Back to Christmas...

I'm cleaning up a bit today (and getting distracted along the way- that's how I got here) and came upon these great little albums I made for my family for Christmas (Staci- this is how I put my silhouettes to use; I never got around to making the ornaments). I'd wanted to do these and had all the supplies to make them, but kept putting them off. I finally buckled down on Christmas Eve Eve and spent the entire 2 days making them. Damon was so great to allow me that time to finish them- he had no idea what I was even doing. I'm super happy with them. Each child (and Damon, too) has a little book (about 4"x5") that has pictures and "my favorite things" about them.

 

 

 

Proof that I'm cleaning up. This is what my desk looks like- after I started cleaning it up a bit. Yikes.

The greatest surprise of all was that Elli whipped one up for me on Christmas Eve as well (when she asked me what I was doing, I told her I was making something for dad and showed her a bit of what I was doing in Damon's album). Pretty cool.

 

 

 

My favorite page in the book: I was laughing pretty hard. I give Elli all my extra pictures to scrapbook with. I took these pictures with a specific purpose in mind for a scrapbook class I was taking last year- not just to take random pictures because I'm so addicted to photography. I thought it was a funny perspective.

This blogging stuff isn't so bad...

Back Home

This is the plowed snow on the side of the road; at one point the snow was as tall as our car. It made for a really beautiful drive, though.

We made it safely home today- without incident. The roads were plowed and the only difficulty was the sun reflecting off the surrounding snow. Elli's BFF, Jillian, was so excited for us to be back home that she threw our family a WELCOME BACK/HAPPY NEW YEAR party, complete with decorations, food (from our pantry), popper/firecracker thingies for all the kids, and- the best part of all- glitter and confetti all over the newly cleaned countertops, floors and table! :) The kids seriously had a great time. Thanks, Jill! (post-script: these girls cleaned up the entire mess, confetti and all)

The kids were greatly missed while we were gone, as evidenced by the 5 additional children we have sleeping over tonight. We're happy to be home.

Post #2

OK- I'm ready for more...
Here are a few (too many) pictures from our trip- and from the snow in Redmond before we even left "for the snow."

Thanks, Brooke!

Savannah right before she got squished

The ever-adventurous Ray

us.

me and my "Wii-hair"- as Elli so aptly named it (after a day of skiing)

Elli with Savannah on her back

Savannah and Ray

Ray and Savannah on the big bump

Nolan- photographed by Elli (notice the double-front teeth missing)

Emma catching some serious air

Emma trying to ski for the first time (she did great)

Elli doing the "pizza"

self-portrait

So much fun...

It's about time

Brooke and I committed to get blogs up today and motivate each other to keep them current. I've wanted to start a blog for a long time, but it overwhelms me to think about all the details. Brooke and Damon convinced me to just start posting and worry about all those details later.

Right now, our family is on plus-one-day of our vacation. For the past week (since Christmas Day), we have been enjoying ourselves in eastern Washington at Lake Chelan. We have gone skiing, sledding, ice skating, swimming, played lots of games and had a great time together. We were supposed to go home today, but both the mountain passes are closed due to avalanche danger and we got "stuck" here for at least one more night. I will try and post some of our best pics from the week. Elli got a new camera for Christmas and she has stepped up as the family photographer (at least for this vacation). I think I've taken less than 20 pictures myself. Kind of nice for a change. It's really fun to see Elli's perspective of our trip.

There, Brooke and Damon: I did it!