Snow Delay

One of the things that I love about living in Los Alamos are the snow delays that we get sometimes when it snows.  We got our first big snow storm of the season on Thursdsay night, so Friday morning Kate didn't have to go to school until 10:00 and they closed the lab, so Dave got to stay home.

We all went out to shovel and play in the snow. 

Ty didn't mind the snow, but he did mind that I duct-taped his gloves to his coat so he coiuldn't get them off.  He got mad that he couldn't hold the little snow shovel and cried for a while. 

Winterball

What's a Winterball, Mom?  (Okay, Ty's really not saying that but I can't get this picture to move to the bottom, so we'll just start the post with a lovely picture of Tys' huge eyes.)

On Friday, December 12th, our family went Kate's Winterball at her school.  It was basically just a dance for the kindergarten through third graders.  For a few weeks before the "winterball" Kate learned dances like YMCA, the Chicken Dance, etc.

Jack was a little confused when we said we were going to the winterball.  He didn't realize that not all "balls" involve athetlics.  He was even more confused when we told him it was at the elementary school gym where they have basketball on Saturdays.  Once we got there Jack found his friends and had a great time.

Ty danced a little too and kept busy while walking all around.



Jack's Christmas School Work

Every afternoon while Kate is at school and Ty is napping, Jack and I sit down for a little while and do "school" together.  Sometimes it is pretty hard for Jack to tear himself away from playing basketball and acting crazy, to sit down and write or read with me.

One day he wrote his letter to Santa.  You can tell about where he started to lose interest (on the third line with the giant "M").  

SANTA,

LIGHTSABER
AMBULANCE
FIRETRUCK
ROCKET

JACK  (by the end of the letter he refused to write anymore, so I wrote his name for him)

On December 1st, Jack and I made this paper chain to count down the days until Christmas.  He'd been asking me everyday since Thanksgiving when it would Christmas. On each day we wrote down and drew pictures of what we would do that day. 

I told Ty to go stand by Jack.  This is what he thinks "go stand by Jack" means.

We {Heart} the Park

The weather this last week has been so nice (in the 40s and 50s).  The boys and I spent a few hours at Fireman park on Friday.  And today we went there again.  We could have stayed there for a lot longer, but it was lunch and naptime so I made the boys come home.

I snapped a few pictures of the boys with the phone to document their joy from being at the park.

Give Ty a spoon and some dirt and he's happy.  (And, yes, Jack did "scoop" Ty with the digger bucket a few times.)

Jack really wanted to bring his hoop to the park.  He spent a lot of time underneath the firetruck retrieving his ball.

Jack and Ty went down the slide lots and lots of times.  They LOVED crashing at the bottom.

Look at that smile. :

I think I could definitely live somewhere where it never snows.  Who needs a White Christmas?  I might be okay without one this year if it stays warm. :)

Thanksgiving Week w/some Judi's

Vaughn and Marianne and Mike and Maggie and their kids came to spend Thanksgiving with us. It was really fun and busy.

After getting the turkey in the oven on Thanksgiving morning, Maggie and I went to the YMCA and tried to do ZUMBA. We burned a few calories and laughed a lot.

The kids made these fabulous turkeys while we were getting Thanksgiving dinner ready.



Jack and Jace played trucks for a little while.

Jack, Austin and Grandpa played HOURS of basketball.  I never snapped a picture though.  Jack LOVED it!

Avery set up a dancing booth across the street and sold "dances" for a while ($2 a dance). They both made over $4.

Kate and Avery mid-dance for Mike.

 The day after Thanksgiving Marianne, Maggie and I got up at 4:00 am and headed to Santa Fe to do a little shopping. We got to Walmart a little late to get the really good deals, but did a bunch of shopping and were home by 8:30.

Then we went to or usual Christmas Tree cutting place (near Abiquiu -- an hour away) to get a Christmas tree.

Ty wasn't so sure about walking around in the dirt. He got used to it (and got really dirty).

We found a tree pretty fast, so Maggie and I were keeping the kids busy feeding them goldfish and looking for rocks.

Everyone loves Grandpa (and Grandma too).

The TREE!

