Ice Skating....kinda

During our time off this holiday, we took the kiddos ice skating...kinda.  It was thoroughly amussing.  I was of absolute no help with instruction, in case y'all forgot, I grew up in So Cal!  And yes, I had the kids wear helmets, saftety first!

Shred the Gnar

The kids were in ski lessons all of January and February up at Bogus.  They improved a ton this year, i'm so excited to have this our family sporting/outing each winter.  Plus, I am super excited they will be better skiers than their mama.

Here are just a few stories from the past 8 weeks:

Week 1: Kyle walks out ready to ski, to turn around a head back to the 'Mouse House' to pee.  He had not learned the 'Pee before you Ski' rule yet.  At the end of the day, I go by to 'spy' on him and the Magic Carpet stops because he falls on it.

Week 2: Mom's skis get stolen!  Grrrrr!

Week 3: We are skiing and the temperature is 10 degrees!

Week 5: Kyle goes on one run and then tells the ski instructor: 'I have a wedding in Sun Valley that I need to rest for.'  Then proceeds to spend the next two hours by himself in the Mouse House. Sigh.

Week 8:  Kyle: 'Mom, I'm going to Shred the Gnar!'  Yes!

Week 1 - 8: Alice is AWESOME!  The girl in parallel turning and really enjoying herself.  She asked if she could invite her ski instructor to her birthday sleep over...I had to nicely explain it would be a little creepy to invite a 16 year old boy to a 6 year girly sleepover.  She still didn't get it, which was quite endearing.

Day 1: Kyle heading out the hill for the very frist time!

 

I just remembered I have this video...this was 3 days after Kyle's first ski lesson.  I thought I'd take him 'skiing' in a near by park to try and teach him 'pizza' with his skis.  Pretty sure it didn't help, but it was very entertaining.  And for the record, I was out of the breath from carrying Kyle up the hill 10+ times.  No chair lift at the park. :(

 

Sun Valley Flower Time

I had another opportunity to do flowers for a wedding.  This time it was for our dear friend Katie Dahlberg.  Congrats to Katie & Zach for a beautiful wedding, and thank you Dahlbergs for giving me such a great opportunity to be your florist!

 

Here is a link to some of the professional photos: http://cheatwoodphoto.com/blog/2013/02/27/katie-and-zach/

The house looked like a flower bomb went off by the time I was done

One of the wreaths that we put on the church door.  Lovely little Alice helped me make them.  At one point she said 'Mom, flowers aren't happy until they put in these pretty bouquets.'  Ohhh Alice, you have no idea how happy that made me feel!

Packing up the car.  If you were behind me on the trip to Sun Valley, you would have gotten very irritated with how SLOW I was taking turns.

The escort name 'tree'

I kinda forgot to take photos of the bouquet, but here is a distant one.  I put photos of each of her grandparents on it so they could be with her in spirit.

The kids first wedding, took them a while to bust out on the dance floor.  here's the only shot i got.

Part of the bridal table.  I'm hoping the professional photographer got better shots than me!

Visiting Sun Valley Lodge

Same Same

Alice lost her second bottom tooth, so she has finally caught up her brother.

January was COLD!!!!!!

January was ridiculously cold!  If the temp got to 20, we were all excited.  It also snowed quite a bit in the Valley, so we did a ton of sledding.  Here are a few highlights....

Jerret getting interviewed as the kids were sledding

Snowman!

Ice Fort!

This day there were sheets of ice, it was actually really scary.  Walking Alice to school that day, we all sipped about 5 times each on our one block walk!  Kyle LOVED it!

Even our drinks weren't safe in the garage fridge....they all exploded it was so cold!

My sentiments exactly, i'm tired of this ice!

Kyle LOVES eating snow & ice.  We  had a implement a new rule that you are only allowed to eat snow inside our yard.  I'm pretty sure he consumed quite a bit of 'yellow' snow when I wasn't looking.

We're 6

Wow, I can't believe our baby doll is 6!  She seems to be getting older each day, sniff, sniff!  We kinda celebrated the whole month.  I was feeling a little 'over' the birthday party and tried to get out of it....but didn't quite make it.  We ended up having a sleep over with her buddies, which was a good low key way to have a party - win/win for both.

Wearing her new fancy outfit from Rowan to school

Making treats for her classroom

Fun gifts from Gramie

Ice Cream Cake

Slumber Party!

Her big gift was ballet lessons at Ballet Idaho

Mogensen Style Christmas

For Mogensen Christmas, the Chi-Town Mogys made it from Chicago with their adorable addition Bridget.  She was the most well behaved/chill baby I have ever met in my entire life!  The only time I saw here cry was when she saw Santa...boy does she have a lot to learn.  The Stockhams made the trek down as well, and the cousins had a grand old time, and gave Gracie her first true dose of cousin craziness!

The only time this little lady cried the entire trip

Gracie was not too enamored with the jolly fellow either.

Group shot...everyone a little happier with candy!

This 'officer' should give himself a citation....no pants, no service!

Cutest Hat Ever!  Kyle the Viking (or Thor).

The kids got to pick out their own holiday tree on Christmas Eve....luckily this sad little Charlie Brown tree was FREE!

Saw Holiday 2012

My parents came in for an early Christmas which the kids adored!  Here are the highlights from the events:

Kit and Alice with the same PJs - Big Hit!



Kyle got a HUGE Pirate Ship and was super excited!  He loves the one at Gramie & Bob Bob's so they gave him one of his own.

'Helping' Bob Bob put together the Pirate ship.  Oh, and Kyle loves to cruise around pantless, event when it's 20 degrees outside.

Yea, it's time to decorate the Gingerbread house!  Woo Hoo!

Before

Crazy Children

AFTER!  It had about $100 worth of candy on this bad boy.  Mom got to decorate the outhouse (and 1 wall of the house) all by herself.  Yea for me!

December Fun

Making some gluten free ginger bread men for Alice's Kindergarten class

Miller having fun

Dinner Club Christmas Party

Tom was 'allowed' to display some of his beer bottles for a week.  Ironically in the toy room, so they had to come down quickly or one  might have been hit off the shelf by a child.

Our Favorite Things Dinner Club Gift Exchange - We each gave our favorite things to one another, which was super fun.  I love every minute (and gift) of this exchange.

North End Santa 2012

We hosted North End Santa again, and boy was it eventful!  There are soooo many kids, and they are all walking now.  CHAOS!!!!  Plus, everyone is continuing to have more kids!  I have no idea how we're going to fit everyone next year.  We also need to find a stand-in next year....we surprisingly dodged a bullet with Alice finding out this year.  She didn't believe the kiddo that told her Santa was her dad.  That's my girl Alice!

RowRow and Kaka hanging

Well, she still doesn't get it.  It's a small miracle she did not figure it out this year, since one of the kids did and blurted it out.  Alice then came to me 'Is Santa my Dad?'  I just replied 'No' and ran away.

This guy was absolutely clueless on who Santa was.  Love it!

Of course you've got to have a few kids that are terrified of him!

Unhappy Alexander!

How many children can you fit at one table.  I've told everyone they need to stop procreating!  Our house can't really hold any more children/people.