Idaho Snow Days

Silly us for ever questioning whether we would have a white Christmas in Idaho or not (but not too silly since we have experienced it before). There was so much snow! It just kept on coming. Sharon even got a few extra days off school while we were there because of it (which hasn't happened in YEARS. This is Idaho after all). We were all so excited that we got to spend extra time with her!

Ibu's house is in the PERFECT location with this fantastic sledding hill right across the street. We took advantage of it and went sledding quite a few times. 

 Our sweet, but sensitive son who doesn't like to do ANYTHING by himself was surprisingly excited and adamant about sledding alone. He rocked it and wanted to do it over and over again. 

We (mostly Darin) worked on this little fort for a few days in a row. The vision was to have it be a little taller, but the snow was so powdery, it took forever just to get it this size. Shae was so excited about having an epic snowball fight. Everyday he would peek outside and say, "Is the fort ready yet?!"

 Having a little tea party before the fight...making sure we were energized and powered up!

Poor Belén just couldn't handle being out as long as Shae. She even got two bloody noses while we were out playing two different days. So one afternoon Shae and I went out alone, it was fun to do so much more and focus fully on him while playing (poor Belén mostly just wanted to be held). There was a huge pile of snow right in the front yard that we used to make a space ship. We ran around the front and back, in the fort and in and out of our space ship fight off aliens that were attacking us along the way.

So what do you do besides playing in the snow when it is 0 degrees outside? (Because that can obviously only last for so long). You build the greatest fort with Ibu's awesome fort building couches. 

You play with lots and lots of legos.

You make cookies, and watch tons of movies, and read lots of books, and go to story time at the library.

 Shae's sugar cookie of himself.

 You make indoor igloos out of ice.

You go to the super cool bouncy house "store" at the mall. When the employee said that the toddler/preschool time lasted from 10-12, Sharon and I looked at each other and said, "Oh, I doubt we'll last that long." But we all did! The time went by so fast. The kids had a blast and it was quite entertaining watching them.

You go to Brooklyn's playground because it is the coolest playground ever and you are all dying to be outside, even though it is so snowy and hard to move around at all. Maybe not my brightest idea, but we would have just played outside in the backyard if we had stayed home, so having some play equipment made it a little more exciting. 

So glad we got to enjoy some of this crazy Idaho winter!

Cousin Time

We made a quick trip out to Caldwell right before Christmas, and I mean quick, like one night. But so glad we were able to get out there and meet sweet baby Gwyn (Gwen? Sorry Anna, i can't remember how to spell it! I remember talking about a "y" being in there somewhere...)

 Give the grandkids about 10 more years and then maybe we'll be able to figure out how to do a nice "grandma picture." Until then...

 So nice to meet this sweetheart! 

 The kids had a blast running around this big beautiful house playing with the cousins--especially after so many days of traveling! They were so tired by about 6 p.m. (8 p.m. EST), and melt down after melt down had begun so we got them in bed right as their other cousins showed up. I'm so bummed that they didn't get to see each other. The next few days Shae kept asking, "Where is Claire?" When we got back to grandma's house he looked at pictures on the walls and said, "There she is!" I love that he knows his cousins, even if we don't get to see them often. 

 Lot's of Sorry!

 And some movies.

 Sharon prepared fun stockings for each of the kids that they of course loved. 

 I think this was a picture from the delicious lasagna dinner that Anna made for us, but I must say, Kyler was quite the little chef the next morning. He had a pad and paper and took down each of our "orders" the night before. It was pretty precious. 

Thanks Anna and Stephen for letting us crash your house! And Derek and Linzy for stopping by on such short notice! Let us know when you all make it out east for a visit :). 

Christmas #1 and Christmas #2

 A few pictures from our Christmas #1 at Grandma and Khun-Taa's house. Iron man was a hit for our little super hero loving boy.

 Shae parted ways with Superman and gifted it to my dad.

We then flew out to Ibu's where we celebrated Christmas #2--on real Christmas day :). 

Christmas Eve we read Red-Headed Robbie's Christmas Story, Ibu's favorite Christmas book and now one of ours as well. So nice of her to share that beautiful book with us. 

Then Darin read Twas the Night Before Christmas to us. Clearly everyone was really in to it. I was anyway...

 After the kids were in bed and everything was in place I went and hung out in the living room for a few minutes. My favorite part of Christmas is everything that happens from Thanksgiving to Dec. 24th, I've never been a huge fan of the actual day of Christmas. I hate that "the holidays" comes to an end. The anticipation and excitement disappear in an instant. 

I just loved enjoying the silence of this beautiful room, with the snow falling outside, looking at the picture of Christ and the Christus statue over the mantle. Feeling the peace and perfection of this special holiday before the crazy morning fell upon us. 

And while it was fast and crazy, the morning really was wonderful. Shae was beside himself with excitement to see that Santa had eaten his milk and cookies and left him a letter. It was just adorable to watch.

Santa brought them each a Paw Patrol pup to add to their collection (that began the previous week with Grandmas gifts to them).

 We did stockings and the pup Santa gifts before church, then after church opened the presents.

We took Shae to Five Below to pick out a present for Belén, and he picked out her first barbie. Starting young. I know some people have issues with Barbies, but I loved Barbies growing up. They were easily my most played with toy. Bring em' on I say.

Being on vacation for Christmas actually made Christmas day and the days after really nice. I just kept listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies and reading Christmas books, because we were still on vacation, so it was clearly still Christmas. It made for a nice transition for me.

Thanks to our wonderful families for making our Christmas so special, and for all the fun gifts we received! We are so lucky.