Winter fun -- before it ends

I just wanted to put up some of the fun pictures of our snow outings over the past couple months. We've had such fun times, but I just haven't felt much like blogging. So, here's the short version, mainly in pictures...

McCall -- Winter Carnival

We got to go to the annual McCall Ice Carving contest and carnival again this year. It was great! We rented a condo near the lake and two of my brothers and kids joined us. Our view, from the condo balcony... gorgeous!

Inside, there were cute, cozy window seats everywhere, and such a nice set up! Three bedrooms, each with a king size bed. Perfect for our group.

Sammie climbed a big snow mountain when we were sledding the first afternoon. She was pretty proud of herself...

Spencer LOVED sledding, but wasn't so excited about climbing back UP the hill to go again.

going up....??

We got to see a GREAT fireworks display over the frozen lake. We were almost right under the display ... got a couple raw embers dropped on us, actually! yikes!

Samantha and cousins got their own front row seats on a snow bank...

Spencer loved it, though he was a bit nervous about the loud noises at first...

Slumber party in Brian and Kamber's room! In order to get the babies to sleep, we put the "bigger" kids on our bedroom floor, Spence in our bathroom in a pack-n-play, and Baby M in the other bedroom in his pack-n-play. It worked great -- then we were able to stay up late and play games, just us grown-ups!

Guess what? Our camera died that first night with everyone together. Sad, sad. So, we didn't get any pics of the parade or the fabulous ice sculptures this time. But... Wade did (check his blog), and so did Melissa (check her blog -- end of Jan).

Next Event -- Sledding with the Ward

We had an EQ party for families from church, up at Idaho City a few weeks ago. It turned out to be really fun! Chili and hot chocolate, and some great hills that were perfect for the kids...

Samantha had a BLAST!! She got pulled with a 4-wheeler some of the time, then she took off with friends and went tubing/sledding over and over again!

One more of Samantha, sliding down with friends...

Spence, well, he loved the hot cocoa best.

And endured being pulled in a sled by Mom or Dad...

Winter in our own back yard.

Believe it or not, we've hardly had ANY snow here at our house this winter. Any snow time has had to be when we GO somewhere to play in the snow. So, we were very excited a couple of weeks ago to see a few inches in our back yard one morning. Samantha and Grandpa Dennis went out and made two very handsome snowmen...

We should have taken more pictures of these great snowmen! Just a few through the window, because the Mom didn't feel like bundling up and going out with the camera...

But they lasted a few days, in spite of the warm weather...

The kids have enjoyed being out in the back yard on some of the warmer days. We even saw rainbow in January one evening...

Can't tell, but it was a great big, bright, double rainbow, stretching all the way to the ground on both sides. Not bad, for January!!

That's all for now, folks! I'm just proud to actually be posting ANYTHING at this point... as my pregnancy sickness continues to be "on par" for the course. ha!

Turns out, I AM.

So, remember in that last post that I wrote a month ago... I mentioned a two hour nap and how it was all due to my late night quilting? Couldn't be that I was pregnant, I wrote. Remember?

Well. Turns out, I am! Hence, the ultimate pause in bloggering. Just laying around, whimpering on the couch, running to the bathroom to dry heave or worse. Yep. Test positive.

And, for the record, I'm VERY excited and happy about it! We've been hoping to add to our family for awhile now, so this is very exciting news for us. Due date, October 12. So, I'm about two months along now, according to the charts. Terrible at keeping this kind of secret, mainly because I feel lousy enough I just can't hide it.

Anyway, the blogging pause will likely continue, because being online nauseates me. Just wanted to send a shout out and say ... YAY for baby number three on the way!

Random Writing

My blog is old and blah. I know! I just don't have much to say, and I'm too far behind on the stuff that I SHOULD write, so I feel like I'll never catch up. So, instead, today you get the off-the-top-of my head thoughts.

First, you should know I took a two hour nap today. It was heavenly, except for the many interruptions from Samantha after her one-hour movie ended; she kept poking her head in, with "Mom, I don't know what to do?" or shoving things under the door, like a pair of beads, some socks, etc. I ignored it and proceeded with my nap until I was ready to wake. Only, I never really got ready to wake up, but I had to anyway because someone has to get dinner for this family, right?

