Sledding take 2

More fun pictures from sledding.

Tess kept making snow angels.  So cute!

This sled was everyone's favorite.  It was a gift from my sister Jacque and everyone faught over it.

My poor freezing parents.  San Diego'ers don't adjust to the cold very well.

Ron used most of his energy pushing kids down the hill.  They got going pretty fast.

At the end of our adventure, heading home.  What a fun afternoon!

Sledding

We braved the cold weather and went sledding today. The kids had a blast, especially Tess. She was in heaven. And I even passed the camera off to other people so I could be included in the memories.

My parents didn't travel with snow pants or boots so they stayed on the hard packed snow so they wouldn't freeze to death.  The big joke is that my dads coat is good for -20 degree weather (he only wears it when he comes to visit us!!)

The only non fun thing about sledding is hiking back up the hill.  But they were troopers.

Tyson was very cautious, but he had fun too.

Visitors, Finally!

My parents are here!  We are so excited to finally have some family here to visit us!  They will be here for New Years and the weekend.  The kids are super excited, and so am I.  They are even willing to help us work on the house while they are here.  And as awesome grandparents, they are going to babysit the kids so Ron and I can finally go on a date, YIPPIE!!

Christmas

"This Christmas was AWESOME!", to quote my kids. And when your kids think it was awesome, and you didn't spend tons of money to make it awesome, then you did your job well. I was really bad about taking pictures this year. I usually get a shot of the tree with all the presents under, and the stockings, and Santas gifts - but no. So I'll have to tell you what Santa brought. Santa brought Tyson a new skateboard, which ironically he can't use until the snow thaws (April at the earliest). Zachary got the Bakugan Wii game (he's obsessed with Bakugan at the moment). Emma got a gift card for Build a Bear Workshop. And finally, Tess got a trampoline, which she calls her "bouncy, bouncy".

So here's the tree after some opening of presents.  You get the general idea.

All the boys got this Nerf gun.  There has already been many sneak attacks made between the boys and Ron.  Ron got more extra amo than the boys.  They still don't think its fair to have a shoot out with a trained soldier thats an "expert" shot, but tough for them!!

And we couldn't forget Hailey.  She got a new soft bed, and lots of bones  She was very happy.

I got some new pajama bottoms that are FINALLY long enough, a new silver chain, and the big present was a really nice speaker/docking station for my ipod.  I love it!  Ron only asked for the new book "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey and his software.  But we also got him a new wallet, the workbook to go with the book and I framed a copy of the Declaration of Independence to go in his office.   We spent all Christmas day alone as a family.  It felt a little weird to not be with family or friends for a big dinner, but we still had fun.  I turned out all the lights except for the Christmas tree and lit candles and we had a special dinner.  Tess of course kept asking if she could make a wish with the candles. :-)  It was a wonderful white Christmas, and I'm sad that it is our last in the North Country.

Mountain Man

It was -15 degrees this morning with the wind chill, and Ron was outside snowblowing the neighborhood.  He is such a tough mountain man!!  And boy do I love it, because it means I don't have to!!!

Early present

There was just a little bit of wrapping paper left on the roll, and Ron didn't want it to go to waste.  So he wrapped an early present for the family.

It's Wonderful

It's wonderful having Ron home.  He has two weeks off for the Holidays and it is pure HEAVEN!!  He still works on the house during the day, but has breakfast with us in the morning and stops working after dinner.  I have changed since this last deployment, I've gotten: harder, meaner, less patient, and over all grumpy.  Even when he came home it didn't go away, and now I know why.  I needed him HOME with me.  Having him in the house with us, and getting to spend time with him EVERYDAY makes a world of difference for me.  I am feeling calmer, happier, content, and much more patient.  Of course the patience thing might come from the fact that he is disciplining the kids more and I am letting him!!  When people say that you shouldn't need anyone or anything to make yourself complete, I say thats CRAP!!   I am proud to say I NEED my husband to help me feel whole, complete.  So even though he is still busy, I am in heaven just getting to see his face all day long!

