Sneakers

Today was the first day of normal winter life.  For me that meant back to getting up at 5:00 am for my "I can't make myself stop eating so I have to walk briskly for an hour in early morning dark" walk.  And then it was back to work - seminary and then Packards.  But after work; that's when the real fun began!!  It was Taco night for Family Home Evening and then, we taught Aiden and Capri how to be Sneakers.

We had a secret mission of service to perform that involved becoming really good at sneaking up to houses without being seen.  Or caught!

Can you tell how serious we were about this?  We put on our sneaky dark clothes, we had the sneaky voodoo hands going on, and the serious sneaky faces.

Aiden was the Master sneaker.  He was so good, no other men would join us.  Dave finally consented to  drive our get-away car, but he did NO sneaking.  That was all done by the sneakers.  It was fun, it made us happy, and someday we'll tell you about it :)  But not right now, because we're being sneaky.

All Things Were Made By Him

Sunday, January 4th. Today in our Sunday School class we were introduced to a new year of studying the life of Christ through the New Testament.  One thing Brother Jenson, our Master Teacher (that means he's really, really good!) taught us was that until we understand the significance of one particular event that happened in the Old Testament - the fall, we will never fully  understand the significance of what the New Testament is about.  From the time that Adam and Even partook of the fruit and fell, Gods people had been looking for Christ to come and redeem them from the fall. And the New Testament is about how He came.  I love how things tie together in such a simple way.

In the Study Guide for our class it suggested reading a set of scriptures about how Christ created the earth with God's help, and then it suggested going for a walk as a family, paying attention to the beautiful things He created.  Since it's the first part of January and we're trying to do everything right, we decided to do what the study guide suggested.  The above shot is a picture of beautiful things in a winter time Negro Bill Canyon. 

I never get tired of taking smooth water pictures.  And there's ice there in the foreground.  So pretty!  See, you can appreciate winter if you try hard enough. And if you're looking for beautiful things in the world that was created for us.  

I made Dave stop for a picture.  My camera was all the way across the creek.  I had to set the picture up, and then jump the creek to get in it.  I think I look amazingly calm after that leap and run :)

And then I got brave and had Dave take a picture of just me.  There I am with one squinty eye.  I FEEL like I'm opening both eyes the same, so why is one always half closed?  One of the great mysteries of life.  It was a pretty hike walk up Negro Bill Canyon.  And a chance to reflect on how much we are loved by our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.  Because "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made".  And His work is beautiful!


 

It's Over. It's Done.

Christmas was officially over when Kimbrey's family left to go home, and then so did Jill's.  That is when the "Christmas is over and I have nothing to look forward to" blues normally would set in.  So in order to distract myself  I took Charlie outside and started taking down the Christmas lights. 

The late afternoon light was perfect for picture taking, so I ran in and grabbed my camera.  But do you think I could get this girl to hold still?  She was marching all over the yard until I grabbed my cute little snowman and plunked it down on the lawn.  Charlie loves my little snowman.  It's like her little friend :)  I got two good shots before she was off again.  

But isn't the light in this one so  pretty?   I tried to get her to look at me, but she was too intent on that nose.  I've learned that with kids you take what you can get.  And, by the way,  the distraction trick worked.  I've not yet fallen apart over the end of Christmas.  Happy January!!

January 2015 Day Two

On Friday, January 2nd, Kimbrey and Daniel and their kids were still here, so we all went to the mountain to go sledding.  There is a great sledding hill up the Geyser Pass road that we go to every year.  It is perfect for sledding when you live in Moab where the snow usually doesn't get deep enough to sled on.

Brody was the first one down the hill.  We didn't realize when we sent him down that the green sled was going to be the fast sled.  He is in control in this picture, but in his first sled of the day, there was NO control going on.  I'm surprised we EVER got him to try it again, he was so mad!  But try again he did and by the end of the day he was the only one NOT crying to go home :)

Aiden looks like he's in agony, but really, that is his look of  "I'm having SO MUCH FUN!"  There was a berm of snow at the bottom of the hill that was supposed to stop you from sledding out on to the road, but really, it just launched you into the air and landed you out on the road if you didn't bail off.  Aiden didn't bail off . . .

And neither did Chaser.  Here he is mid launch. 

And here he is pre-launch.  He can see it coming, but he's going to ride it out . . 

This is a more controlled Chaser on a slower sled.  This was a toboggan sled.  The kind that went faster with two people on it. 

Like with me and Capri here.  We were good together, Miss Capri and I.  I had to be brave for her, and she laughed through every crash for me.  We were a team!

Here is Drew with Charlie, who is wondering what her Dad has gotten her into now.  

And Kimbrey with cute little Kaylie, who thought sledding was SO much fun, until she got cold.  Then it wasn't anymore.  The best part of this day was when, on the way home the boys got hot, so I let them take their seat belts off long enough to take off their snow pants.  And they giggled and giggled because it was THEN they realized that their butts were wet :)  It's so funny what 7 and 8 year old boys will think is SO funny!!

A New Year

A New Year's goal of mine, geared towards making me a better photographer, is to take pictures every day in 2015.  That will be a challenge some days because I don't normally have cute little kids running around to take pictures of, so some days I will just have to be creative.  The first day of this new year, however, I had no problem with my goal, because there were kids running around everywhere!

