Snow, snow and more!

We've finally been getting the typical winter snow. Mid-December we could see most of our lawns-- very unusual. We had a big storm on the 22nd ish and with the storm today the lawns are buried under 3 feet of snow. On Dec. 28th (I think) we woke up to about 8 inches of snow. The snow fell continuously until about 7 PM. The official report said we received 28 inches in 12 hours. Wow that's a lot of snow. (I didn't get pictures of it because Darryl had the good camera at work so I just didn't bother with our camera. I did shoot some video of the boys and Abby diving into the snow from the back porch(which is buried in snow too)). These pictures were taken on the 22nd.

Brown Party

We spent today over at the Browns. As we do every year, we all gathered for prime rib and shrimp, and the switching of presents. We use to draw names with everyone but the past few years we've just done the kids. It's so fun to see how excited they get. The kids did play the traditional candy bar game but all the other games have been replaced with the Wii. Porter, who is 4(barely) schooled all his uncles and cousins in Super Mario Brothers. (They redeemed themselves with golf though.) They loaded Dad up in his wheelchair and pushed him up the street to Wayne's house for the party. It's just so hard on him and everyone to get him in and out of a car, so Dad got a Lagoon ride for Christmas. He was pretty tired and he was seated next to all the action so he couldn't sleep well so he didn't stay for very long. Darryl took pictures all night and got some awesome pictures. I especially love the picture of Ron looking at Cole. You can see how much he adores babies. I also love the picture of Cole looking at Dad. From day one Cole would always lite up every time he would see my dad-- you can see how much he loves him.

Christmas day

We had a great Christmas day. Clint came in to our room at 5:00 AM, we discovered later it was because he was scared the alarm was going to go off-- the boys are terrified of alarms. I figured Kade would be coming in any minute so I told Clint to get in bed with us. So I spent the next hour with Clint's elbows in my back so no sleeping for me. I had my knee in Darryl's back too so he didn't sleep either--Clint did though. The countdown clock did go off at 6:00 AM so Kade came in all excited. The boys were so excited. Clint was especially antsy to go use the pencil sharpener the family got. Kade got the one thing he wanted, a pogo stick. Clint asked for a lot but Santa picked the Crayon Maker. Clint also got a vacuum again this year. He got a little toy one last year but it didn't really work so he's made wish after wish that he'd get a vacuum "like mom's" and Santa brought it. He loves it but now he says he wants a vacuum "exactly like mom's." They also got RC cars, games, and MORE. I really can't believe how much they end up with. Cole got an activity table and a ball popper toy. He was pretty happy with his loot too. Santa brought us a the camera we've been wanting for years, hence the picture overload. He brought me a pressure cooker-- I guess that is gift for everyone considering I have to keep these boys fed. Jim sent the boys pillow pets. Who knew that would be such a prized item. Kade showed his serious competitiveness while he played his new game Rockem' Sockem'. After the boys played half the day we headed to Redmond. The boys love going to see the grandparents and especially love to go and show them their wonderful new gifts. They both wanted to make sure we brought their pillow pets! (It has been very foggy this month, and Christmas morning was no different so I tried to take a picture of it.)

Christmas Eve (Tradition Day)

Today was FILLED with tradition. We started with caroling to the nursing homes and hospital. The Swaseys have joined us for the past few years and this year the Marshs joined in! Kade said he had water in his eyes from singing to the people and making them happy. Darryl commented that the water in his eyes was likely from looking at the sun while we tried to get a picture of the caroling group. It was still nice that he thought that. :)

After caroling we went sledding on the hill by the train tracks. We even got to see the train come into the station. The boys had a GREAT time. Even after Clint's crash into the jump which included Darryl's body smashing Clint's head into the jump. At first he wanted to call it quits but I thought we should encourage him to go again so he would remember how much fun he had instead of remembering we left because he got hurt. He wanted to go one more time, but then he wanted to go again and again and we couldn't get them to leave. We had a sled race with a bunch of other people who were on the hill too. As you can see Darryl had the tough job. We finally told them we had to leave. We headed home for hot chocolate and doughnuts. Then we started a new tradition, we made a huge breakfast for dinner-- pancakes, eggs, and bacon. While eating his bacon Kade said, "There's just nothing like eating bacon." He loves it-- go figure. Then we all went to bed early-- we were beat. The boys didn't get a nap so they crashed hard. Darryl and I had done all we needed to for Christmas and so we got to go to bed early too-- wahoo! What a fabulous day!