Poseing

While we were waiting for Santa to arrive at our church Christmas party, Tess asked me to take her picture. Then she proceeded to make all those funny faces. The other day I also caught her making faces into a mirror. Its so fun to watch her discover all the things that she can do.

I'm so close!!

I noticed on my post summary that I have done 92 posts this year, 93 including this one.  So I decided it would be cool to do an even 100 for the year of 2009.  So I'm going to shoot for it.  There are still pictures to post from Christmas, and I may have to ramble a little bit, but I am going to do it!! 

So don't be anoyed with all my posts this week - I promise that most will be good. 

The Big Red Man

The Big Red Jolly Man came to our church Christmas Party.  The boys boycotted sitting on his lap this year - of their own choosing.  They don't believe in him anymore, so they won't indulge mom and sit on his lap for the yearly picture anymore.  So it was just the girls.  This might be Emma's last year of "believing" and I am so glad she made it this long.  Tess was completely enthrawled with Santa.  She kept trying to cut in line and sit on his lap again and again.  When he finally left, she came to me and said "Where did my Santa go?"  She was very sad that he left her.

I think Tess has such a cute angelic face here.  She never told Santa what she wanted, she just asked for "presents", which makes my job very easy!!

Gingerbread Houses

Making Gingerbread Houses is a Christmas tradition. No, I do not take the time to make my own gingerbread, and we don't use graham crackers. I love to support the comercialism of the holidays by buying a lovely Wilton Gingerbread kit. This year, I found their village collection; 5 little houses instead of one big one. I thought this was brilliant, since we have 4 kids, they could each do their own, and I could have one all to myself!! So you get to be bored by the pictures of everyone's house, and there are actually pictures of me - Ron grabbed the camera to document that I am actually a member of the family.  Don't I look so focused!!  All the good candy was gone by the time I got to do mine, but it was still fun.  And working on a tiny house is hard!!  You have to be really careful with the icing!

My finished product.   The kids voted that I had the prettiest walk way.  Yeah me!

Tess' house.  Of course I helped her, but she put the candies on and loved it!

Ron is the master architect.  He scrapes all the sides to make them fit "perfectly" together.

Zach's house.

Emma's house

Tyson's house

Our little village.  We didn't make the sleigh, that was a gift.  Don't they look great!!  It was definately a fun family evening.

A Crowther Afternoon

Our afternoon... Well, I caught myself giggling about something this afternoon. I was in the kitchen baking sugar cookies, Ron was in the entry way using power tools to put up molding, and the kids were yelling and fighting over their computer games. It was a hilarious combination of activities that have made up this last year. I informed Ron of my epiphony and he agreed with me. So I quickly grabed the camera to document our funny afternoon. So here is our afternoon, in pictures.

Ron working INCREDIBLY hard to make our home beautiful.

Yes, those are power tools at the foot of my Christmas tree.

"Electronic" time is the coveted activity of the day.  30 minutes goes way to fast, so they have to HOVER and watch each other play.

Sugar cookie explosion.  I had a small panic attack when I couldn't find my Christmas cookie cutters.  Luckily I found 4, but it just won't be the same without my Santa and Angel cookies.

I had to take a picture of my sweater.  I am a very messy baker.  I really need to get in the habit of wearing an apron.  And believe it or not, this is nothing compared to what it use to look like.  This is me after trying to wipe off all the flour!!

And Tess with her HOT CHOCOLATE face, because whenever you are sad or grumpy, Hot Chocolate will fix anything!!  It is our beverage of choice at the Crowther house.

What did you do this afternoon?

Decorating the tree

We've started a new tradition at our house. We wait to buy and decorate our Christmas tree until after Tess' birthday on the 11th. I think this will help her feel special on her birthday and seperate the two special events. So on December 12th, up went the Christmas tree, and we had a fun night decorating. Another tradition is that I read the Symbols of Christmas story and we place ornaments on the tree that are the symbols of Christmas. These are the first ornaments on the tree. And then we let loose and have fun!

Zach is our resident character, and he had to pretend to be Santa.  He is so crazy and fun!