  It was cold outside on January 1st, but Drew and Kara bundled little Charlie up so she could get some outside time.  This little cutie loves being outside!!  Here Drew was sliding her around on the ice that had formed on our back porch. 

 Capri learned how to get down off the trampoline by wrapping her legs around one of the tramp poles and then sliding down like a fireman. 

She was SO excited about her new "trick".  She showed us over and over again how it works.  Now she can get up AND down by herself!

We decided to go up to the motocross track so Aiden and Chase could ride motorcycles.  Capri, Brody and I walked up, and on the way, Capri stopped and wrote a letter to Santa in the snow.  This little girl is always thinking!

Aiden and Chase are both really good and confident on Porter and Bridger's little motorcycle.  Aiden goes over jumps with ease, and Chase can ride standing up on the footpegs :)

Drew gave Charlie a ride, but she wasn't thrilled with the helmet she had to wear, so one time around the track was enough for her.

Then he gave Capri a ride, and she LOVED it!  They went lap after lap until Drew's hands got too cold and he thought he was going to get to quit.  But I offered him my gloves, so around and around they went some more.  It was so cold we didn't stay long, but it was fun to get out for a while.  And motorcycle rides was the perfect way to start a new year.

Twas The Day After Christmas . . .

After a trip to the Temple on Friday morning, the day after Christmas, we came home to find Grandkiddos at our house :) 

Charlie loves to sit on the window sill of my bay window.  It's a perfect seat height for her, and I love it when she does because it makes such pretty light for taking pictures. 

Such a cute little monkey.  We love it that she lives here for the moment, and we're really going to miss her when her Mom and Dad finish their house and move out.

Every year Santa brings us a toy for our house for the Grandkids to play on.  This year, it was an electric motorcycle.

After practicing on her new bike for a while, Capri was ready to try riding it.  She was a little pro, and she rode it until the battery ran out.

Then we went inside and ate banana cream pie that Jill had made for Christmas Eve, that we never did get around to eating, and then, through a series of unfortunate events, Capri got unanimous permission to shoot her Dad with Aiden's nurf gun.

It's a pretty hard and fast rule at our house that you don't shoot at people, even if it's just a nurf gun, but these were seriously extenuating circumstances.  And she obviously had a good time doing it :) 

And then there's this kid.  He sat down right in front of me with this cute grin on his face, and just as I pushed the shutter button on my camera, he flipped a stuffed toy up in front of himself, ruining a perfectly wonderful picture. But just look at that face.  You've got to love him :)  We had such a good day!  Being at the Temple with the first girl in our Young Women's group to go through for her own endowments, and an afternoon spent with great company.  "Behold, my joy is full.  Yeah, my heart is brim with joy." 

Christmas Eve

 We had a great Christmas Eve this year, even though we were missing half of our family.  We had a yummy turkey dinner, of which Jill was the main cook!  She also made a delectable Cherry Cake and two banana cream pies because she couldn't decide which one to make, so while we made room for desert, we played a few games.   The first one involved sucking through a wrapping paper tube to pick up an ornament and hanging it on a string.  It was much harder than most people thought.  Kenny was the only one successful.  And he said he didn't want to play minute to win it games because he was NO good at them.

Maybe it's because he's full of hot air?  I'm just sayin' . . . .

  The little ones got to hang the ornaments without using the wrapping paper tube.  THAT was hard enough for some of them.

The next game was played using a flat box to "blow" or "wave" the ornaments over the line without touching the ornament. 

                        Kenny had great form, but Kara won this one, getting ALL the balls over the line!! 

 Then we had to throw snowballs . .  or marshmallows . .  through a Christmas wreath into a bucket that was behind the wreath.  The person with the most marshmallows won.  Aiden was first at every game!  He was always the ice breaker. 

He was the first to come up with the idea of throwing a handful of marshmallows at the target, hoping at least one would go in.  A strategy his Mom tried out later on her turn.

                                                          Didn't work for her, either...

 There were several more games, one of which involved a snowball fight, boys against girls, using wadded up pieces of paper as snowballs.  The girls won, of course.  That would have been a fun game to get pictures of, but I couldn't throw snowballs and take pictures, so the pictures were sacrificed.  I think it was the right decision :)

At that point Aiden came up with the idea to unwrap one present on Christmas Eve, something I always let my kids do, and Jill planned on doing, but Aiden thought we should do it at Gramma's too.  I told him we could do that if I got to pick out which present.  He said, "O.K., but it better not be clothes."  That made things just a little harder. 

Charlie got a wooden pegs bench and hammer, which I had given to Drew for Santa to give to Charlie, then took it back so she could open it on Christmas Eve.  Yup, I'm one of those!

I had to steal this off the top of Capri's present.  It is a Rapunzel blanket.  Capri LOVES Rapunzel, she always asks to watch it, she was Rapunzel for Halloween, so I thought she needed a Rapunzel blanket.

And Aiden got a book.  But, hey, it wasn't cloths :)  And he started reading it right away, so I think maybe he liked it.  This was the best picture I could get of all three in front of the Christmas Tree.  Stinkin' cute kids.  They make Christmas fun.  We OH SO missed the rest.  Christmas is a hard holiday to share : )  But we appreciate those other families who share with us.  It is now Christmas afternoon, the house is quiet and outside it's beginning to snow a little.  Christmas has almost come and gone and soon it will be time to close out another great year.  We have been so very blessed throughout this one.  Merry Christmas world, from the Cozzens Clan!!