Dashing Through The Snow...

We went sledding with Jenn and her family. What a wonderland. We loved every minute.



Here is the gang. Jenn West, Jessica West, Isabella, me, Hunter West, Dylan, Logan West, Rick, Shauna Matkin, Matt West, Jim and Cheri Matkin.

Christmas Skiing with the Wests

The weather was perfect for skiing. I stayed at home sleeping...big mistake. They had a great time, but when I woke up I was all alone. It was so depressing. I was thinking about Elise a lot. Two years ago this day I was going through a hard time, so being alone was not a good idea. I was crying...pretty sad. I just wanted my family around me.
The big boys
The little boys

Christmas Morning

As usual I got them way to many gifts. What happens is that I buy things through out the year when I see something on sale, so when Christmas Eve comes around and I take everything out...well, there is a lot.

Santa brought a nice nerf gun to Dylan. He really wanted it. Isabella got a letter from Santa saying that the puppy she wanted had rolled off the sleigh, so he would ask the elves to make another one and bring it later. She thought that was so cute. And lo and behold, a few days later a little puppy was sitting on our doorsteps.



This one was from Mormor Bella, Isabella loved it.

Our big present was the playroom. We got some video chairs and a Foosball table. We sat up for 6 hours (until 4am) trying to put it together, only to find out that it was not working correctly) oh well, it all worked out, we ended taking the game table back and buying one from the Franklin family instead, a better and cheaper one!

Christmas Eve Night or Morning...

Rick and I stayed up very late about 4 am putting their Christmas presents together. It took us over 6 hours to put the game table together (which we ended taking back because it was really bad.) Just wanted to take a picture what it looked like that night. Just as we are going to bed, Isabella walks down...wow...Santa has been here. It was way to early. So we got her to sleep downstairs.

Christmas Eve Party

Every year we have a Christmas Eve Party. Our guests of honor is our best friends the West Family. I think this was the 4th year. It has become a tradition. I cook a lot of Swedish Christmas food and they come over to eat. We invited family over but they could not make it...I love having family here, but since we are so far away from everyone...we have established our own little family here. We also have Santa drop by a package every year. This year he didn't wrap the presents just threw them down from his sleigh into the snow.

Hand out Treats

Every year we like to make A LOT of treats. This year I made, chocolate chip cookies, dusted chocolate cookies, chewy popcorn balls...ok, what ever who cares...anyway it was a lot. We try to hand out to as many as possible. If we missed you...sorry. Dylan and Isabella usually sings a Christmas song. It was fun. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of Isabella, this was our last door and she threw a huge fit. We did have fun though!

Dylan and Isabella's Annual Gingerbread House

Every year we make a gingerbread house, usually we buy a kit from Costco, but this year we did it from scratch. They love making it...and eating it...

Our Piano

We got a piano! It's not tuned yet, but Isabella and I are going to take lessons. It's so pretty. LOVE IT!

Dylan's First Baking Experince

Dylan wanted to make cookies all by himself, so he decided to make snickerdoodles. He got Isabella to help him out for a bit and then she was bored and did some dancing insted. He did a great job, they were delicious. Way to go Dylan. The only thing I did was putting them in and taking them out of the oven.

Snow, snow wonderful snow!

This morning we woke up to a lot more snow. Rick and Dylan went outside to shovel while I was getting ready for my talk...yes, I did talk today. It went ok. I'm glad it's over. Anyway...both of them were out there for a good hour. Right as they were finished a big snowplow came and dumped the snow back to our drive way. Rick said he had some choice words. Well, we ended up late for church. Not fun.



Mika is not sure about Rick shoveling, she never knows when he will decide to cover her!