Camping...again?

This past weekend Josh took the three older kids camping at Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. It's safe to say that he has been bitten by the camping bug. However, I love that he really enjoys taking the kids with him. They keep trying to get me to go too, but Steven is still too young...I wonder how long I can use that excuse. :) They camped out Friday night and went hiking on Saturday. When they got home, it was time to start the New Year's Eve festivities. Needless to say, none of the kids were awake to ring the new year in. They were deeply asleep sprawled out on the floor.

Camping in Santa Fe

During the Christmas break, Josh and Aaron went snowshoeing up in Santa Fe. It got down to 10 degrees at night and up to 21 degrees during the day. After camping the night before, they hiked about 3 miles in 2 feet of snow and loved every minute of it--though I'm not sure why. They came back after 24 hours (they had planned to stay 2 nights) because there was a pretty bad storm coming. Thankfully they made it through right before they closed down the interstate. As crazy as I think they are, both of them were very excited and proud of their recent adventure.

Stopping for a lunch break of Ramen noodles. They used snow for water....sounds yummy!

I'm guessing it was cold there.

Proof of their adventure.

My boys

Aren't they a handsome bunch!?!

2012 Christmas Parade

This year Emma and Abigail's dance studio had a float in the parade. Abigail was so excited to be in her 'first parade.' It was freezing--what's new--but they had a blast! And they looked pretty cute too! :)

Christmas card flop

My Christmas cards this year have the saying 'Let it Snow!' on it. So when we woke up this morning to snow on the ground I thought I would have the perfect picture to put in the card. However, the weather channel said it was 17 degrees and felt like 2 degrees outside. It was windy and snowy and bit too bright. Needless to say, some kids were cold, some couldn't open their eyes, and some were just too young to cooperate. That being said, none of the pictures turned out quite how I imagined they would. So while I didn't feel like including them in the Christmas card, I definately think they are blog worthy. Here's my snow pictures!
Steven stands like a champ and can walk up to eight steps. Pretty soon he'll be running after the other kids.

Eyes were a big problem. We tried counting 1-2-3 open, but that didn't help. Steven didn't have a problem keeping his eyes open. However, he did have a problem smiling.

Abigail is such a ham! Jacob is just cold.

This is when I realized it wasn't going to get any better. Time for plan B for our Christmas picture!

Kitchen decor

Recently I decided to redecorate--or should I say 'decorate'--my dining room. I've started repainting my table and chairs (and stools and shelves). It should be really cute. I'll post pictures when I'm done. I also decided to finally hang something on the wall. I got a framed picture that says 'bon appetit' vertically. Then I had a mini photo shoot with my kids. These are the pictures that I'll be putting around the picture...along with one of all the kids together.
Steven was really into the tomatoes. By the time he was done, that tomato had several good chunks taken out of it.

Abigail loves lemons. However, she hates this picture of herself. I thought it was really cute though and since I was picking...I won!

Jacob was being really crazy during his pictures. He kept trying to juggle the peppers and he beat them against his chest like Tarzan. Somehow we managed to get this really cute picture though. I love it!

Emma is getting so grown up. She acts more mature all the time. It was definately easy to shoot her because she was so cooperative...which can't be said of all of them.

Aaron is a ball of energy and ideas. He even opened the pumpkin and put his hand in it. There's never a dull moment with him. Once all of these pictures get hung on the wall, I'll to post a picture of the final product.

Aaron's seed project

Last month Aaron's class was doing a seed project. That meant that for two weeks I had to save the seed out of every fruit or vegetable that we ate. Aaron was really good at reminding me to keep them. :)

He did a really good job. All I did was print the pictures out and man the hot glue gun. He ended up with seeds from 15 fruits and vegetables. Next thing to tackle...a science fair project for Emma.