Sledding awesomeness!

We have had so much fun sledding!!!

Lincoln Park sledding - had a great time with the Johnstons and the Clarks!

Eastmont Junior High sledding hill ~ my favorite place to sled!

Shelby and Vivian sledding


Vivian sledding (slo-mo)

Christmas 2015

We have had such a wonderful time celebrating Christmas this year!  Decorating cookies with friends, sledding, watching movies, playing in the snow and just enjoying being together.  It is fun to watch our kids as they get older (I know, they are still young...but I'm comparing it to last year).  ;)  Here are some pictures of the last few days ~

 Loving our Winter Wonder Land!

 Sleeping under the tree on Christmas Eve ~ Josh is about to fall asleep!

 The girls reading their new books from Uncle I, Aunt T and Emily.

The girls got several craft gifts and they are LOVING it!

Jared wanted to go on a little walk.

Josh using his new hot-meat-handling gloves.  They worked great!

Jared and the girls love this basketball/soccer toy.

Doing a little painting.

We hope you had a great Christmas and that you finish out this year with love in your heart for our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord!

Stockings can be hung!

Last year we used a "Baby's First Christmas" stocking for Jared, but this year I made his stocking and now we are set!  We haven't figured out where to hang the stockings...but we will get there.  It had been a few years since I made them, but it came back quite quickly.  Josh helped again with drawing the lines for the stitching on top.  I realized (again) that I really enjoy sewing!

Merry Christmas!!! 

Vivian is four!

Vivian Ruth has continued to live up to her name meaning ~ she is full of life and a very good companion.  This big girl is so excited to be four!  Here are a few fun facts about Vivian:
-She is excited to learn her letters and numbers, and she is doing very well.
-She LOVES playing with Shelby every day and they play well together for the most part.
-We have noticed that she is a protector.  This is such a wonderful quality and we are excited to see how God puts it to use in her life.
-She is sensitive to how others treat her ~ she doesn't like to be treated like a baby or be left out because she is younger.  Her sweet heart is learning a lot about life at this point in time.
Vivian's Sunday School teachers and AWANA leaders love her and we are so proud of her!

Her celebration consisted of:
-dinner at Red Robin Friday night, mac n cheese for dinner.  :)  (Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!)
-pancakes for breakfast (homemade buttermilk pancakes - yum!!)
-fun in Leavenworth, candy canes, mac n cheese again for lunch. (Thanks again Grandpa and Grandma!)
-awesome homemade Double Decadence Chocolate Cake for her birthday cake.
-lots of fun presents to play with and crafts to do.
-lots of fun with family and friends (17 people total!).  Thanks for being here to celebrate with her.

Thanks for the baby doll, Grandma Mary ~ she and Shelby love "Jenna"!

She loved all her presents and had a great day!  Thanks to all who made her feel loved and special.

We love you, Vivian!!!

Surprise!!!!!!!

Jared woke up with a fever on Friday and we hesitated telling the Bonus family since they were planning to come up to see us.  Nate and Galina Ross and their son Elisha were visiting the Bonus' for Thanksgiving so they would be coming up to our house too.  (Sooo fun to see them again and meet Elisha!)  Then...my parents showed up Friday afternoon with two of my nieces, Keziah and Rizpah!!!  Such a wonderful surprise!!!  Turns out, the only person that knew was Adam and he did a great job keeping the secret.  The Bonus and Ross families ended up coming up for Vivian's birthday, Saturday.  We had a blast hanging out with all 17 people!  (Pictures are in backwards order for some reason)

Four days of cousin bliss!  Keziah and Rizpah are such sweet, helpful, well-behaved, cuddly, all-around great little ladies!  (We really miss living in CO!!!)

My parents got to meet most of our small group at church Sunday morning.  The Johnston's were able to come by and meet them one evening ~ fun times!

This is how we decorated the top of the tree! 

(No, we haven't taken up smoking.  That's mist from the humidifier on the left.)

Me and my beautiful Momma!  She is so special to me (and to our family!).  Getting this picture taken was a riot ~ we were all laughing pretty hard by the time we got a good shot.  

 Jared getting lovin's from his cousins after a bath.  It was a bummer he had a fever the whole time they were here, otherwise he would have been more playful.

And my Dad - what can I say?  I guess the "My Dad is stronger/better/awesomer than your Dad!" saying is a good description.  ;)  Love that man!

Basically we got the best surprise ever!  And we realized that this is the third Thanksgiving that my parents have surprised us in the last seven years.  SO fun!

Thanksgiving 2015

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with our family here in Wenatchee.  Instead of the traditional turkey, we had a venison roast from the buck Josh shot this year.  Josh grilled it and it was very yummy!

The girls did some painting in the morning.

Little did we know, our weekend was about to get awesome!!! ...