Weekend at the Cabin

Our friends parents have a cabin up by Kamas. They invited us to come with them this weekend since it was a holiday weekend. 3 couples came and their kids. The cabin is SUPER nice, fancy and spacious. We played lots of games, talked, went to an indoor swimming pool, went sledding and had a lot of fun. Alyssa played with Kate (our friends 5 year old). They had a blast and of course Alyssa is calling her, her best friend. She was also call her the "5 Kate" (to differentiate from her sister Kate).  The indoor swimming pool is in Kamas and is the nicest indoor pool I have ever been too. Weird that Kamas a tiny town would have such a nice facility... Kate LOVED it. She splashed and laughed, she didn't want me to hold her and kept trying to crawl in the water. Then she would lean back and try and float on her back. I guess she will be a natural swimmer. Alyssa also had fun, but wanted to wear a life jacket so she could swim around as she pleased.  We also went sledding, which was an adventure. We had to hike probably a 1/2 mile or more through 2 feet of snow (powder none the less) to get the the hill. Keep in mind we had 3 babies 1 and under and then a 5 year old and a 3 year old. We got there. Alyssa was kind of a chicken. She got snow in her face after her first sled and didn't want to go down any more. I convinced her and she went a few more times. The 5 year old Kate was fearless and loved it. The adults had fun as well. Here are some pictures from my phone, I forgot my nice camera =(

Kate and Alyssa playing dress up

Sledding down the stairs

Parker and Kate. Kate likes to touch Pakers, he is a little hesitant

Hiking to the sledding hill

Loving the pool

Before Alyssa got pounded in the face by the powder

Life according to my I phone

I take a lot of pictures with my I phone. I really need to transfer all of them to my computer. My phone just told me that I am out of photo space. Here are some recent pictures. Quality isn't great but not that bad for a phone either. I also take videos on it which is fun. The video here is of Kate and Alyssa. They did this for about 5 minutes before I started recording it so by the time I got my phone out they were both done. Kate would throw her sippy cup off her highchair and Alyssa would pick it up, over and over. Kate thought it was hilarious.

Alyssa helping put the candles on my cake

Russ made me a great cake, coated with oreo cookie crumbles on the outside

Alyssa's best friend came into town, we loved having play dates

Turning 30 =(

Kiss attack by Alyssa

Preschool science experiment, Dry Ice bubble, Kids loved it

Merry Go Round at Provo beach with Emma

Best jogging companion, she doesn't ever complain!

New interest in books, especially ones that have touch and feel

Bumper pads aren't recommended due to suffocation risks, so I often find Kate like this.

Sledding

We have had quite a bit of snow the past few weeks. Now that it is so cold, the snow will never melt. We have been sledding a few times. First time was with Eric, Noelle and my mom. It was the perfect day. The snow was new and it wasn't too cold. Alyssa was so brave and went down the big hills time after time. She never wanted help. She could have stayed for hours. The next time we went on my birthday up to Tibble fork. (this is up AF Canyon). I had never been there before. There was one very steep hill, it was sledding down the dam. We went to another hill that was big but not to bad. It was about 14 degrees. Alyssa was already complaining of being cold. She went down with us but wouldn't go down by her self. The next time we went back to our favorite sledding hill with her best friend Emma. This time it was 8 degrees. Alyssa went down one hill and then said she wanted to go because she was cold. We actually stayed almost an hour. Emma loved it and never complained but Alyssa was complaining the whole time. I guess 8 degrees is pretty cold. Hopefully it will warm up so we can go again and not be freezing.

Kate was a good sport and didn't whine about the cold

Christmas

Alyssa was so excited for Christmas. The only thing she wanted was a red scooter. When she woke up she started jumping up and down and said "I heard Santa come down the chimney, he came, he  came!!" Christmas morning was really fun, Alyssa was excited about everything that she opened. We saved the scooter for last. She rides it all around the house. Everyone was excited about their new things. Kate liked playing with the a packets of gum and was entertained by the wrapping paper. She does like her new toys though. Alyssa likes them too. She likes to "play" with Kate (which means taking the toy and playing with it her self)  Unfortunately the stomach bug is making it through our whole family day by day. Gratefully it only lasts about 24 hrs. I feel bad about getting everyone sick, it started with Alyssa.

Playing with remote control car

opening the scooter

trying out her new sled, this hill was too small so we went down the road to a bigger hill

She loved it!

Christmas Eve

We had Christmas Eve at my mom's house. Russ ended up being really sick and wasn't able to join us. Which meant that I had to prepare the turkey. Gross. I did not like doing that. I put a butter rub on it and had to wash off the brine. It tasted good though.  We played some games, had a spiritual talk about angels and acted out the nativity. It was a fun night for everyone but Russ.

Addicted to words with friends

Drawing game

Noelle won

cutie

Mary, Joseph and the donkey

Shepards

Angel

Mary and baby Jesus

Snowy Day

Kate has been very sick the past 3 days. She is running a very high fever despite being on antibiotics, tylenol and Advil. Poor Kate has laid on my chest pretty much 24/7. Today she seems to be turning the corner for the better (thank goodness!) It meant that Alyssa has not had much attention and watched WAY too much TV. Today I called my friend and asked if her daughter could come over and play with Alyssa. Thank goodness she could! They played in the snow for quite a while. Alyssa was so happy!

They said they didn't know how to build a snowman themselves. So I ran out and built a tiny one for them to decorate, before Kate started screaming.

Sledding down the stairs.