Winter Wonderland!

It has been an interesting couple of days in the Tri-Cities. On Saturday night we had the worst freezing rain I have ever seen here and the entire Tri-Cities was a sheet of ice. I wish I had taken a picture of the lawn. It was completely covered in ice, the trampoline was frozen solid and the net around it was ice. It was actually pretty cool to walk on the grass and feel it crunch underneath your feet. We got a call from a member of our Bishopric telling us that the 9 am block meetings had been cancelled for Sunday and they would decide later on Sunday if our 1 pm meetings would be cancelled.

Well, we woke up Sunday morning and it was snowing and had been for quite some time. There was probably 1-2 inches of snow on top of all that ice. Needless to say, church was cancelled and it continued to snow until around 7 pm Sunday night. We racked up 6 or 7 inches! Amazing!! We haven't had this much snow for about 4 or 5 years and certainly not at the end of January. But, the kids are having fun and the sun is out today, so it will probably be gone by the end of the week.

We had a good time shoveling snow yesterday for a little while and the kids played a little bit outside. I think we'll try to go sledding tonight for Family Home Evening.

Christmas 2007

We had a great Christmas. We headed to Idaho Falls to spend the holiday with my parents. It was a great time to go since my sister, Natalie, had her little girl, Madeleine, on December 19 and was feeling good enough to come up for the holidays. It was a longer trip than usual because of the weather and the worst of it we hit when we got about 30 miles out of Idaho Falls. However, the kids were excited to see all the snow and we were glad to get everything unloaded and know that we didn't have to go anywhere for a four days.

The kids just loved playing in the snow. Kenedy and Hallie, especially, spent most of their time outside in the snow. The day after Christmas, my dad bought a sled for the kids. He has a 4-wheeler and spent a little bit of time making a trail all around their yard so he could pull them on the sled behind it Besides Christmas presents, that was the highlight of their trip.

My favorite part of the trip was just being with family and talking, laughing and having fun. I was especially thrilled to meet my new niece. She is adorable and it's always fun to hold a newborn baby in your arms. Thanks so much for coming Natalie and Taylor.

My mom always makes good food for us to eat and it's fun for the kids to be able to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks so much for letting us come, Mom and Dad. We sure love you!

Lexie is holding Natalie's little girl, Madeleine. The kids were so excited to meet their new cousin. Lexie told Madeleine what her name was and then said, "Now, Madeleine can be my cousin because she knows my name."

In Jim's house growing up, they had a hallway that could be closed off from the living room and they all had to line up oldest to youngest before they could come out and see what Santa had brought. We have adopted this as a tradition on Christmas morning.

Haden's gift from Santa--model planes. He and Jim were able to put one of them together on Christmas day.

Santa brought Hallie all of the Harry Potter movies. By the look on her face, I think she was excited.

All Lexie wanted was an Ariel doll, since the one she got for her birthday broke.