Trip down South

Well we had a fairly uneventful trip to Irving and then to Monroe. We left at midnight on the 19th and made it over Lookout pass without having to chain up (someone did lose control and tap our backend cracking our rear bumper in the wheel well on the passenger side), and I drove until we got to Butte where we stopped for breakfast. We made it to Cheyenne the first night and we all enjoyed soaking in the hot tub, then on to Irving on Friday for a midnight arival and an enjoyable Saturday with Tim, Heidi and Berry. Saturday after dinner we left for Monroe and arrived just after midnight. Sunday Rick and I felt a need for proving our insanity, so we went and did the food  shopping for Christmas eve and day. Four hours and many stores later we finished shopping for two days worth of food. We had a wonderful Christmas here with the Capezza family and are still planning a Jan. 15 return. Hopefully we can do a picture post soon.

I know, girls develop faster than boys...

The other day Noelle called Rebekah and I answered, to which she replied:"Yoh not mommy!"
Then today she asked for a "noosey time" and Rebekah said:"Nursey Time! Why!" to which she responded: "Betause I'm Tiyoed!"
She definitely knows her mind more than the boys did at her age, not being swayed by question rephrasing or any of the other common tricks

Once again, pre-finishing touches...

Our young photographers

Check out these pictures of Noelle that David and Timothy took...

On Saturday late morning, the kids & I covered pretzels. It was fun, and really messy. Here are the results, both of the pretzels and the faces:

Check out my new nephew!

He's adorable! Antonio

Part of Noelle's Christmas Present

The Highchair and bib. Not pictured are the dolly sling and cradle w/t mattress.

From World Vision

Watch Emmanuel's story

And...some snow photos.

Last night the rain melted all the snow...but this was from a few days ago. Hopefully the forecast will hold and we'll get more snow in a few days.

Pictures from our trip...in absolutely no order.

Various stuff

Thank you, Hilary and Hannah, for giving up your bed for us when we were down there.
Thank you, Hailie, for giving up your room for us.
I don't think we ever properly thanked you girls, but we really appreciate your giving up those things for us!

It's good to be back home. We came home to fairly fresh snow. I need to go to the store today to get coffee, salad stuff, and milk (pretty much the only things we need right now, which is nice) and also to the post office to pick up our mail. The kids really want to play outside and I'm kind of holding off until after we run errands because of how frigid it is outside right now (21 degrees!). Maybe it'll "warm up" to like upper 20's by the time we're back home. Anyway, I am gonna let them play out there, even if it is ridiculously cold. Thankfully Noelle and David both have snow boots (Noelle's are boy hand-me-downs, which is fine for just playing) and Timothy can use muddy boots until we get him real snow boots.

We gave in and got a fake tree, because we won't be able to have a real one this year (or, if we did, it would have to come down before we left for our Christmas vacation--too much of a fire hazard). So we got one for $30 at Wal-mart, a 6.5 foot one, it's about 3-4 feet wide at the bottom so it's a small one, but definitely good enough. I'm going to try to do some decorating with the kids after naptime and have some kind of yummy snack we can have while (or maybe after) doing that.

Oh, I drove over the Blue Mountains pass yesterday in pretty snowy conditions. It was stressful but I felt so good that I was able to do it without losing control at any point. It was nerve-racking to pass the big semis. There were tons of them, lined up at various points, having to put chains on, or pulling off for whatever other reasons.

Pictures will come, but I'm not sure when. I've got a full day planned for today. Maybe tomorrow. We almost filled up our memory card (which holds like 250 snaps). Got a couple of videos. OK, I really need to go, breakfast is ready and the kids are still trying to get me to let them play outside before we go. Bye!

P.S. Hathaways and Sleimans, we miss you guys and want to get together!!! And sorry, Taneisha, that I didn't give you that apple pie recipe--I had it all ready when we went over there last week and didn't bring my purse in (where it was) so totally forgot. Anyway, hope to see y'all soon!!

We're Back!

But only for three weeks.
Here are some pictures Hilary sent me from our visit in Nevada.
More pictures when we get around to uploading our camera.