Merry Christmas from my little ones!

My camera batteries were going dead but I was at least able to record most of it. Enjoy!

Frosty has arrived!

Here is Frosty. He arrived today and received a hearty welcome. They were very proud of all their hard work in making him. Everyone was tired after constructing such a tall snow man. He is as tall as me.


Below:
Here is my littlest one sitting on another snowman ball. My son decided to start one of his own, but we convinced him to come help us girls since we needed all the muscle to get the snowballs on top of each other. She is very cute sitting on it. She would use the branches to get up and then hold onto them to slide down. Too cute.

Below:
Here we are at the hill sledding and snowboarding. My youngest two enjoy sledding while my son and oldest enjoy snowboarding. I tried snowboarding today also. I am glad that I was the only one with a camera so it could not be caught on film! I have much more respect for my oldest two now. It looks easy but it is NOT. Maybe with a bit more practice I could manage it, but for now I am happy sledding. The youngest requires a pull up the hill so needless to say I am wiped out after an hour of pulling her up the hill!
Below:
Here she is, my little princess whom I have to pull around everywhere. She just got off her sled so I would turn it around and she could slide down again. I have to ride with her of course. Something about mommy riding with her makes it better I guess. She sure does love the snow.
We are still trapped here. My car is not able to move yet due to the pile of snow all around and in front of it and my kids somehow left the one and only shovel we have somewhere and the snow has covered it. Right now I am guessing it is somewhere by the house covered in 4 feet of snow due to the snow that fell in sheets off the roof today. NICE. My speech of "NOW YOU KNOW WHY I TELL YOU TO ALWAYS PUT STUFF BACK WHERE YOU FOUND IT!" I am sure did lots to solve our little problem. We have given up the search and my oldest went to borrow our neighbors. She does not have any little ones to lose her stuff! Thank goodness someone is prepared for snow. You would think I would own more than one shovel but in the past it was sufficient since apparently I am the only one who knows how to use it. Normally nobody goes near the thing as they are afraid I am going to tell them to use it to shovel the walk, but apparently it held some enticement yesterday when I was inside cooking supper. Go figure.

Snowy Day In the Mountains

Today was a fun in the snow day for my children. My littlest one got up and saw all the snow and immediately wanted to go outside and play in it. So here are the pics of their day. Below you will see my 6yr old enjoying frolicking in the snow. The tree behind her was her fort and she would hide behind the branches and throw snowballs.


The snow was a bit to deep for my 3yr old to walk in. She would take a step and fall down. She thought it was fun the first 10 times or so. Then she got her sled and was pulled around by her oldest sister and me. We are both ready for bed after lugging her up the hill 10 times! Here she is after falling. Notice the snow in her hand. What is it about fresh fallen snow that just screams "Eat Me" to children. ALL of them ate handfuls of it. Clean snow, not the yucky stuff. :)

Speaking of eating snow, we decided to make snow cream. The littlest ones help and you can see it was a huge success. They loved it. It did taste delightfully delicious! Notice the hand mixer my 3yr old is using. It was my Grandmothers and I remember loving to mix with it as a child. She had given it to my mom and I was so happy because then I could use it all the time and not just at Grandma's house. :)


We then went back outside later in the day. Here is my 6yr old on top of the hill getting ready to slide down. See our dog with her. He rarely gets let loose because he likes to visit our neighbors. He does not stray to far in the snow so he is able to frolic a bit with us. It was funny to watch him leap through the snow. It was to deep for him to run through, he had to jump each step. It tired him out pretty quick.

Below is a picture of my oldest sliding down with her littlest sister. She seemed to really enjoy playing out in the snow. I am glad. I still like to slide down hill so maybe she will be the same.



While they enjoyed the outdoors most of the day, I was only able to get outside the last time as I was busy making a delicious soup which I set to cook on the wood stove and then made old fashioned brown bread to go with it. This bread is so scrumptious. It does not have any sugar in it, but it has molasses instead and it is yummy. It goes perfectly with soaps and the kids gobbled one whole loaf up. I also baked more cookies today. This was a good thing since they devoured the batches I made yesterday. They can eat some cookies I tell ya. I am off to finish knitting my gram a scarf so I can hurry and get it in the mail on Monday. See ya!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

My dream may come true!

Here is our snowfall starting yesterday, Friday.


As you can see in the picture below the big puffy snowflakes were falling steadily. The trees were dressed in white layers.

This morning we woke up to all the trees with their white coverings.


Our birdfeeder is wearing a snow hat!

The snow is so heavy the trees branches are bending to the ground. It makes a nice area for the animals to hide in.

I will post more later today after we all bundle up and go outside to enjoy this wonderful snow!

Reasons why I love my woodstove

• Reason #1. She really puts out! Heat that is. She may be small, but she sure can heat up this house!

• Reason #2. I save on electricity as I can dry all my clothes on a clothes rack. This reminds me of when I was little as my mother did not have a dryer until I was a teenager and even when she got one she rarely used it. She preferred drying on the line outside or using the rack inside in the winter. I guess that is why I like it.
• Reason #3. It is great to come in from the frigid outdoors and stand next to her and warm up instantly.
• Reason #4. My children all love to get their books and lay around you and read while you warm them head to toe.
• Reason #5. There is something homey about seeing smoke rising from your chimney when you are coming home on a cold winter day.
• Reason #6. The smell. It reminds me of when I was little. All our family heated with wood and the smell brings back so many memories. Even my oldest loves that smell as she says it reminds her of Grandma's house.
• Reason #7. When you step out of the bath you can run in and get dressed in front of a nice warm fire instead of freezing your tooshie off in the bathroom. (Unless you are an adult, then you have to freeze your tooshie off in the bathroom getting dressed.)
• Reason #8 You are great at cooking things.
• Reason #9 After some good fun in the snow it is nice that we can hang all our snow things by her and they are dry in no time and ready for our next romp outside.
• Reason #10 Their is nothing like sitting by the fire on a cold snowy day watching the snowflakes fall and drinking hot cocoa while reading to your children.
  

