Winter...

is almost over, and it finally decided to show up here.  

While I might not enjoy the cold and snow, the kids have been having a blast sledding, building snowmen and having snowball fights.

Hiking through the woods during the first snow.

Gotta make sure the birds get enough to eat.

The boys' masterpieces

View from the front deck

My little snow owl

One of the roads I run on.

Beauty

 We had a winter storm this last week.  About an inch of freezing rain that eventually turned to snow.  Everything was iced over and then covered with snow.

  

The kids had so much fun out in the snow.  The woods are full of their trails and attempts to slide down the hill.

And of course I got out to enjoy the snow =)

And after a day out in the snow, hot chocolate and curling up on the couch in front of the fire to watch a movie with the family.

Whirlwind

The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of busyness.  Between Sarge testing for his first Dan black belt, a Christmas party, getting everything ready to travel over Christmas...  Yup, December was a busy month.

Sarge tested for his first Dan ranking.  This was the breaking portion of the test.  

First were the boards.  A rising elbow and a downward chop.

Second were the bricks.  He broke four with his forearm and then, for his *second break,* 5 with a downward palm strike.

Yeah, he rocks =)

The day after his test, his unit had their family Christmas party.  He had to show up with black eyes and bruises.  But he still looked really good in his dress blues.

The next week was spent getting everything ready to head up to my parents' house for Christmas.  Had to make sure we had everything a family of 6 needs to travel, plus Christmas presents.  

After dropping the mutt off with my in- laws, we finished the drive to WI.  It was long, but thankfully the roads were clear and there was no bad weather.

A couple days before we got there, my parents got 15" of snow.  There was definitely plenty of snow for us to play =)

  

 

  

 I even managed to get out and run in the snow.  Four miles of soul satisfying snow and quiet =) 

We had Christmas brunch with Grand Papa Bill...

The kids were entertained by watching the deer running across the tennis courts in the background.

We made the traditional sweet cream cut out cookies.

And after a few fun packed days, we headed back to OK to spend some time with my in- laws.

And saw that we had left snowy WI to come to snowy OK.  But that didn't stop us from climbing to the peak of our mountain.

Gorgeous views out across the valley...

I did manage to finish Squish's cross stitch.  Only took me 5 years.  Wonder how long Sweet Pea's will take...

It's been a busy few weeks, but I completely enjoyed all of them.  I'm looking forward to everything that 2013 has to offer us =)

Catch up

The family took a trip *up nort' der, eh* over Thanksgiving.  It had been almost a year since we made the drive, so we figured it was time to do it again.  Traveling with four kids in a van can be fairly interesting.  Thankfully we have a DVD player and, for the most part, the kids can agree on movies to watch =)

Packing all of her stuff.  And then I went back through it and made sure she had enough pairs of underwear and pants for the trip =)

I love my Junior.  The day before we left, I found this written on the table.

There was just a little bit of snow on the ground when we got to my in- laws.

So the older two decided to have a snowball fight.

Except neither one of them has very good aim.

Or a strong enough arm to really hit anyone =)

Watching the football game.  To be fair, it was a long drive and we drove through the night (easier to have the kids sleeping instead of fighting over movies ;))

This is Guy and his horse Shadow.  He runs Changing Gaits.  An amazing organization that uses horses for therapy.

He was kind enough to let us ride his horses.  They are so well trained (and use to kids) that Girly- girl could ride by herself.

Shadow wanted to follow Guy around.

Squish Bear was more concerned about his hands being dirty than wanting to ride the horses.

Junior on Shadow.

 Trying to explain how to hold the reigns.  He was holding them too short, so Shadow kept stopping.

Follow the leader.  Girly- girl is riding Dozer now.  He likes to follow.

Round and round we go!

One last time around.  Papa was very excited to see his grandkids take to riding.  

I even managed to get up on a horse (it's been about 20 yrs since I last rode).  This is Dee Dee.  She has a bit of an attitude and will take advantage of you if you're nervous around horses.

Sweet Pea meeting Baby T.  My friend and I were pregnant at the same time (again- we've been pregnant together through all my pregnancies and her last 4).  Baby T was born 2 days before Sweet Pea.

"See, this is how you're supposed to do tummy time."

"You know, you're really cute and I think...  Oh wait!  Something shiny over there!"

Meeting Ms Carla.  She loved snuggling with a little girl...  She has 4 big boys in her house =)

And Mr Joel had to get some snuggle time in too =)

Me and Baby T, Ms Carla, Ms Jessica and Sweet Pea.  K is standing- he's the same age as Junior.  R is laying on the floor- he's the same age as Squish Bear.  Somehow I managed to miss getting a picture of Girly- girl with E, but trust me, they were very cute together. 

Snuggling at Papa's house.  Not too many pictures from my parents' house.  Girly- girl ended up getting sick and then I got sick...  We stayed pretty low key the couple days we were there.

When we got home, this beautiful ring sling was waiting for me in the mail.  And so I wore it to a boxing ring =)

That's pretty much what we've been up to the last couple weeks.  Now to start getting things ready for Christmas =)