On our way home we tried a new road (which ended up not being passable since there was a creek going through it), but we found this near old house in the middle of nowhere.



Saturday was the BYU/U of U football game, so Maggie, Marianne and I took the Avery, Kate, Jace, and Quinton to Bandelier to do a little hiking. Ty, Jack and Austin stayed with the big guys to watch the game.

Lovely Maggie and Jace

Cute Avery!

We looked out the window and noticed Vaughn in this position.  It ended up that he was talking to Jack and Austin who were playing in the storm drain.

Thanks for coming everyone!  Good company.  Good food.  Good times!

Junior Toppers

Friday night we went to the high school green and gold basektball scrimmage/game.  They invited the Junior Toppers to come and show their skills at the end of the game.  Jack and Kate have been going to a basketball skills clinic every Saturday morning from 8 to 9 for the last month or two.  The high school basketball players teach them skills, good sportsmanship and life skills too (integrity, etc.).  Both kids love it, but Jack is especially serious about it. 

These pictures are awful.  I was too far away and tried a few different settings since the kids were all moving.  But this first one shows Jack's interest in basketball...I tried to draw an arrow pointing to him, but I guess it didn't show up.  He's way down below his name.

The kids are in their "triple threat" position.  The coaches blow the whistle two times periodically during practice and the kids are supposed to get into this trip threat position and yell "TRIPLE THREAT!"  Check out how low Jack is squatting.  He's very serious about basketball and pretty good too.

  

 Jack checking his feet position.  Kate listening as always.

 Giant GO TOPPERS cheer at the end!

The Gilman Tunnels

Veteran's Day was a great holiday at our house this week.  Kate didn't have school and Dave didn't have work.  We went on a drive in the Jemez Mountains by our house with our friends, the Nye's.

We drove about an hour and then stopped and had a picnic lunch.  It was pretty cold.  I thought it was funny that the kids were freezing while they ate and then after a few minutes of running around they were throwing their coats off. 

After we ate we drove to the Gillman Tunnels which were pretty close.  The Gilman Tunnels were blasted out of rock in the 1920's to allow logging train access along the rushing Guadalupe River gorge.  (I just learned that from googling "tunnel near Jemez Springs, NM". 

I took this picture as we were driving towards the tunnels.  You can see both tunnels.

The Guadalupe River Gorge right by the tunnels.  Our friends said that people kayak down this sometimes (crazy people, I think).

Can you hear us yelling STOP to Jack and Craig?  

While we were driving toward the tunnels Dave spotted this huge, nasty spider crossing the road.  He wanted to put it in our cooler to show to our friends, but I convinced him that we should just take a picture of it. 

Gotta love New Mexico!

Baby Talk

This morning Ty was playing (a.k.a. pulling them all out) with some baby dolls and said another word...

"Dadie!" (I don't know if that's how you spell it -- sounds like baby except with d's instead of b's)

Then later this morning Jack and I (and Ty) were cleaning up some toys at the church after playgroup.  We needed to take the teeter totter back downstairs to the nursery. 

Jack decided to carry the teeter totter by himself.  In his tough guy voice he said, "I'll carry it.  You have a baby."  (on my hip, not in my tummy) 

Maybe Jack has heard me say that before... "I can't help you right now, I'm holding a baby."



New Word

Tonight Ty said a new word...

 COOKIE!

 These silly monkeys like cookies too!

Kate's Perler Bead Pizza Party

Today Kate hosted a Perler Bead Pizza Party for eleven of her closest friends.  We applied to host a perler bead party through Houseparty.com and were accepted.  They sent us a party pack full of projects for the girls, boards, beads, key rings, idea books, and a really cool prize.  Kate has been looking forward to this party since the end of September. 

The girls spent two hours making two different perler bead projects (a monkey and a lizard).  They got to eat pizza and cake and drink lemon-lime slush.  One of my friends helped me with the ironing and serving the girls.  Dave watched Jack and his friend and Ty. 

The girls were all very independent and sweet -- very different than the four year old boy playdates we've been having lately.  I don't think I'll ever have 12 boys at my house at one time, but I can handle 12 girls (at this age at least).