January... the month it felt like the snow would never stop falling

Although it snowed all month long, it really was a beautiful scene to behold all of that deep snow everywhere you went. It seemed like the snow took over our streets, parking lots, and driveways and made everything else shrink.

We were grateful for our helpful next door neighbor who snowplowed our steep driveway for us a few times, one time in particular was when we were all really sick so it was such a huge blessing. Here is a picture of him hard at work plowing another neighbor's driveway.

We tried to capture just how deep it was by having the boys stand in the walkway. Don't know if it illustrates it very well, but the kids are sure cute!

We were on our way to my parent's house so Brent could work on their house (skim coating the wall) while I took the boys outside in their yard to ski.

I packed down a path with my skis. Oh, and if you're wondering what is up with Chico's coat, he's got his cape on underneath it. :)

And Chico got skiing right away!

Griz however had to wait for me to get his boots attached to his skis. I could not for the life of me to get it to work and I was getting pretty upset. Sweet Chico said to me in the sweetest voice as he quoted this thing he's heard before, "calm down, don't stress, take it easy".  It was just what I needed to hear.

I still couldn't get Griz's skis on my own so Brent took a break from the mudding and came out to help.

Awesome Aunt Emily, look at her jeans!!!

We decided to try out their other hill and see how it was.

I had initially decided not to do it on this bigger hill because it leads to the road, but the snow was so deep on the other side of the sidewalk it acted as a nice soft wall to stop them when they got to the bottom, so it ended up being perfect and we stayed there the rest of the time!

Aww, it's a family picture! (My sweet Mom was out there holding my camera taking pictures this whole time by the way)

Griz was doing really well by this point. He could make it down without any help!

Chico of course was a pro, even if he couldn't see because his hat was on funny, lol. 

Emily and Brent deserve awards for all their carrying of the boys up the hill over and over.

I stole the camera from my mom so she could be in a few pictures. And I'm glad I did because the light was getting really nice out there and I wanted to get some good ones.

It was a really fun activity to break up the day and I'm glad Mom and Em could be a part of it. Hopefully one of these days we can actually teach Emily to ski too! I'm especially glad Brent took a break and stayed out there with us while we were skiing, everything is more fun when my hubby is there. :)

Christmas!

Guess I better hurry and post about Christmas before Valentines day arrives!

We only took our camera to one Christmas party and we took a total of TWO pictures on Christmas morning.  Wow, go us.

We had a lot of fun family parties but no pictures to show from those things. Here are some adorable pictures I took from the 23rd when we did the nativity with my parents.

Joseph and Mary:

Griz was loving the treasure in the box. He was a wise man. :)

It was very fitting for Chico to be Joseph. He loves babies!

After taking off costumes (guess the shirt hadn't quite made it back on) Grandma Coy wanted to give her presents to the boys. They were so excited about their presents.

Not sure Griz knew what to think about this huge ship at first. He loves it now but it was a little overwhelming at first. :)

Chico was walking around with his tool belt, white shirt, and tan pants reminding me very much of Luke Skywalker, lol.

He had fun pretending to saw people's legs off.

Christmas Eve we got home from a family party and got the kids to bed and then unfortunately crashed in bed ourselves before we cleaned the front room. I was going to wake up early and do it but that never happened.  I loved getting woken up by Chico shouting in such a cute excited voice, "Guys!!! Santa came!!!!"  The moment he had been waiting for had arrived.

So I guess my mom was wrong all these years, Santa WILL come to a messy house! lol ;) Santa must have been sympathetic because Brent and I both weren't feeling well and were exhausted. It was so messy in fact that I told Chico to bring the presents into our room to open them. So, there on our bed we opened presents, good thing our kids are still young enough that they didn't care we weren't opening them by the tree!

As Chico started pulling stuff out of his stocking, Griz was still snoozing on our bed.  He pulled Spider man out and exclaimed, "Spider Man!!!" Suddenly Griz shot off his pillow wide awake ready to open presents after that, lol.

As Chico started to open his only present from Santa he said, "this is such an honor." Melted my heart!

After opening presents we let the kids play and tried to decide what to do next, I knew my parents wanted to come bring the boys' presents but the house was so messy it really wasn't an option so we went over there and we all opened presents. We sure were spoiled yet again!  I bet my parents took pictures during that, I'll have to check and if they have some I'll post them on here.  We ate lunch with them and then headed home.  We decided to go skiing and got all ready and headed up to the ski resort. I deserve a Mommy/Wife of the Year Award for that decision because I didn't feel good but I knew how much it would mean to Brent so I said we could go.  We really had a blast skiing. It's hard work taking the boys but so much fun!  One of these days we'll take a camera too. :)

Ramen was a staple food for the end of December/beginning of January.  We all took turns with not feeling well (Brent had the flu, we all got the stomach flu, lots of colds, you name it!).