I have many more reasons for loving my wood stove. I deemed it a "her" as it is small but mighty. I know that if the power goes out, we will still be warm and have warm food to eat. It is a must have for me in the winter. It was the best investment we made!

3 Yrs Old

This week my youngest turned 3. We moved up here when I was 5 months pregnant with her. She was born on a snowy December day. One in which my sister, who so kindly came up to watch our other 3, was stuck in town due to the bad weather and had to get a hotel room with all the kids. This was awesome for the children, but not so much for her I presume. She had her two twin babies who were 6 months old and my 3 all in one hotel room. I remember coming home with my sweet little baby to no water as it was frozen and continued to be so for over a week. That meant we had to pack everyone up to visit a friends house just to bathe, and also to go to the laundry mat to wash the mountain of laundry that we had. FUN. So my dear, you came into this world during a snowstorm and trying times, but you have brought such joy to our hearts. You are the one who can make me smile the quickest with your funny faces and silly antics. Your "don't worry mom" while you smile and shake your head no whenever I tell you not to do something that you should not be doing still makes me smile although I have to hide it from you. You have a smile that lights up your face and your eyes sparkle with such joy. You have become quite the actress and enjoy dancing and singing while making the funniest faces one could imagine. Although you apparently do not mean them to be funny as when I laugh you get mad and tell me to "STOP LAUGHING MAMA, I NOT FUNNY, I SINGIN!" You love to play with your siblings and have learned to mimic your sister's behaviour quite well. You can often be seen mimicking her speech and actions right along side her. This does not bother her in the least as she sees you as reinforcement for whichever her cause is at the time. You love to climb and astound me at how agile you can be. I think you are part monkey the way to quickly move from one level to the next. Your favorite trick is to climb up on the counter and sneak candy that I have hid. You love candy and will do anything to get it once you know it exists in the house. You will stop at nothing once you have discovered its existence. Lucky for you your uncle has made it his mission to vex your mother and bring you candy in abundance whenever he comes for a visit. You are tough as nails and yet are my little snuggle bunny. I love to watch you sleep all cuddled in my bed. You will not go to sleep unless you have my arm under your head. You can push my buttons quicker than any of my others, and melt my heart just as fast. You have mastered much over these 3 years and will continue to grow in leaps and bounds. You are our little abby bear and we love you so much!

Below is our darling smiling for her picture with her cake.
Here she is blowing out her candles.

Now she is opening her presents.


Below is her with her best present, her daddy. He was blessed with a load that brought him close to home so he was able to come for the night and enjoy the birthday celebrations! Here they were watching a movie together and she was playing baby at the same time.

She was our early Christmas present 3 years ago and she is the gift that keeps on giving. :)

Cold Weekend

On this cold and snowy weekend it was just the two littlest ones and I as my other two were at friends houses. We took this time to play games like the all time favorite Dora Candy Land.

Beautiful works of art were created. This was one of many creations that was made. My girls do love to be crafty. :) Christmas cookies were made and decorated. I had a floury kitchen to show all the hard work. I now know why my mother rarely made Christmas cookies with us. It makes a huge mess, but they do have lots of fun. I guess that is why I keep doing it. The delight on their faces as they roll out their dough and then cut out their cookies using all the various cookie cutters makes it worth it. They are always amazed when one comes out perfect. My 6yr old pretended she had a cooking show as she rolled and cut and placed them on the baking sheet. It was quite cute.
We investigated things.
We got our snowsuits on.
We went outside and played in the snow. We were a bit disappointed with the amount of snow we received, but it was just enough for them to get out their sleds and slide down the hill. It was also perfect for making snowballs and throwing them at mom. The trees sure looked pretty with their white covering. I love snow. I guess all those years of growing up in upstate NY grew on me. I love going out and enjoying the white cold crispy snow! Christmas season is here and the snow just adds to that perfectness of this time of year. You can here Christmas music in my house throughout the day and we have hung most all of our decorations. I am busy knitting and crocheting in free time hopping to finish all the presents I am working on for everyone. I am also taking time to enjoy my wonderful blessings. It is important this time of year for everyone to stop focusing on all the negative things in their life and start focusing on all the blessings they have. Appreciate life and what the good Lord has done for you. Take time to thank Him for his grace and mercy in your life. Remember that in a few weeks we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus! JOY TO THE WORLD!

Our Thanksgiving Week

Family Time:
Our cousins came up from downstate to enjoy a festive turkey dinner complete with all the trimmings. We ate good food and enjoyed the antics of the children celebrating together. Here we are after watching a parade on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We are going to search for our Christmas tree after the parade. My littlest one is fascinated with her cousins bead necklace he got from the parade.
Pilgrims: We studied the Pilgrims in our homeschool history so we of course we had to make the infamous Pilgrim hats. Don't they look adorable in them??
We also got to see daddy and celebrated his birthday a few weeks late. Here he is getting ready to enjoy his cake and our youngest is snuggling up to him. Just lovin on her daddy. He received lots of snuggle time from the two littlest. They were in his lap constantly and even kidnapped him one night and snuggled all night next to daddy.
I went so far as to throw together this Pilgrim costume for my 6yr old to wear to Awana's. It was theme night and you could dress up as something for Thanksgiving. She made a cute Pilgrim. We had to go to the Library first so my son could do his volunteer time and she wore this to the library. I wondered if people realized it was a costume or thought she was some quaker child. I thought it fitting to end my Thanksgiving post with this picture. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!