Sledding Sunset

Out sledding for FHE

One Snowy Day...

Remember that really snowy day in December when they said on the news to not go out and drive in it because of all the snow on the roads and people were sliding off the roads and some districts closed school but not ours so I still had to drive my kiddos to school then came home and watched the snow fall and collect on the road and drive way and I really needed a diet pepper?

I went to get me a diet pepper. 

And it was worth every slip on the road!

The More You Know..

So I was at the elementary school yesterday and was speaking with another mom who was complaining without hesitation about the snow.  And then there's all the snow.  It's ruining her life.  After going on for a unseemly amount of time on the snow, she finally resorted to the answer.  Of why we have so much snow.  Are you ready for this??  Because I sure wasn't.  We're stupid.  We have the lowest test scores in the world and our kids are stupid so we have all this snow.  Are you following this?  So I said, "I don't think test scores determine how much snow we get", very kindly, yet rationally.  And I am so totally serious.  This was the conversation.  So she paused and relented.  But still we have stupid kids.  Umm.  I beg to differ.  My kiddos are pretty sharp.  Cute too.  They're even cute AND smart when covered with snow.  But I just happen to know it's NOT the test scores that make so much snow.  So in case you were wondering why we have been getting so much snow here in the lovely state of Utah, it's cause your kids are stupid.  Wait!! Just kidding.  Whether your kids are stupid, ugly, sharp as a tack, or the next Einstein, we still get lots of snow.  We live in Utah.  We get snow.  Can you here the jingle from those commercials?  The More You Know....

In The Bleak Midwinter.

When I lived with my parents I sang in the ward choir.  One of the Winter arrangements we sang was In The Bleak Midwinter.  These last few months those words have been in my head. 

Everyday. 

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

It is a hymn about Christ. 

But as we see snow and ice and snow and ice, I think it perfectly describes this Winter.

I haven't seen the ground in months!

I am so looking forward to Spring.  We are still months away. But I long for it.

 Life. Color. Sky. Warmth.

May this snow and ice melt quickly and bring green grass and beautiful Spring.

Thursday Came And Went.

By the time Thursday was done, I'd taken 2 kids to the dentist for cleanings. No cavities. Got them to school, cleaned up the house. Then I went to the dentist for my cleaning only to have the dentist, who tried to smooth out a filling that keeps catching on floss, chip the filling and take a whole chunk out. This was a filling that I had to have redone 6 months ago because it had fallen out. Soooo, I told him he owed me a lollipop, to which he only gave a small chuckle and said, "It will only take 40 minutes. I'm sorry!" Then raced back to the school in the pouring rain to pick up those 2 clean teethed kids because it was raining too much for them to ride scooters home. Got them home and dry. Got Ruthie to Activity Days and then dinner made lightening fast and then I went to Pack Meeting and then came home and crashed. Hard.

But during much of that day this boy....
Was up at Snow Basin with his dad for a ski field trip. Yay!! It rained and was cold and wet and miserable. But Sam had a blast...
And when Daniel emailed me all the ski pics from his phone to my laptop, he found all the pics he'd taken at Disneyland when he took the boys on the steam boat thing around Tom Sawyer's island. They had asked if they could see the room where they steer. So the captain invited them to actually steer the ship and blow the whistle for the whole trip.
And a fun picture of all the kids trying their skill at pulling the sword from the stone.
Fun fun. It's been a terribly busy week with lots more each day. I need a vacation. Disneyland sounds like fun...

Tuesday Morning Joy.

This is what we woke up to.

Usually we don't get a lot of snow just because of the low elevation, but this is nice.

The snow will cover up all the yucky brown grass and, in our case, the poopy grass.

I find Joy in snowy days.

Now my neighbor Mandy broke her leg a few weeks ago. Just did a really nice job of it, too.

But she got bored.

This morning she made some cinnamon rolls for us.

The rolls were one of the things I "bought" at our Relief Society Angel Auction.

Yum.

Cinnamon rolls bring me Joy.

Thanks for the Tuesday morning snow Joy.

And Mandy, thanks for the Tuesday morning cinnamon roll Joy.

One Night=5 Loads Of Laundry.

No. Not stomach Flu.

SNOW!

We started on Sunday after church. Loaded in the truck. And quiet as they watched a movie for the long drive up.

I spent some time up on the Ranch reading. My hair looked good on Sunday evening. I'm not showing any more pictures of me. So enjoy...
There was some craziness in the building. We kept the Sabbath day as holy as one could up at the ranch.

We caught up with Grandma and Grandpa and had a movie night.

At bedtime, Grandma and Grandpa went to their room and we all headed upstairs to sleep. It was hot. 81 degrees in a house is too hot. And I get cranky.

No one slept. I finally sent two kids downstairs to the couch to sleep around 11 pm. They went right to sleep.

