Christmas

Christmas was wonderful. Its always nice to be able to spend time with friends and family. Christmas Eve was spent with Ken at work most of the day. When he got home, we headed out to deliver the last of our Christmas treats to friends. Then we came home to a dinner of chicken nuggets in the shape of snowflakes and snowmen. We had a nice Family Home Evening talking about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Then it was off to bed for the kiddies.

Santa was good to us this year. As you can see we had quite a few things under our tree. Isabella was very excited about the kitchen that she got from Santa (via Craigslist). She did actually stop to open some presents but once she got to a large Dora the Explorer pillow, she was done. That trumped the kitchen, until later when Dora had to be with her in the kitchen.






After we finished things up at our house, we packed up and headed to Ken's sister's house for the day. Isabella had a blast playing with her cousin Katlyn. That included "helping" Katlyn while playing the Wii.


Bryce sporting the hat from a German doll that was given to Grandma.


Isabella freaks out whenever we try to do anything to her hair, however she stands perfectly still for Marcey to tie this on her head. Go figure!


We really are truly blessed by such great and generous family. We had a lovely day sharing the holiday with our loved ones. Now its off to play with all our new toys.

Three Days Later!

So the final snow tally was 19 inches. That was before it started to compact down. Sunday and Monday were quite sunny so some things started to melt a little, which was good as everyone started to dig out. I thought it was funny how the snow was drooping on the deck railings before it fell.




This is one of our neighbors that was in and out all day Saturday and got himself stuck at the entrance to our street on Sunday morning.


Here are Ken and Isabella starting to try to dig out the cars. Mike, Linda, and Pam showed up not too long after Ken started and helped him out. Ken's Civic is still buried out on the main street. It no longer works and we are donating it, but they can't come pick it up since its still behind 2 feet of snow and the plows keep pushing more against it.



This was our street and the main street we're off of on Tuesday morning. Not too bad.
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However, yesterday, most of the main street looked like that icy patch on the pic below. Today, most of our street still looks like that.


Then they sent in these guys and roads aren't too bad now.


But our back deck still looks like this.

Blizzard

How do you spend a snowy day? Laying around in PJs and watching it snow.



Bryce got to hang out all snug and warm in the house since he's been sick this week.




But you do have to go out and play a little. Here's Tammy trying to make a snow angel. It was about a foot deep at this point.

Isabella could stand but not walk in it. Which unfortunately means I had to carry her every where and she's a heavy kid.


Our neighbors cars when the snow got to about 17 inches. Yes 17 inches of snow!


The hooly bush in front of our house.


This is the 17 inches on top of the trash can on our deck.


I thought it was funny looking out at our patio chairs.


Isabella "helping" Daddy shovel.


Ken taking a break after shoveling.


We'll let you know what the final tally is once the snow stops falling.

New couch

Ken has a very generous sister who gave us her old couch when she recently bought a new one. Its nice for us to have a "new to us" couch that is quite comfortable. Isabella has decided to claim every seat on the couch and frequently tells us to move. Yes, she's a very bossy 2 year old.




Here are the kids Christmas outfits. I didn't want them to have only one Sunday to wear them, so they started wearing them this last Sunday. They also aren't super Christmas-y so they can wear them for a while.

Making Cookies

Aunt Linda made some sugar cookie dough to cut out for Christmas cookies. She invited us over to help. Isabella had a lot of fun. She liked to help push the cookie cutters into the dough. Each time she pushes down, she has to say "squiiiiiiiish." Its quite funny. Here are some pictures from the cookie making.

Its Christmas Time!

We put our Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving Day this year so that Ken could be around to help put it up. It was fun. Isabella kept jumping around saying, "A Christmas Tree, A Christmas Tree, A Christmas Tree." It was fun to see her excitement. She still is excited about the tree and always has to point it out when we come down the stairs. She loves to lay under the tree and "count" the lights. She really likes when Ken or I lay there with her but she was okay with Bryce laying there too.



And no those aren't yellow presents under the tree, they're some of Isabella's blocks.



This is what she likes to do when she's watching Dora or Max and Ruby.


Are you taking my picture again?


So today is December 5 and we're getting our first snow of the season. We're in the 3-5 inch range. We probably have about 2 inches while I'm entering this blog post. Ken and Isabella went out and played in the snow and built a snowman. Well, I think Ken really built the snowman because Isabella wouldn't have anything to do with it.

She wouldn't stand up so Ken could take a picture of her in all her snow gear.


I took Bryce out for a short little while so we had to bundle him up in his cute little snowsuit. He was too darn adorable.



Playing in the snow.


Bryce sitting on the snowman


Adorable!


Ken's snowman


Isabella not going near Ken's snowman

Too stinkin' cute!!

Some co-workers of Ken's gave us this really cute outfit. He wore it to church on Sunday and it was just too stinkin' cute. We got lots of comments about how adorable the hat was.