolate helps too.

Sunday afternoon we finally decorated.

It's very Christmasy in our living room now!

And we picked a different kind of tree...I love it...although we had to chop the top off to get it to fit in the room.  But I think it's so pretty!

Tomorrow, it's more skiing.  Haley's class is coming up to Sundance for the Ski Utah program...so that should be fun!

Happy Monday!