Snow Day

Early in the month of January, we woke up on a Monday morning, to about a good five inches of snow on the ground. The kids were so excited and so was I . As I have mentioned before, everything here in Memphis closes down with even a hint of snow, so on this glorious winter day Hyrum's and Brandon's schools were canceled.
After a wonderful lazy morning, we headed out to a local park to explore the snow. A friend in our ward let us borrow their old sled. The sled worked pretty good and the kids loved riding it down the small hill at the park.I love in this picture how you can see Ben doing a snow angel in the back ground.I loved how the kids(especially Emmy) would drop randomly and do a snow angel in the ground. Hyrum, Ben and Emmy loved scooping up snow by the handful to eat. Of course, the kids loved throwing snowballs at each other and at Brandon and myself. The snow was perfect for making a snowman. In no time at all (maybe 20 minutes at most) we had five snowman. The kids loved helping rolling the large snowballs for the snowmen.Our snowman family.Hyrum made a little hole in his snowman for him to rest his elbow on. It was too cute.The kids loved every minute of playing in the snow and actually lasted a pretty long time before they were too cold to play.
We ended the day with picking up a fun movie from Blockbuster to take home and watch snuggling under blankets and drinking large amounts of hot chocolate.

It was a wonderful winter day for our family.

A Knight and a Princess

I love playing make believe with my kids. I love watching how they use their imagination.

One afternoon, Ben, Emmy and I decided to have a hot chocolate party. They wanted to come to the party as a knight and princess. Ben found a broken sword to bring and Emmy wore some of her princess shoes to wear at the party.The kids and I had a great time. Hot Chocolate was served along with some Christmas cookies. In the creamer and sugar pot on the tea set, the kids found different kinds of marshmallows they could add to their drinks. It was such a fun afternoon to enjoy my kids and being a mom.

We have already had another hot chocolate party together and I am sure we will have many more.

New Year's

We had a pretty simple New Year's. On New Year's Eve, one of Brandon's friend from school and his family to celebrate the New Year. We had some great food. We tried out our S'more maker we were given for Christmas from Brian and Laurie. The kids played games and watched movies while the adults played Canasta. Ben and Emmy tried their hardest to stay up to ring in the New Year, but they didn't stay awake until midnight. Hyrum was pretty excited to set off some pop fireworks and celebrate when the clock struck twelve. It was a great night. On New Year's Day, we invited some friends from our ward to come over and play games. They brought their cotton candy maker that one of their kids received for Christmas to share with us. Everyone had such a great time together. The older kids and adults played Settlers of Catan. While the younger kids played other games and watched movies. Once again we had a great time. It was the prefect way to celebrate the New Year.

A Christmas Wedding

When we arrived in Texas on the Monday before Christmas (the 20th), we were told that Brandon's brother Brian was to be married the next day at the court house. The kids dressed up in their nice Christmas clothes for the wedding. I thought that they looked pretty cute.We met Brian's bride Laurie a few minutes before the ceremony. The ceremony was very beautiful. After the marriage, we went to a different courthouse to take some pictures. We then went to Olive Garden to celebrate the marriage.
Congratulations to both Brian and Laurie! They both seem very happy and content with this new adventure in their lives.On a side note, Brian and Laurie were married on Richard and Ethel's wedding anniversary(maybe 48tth or 49th?). Happy Anniversary to Richard and Ethel!