The nap leads me to the second bit you should know. Yes, you're all wondering what kind of mother just leaves her kids and takes a TWO HOUR nap in the middle of the day? Uh, yeah, you're right, a pregnant mom would do that. But I'm not. Actually, a mom who was up verrrry late last night sewing a quilt would need a nap today. That's me, folks.

Remember last summer when I announced I made my first quilt, as a humanitarian project? Well, I'm now working on my SECOND quilt, also as a humanitarian project. If you remember (which I bet ya don't because it's not the kind of thing that sticks in people's memories), that first quilt took me about three weeks to complete the top and get it ready for tying.

Well. This time, I have three days till this little beauty has to be ready to tie at the "Pie and Tie" Saturday night!! What in the WORLD got into me, volunteering for such an undertaking?? I am not a quilter! I said that to myself last night as I sat sewing row after row, late into the night. I am NOT a quilter!

But... deep down somewhere inside of me.... well... maybe, in fact, I AM a bit of a quilter after all. I actually really enjoy the monotony of it, especially working late into the night, using my hands to make something while my mind is free to wander and do whatever it wants. All the while, something tangible and creative is taking shape beneath my fingers. Something that tracks my progress and begs me to do just one more row. Wow! I like the sense of accomplishment, and. oddly, there's something very domestically satisfying in quilting. Am I the only one to have discovered this??

Maybe it's because my "day job" is so full of intangible rewards, or long term "projects" (like, raising toddlers?), or things that just have to be done as maintenance (like mopping that kitchen floor AGAIN), things that don't stay done or have to be done over and over again (like cooking dinner?) So, to actually have a project that actually gets DONE and is actually immediately useful to someone (and I actually like the word actually quite a bit today, actually) .... well, see where I'm coming from? If you haven't tried quilting, I recommend it... or something that offers some kind of good, quick sense of accomplishment.

So, third random thing to share... I'm reading an enjoyable book right now. It's not fabulous literature, but it's historical fiction, and interesting enough to keep me up late on the nights I'm NOT finishing that darn quilt. It's another Gerald Lund -- The Undaunted -- about the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneer expedition. So, it's been about a decade since I read any Lund stuff. (W&G got tedious after 5 volumes, who can argue?) But what I enjoy are all his endnotes about the historical facts surrounding the various incidents he's depicting in each chapter. I actually feel like I'm learning a lot of untold history, and having a fun read in the process. Maybe it's because this one starts in the coal mines of Manchester, England... makes me miss London, I guess? And I've never really learned a thing about the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition. But, I did go over Escalante Pass once, and have since been amazed with that southern Utah country -- still so rugged and desolate. I'm impressed with all the research Lund put into this one, pretty thorough. Good read, for those who wonder.

Fourth randomness... Spencer just took a full spray bottle to our baby grand piano. Sad, sad day! I think it will be fine, but it just made me sick when I found him, water squirted over all the keys, all across the back board, and the bench. Man! I just got him up five minutes ago. Sigh. Guess mother-duty is back on for now. Any thoughts on what we should have for dinner on a day like today?? (It's 5:20 p.m. now, so whatever it, I hope it's quick!)

Bye for now. Promise, next round will be either more back-bloggin' about Christmas stuff, or I'll throw in the pics of our lovely weekend in the mountains of McCall. Stay tuned...

More Back-Bloggin: Home Improvements and Holidays

So, I'm still way behind on the blogging, as you can tell. I thought I'd just quickly catch up on things I meant to write months ago. Not much writing, and just a few pics to capture the fun times we've been having around here.

First, while Brian was gone, I did manage to get a few of my home-improvement projects checked off the list...

Painted that one accent wall in the living room. More yellow, I know. And I love it. Looks much better in person than on the computer, believe me.
Got those adorable curtains for the kitchen, and I'm still very much in love with them.
See how cute the print is, up close? It's almost Hawaiian, I think...
Hung the travel pictures above our bed, finally...
They make me happy. :) (so does the little guy in the corner.)
And got the curtains for the piano room.

Things are looking a lot more finished around the house now!

As for the holidays... We really had a blast the whole season (except for the dud of a New Years Eve, which you've already heard about.) So here are some highlight shots...

The downtown lights of Caldwell are really quite charming...

Took all the cousins for an outing to walk around seeing the lights and singing carols. It was cold, but fun, too...

Had plenty of family parties at our house that looked like this...

