*S*N*O*W*

Today started out VERY early. It's almost as if our children had a snow sensor on them because they were all up very early yelling "It's snowing!!!" to the top of their lungs. So our day was a snow filled day. This weekend originally was going to be a very busy weekend for me. But it has ended up with everything canceled including church and now we're just home chilling with the family and enjoying the snow. Pretty fun! Here are some pics of the amazing snow that rarely comes this way!!

I took these first 2 pictures tonight. The other pictures were earlier today when the snow wasn't as deep.

Earlier pictures before the bigger snow fall

The boys! poor Jacob looks cold!!! Brrrrr! :)

Cute Lily

Darren making a snow angel!

Playing!

Look at the cold rosy cheeks!

I ventured out. Yup, I'm crazy, but hey, I'm from Utah, I had to get out and look at the roads. Here is a very cold lady waiting for the bus.

As I was out, I was thinking about the missionaries. So I called them and asked if they were warm and had food. They were in their apartment just reading and such, so I asked if I could bring them some food. So I went over really quick and out ran Elder Simmons and just started jumping in the snow, so I had to grab my camera and start clicking!! He is hilarious!

Elder Savaynia (spelling) They are so awesome!!!

Pinewood Derby!

This was Ethan's first pinewood derby! He had fun carving his car, sanding it down to the perfect smoothness, painting it and putting the wheels on! ;) Here are some pictures of his creation.

Viola!

Like the little pirate? :)

The track

All the cars. They were so creative! I got tons of ideas for next year! It was so fun seeing all the boys different creations!

Ethan's car with the pirate, and Darren made a car just for the fun of it. (It's the blue one with flames.) It ended up being entered by one of our cub scouts that wasn't able to make one! So Darren was inspired to bring his just for fun!

Let the racing begin! This picture is HILARIOUS!!! As you can see, the car in the lead is the block of wood that was never carved or painted. They just added the wheels to the block and it won this race! Pretty funny!

Darren's car.

On the car ride to the church Ethan was boasting saying, "my car is so cool! I bet it will win all the races!" We just said, "uh huh, okay Ethan! but remember, it's just for fun!" Ethan's car wasn't very heavy, and didn't go as fast. He took about 3rd or 4th each time, and I was actually glad! Why? Because he needed to be humbled a bit. This is his first year, and he needs to learn that he is not always the best! He took it very well. He's a really good sport! But we have great ideas for next year that is for sure!

Outdoor Fun

It was such a beautiful day outside. Everyone was out enjoying the weather and riding bikes. Jacob is getting so excited to be able to go outside now. He should be walking soon and just in time for good weather! Yay! No dirty hands and knees from crawling! ;)




Darren and Ethan had fun riding bikes and trying to do tricks! :)

Ashton and Daddy

Well Hello Stranger!

I have been HORRIBLE about posting lately. And the longer I put it off the harder it got to post! Probably because I knew how much I had to post! I entertained the idea of just picking up with current stuff and forgetting about Christmas and our trip, but then I knew I'd regret it later since this is sort of our family journal. So..... about 5 posts and 2 1/2 hours later I've finally updated our blog for the most part. The last 3 months have been fast and furious, and we're glad to be in the new year!

The Trip

After loading about 2/3 of the photos I realized I should have just made this post a slide show because there are so many pictures, but I wasn't about to erase all my uploaded work. So, here's a long post!




After Christmas we set out on a road trip. We first drove 13 hours to Kentucky and stayed a day with Darren's family. Then we drove 14 hours to Minnesota and stayed with my brother Jerry for New Year's. My other Brother Stewart and his family came as well. We then drove 14 hours back to Kentucky and then 12 back to Virginia for a grand total of: 53+ hours in the car. It was so good seeing family, but it was soooooo good getting out of the van too!

Grandma Conner's Christmas tree! So huge and pretty!

Grandma Conner and Jacob

Lily and Cora

Rebecca, Grandma Conner, and Misty the dog.

Misty kissing Jake. pretty funny!

Cute Cora

Darren and Jacob

Baby Doon

Baby Coby

Dawn and Coby

Debi and Tony

Debi and Bell

Baby blessings

Curtis and his babies!

Debi and Tony

Debi

MINNESOTA!!! Brrrrrrrr! Here are the kids outside playing in the snow with their cousins!

Ethan trying to throw a snowball at Lily

Ethan and Seth, nope not brothers! But cousins. They could almost be twins.

Ashton and Ben. Ben is almost 1 full year younger than Ashton! He is TALL!!!

Guitar Hero

Seth, Brooke, Ben, Sarah, Ethan

Me and Stewart playing on Ethan's dsi

Stewart and Darren battling it out on guitar hero

All this kids and their dsi's.

Shannon and baby Elizabeth

Jerry with Ethan and Ashton

Jen making her baby Elizabeth smile!

Stewart with Elizabeth

Let's eat!

Cute Brooke

Stewart feeding Jacob

Jerry and Josh

New Year's Eve feast! They went all out! They had risotto balls, coconut shrimp, bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp, wings, pies, candy, and tons of fun drinks!

Me and Stu

Me and Jerry

Me and Shan

Wow! Jen and me! We have long tongues!

Me and the hubby

Slow down there jr.!

Games!

So serious Lily! ;)

Then Jerry and Jen were kind enough to take us to Great Wolf Lodge for a couple days. It was AWESOME!!! The kids had so much fun! It's this huge indoor water park. It's fun to be swimming inside and look out and see snow! I'll post more pics from this place later when I get them!

Cute Lily. You'd never guess she had the stomach flu here!

Ashton in the wave pool!

Jacob had a blast!

Daddy and Lily getting ready to go down a ride!

Here they come!

Lazy river

Ashton loved the kid slides!

Brooke, Sarah, and Lily

1, 2, 3, 4 I declare a thumb war!