Snowmobiling

In January Elise, Anja, me and my mom & dad went to my aunt & uncle's to do some snowmobiling and sledding with my cousins. We had a great time and I discovered I REALLY like snowmobiling (it's WAY more fun to drive than just ride!).

My aunt and uncle live in the country and had a pretty big pile of snow pushed up in their yard from clearing their driveway. We went sledding on that hill for a while...

Then drove to the "big" hill, where we slid down and were picked up on snowmobiles because the hike back up the hill was so long...

More Winter Pictures

Here is another batch of photos to get us caught up on hapenings this winter...

Anja is very creative :) and likes to color...on herself...


Elise and I went sledding with friends. She is a real trooper and walks back up the hill by herself. But that sure does wear her out!

Some Pictures From the End of December II

Elise and I flew to Salt Lake for Jason's funeral. While there...

Elise met her newest cousin, Capri, just one month old (daughter of Jason's brother Glen and his wife Brittany).

On New Year's Eve we celebrated at Jason's mom and dad with the whole family. Elise really liked the chocolate fountain...

We spent a day at The Gateway in Salt Lake City, an interactive children's museum...

They had a helicopter there that the kids could sit in...

My friend Dawn from Chicago flew to Salt Lake for the funeral and spent the day with us at The Gateway...
We had ice cream at the Ben & Jerry's outside the museum...
And Elise enjoyed burning off some energy at the plaza...
She was a tired girl after all that excitement! She fell asleep in the car almost before we left the parking garage...

Time

It's been four weeks since Jason passed away. I haven't added anything to this blog since then. It seemed inappropriate to post pictures of Christmas, sledding, etc. when something so sad had happened. I will be adding photos soon, because I have two beautiful girls who love life and I want to share that.

Gingerbread Houses

I love that Elise is old enough to do more and more of these Christmas traditions! We did gingerbread houses for the first year this year. Elise did a fantastic job, was very independent. And I was pleasantly surprised that Anja did a great job too! She really got into decorating her house and when I tried to help her got quite upset and said "Me! Me! Me!" until I stopped helping.
Miss Independent wanted to do it herself...
Frost a bit, lick a bit...frost a bit, lick a bit...

Every day I marvel at how skilled Elise is a various things. She really is growing up!

Visiting Friends

Our friends Rick, Kris, Morgan and Samantha came to visit Kris's family. So we took advantage of their visit to spend some time together. We went to McDonald's so the kids could blow off some steam in the playland. That was great until Anja got up about as far as she could go then got scared and started crying and yelling "Mamma! Mamma!" So, like any good parent I took off my boots and crawled up into the maze to carry her out. After that we went to Rick and Kris's hotel where we enjoyed their pool (and especially the hot tub!). Everyone was zapped of energy after swimming, and after a rinse off in the hotel room and a snack we headed back home and all slept like babies!

Anja, Elise and Morgan on the way to the pool, very excited!!

Elise enjoying the hot tub (and I did too!)
Our friend Morgan loves swimming!

Anja was kind of obsessed with the pool noodles and kept carrying them around from the pool to the hot tub and back again. And again. And again.


Thanks Rick, Kris, Morgan and Samantha for a great evening!!

December Part I

We've been busy!

We put up our Christmas tree...

Had a fun time at the mall, burning off some pent-up energy...

And this week at preschool Elise had her "special friends" party where friends and family got to visit class, do special projects with the kids...

Have a snack...

Visit santa...

And listen to the kids sing...

Uh oh! Is that a yawn? Long day for a four year old, I guess!