Celebrated Samantha's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Sam wore a princess dress all day, and dressed it up that night with her favorite present, the hot pink bathrobe...

Now, no laughing at the lovely Castle Cake I made. Seriously, I had an hour and a half to put something together, from start to finish. And Samantha and her cousins were ecstatic with the results...

That about wraps it up. Oh, one more. Here's our tree...

It fell over three days after we put it up! No one was even near it. We just heard a loud noise in the living room and came in to find our gorgeous REAL tree toppled over. Decorations were everywhere, and pine needles, too! Sad day. But we put it back up and it lasted the rest of the season.

Of course I have more to post, but will have to save it for the next edition of Back-Bloggin. Stay tuned...

Ode to the Wind

The Wind -- a poem of alliterations

The whispering of the winter wind

Went wailing down the winding road.

Whistling and whimpering,

It wound around the bitter cold.

And all the while it blew and grew,

All the while it blew and grew.

It wove around the weathered wasteland,

Wavering and wandering,

Whirling, whipping, whickering,

Slithering and squandering.

And all the while it blew and grew.

All the while it blew and grew.

by Kamber Hone

1992

So, it's not my best work ever, but I got an A on it, way-back-when. I think of it every time it gets soooo windy here -- like last night. I thought our roof might blow off, or at least our doors sounded like they might blow open. It's much calmer this morning, but I had to put up my post anyway. I'm sure the wind will be back soon. I mean, it IS January, right?

Speaking of January, confession coming... January is my least favorite month of the year. Surprised? I bet I'm not alone, really. I try not to think about it or admit it, but it's just a downer for me. Especially the last part of January. So bleah. We've actually planned January getaways in the past, and that really helps.

This year we're planning to go to the Winter Ice Festival up in McCall next weekend. (It's the same one we went to last year, if I could link to it, I would... it's AWESOME!) We've booked a cabin for a few nights, and invited some family to join us if they can. Fun! So, that's keeping the "bleah" of January at bay for me this year. Actually, I really can't complain. I mean, we aren't even suffering from "the Inversion" so far this winter. There's still sunshine (despite the wind), and the kids' fevers are gone. Well then ... Roll on, Frigid January!

over and out

Hey. No fair. Blogger took my vids down. Man! They were working for a couple of days, promise. But it took absolutely HOURS to load just those three. So, unless they magically come back I probably will NOT be adding any more anytime soon. Sorry 'bout that. Blame it on Blogger.

Just heading to bed for now. I have in mind to blog, good intentions, if you will. But it just isn't happening right now. Instead, I have sick kids, and lots of laundry, and cub scouts and primary, and a stuffy nose, and a writing project, and...

That's the skinny, folks. Life's happening -- even in January. Bye for now!

Back Blogging: Some videos

Hey! Good news! Blogger finally is letting me upload some videos. So here's a few recent ones I thought would be fun to share. First, here's Samantha, jumping into the pool at the hotel in California. ALL. BY. HERSELF!! (This is great progress, since she went to ONE day of swimming lessons this summer and suddenly decided swimming is NOT for her.) Check her out...

Spencer found a spray bottle in my bedroom. He just made me laugh, so I thought I'd share...

Here's the vid of Spence (and Sam) saying "Oh So!!" when he saw the Christmas lights. Keep in mind it's dark, we're in the car, and we were mainly trying to record his voice. So, the actual "views" in this one are less than exciting. But it's still pretty cute, hearing him get so excited, I think...

I might add some more later this week, so check back. :)

Back-bloggin': San Fran trip (early Dec)

I can't NOT post all these great pictures from all our fun "happenings." I think that's why I'm not blogging. I'm too far behind and have too many fun things I want to share. But no energy/drive to put it all up for blogger consumption.

But I'll start sort of where I left off... The week after Thanksgiving, the kids and I went to San Francisco to visit Brian and bring him home. It was such a fun trip! Even though he was working part of the time, we still got to see and do so many fun things. The short recap:

First of all, check this out! At the Natural History Museum they have a live albino alligator! Samantha was totally freaked out by it, and didn't want to see the rest of the aquarium for fear the fish might GET her...

But Spencer loved it all. Me and Spence, checking out the live sand dollars, they're some of my favorites...
Seriously, Samantha stood waaay back from most of the aquarium windows, and only got close if Mom or Dad was right beside her...
Just love this pic, have to include it...

