Cabin w/ Vic's Parents

Vic & I have been dating for almost 10 years in April & we took his parents to the cabin for the 1st time!  I don't know why we haven't done it before now.  It was fun!

Here is Grandpa Sutherland & Tommy.

 Grandma Sutherland & Tucker

 It was pretty bumpy because the snow was crusty & somehow Tucker managed to fall asleep!

 Tommy liked to be a little crazy so we went over the big bumps over & over & then all through the trees.  It was nice that the snow was a little crusty because we went wherever we want nice & slow without having to worry about getting stuck!  We haven't gone in at least 3-4 years & I forgot how fun it is!

 Whitney loved the little bumps & still thought she was pretty crazy & brave.

 We of course had to slide down the stairs!

 Tommy was obsessed with digging holes & tunnels.  It'll be a lot of fun when hopefully in a year Whitney will be interested in spending hours out digging too.

 Our second day outside we went cross country skiing.  My kids are calling this mini snow mobile sled "the rocket". They were continually fighting to take turns on this "amazing" toy.

I forgot to take a picture of Grandpa Sutherland skiing.  

I was impressed.  He is almost 70 & did great for his 2nd time trying it!

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we had a little party so the kids could exchange treats & play games a few days before.

 We played Valentine Bingo w/ silly heart toys/prizes, Don't eat (pete) the heart!, and Move the beans from cup to cup.

 Heart Toss... the boys could have done this all day

 Heart Walk... once they won this they got to go decorate a heart cookie.  It helped spread out the frosting madness so all the kids weren't trying to do it at once.

 And finally exchanging Valentines at the end.

 This picture sort of shows Tucker & Whitney's cute box they decorated.

 Here is actual Valentine's Day.  We bought each of the kids a little present.

 Here are some Valentine crafts we did this month:

One of our sweet friends volunteered to have a kid party so lots of people could go on a date.  We were so excited to do something last minute so we took them up on it & Vic & I went shopping,  picked up some dinner, & brought it home for a romantic candle light dinner. :)

January

In January I had a burst of energy to start the year with a fresh new start.  I deep cleaned a lot of things that I had been putting off, including cleaning the light fixtures & vents.  We finally put up most of our curtains, & we built shelves in most of the closets so I could truly organize them all.  We also painted 3 more rooms so we were busy!  On top of organizing & painting, I started to workout again & meal plan healthy meals.  I lost 8 pounds in a month!!! (3 of which I gained back after I broke my foot & got frustrated) ...but still 5 pounds down is better than 3 pounds up, ha!

Anyway, we had to say good bye to our crib for good so I took one last picture before we took it down.  It is such a sad piece of furniture to take down. I can't believe my baby phase is all done! (Besides diapers for another year!)

Vic turned 35!  We had a few friends over & let the kids run wild in the basement while we played games.  We haven't had a game night in ages so that was fun.  He insisted on ribbon jell-o & peanut butter bars.

  The library had a fundraiser for a princess Daddy/Daughter dance date so Vic took Whitney & she LOVED it!  We definitely need things to slow down so we can start doing dates with the kids more often!

Happy New Year!

We had an unusual New Year's Eve/Day weekend. Vic & I were exhausted after go, go, going for a month straight & working way more than both of us usually do so we drove up to the cabin after work & fell asleep by 10!  Here we are playing games with the kids.

 We played lots of games on New Year's Day to make up for the night before!

 Vic bought snowman cookies for all the kids to decorate.

 All the kids were sick, but Whitney had it the worst & she was sleeping most of the day so she decorated hers when she finally woke up!

 It also was crazy cold so everyone stayed inside most of the time!  I couldn't stand going up to the cabin & not going outside so our last day there we went outside for a walk.

 Then right before we left we slid down the stairs a few times!

Christmas weekend

The day after Christmas we went to Twin Falls to play with Victor's family & welcome his parents home from their mission. (They've been in South Africa for 18 months).

Friday everyone sat around & talked, Saturday we went sledding, & Sunday his parents gave their mission report at church & showed pictures at a lunch afterwards.

Pictured: Shane, Darren, John, Vic, Tommy, Ender, Jesse T., Whitney

  Whitney, Vic, Tommy, Whitney B., Wesely, Jacob

Here is Vic, Josh, Darren, Jesse, & Shane racing down the hill.

These boys love acting like kids when they get together!

 Whitney loved sledding last time we went, but this time she just wanted to sit at the top of the hill & eat snow.  A few times her girl cousins Rindy & Whitney (10 years older) talked her into going down with them.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was sweet & fun :) Here is what the kids wanted from Santa this year: Tommy- tractors, Tucker-mini tractor, Whitney-a pink barbie in a barbie car (and Santa threw in Elsa too).

 We had my mom & Mark over for Christmas breakfast.

 Look out our window!  There wasn't any snow the day before & it snowed all night to make a beautiful white Christmas!

We made lots of fun pancakes for breakfast. Here is Whitney's snowman.

 Tommy's snow man & candy cane... also notice our sparkling cider. That cute guy gave me smiles all December long! :)

 Rudolph pancake for mom!

 Tucker got Santa & immediately the other kids needed a Santa too!

 Cuties ready to open presents

 Vic talked me into giving Tucker hand me down toys this year. I felt bad, but he was quite happy with it!

 Grandma spoiled him with a million Thomas trains!

 Whitney wanted all pink & Frozen stuff!

 More Frozen from Grandma

 Tommy's haul.... all "mighty machines"

 More Thomas from Grandma (she hit up a garage sale last summer & a sad teenage boy had decided to finally part with his Thomas collection, why Tucker & Tommy got so much!)

 In previous houses we had a red & gold bathroom to match our bedroom & when we moved to this house & all of the walls were khaki green, it made my bathroom look like a drab Christmas bathroom so for Christmas I got Vic to paint our bathroom & add new decor :) It is now bright & cheery in there & I love it every time I walk in!

 I was also very happy to have somewhere to put my extra long necklaces because they don't fit in my jewelry armoire.

 After we cleaned up our breakfast & presents we headed to Grandma's house for the evening.

 She was a good sport & bought new decorations for her Christmas tree so it could be Frozen.  The kids loved it!

 Mom likes to make a New Year's ham so I talked her into doing steak skewers with green, red, & white veggies.  It was super yummy!

 Vic talked me into trying a layered jell-o & I actually really liked it because I found green apple for the green layer... so now I'm sure I'll be doing many versions of this for holidays!