brrrrrr

Our little heater went out. Brrr. I never realized how much we depend on this thing to keep the temperature even throughout our house. I had to send it to the manufacturer to get it fixed. I can't wait to get it back.

draper temple openhouse

We went to the openhouse on Saturday. We ended up leaving Matthew with G&G at the last minute and that was a good decision because it's hard to be reverent for a long time when you're little AND we ended up having to wait a very looooooong time for the return shuttle to our car. The temple is really beautiful inside. The wall murals are the most beautiful I think I've ever seen -- they just suck you in and you feel like you are a part of the picture. The boys had a good experience, which is what I was hoping for most. Ryan & Jacob kept asking if we got to see another room, they didn't want the tour to end. Jacob told me at one point, "This is neat!" Favorite rooms were the baptistry and of course the celestial room with it's gorgeous chandelier and high high high ceiling. Jacob also loved looking in the mirrors in the sealing room -- you can see yourself & your family going on forever. That's what it's all about -- families CAN be together forever!!

birthday meal

Mark recently celebrated his birthday. I made one of his favorite dishes for dinner -- enchiladas. I also made him this lowfat cheesecake. He likes cheesecake a lot, but it probably wouldn't have been his choice for a b-day cake -- IF I would have given him a choice!

I admit, I made it for me. I really like cheesecake. I had this recipe I've been wanting to try and birthday just seemed like a good time. It was good, but not THAT good, so I will be tossing the recipe -- I've got better ones. I just don't like cottage cheese in cheesecake. You can't really taste it, but it's just knowing it's in there. (Note to Josh & Nicola: this wasn't Josh's birthday cheesecake recipe, even though it's decorated to look like the one you made for Josh -- But I didn't do such a great decor job) No sending this to cake wrecks!

ski day

The kids had a day off school last week (end of term), so we decided to take them skiing. We discovered a resort that is ridiculously close to us and really quite nice with new facilities. The day was sunny and warm without wind and plenty of fresh air too. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the lack of fresh powder. We took up a few local learn-to-ski offers and had a fun half day on the slopes. This is Jacob -- his first time ever on skis!!Here he is skiing with his instructor. He basically had a private ski lesson even though it was technically called a "group lesson". Ski lessons for the kids are worth every penny!!

Ryan was anxious to tryout snowboarding. He had a group lesson and really did quite well. In fact, he really likes it -- we've probably created a monster. I'm thinking a helmet is going to be a necessity in the near skiing future.

Mark also took advantage of the learn-to-ski deal and tried snowboarding with Ryan. He didn't love it and that was disappointing because it looks so fun. He managed to make it through the afternoon without any broken bones, but had plenty of bruises and sore muscles. The pain has worn off through the week and he's decided that he needs to give it another shot. Sometime.

This is Jared taking a break. Jared and I skiied together for the afternoon and had a fun time together. We all enjoyed breathing fresh air and soaking in the sunshine -- it has been so awful polluted in the valleys lately thanks to the inversion.

songs to remember

Matthew is becoming quite the little singer lately. It's really very cute. Besides just making stuff up, he has real tunes -- you can actually tell what tune he's singing even when the words are da-da-da- etc. His favorite time to sing is when he wakes up in the morning and he's just laying there in his crib waiting for someone to come help him out. He also likes to sing during those too few times he plays by himself. The other evening we listened to him sing as we were cruising around in the van. We honestly love to hear his little voice singing away -- it's definitely a sign of pure childhood happiness. His repertoire of real tunes includes:

• jingle bells
• once there was a snowman
• twinkle twinkle little star
• the abc's
• star wars
• london bridge

science fair

It's science fair project time. Ugh! I enjoy experimenting with things, but I hate trying to put together all the other junk to go with it. This year Jared is exploring ice melter. He has determined that it works best when sprinkled on the driveway BEFORE the ice & snow start piling up. I guess that just validates what the snowplows are trying to do when they're out there sprinkling stuff on the road at the beginning of a snowstorm.

Parent involvement projects like this always lead me to wonder exactly how much parent help should really be given? We all know there are some kids whose parents basically do the project for them and they win everything. Then there are the kids whose parents don't help at all, and they are just lucky to have something to turn in -- be it bad or good (most often not so good). We are trying hard to find the middle ground here -- helping but not doing the work for our child. Heaven grant us patience and wisdom here!

hock-ut

Due to Heidi's chocolate postings, I decided to share this heartwarming incident. Last night after snitching some chocolate from one of those huge candy bars, a cute little voice came up beside me and said, "MOM -- hock-ut" Translation: "Mom, CHOCOLATE!" Of course I gave my sweet little Matthew some chocolate -- how could I refuse?? Sometimes I do think I'm raising my children right.

new years snow fun

We spent New Year's in Idaho with my family. Over Christmas a huge blizzard left a good portion of snow in drifts around the house. It was very cold and windy while we were there, but the boys bundled up and tried to make a snow cave. This is Jacob holding a nice chunk of snow/ice. Here's Jared just waiting for the opportunity to bomb me and the camera with an ice chunk.

This is the snow cave the boys managed to dig out before they froze themselves. That's Ryan inside. Also, notice the green grass on the lower left -- yep, huge drifts and green grass together!

On New Year's Day we managed to bundle ourselves up and head over to my brothers house for some snowmobiling and tubing. Unfortunately, I left the camera behind -- I would have had some great shots! Anyway, we had lots of fun! Jacob & Colten were inseparable on the little tube. The rest of us took turns on the bigger tubes. It's always fun to have the snowmobile pull us back up the hill and really takes the work out of tubing! We all had a chance to drive the other snowmobile around in the field, and that was really my first time driving one of those contraptions. Very fun, but very cold on the face!

lego mania

As you know, Jared loves legos -- here's the finished Mars Mission Armoured Drilling Unit -- all 635 pieces, assembled correctly!

lest anyone think I've disappeared...

I'm still here. Very preoccupied. Very unorganized. The Sunday before Christmas our ward called a new RS presidency. Meet the new Enrichment Counselor. I'm definitely not what I'd call "enrichment counselor material", so lets just say the learning curve is extreme. We have sisters in our ward in every age group and trying to figure out how to best to meet their interests and needs is a huge black hole for me right now. I have a great Enrichment Leader & committee however, so once we get the ball rolling for the new year, I'll have a lot less on my mind.