Passing the time on Christmas Eve Day

On Christmas Eve during the day, the girls and I went to Costco to do some shopping (it's actually less busy than the day before that). After we got home, Hannah and Alyx (friends of theirs since they were born) came over to help pass the time. They watched the movie, "Momma Mia" and then played the sing-along portion of the DVD and had a great time using their snapple bottles as microphones and sang along with the music. What a bunch of crazy girls! There's nothing like good friends to help pass the time and create some Christmas memories.

On Christmas Day, we hung out at home and relaxed. It was nice to spend the day relaxing after the crazy, busy Christmas rush.

White Christmas!

For the first time since we've moved here (18 years) it looks like we'll be having a white Christmas! It has snowed pretty much everyday for over a week. I have never seen this much snow around here. It is so incredibly pretty. I love to sit in the house, curled up in a blanket, watching a movie, with the snow falling outside. (With hot chocolate, of course!!) A couple kids from down the street came down this morning to see if Amanda could go outside and play with them. She used to babysit them and they love spending time with her. Our driveway is perfect for sleding down, too.

Snow and more snow

This is Sam's smowman from earlier this week. It's about 14" tall!

The girls went outside during the day while it was snowing.

Your never too old to make a snowman. Sam decided to make a "normal" sized snowman after we had enough snow to MAKE one.

More snow has fallen this week than we've seen in 5 years. The snow has been falling off and on all week. We would get an inch or two and then partially melt, snow a little more and then melt, etc. But yesterday it snowed all day and we ended up with about 7-8 inches by last night. I had to drop something off at my work, so the girls and I went for a walk last night. It was a lot of fun to walk around, looking at the beautiful snow. This morning when we got up we saw something else we haven't seen in awhile.......the SUN!! The combination of the sun and all that snow is absolutely amazing! Our Christmas break was suppose to have started after school today (Friday), but due to our weather we've been out of school since Wednesday. (School was 2 hours late on Monday and regular schedule on Tuesday....that's it for the week!) Around here, when we have snow, school is canceled due to the fact that we have alot of hills and back roads that the buses drive on. SO - our Christmas break just got longer and our summer vacation just got shorter.

Let it Snow.....

The snow is like powder, which makes a snowball fight difficult.

What a wierdo!

We didn't get a lot of snow last night - but it's enough to play in. When the girls got up this morning, they immediately bundled up and ran outside.

Christmas Party and First Snow.....all in one night!

Poor Santa!!!!!

The program turned out really cute! That's Mary and Joseph, if you can't tell!

Tonight was our Ward Christmas Party. We ate a ham dinner, the Primary put on a really cute program and then Santa came to visit. Since I play the piano for Primary (on Sunday's), I played the piano for the program and since most everyone in our Ward knows how much I love taking pictures, I was also asked to takes pictures of the kids sitting on Santa's lap. It was fun to visit with people from our Ward and just be together.

When we went outside after the party, it was snowing! This is the earliest we've gotten snow in years! It was so incredibly pretty to watch it come down! I love it!!!

Head for the hills......

Even this tree (crooked and all) is better than the one we had last year!

Hannah and Amanda goofing off.

Sam and Hannah taking a little hike.

This last weekend we went out in the jeep again. It's always nice to get out of town and into the mountains. We were kind of looking for a Christmas Tree, but figured that if we didn't find one we liked, we would just go to a Christmas Tree Farm this next weekend. Last year we got a tree from the mountains, but it was kind of ugly...(ok, it was really ugly) - so the girls and I are determined to get a tree that has enough branches on it to actually hold our ornaments. (Think Charlie Brown tree before they decorated it!!!!) Anyway, we were able to go further up than we have ever been able to during winter due to lack of snow. Amanda's friend, Hannah, has been wanting to go jeeping with us so she went along, too. We met up with 10 other families and all went out together. It's nice to go with other people, that way if we get stuck someone else is there to pull us out.

School Sports

Amanda is currently on the Bowling Team with school. (The season goes from November to January every school year.) Every day after school they take a bus to the local bowling alley to practice, except for game days, when they either play at the same bowling alley or they travel to another alley in the area. I love watching her bowl - her facial expressions are great when she gets a strike or if the ball goes where she didn't intent for it to go. She loves being on the bowling team and is getting better and better all the time.

Samantha tried out for basketball and made the JV team at her school. It's fun to watch the difference between when she's sitting on the sideline and when she's on the court. She goes from being relaxed and chatting with her friends to an "up-in-your-face - I'm going to run you down" child on the court. She's having a great time playing basketball.

Did someone say "Paparazzi"????

For the past two years I've gone to Young Women's Camp (during the summer) as the Head Cook. Along with doing the cooking, I was also running around trying to take as many pictures as possible. Well, tonight I was asked to go to YW Camp next summer as the camp photographer!!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!! And to think....I have to wait until next August! That's just pure torture!

Way to go Amanda!!

This last week Amanda received her Young Women Medallion. This is something she has worked very hard for over the past few years. (For those that don't know what this is, it's comparable to an Eagle Scout Award.) Along with getting the necklace, the Stake Young Women Presidency gave her a porcelain temple on a wood base. We are really proud of her and for all the hard work she put into finishing her Personal Progress goals.

Picture time.....

I have needed to have the girls pictures taken for a long time to hang on the wall. (The last time I had their pictures taken professionally was when Amanda was in the 6th grade and Sam in the 3rd Grade!) Unfortunately, to have them taken at a place where they actually turn out good is usually fairly expensive - not to mention you have to make an appointment and actually get organized. Everyday, as I'm doing my usual bus route, I cross over these railroad tracks and look at the beautiful trees and leaves. Since I love taking pictures, I decided that I could take pictures of the girls just as good as someone else. SO - this last Saturday I had the girls get ready, we grabbed the stool and went to take the pictures. I had some 8 x 10's printed out today and hung them on the wall tonight. I LOVE how they turned out!

Hittin' the trails

Last Saturday, Andy, Sam and I went out in the jeep to go 4x4'ing. Amanda had 3 different babysitting jobs lined up for the day, so she stayed home. We met up with a couple other people and headed off. It was nice to get out of town for the day and see the beautiful scenery. I love the fall colors. For the most part, it's still green (and will be all winter), but once we got to the other side of the mountain there were more of the fall colors. The weather was sunny for awhile and then got really foggy. In fact, it was so foggy we could hardly see the jeeps in front of us. Then it eventually started to rain.....a typical day in Washington as far as the weather goes. :)