Ski fun!

This was Brenen and Dillon's first time skiing. They were all smiles and did so good.
We all took turns taking them down the hill and in a couple of hours they were getting the hang of it.The tailgating scene at brundage mountain.

Summer Teeth

Avery's got summer teeth! Summer in his mouth and summer in his pocket. Only a mother could love this smile. Avery has one giant tooth in the middle all by itself and he finally lost the other. Uncle Dave asked him last weekend it he could use his tooth to open his beer. Poor kid.

Wrestling

OK let's talk about wrestling. Wrestling is probably the last sport I wanted my children to do. Kevin was never a wrestler but he was determined he wanted to sign Avery up for wrestling. I couldn't understand why. The first time I walked in the practice room I about fell over because it was s-t-i-n-k-y with a capital S. It was like walking into a hot sauna with a bunch of sweaty football players. And then I looked at the mats and couldn't help but think what kind of skin infections were we going to come home with us. But, with all things said, I am actually very happy we did it. In fact we will probably make both our kids wrestle for a while. I think it teaches them they can overcome things that are hard. Most of all, it teaches them to lose. Don't get me wrong, it is very hard for a mother to watch your son pinned down with his legs flailing in the air. Aunt Meme can't even come to watch because she starts crying and then I start crying and then we have to try to dry it up before Avery sees us. But my point is that I think these are great things for our boys to learn. I am very proud of Avery. He went out to every match with courage and learned a lot along the way.

January Highlights

In January we did a last minute trip with the Dallimore's to Disneyland. We woke up in Vegas at 3 o'clock a.m. (yes I said a.m.) and drove to Disneyland. We were there when the park opened and we were there when the park closed. Our favorite things about Disneyland are:

* Churros (this brought back child hood memories for Kevin. He used to sit and eat churros instead of riding on the rides. Because he was too scared. And of course it is not o.k. ,by him, for our kids to be scared.)
* We saved lots of money by purchasing tickets on ebay. (That's the couponer coming out in me.)
* We had the best tour guide. (Uncle Brian. He had us lined out to hit all the rides at the best times. He is always hospitable.)
* We rode on Thunder Mountain at least 4 times. (And mommy had enough of that.)
* Henry got a new pair of Mickey Mouse sweatpants. (He wet his pants while we were standing in line for Soaring over California. They cost $30.)
* We made another memory with the Dallimore's. (We don't get to see you much but we make it count when we get the chance.)

Uncle Kevin gave all the kids a pep talk before we entered the park. We knew it was going to be a long day for them. They were all such troopers. No whining, just smiles all day!


The Downey's and Dallimore's snuggling up with goofy.


The signature teacup picture. It was so nice that all the kids could ride together while we took pictures and did not get sick.


Thunder Mountain ride #4. We had had enough.


The line up. Excited for Thunder Mountain ride #4!


So tuckered out he couldn't even finish his ice cream cone. Now that's tired!

December Highlights

December was filled with lots of Christmas Cheer. We had a Christmas Party with friends and Kevin decorated his skid steer trailer with hay bails and Christmas lights. We carolled around the neighborhood while Kevin drove us around in the Tahoe, sucking fumes from the generator running in the back seat. After carolling we came back to our bonus room in the garage and made gingerbread houses and played Just Dance. Kevin and Travis were all about the dancing because they were still experiencing their high from the carbon monoxide fumes. I think we started a tradition that we will continue years to come.

Christmas Countdown

I made this Christmas advent craft this week and I've had few people who want to see a picture of it. I used a pizza pan and then I made bottle cap magnets for the numbers. Today we started counting down the days until Jesus' big day.

Snow Day!!!!!!!

Avery shook his booty so hard when they announced that all schools will be closed today. For those of you who don't live in Boise, it snowed a ton last night and we woke up to 8 inches of snow. Kevin woke up at the glorious hour of 3:00 am to do snow removal and returned home at about 10. He had his skid steer in tow. As he gazed out at the winter wonderland he came up with a genius idea. He said, "I can make the kids the biggest snow mound we've ever had in the culdesac." He was on the tractor in a flash, spinning around in the culdesac. All of the neighbors came out, young and more mature. Everyone was taking pictures and one of our neighbors even brought our hot cocoa and marshmallows. The kids played on the hill for 5 hours straight. It was a great snow day memory for Great Sky Estates.