skiing

This last weekend Caleb and I went up skiing. We drove up to the cabin on Saturday afternoon and returned on Monday (Caleb took monday off). On Sunday Caleb's cousin's skied, and on Monday Caleb and I skied while they hung out with the kiddos. Since we went up on a monday, the mountain we pretty empty. We skied straight into line. Also, Rachel loaned me her snowboard, so I snowboarded for part of the day and skied for part of the day. And let me tell you, I was looking pretty good on the snowboard (almost as good as Caleb on the skis)...that is until I totally fell on my butt on the really hard snow. From that point on, it hurt just to sit on the chair lift, so I switched to skiing. But it's nice to know that I can still make it down blue squares without too much trouble.

So the skiing was great, but so was getting out of the house and hanging out with my husband. Now that Caleb has a more defined schedule, I feel that it is more necessary to find time for just the two of us to hang out. In grad school it was really easy for him to take a random day off or to work from home. But now that he has a real job (hope I didn't offend any grad students here, but you know it's true... :-p), his days aren't as flexible, so it's just nice to have time to hang out.

And what trip would be complete without games! So of course in the evenings we played games. Actually, I think we had the closest scoring game of Agricola that I've seen: 46, 45, 44 for the top three scores. It was fun. As a side note: it's always nice to play games with new people because you discover new rules...or rules that you had mis-interpreted...or rules that your brother-in-law made up (OK, just kidding with you Titus. :-P) But we did discover a mis-interpreted rule to Agricola...

Visting Spok-Vegas

Last weekend Caleb and I went to Spokane to visit with Titus, Elizabeth, Joe and Judah. We had a great time. Actually, Hannah, Peter, and I drove over on Wed so we could have some extra time with the cousins. As you might have guessed, this was one of Caleb's "great" ideas. And in a moment of insanity I agreed. Luckily for all of us, this actually did turn out to be a great idea. After making 3 stops during the first hour of the trip, we managed to drive the next 3 hours without a stop. It was nice for Hannah and Peter to get use to their beds and have some extra time to spend with the cousins. Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures. But here are 2 cute ones of the kids on the kid bench that Titus made.

Here's Abigail, Joe, Hannah, and Judah...and Peter on the high chair.

Here they are again in their jammies. How cute that Hannah and Abigail have the matching PJ's!

And in order to keep with tradition, after the kiddos went to bed we stayed up into the wee hours of the night playing games and having fun. This is why my post is coming so late. It has taken me 2 days to recover from our vacation to Spokane. :) I guess that is the mark of a fun filled vacation.

Another Video

Here's one of Hannah's favorite words. Can you figure out what it is? Also notice her new hair cut. Caleb just cut it last night. (Sorry about the poor quality of the video. I guess our camera must be low on batteries.)



The song she was singing in the previous post was, "Go Tell It On The Mountain." Kudos to Mary Beth and the Beneshes. Since Mary Beth guessed right twice, she gets the grand prize - a free place to stay on her next visit to Seattle. Congrats! Hope you can cash in on that soon.

On the Move

On Dec 26 Peter started to move. I guess technically he was moving before then via rolls and pivots, but now he can move forward and go to a specific place. It's not an official crawl, but more of an army crawl...a pretty good army crawl I might add. The other day I left him in the living room playing with some toys, and the next thing I knew he was in the kitchen smiling at me. It's really nice now the he can sit up and move because he can entertain himself more easily: if he wants something, he gets it.

Here are some cute pictures of the kiddos

Peter loves to "crawl" over the bottom parts of our end tables and coffee table - and Hannah loves to join him.

Here's Hannah in the sweater I made her. She finally wears it without breaking into tears. Praise the Lord!

Can you find Peter?

I got Hannah some tights so she can wear dresses to church. She really likes the tights...I'm not sure why.

Here's Caleb with the kiddos.

Peter and his classic smile.

Hannah loves to hold Peter. He'll be sitting playing with a toy, and she'll come up and sit behind him. It's pretty cute.

The other day Hannah found this bag and started jumping around in it. She thought it was the most fun thing ever! Some of the things she finds amusing are so weird. I guess, at least she has some creativity...

Pig tails

And here's a pictures of the loaf of bread Caleb made. Not really a picture of cute kids, but it was super yummy!

Reading

I hated reading growing up. Why read when you listen to music, sing, or play sports? And if you have to do school work, do the math or science because they are the most fun...obviously! But just recently I've started to enjoy reading more. When I finally get the two kiddos down for naps, I want to sit and enjoy the silence. But how boring just to sit there...so reading seemed like the right fit. Don't get me wrong, I still love to sing, listen to music, and be active, but all of those create noise rather than reduce it. There is something about being a parent that makes one value silence all the more. Silence really is golden.

Anyhow, here are some books I've been reading:
- The Mark of the Lion Series. Rachel introduced me to these books and I really like them. They are written by Francine Rivers, a great author. She also wrote Redeeming Love, which I like better, but the Mark of the Lions Series is really good too.

- The Ladies No 1 Detective Agency Series. This a great light-hearted series.

- Stuart Brannon Western Series. OK, so technically I haven't been "reading" the series, but listening to it in the car. It's a great series for road trips because each book is about 5 hours long (that's about how long it takes to get from Seattle to Spokane and from Seattle to La Grande). They are easy to follow, quick to get into the action, and the characters are likable. The author is Stephen Bly. Caleb and I finished that series a while ago and started the Code of the West Series, also by Stephen Bly. This series is also enjoyable, but not as good at the Brannon Series.

So, I'm the third and final book in the Mark of the Lion Series, so if you have any good recommendations of books I should start next, let me know!

Christmas at the Hugs

Every other year we spend Christmas in La Grande with Caleb's family, and every time we do things get alittle crazy (past experiences include, but are not limited to, roasting a goat in a pit and making a turducken). This year was no different. Some highlights include: leaving all 5 grandkids with the grandparents while we went up skiing with Caleb's brothers and spouses, watching Josh stir up a fancy brine for the the goat and then eating the fruits of his labor, and a couple sessions of family pilates (pictures below). This might have to become a Christmas tradition!

Here are some picture highlights

Every year Santa finds it necessary to stop in on Christmas Eve to give all the little kiddos who live in Elgin OR a bag of treats. But don't worry he doesn't tire out his reindeer...he travels via firetruck around the whole town. So naturally, we went out to Elgin to visit Caleb's grandparents and to get some treats from Santa. Hannah didn't want to get her picture taken with Santa, but she did except the bag of treats!

Here I am with my sis-in-laws, Celeste and Elizabeth.

Liz and Kiefer

Great grandma and Peter

Here I am next to all the presents and the Christmas tree. With 17 of us celebrating Christmas together, there's bound to be alot of presents!

Peter and his stalking

Hannah riding around on a horse in her Christmas dress.

Here are the 5 cousins in front of the Christmas tree: Kiefer, Hannah, Peter, Joe and Judah. We took about 30 pictures and this is the one where everyone is looking. :-D

Hannah opening one of her presents.

Hannah and her two favorite presents: a rocking chair and a "puter"

"Slim Jim" riding his horse "Blacky" around the house.

Family Pilates

All of us around the table for Christmas dinner.

Hannah and Grandpa playing with Hannah's new laptop.

Elizabeth giving Judah and Hannah a bath in the sink.

Hannah's Favorite Christmas Carol

Can you tell what it is?




Her new word from the previous post was cinnamon. Kuddos to Mary Beth & Els!