"surf" sledding

Breck preferred to "surf" sled. He tried his surf board made for swimming pools along with a few other "toys" before he decided he had to settle for using the SLED!!! He had great fun mastering his skill and hollering "mom watch"!!

SNOW!!!!

It's a blizzard (Ha!) but that doesn't happen very often in our neck of the woods so we capitalized on the opportunity to play in it.

We had to take this picture of ourselves... and my arms aren't too long but we captured us, Up Close and Personal!!

Playing on the play set, going down the slide and eating icicles!

Pausing to rest after a fun slide to the bottom of the hill

Every year we praise God for this woodburning stove, for either heating our house when we have no other heat options (which has been the case at some point in each winter for 13 of our 15 years in this house!), cooking on/in last year during the ice storm becuase of no electricity for five days or for warming us after a fun day in the snow.

snowmen, igloo's and tunnels...

This round of snow has brought endless fun

Today we shoveled out igloos' and tunnels

and FINALLY the snow was somewhat wet enough

to make a snowman.

Zipline FUN!

We have just loved playing on the zipline. The day Josh came over to help us finish setting it up by putting the brake on we had to slip away to go to a basketball game. We really wanted to ride it (and Jeff needed a little zipline therapy after a horrible loss!) so after the game we moved the firewood pile, that was in the way, and had some zip zippity fun in the dark.

Pictures from our night ride didn't turn out too good but here are a few from the following day!
Love Kacey's face in this one.... she is about to hit the brake and wondering what that might feel like!

She loved it and was laughing when it was all over! As we all were - it's been much fun and we've taken a ride most days! Can't wait to share the fun.

We're so proud of you!

The character word of the month for January was RESPECT!

Each teacher gets to pick a student who went above and beyond in living out that character trait. Kacey was chosen by the P.E. teacher

Way to Go Kacey Girl
Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!

Our Goose

Just a prancin - showing himself off!
The boys are trying to capture him but he's not too scared :)LOL!The other night at dinner we hear this loud thud and Jeff and the Kids go to look out the window but don't really see anything. As Jeff is getting ready to go outside Breck proclaims - there's a goose! Which we all laugh at thinking he's tricking us and being a silly goose... because WHERE does a goose come from in our neighborhood??? He stayed with us for about 24 hours and then we saw him waddle down the driveway never to return.. hmmmm wonder where that little goose is now!

Encouragement from a dayspring blog

“Chance” and “luck” do not sit on the throne of heaven, but a loving, personal Creator does. Life is not a gamble and fate does not guide your destiny. God did not bring you into this world to live without a purpose, to exist without a reason, or function without meaning. He loves you, cares about you, and wants you to know Him and do His will. By Roy Lessin

I loved this portion of a blog entry I read this morning so thought I'd share it. You can read more by going to the following link. http://roy.dayspring.com/2010/01/index.html

Death... it's inevitable

The Kids' fish died today --- hmmmmmmmmmmmm. you know the day will come as a parent but the kiddos are quite sad. Breck hollered -- fishy isn't doing good. So we came to see and were able to witness his final moments before he sunk to the bottom of his tank.
Grief - it is so unavoidable and it comes in many layers and forms. It is something on this side of heaven we have to learn to live with and through. My kids would have been in school when fishy died but because of icy conditions school was cancelled for the day so that in itself was a blessing since they were home to say their goodbyes - and they did. Kacey orchestrated a moment of silence and then they petted his little back and said goodbye!

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran

Bye bye Fishy... thanks for bringing us delight.

Happy 2010

This first video we thought we missed the ball dropping because at midnight Dick Clark was at commercial!! and our clocks/phones said 12:00 so we celebrated....

Then those in NY... realized that the Central Time Zone was waiting on them and they returned - 4 minutes past midnight to celebrate with us - we finally got to count down to the ball dropping!

Happy New Year to all we love love Dearly!

New Years Eve Recital

Kacey planned and organized a recital for new years eve and these are the honored guests who received her handmade invitations!

Over Christmas Break Kacey taught Breck how to play the piano so he was the first one on the "stage" to play jumping frogs followed by his sister who played the First Noel

The floor was then opened up to our guests in which many participated! Here is Maggie signing to O Come all Ye Faithful while Kacey along with the audience is singing. Riley - showed his talent on the keyboard

as did Clarisse and Alice as they played a duet

Kacey sang for us and it was all delightful!

Before the recital came to an end Martin and Lanna showed off their talents on the keyboard as well. It was so fun and one of my favorite parts of the evening.

Soda Family Christmas

We had a sweet afternoon with the Soda Family celebrating Christmas

Kinsley brought her camera and took some great family photo's! These are my amateur versions
It was a day of celebration... from singing Happy Birthday to Jesus to enjoying good conversation with one another and a little bit of singing!

The singers in the family

Jen, Kacey, Audrey and Kinsley

Audrey, Kacey and PaigeBreck and Dane

2 funnies

This last week I celebrated my birthday - mainly on the couch with the stomach flu but a couple fun memories are below...

my sweet family went out to buy me cupcakes and made a 40 - 1 celebration for me.... this is the year that I END having Birthdays!!! If you look closely you can see their creativity! then they all enjoyed a cupcake for me since I crawled off the couch to come smile for the picture and open their gifts. Thanks Jeffrey and Kids for not ignoring the day even though I felt yucky.

Later in the week when I had recovered from my sickness I was able to celebrate with family members at Noodles and I have NEVER seen four kids fight over who got more salad than the other.... Breck is a salad eater but for the others.... there will never be an excuse for not eating their salad again!

It was a fun night out and a treat for me to get to eat such yummy pasta!