It's the Most Freezing Cold Time of the Year

Wow, it has been NON-STOP since I last wrote. Just checking in and saying - we're still here and we've survived all the winter driving. With that massive storm that came in on the 12th, we had to pack up a little early and drive for 24 hours straight to get ahead (and stay ahead) of the storm. Right after Jarett's last exam, we packed the van and drove to Calgary where we had a 8 hour stay/rest before we were on the road again to get ahead of the sub-zero weather and the enormous amounts of snow that were coming. The storm started to pick up and we ended up driving all the way from Calgary to St. George, UT in one day. The huge blessing behind this is that when we finally stopped there, the snow stopped about 6 miles north on the Interstate. In fact, just 30 miles north of us a semi-trailer lost control and jack-knifed causing huge delays and horrid problems. We were totally protected by the hand of the Lord. We were also very blessed because Jaymeson was AMAZING. He only needed to be fed when we reached our scheduled stops, which caused us to be able to keep good time and be able to beat that storm. We very much felt like we were in the movie The Day after Tomorrow with the storm coming from the north and freezing everybody on the way down. We had a wonderful week in California and on the way back we actually had a worse trip. Through Idaho and Montana we hit horrid snow, but we were able to make it through due to many, many prayers and VERY slow speeds. If we had waited one more day though, we would've hit much more snow in Utah as well. We feel so blessed with how things worked out and know that the Lord was watching out and protecting us.

Santa and then some randoms

So at Jarett's school, they had a Family Christmas Party. Every year we've made an effort to go and we're never disappointed. The kids talk about it all year long and can't wait to go again. The girls were SO excited to see Santa and the magician and all the other kids that are there. The party went well. I dropped the kids off with Jarett for the first half while I attended a funeral. When I got there, the magic show was just ending and Kienna was up helping out the magician.

You may notice the Frosty the Snowman that the magician is using. He pulled this out and suddenly Saryn started balling, "I want my Mommy!!" It was SUPER cute. So I got to hold her for the entire time that Frosty was in sight. It was sad, but so funny too. Supposedly someone took pictures of when Kaia got to help the magician (this was before I arrived).
Of course, we were pretty sure that Santa wouldn't be a huge hit with Saryn once we saw her react to Frosty. We couldn't have been more dead on. The older girls sat on his lap first. We wanted to get a picture with Saryn too, but realized this would be close to impossible. So it ended up being a family picture.


Yesterday we had some fun photo opportunities as well:

Saryn was playing dress-ups (the norm) and came upstairs with her dolly. She sat on the couch and immediately fell asleep. So here's to my little Snow White/Sleeping Beauty.


Kienna has been so sweet holding Jaymeson all the time. If it's "exercise time" for Jaymeson, she'll still show him she loves him - even if it's by leaving him a little rose...



We had a blast making cookie dough last night. We started it off with a bang. We put the butter in first and started the bosch before mom had put the lid on. Kaia got a spray of butter perfectly placed right in the middle of her forehead. It got some good laughs and everyone was in a great mood for the remainder of the evening (which was quite an accomplishment - trust me).

Well, that about sums up what we've been up to. Now we're just going crazy getting ready for Christmas and our big trip down to California. We have 3 weeks to get ready for in 2 days - yikes!! Here goes....

Look Who's SMILING!!

Jaymeson has always been a smiley baby....and not just the little pretend gassy smiles - BIG smiles from just a few days old. They were few and far between, but now, he's smiling a LOT and I LOVE it!!

Fire Safety and Christmas Thoughts

Today I was going through a pamphlet with Kaia on things she has learned at school. One of the questions:

"What would you do if your clothes were on fire?"

Kienna made a lot of sense with her response:

"Change my clothes!!"

Yesterday as we were driving home from Costco, Kaia surprised me with a question that I don't know the answer to. "Mom, what if you were naked on Christmas Eve?"
Any ideas on how to answer THAT one?

Our Christmas Tree

So, many of you have shown us the pictures of your GLORIOUS Christmas Trees. I LOVE them, and am just a touch envious as, this year, we have decided to stick to our classic tree.

We received this tree as a wedding present (this is more normal if you consider that we were married 3 days before Christmas) from Rosalee (my Dad's secretary) and it served as our Christmas tree until our kids were old enough to care about wanting a real one and decorating it. It really is a wonderful tree and is perfect for a young couple starting out. This year, we've decided that because we're going to be out of town from the 11th on, it really isn't worth it to spend the money and time on finding a tree and decorating it (especially since we have access to some perfectly wonderful trees at both of their Granny's houses). So, here's to our perfectly wonderful Ceramic Christmas tree!!


On the other hand, we have Stockings to hang up this year for the first time, courtesy of my sister, Alanna. This was a surprise gift last Christmas Eve from Alanna that I LOVE and I'm so happy that I finally have. She quilted these for our family and is currently working on the one for Jaymeson (good luck Alanna with getting his whole name in). Anyway, since I love these so much, I thought I would post them on here too (with the Christmas tree standing in for Jaymeson's stocking). YAY for Christmas Decorations!!