The Cali Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park had a great aquarium, as well as a rain forest and planetarium (which we skipped). Here's the snake show...
And here's Samantha, looking at the snakes... entranced.
And here, she studies the map. She loves maps, have I mentioned?
We bought them some fun lollypops as we were leaving the park. Spencer really didn't know what to do with it at first...
But he figured it out. He looks really serious in this one, because he was afraid I was taking it away...

Samantha got one too. Pink, of course. They were GREAT entertainment for the whole rest of the trip. We left them in the car and let them lick away all day as we rode along!

We fed the ducks in Golden Gate Park, but Spence hated it. He screamed and cried, which Brian got on video, if I can get it to load (will try later, but for now here's a pic of me feeding the ducks) ...
Rode the trolley car to Union Square. This is all of us, packed in the car together...
Samantha loved it because she got to stand on the seat and hold onto the bar for part of the time. I was less enthusiastic, because it was an hour-long wait and the busker that was playing the electric guitar while we waited was absolutely pathetic. Plus, it was frrreeezing cold. Oh, but what a memory! right?
We had an awesome hotel suite, with a king bed, and a cute little living room (which I failed to capture on our new camera)...
Our hotel was complete, with fabulous made-to-order complimentary breakfast, and an indoor pool and spa. yay!!

As you can imagine, the pool was BY FAR the highlight of Samantha's trip! Her dad bought her some new floaties, and she learned to jump off the edge by herself. So fun...
We saw some seals, but just a few. We wanted to see the Elephant Seals, and planned a whole day around it, but missed them again. Bad luck! Oh well. We settled for the harbor seals at Santa Cruz. The kids were ecstatic.
Saw some amazing giant Redwoods. Very cool! (And cold, too, unfortnately.)

Also saw a gorgeous sunset from Muir Beach overlook. Left the kids in the car for that one, was that mean?
The lights of the city, all lit up for the holidays...
We also got to see our friend, Ryan Park, who we knew in Boston. Had dinner with him and got to catch up a bit. Samantha was kind enough to take a picture of all of us...
Then Brian took another one...
Just had to throw in these fun ones of the kids. I love the look on his face, don't you?
And that's our girl! Little smudge of ketchup from lunch on her cheek, oops.
We went over Donner's Pass on the way home. Lucky for us, we just missed a big snowstorm -- the roads had been closed the day before. But for us, we just got a spectacular snow show, and some nice, dry roads...

It's been soooo nice to be all together again! He was in San Fran working from Labor Day all the way until the first week of December. Looong time away! I have a new appreciation for single parents and the hard job they have. And also a new appreciation for my husband and how wonderful it is having him around!

a tiny catch-up

It's been ages, I know!

And the worst part (for me, anyway) is that I haven't even checked ANYONE ELSE'S blogs this whole time I've been not writing. For example, I didn't even know my sis-in-law is having a GIRL baby, because I didn't check the blog. Thankfully someone else told me, huh? I'm sad to think of all the other tidbits I've been missing this whole non-blogging time.

I have no real excuses, except that Brian has been working from home this past month and he uses my main computer all day. That's sort of a good excuse, isn't it? I mean, we do have two other computers in the house, but one is slower than tar, and the other one (this one) crashes all the time and has lost my docs on a few occasions lately. Plus, neither of them have any of the pictures we upload. So, I feel a little lost in the blogging world right now.

But I'm trying again. And here's a little update from here, starting from way back...

Thanksgiving:

Was great! We spent the weekend with Brian's family, doing all kinds of fun family things -- games, football, looking at Christmas lights, hosting "the Great Cousin Sleepover," etc. Good times! Some of Brian's siblings from Utah came up, which made it extra fun. Plus we got together with extended family, which means I got quizzed on all the cousins' names again. (still not good at that one, unfortunately.)

One extra tidbit, we finally got ourselves a new camera on the Black Friday sales. yay! hopefully I'll get to add some pictures on here someday soon.

Trip to San Fran:

Wonderful! We got a great SouthWest ticket deal, so I flew with the kids to meet Brian and bring him home to us. We stayed in a great suite hotel with an indoor pool -- new love of Sammie's life. She even learned to jump off the side of the pool (with her new floaties, of course). Big girl! We toured around the city a bit, saw the majestic Redwood forest, and got to meet Brian's colleagues. The firm he's been working with extended him the offer to continue working on this project from home, so he's been busy this whole past month, continuing to log hours, reviewing documents for them. Nice!