At about midnight I headed down. But there wasn't a comfy space to sleep. So I finally headed back upstairs. It had cooled to 80 degrees by then. I got on Isaac's bed and read my book for a while. I finally fell asleep to Sam and Daniel talking. And the sound of rain on the roof.

I woke up to Sam and Daniel talking and Daniel heading down to the wood burning stove.

The whole place was smokey.

So Daniel was trying to get the fire stoked so the smoke would go up, not come out. Luckily it was 4 am and the whole place had cooled sufficiently. After a long while, he got it taken care of. Everyone was awake and now we needed to get back to sleep.

The rain was still coming down and the wind was whipping around outside.

We all slept until 8.

Then we spent all morning on Monday doing this...

And some of this...

And tons of this...

The kids did some killin' up to the Ranch.

They would hunt mice.

Then we would hear "Kill it, kill it!"

There would be some stomping.

But mostly those mice met their maker courtesy of the man...

We also spent some time on a snowmobile.

After all the rain and wind, everything was slushy and muddy.

But we know how to get it done.

I even drove it around a bit and had a blast. This machine can move.

I mostly screamed. My throat hurt when I was done.

Aren't these guys a great lookin' bunch of kids?!

We came home smelling of campfire smoke. So EVERYTHING went into the laundry.

Even the socks we never wore.

It added up to 5 full loads.

Boy, we had fun!!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for another fun weekend at the Ranch.

Sunday Snow!

It snowed. Obviously! When we left for Stake Conference this morning, our driveway was still clear and the roads were okay. 3 hours later, on the drive home, the roads were snowy and icy and our driveway had about a foot of snow on it! WoW! So we got in the house and got lunch and got snow suits on and ran out to play in the backyard. I didn't. Daniel didn't. The kids did.
Isaac has gigantic hands because I wasn't prepared just yet for snow. So he's wearing his dad's gloves. The tramp had a wall of snow this morning on the net. So they went out to jump in all the snow that fell into it!

They also tackled each other. It's no fun unless you can tackle your siblings with great big boots and gloves and snowsuits on!

I think they tried to build something. But they got cold. So they stopped. Sam had to have a newspaper bag on his cast arm with a sock over that. No gloves could fit over that cast! It did stay dry!
Isaac crawled under the tramp and made a tunnel to the other side. He was met with snowballs and tackles from his siblings!

On to lighter things now...We went to Stake Conference this morning (is lighter the right word?) as I said above. Our Stake Presidency had some great counsel for us. Our President gave great counsel on our families. We are living in some perilous times and it was a very timely message! But the talk that I really appreciated came from one of his counselors. He talked to the kids. I wanted to take a nap, but I knew I needed to listen to be able to quiz my kids later. He talked about being obedient and following our parents. He told the story of Jonah and the whale. Because Jonah went the opposite direction the Lord wanted him to, he was swallowed by a whale. (the condensed version, thank you!) Then he told another story. But all I remember was a horse names Dandy. He left his pasture and was hit by a car. Then he left his pasture again and ate some oats with rat poison in them and died. So the moral is...listen and be obedient or you will be swallowed by a whale...and...be obedient or you will eat oats with rat poison and die. Okay. Not really. But my kids now are told that they are being swallowed by a whale when they have to sit on the stool. So far only one has had to be swallowed. Maybe we'll try rat poison. Kidding!!!! No. I would never do that.

Back to the pictures. I didn't go outside. I needed to be barefoot AND warm. So I took pictures through the back window. I think I've mentioned before that I don't clean windows. I already know what it looks like outside. So the pictures are not great. But I think you get the idea.

And here's a funny for ya! As we left this morning, we saw many cars passing as we were ready to drive out of our houses. They all had their Sunday duds on and we just figured them for all the other Mormons going to Stake Conference. So we got in line behind them. When we got to the stop sign where we figured we would turn right to get to the Tabernacle, they all started turning left. So Daniel says, "Is it at the Stake Center?" I say, "No, they said it's at the Tabernacle." So why are they all going to the Stake Center?? So we turn left, too. Then we realize they are all turning to go into our church building. WAIT! NO! They are turning into the Catholic church parking lot. DUH! So we almost went to the Catholic church this morning! Needless to say, we laughed the rest of the way to the Tabernacle!

Ooops! Someone needs to be swallowed by a whale. Gotta go!

Snow Day

It snowed and snowed and snowed. We don't get near as much snow as a nearby city, just to the east of us, but we got a nice bit today. So the kids went out and built snow balls. Isaac and Sam just rolled and rolled until they had some really nice sized snowballs. These ones aren't as big as they eventually got. Ruthie just rolled a little and then added to her snowball by hand. They had tons of fun out there. Speaking of hands... here is my left hand right after they took the dressing off almost 2 weeks ago. It really looks so much better now. The stitches are out and the swelling and bruising are about gone.