Samantha's Birthday:

She's officially FOUR!! Yay! Can't believe she's already so old. She just seems so grown up to me. I keep asking her, "how did you get to be a big four-year-old already?!" She responds, "Because you maked me a cake and then I was four." She had a great birthday, celebrating with a fun play date with her little friend from church, then a big family party at Grandma and Grandpa's in the evening. We celebrated her's and her cousin Ella's together. One of the favorite present's is a new hot pink bathrobe from Ella's family. Samantha sleeps with it in her bed every night and puts it on first thing every morning. sooo cute!

Christmas:

Was with my family this year. We packed up all our goodies and presents on Christmas Eve, and drove to be with my parents the whole Christmas weekend. What a crazy party time!! The kids were overwhelmed with constant sugar highs, tons of play time with cousins, a string of VERY late nights, and so many many presents and new toys! Samantha got a bit of the "more for me?" syndrome, expecting every day would bring even more presents than the day before. She's still coming off the Christmas-addiction, I think.

Christmas highlight for me was an evening out with JUST the grown-ups. We got baby-sitters for all the kids, then we went to a little B&B for a private catered dinner party that my parents set up for all of us siblings and parents. Ah, the sweet serenity of adult conversation and no interruptions! It's just nice to get away for a little while sometimes, ya know? Then we went back to my brother's house, put the kids to bed, and played games together. Fun memories!

Of course, we had a big "after" party that lasted several more days once we got back our home here... More of Brian's family was in town, so we had another big dinner at his parents' house, then games at our house another night, then football at his brother's house the next night, etc. We gained our obligatory five holiday pounds, and are now working them off with our New Year resolutions.

Sad to say, the whole Christmas season passed without me sending any Christmas cards this year. The stamps are in my wallet, the cards have been hauled around the state with me, and we even printed family pictures to go inside. Sigh. But I think we missed the window, the ship has sailed, and we might be saying "next year" this time around. Sorry 'bout that!

New Year's:

Not the highlight this year. Actually, it was a bit pathetic this time around. New Year's Eve was really foggy and snowy this year. We were going to maybe do something with some of Brian's family, but it just didn't work out. So, Samantha and I stayed up late playing play-dough and watching Cinderella while Brian worked. At 11:50, we put Sam in bed and drank Martinelli's cider. Happy New Year! bleah. Next year I want to do something awesome, just telling y'all right here and now, okay?!

Kids report:

A quick conversation with Sammie. Last weekend, we had the radio on, and the song was about a guy telling the girl if she didn't love him TONIGHT, he'd go find someone else to love him better. As usual, I was talking to the radio, telling the girl, "if he's the kind of guy who's going around giving ultimatums like that, you better not fall for him anyway!"

Samantha looked up from her coloring and said, slightly irritated, "Mom, it's just a song!" (As in, please stop talking to the radio.) Then, after I laughed a little bit, she added, thoughtfully, "Besides, what are Old Tomatoes, anyway?" ha! We thought it was adorable.

Spencer's a cutie, too. He has three obsessions right now: shoes, his coat, and his pajamas. He brings me any of those three items at any hour of the day and expects me to put them on him. I usually oblige him with the shoes and coat -- we put them on, take them off several times a day. But he brings me a pair of pajamas at noon and wants to wear them, then throws a huge tantrum when I tell him "not yet." It's kind of cute, kind of bothersome. I know it's just a phase, so I'm trying to stay amused.

Spence says some really cute things now. Our favorite phrase for the holidays was, "Oh! So!" Whenever we drove by a house decorated with Christmas lights, he would excitedly exclaim, "Oh! So!" (as in oh, so pretty!) By the end of the season, it turned into "Oh! So! So! So!" Really cute. We got it on video, maybe I'll try to upload. He also says several new words and does a lot of mimicking right now. So fun to hear him learning so quickly: coat and shoes are his all-time favorites, though puppy and monkey are close seconds (he has jammies with puppies and monkeys).

Church:

We have been extra busy with church lately. A big Primary New Year's party tomorrow -- wish me luck! And I have Sharing Time for the children for the whole month of January. Whew! Better get busy for now.

This was not my best blogging, I know. And I can't even promise I'll do better and be back on track. But I am definitely hopeful!! Bye for now. Happy New Year to everyone!