Sledding in a Snow Storm

Today has been a really great family day.

We were initially intending to take the kids skiing, but the favored family owned/operated ski place near our house hasn't opened yet and they were grooming the mountain today, so instead we went sledding.

What a great choice that was.

We braved thick snowflakes falling down all around us and had a marvelous time.

Who would have known that the hills next to Occom Pond would be so much fun?!

New plan is to ski on Monday and/or Tuesday and work on collecting more equipment in the meantime.

Love the beautiful blanket of snow all around us in NH.

Love a big mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows after a cold winter day outdoors.

Love this cute little family of mine.

XOXO,

Tiff

 *this kind of reminds of little Ralphie in "A Christmas Story"

 My official "hubby of the year" for carrying Eli and the sled up the hill over and over again

 Jesse has this really cool "Go Pro" camera that can be strapped onto almost anything.  He shot some pretty awesome videos today of the kids going down the hill on their sleds

Another favorite picture of Eli.  I love love love that you can only see his eyes due to the "Ninja Ski mask"

 

 Face full of snow after sledding with Mom

Chocolate Chip Cookies are an essential treat after a cold day in the Snow.....that and hot chocolate upon returning home

 I have way too many pictures of Miss M, because she eventually tired of sledding and spent most of her time hanging out with me {I went down on the blue saucer and caught a big jump with E, and landed hard on my tailbone}.  She really enjoyed gathering balls of snow and eating them

Right before we left, we pulled out one pair of skis and Maddie went down the smaller hill a few times. Now we can't wait until lessons start next week.

Bring it on ski season, we are ready!

Santa Came

This year the kids were extremely naughty on the day before Christmas.  So naughty that Santa almost didn't come to our house.  In fact it took Santa quite some time of pondering after the kids went to bed.  Ultimately he decided that the children were pretty good most of the year which somehow made up for all the bad.  Note to self: NEVER let the kids stay up as late as we did on Christmas Eve.

1. *I love how magical everything looks when it is set up*

A Frog, Swimsuit, and Giggles

To say that Eli is funny, would be an understatement.  He is an absolute crack up.  He does the funniest things around our house.  He always has some hysterical comment that he will say that has nothing to do with what we are talking about. {or sometimes completely related to the conversation, but nearly always is funny}  I can just picture him as the class clown as he grows older.  Those poor teachers that will have to endure this behavior--hopefully he will get some that will appreciate his humor.

 Some of these include comments he throw out include:

"Mom, look at me shake my booty!"

"Na-na Na-na Na-Na-Na-Na Na-Na Afro Circus!!" (theme song to Madagascar 3 that he runs around singing and dancing about)

"I can't go outside, it's like 100 cold out there"

"Are you crazy?!"

"Mom, that's FANtastic"

"Are you kidding me?!"

This picture has my DYING.  Eli has his swimsuit on underneath his boxers and jeans "just in case we decide to go swimming".  Apparently he didn't get the memo that it is now December and pretty much the LAST thing to do in NH.  It's quite apparent that I have Arizona born children through and through. 

Eli has decided that one of my large "lazy Susan" style cupboards is his shop.  You never know what kind of treasures will be hidden inside here.  Today one of the main features is E's froggy bank.  He says it is essential for when "someone needs to pay me".  He likes to stand inside the cupboard and wait for me to "buy" different items. 

--I love this kid so much.  I am so grateful to have him at home with me for a few more years.  He keeps me entertained with his creativity and humor.

the celebration

Here are a few pictures of our small family celebration with our E! 

Eli, how old are you this year?

Mommy: "Eli, can you please look at the camera so I can take your picture?"

Eli: "Mom, how 'bout I just be a dog?"

Eli: "I want a mountain cake that is the color of green"

-this is what you get when you ask you five-year old son to take a picture

 {still shows how E is my huggable, snuggable little guy}

Mom: "Lets show Eli how much we love him"

Robby: "Okay, how about we just kiss him then"

Mom: "PERFECT" :-)

**One of my all-time favorite pictures....thanks Maddie for your excellent photography skills**

four and counting

As we have now completed our second and FINAL fall in the beautiful state of New Hampshire, 

I am pinching myself with disbelief that my youngest child is now four.  Yes really, four.  I can hardly even

stand to say it aloud and keep wanting to repeat that of course he is three (just ask some of my friends....just last week I was saying "he's only three" and they looked at me like I was crazy and reminded me E would

be turning four in just a few days). 

Nevertheless, the day came and went.  And now I officially have a four year old running around my house---and a five year old AND a seven year old as well.  

Eli continues to be our regular class clown and is always coming up with silly things to do and say.  Occasionally that happens at the most inopportune times: prayers, bedtime, sacrament meeting at church, etc.  But really most of the time he has a real hoot with his hilarious one liners, imaginative play, and infectious laugh.  

Now that Mr E is four, here are four things everyone should know about him:

1. Obsessed with Power Rangers  

--he could seriously be content spending hours a day watching these dumb, time-wasting, seriously stupid, shows on Netflix.  He also loves to play Power Rangers as well and either chooses to be the red or green power ranger depending on if Robby is home {Robby ALWAYS seems to get to be red}

2. Loves to eat buttermilk pancakes, apples, Peppa-oni Pizza, and "Mommy's brown soda"--aka Vanilla Coke

--yep, I am pretty sure I shouldn't be admitting this, but I do have a slight addiction to this deliciously unhealthy drink and now my child also loves it.  To make myself not sound like such a bad parent I will say that normally he never takes more than a swallow or two, before it is promptly taken away and replaced with a better drink choice.

3. Prefers warm weather over the cold

--it's always interesting to find differences in your children and in this way Eli has to be the tail opposite of his siblings.  Maddie in particular would do just about anything to be outside all day long regardless of rain, snow, wind, or sunshine.  I literally cannot keep her in the house.  Robby has a similar enthusiasm for snow and love to shovel, throw snowballs, sled, and play whenever a layer of snow lays on our ground. Eli on the other hand, HATES to be cold and will flat out refuse to come outside.  He would much rather stay indoors and play legos or watch movies.

4. Loves to laugh/make others laugh

--I love to hear Eli playing alone in his room because he will tell himself jokes and start laughing at them  He loves to do ridiculous things that make us laugh and has the cutest bell giggle when he watches Yogi Bear on our Kindle.  He also does the same laugh through his all-time favorite book collection of Berenstein bear books. His faves include Bear Family Picnic, Spooky Old Tree, The Bike Ride, The Bear Family Vacation.

As we celebrated Eli's birthday today, I wrote down some of the funny things he told us:

"Mom, you are just going to have to have another baby. Cuz I'm four and then next ber-day I will be five"

"I can't be your baby anymore now that I'm FOUR!"

"I guess I can still be a baby big boy, when I want to be"

"I want green mountain cake, cookies, and marshmallows for dinner"

"Dad, that's just NOT going to work, she's mine" 

(in reference to Daddy saying that Mommy belonged to him and not to Eli)

"I loooooove it!" 

As I was putting Eli to bed, "Mom, can you say Goodnight Birthday Boy?"

"This is my best, most favorite-est birthday ever!"

**One more thing to note, Eli just weaned himself from a pacifier completely independently last week.  I know he is really way too old to need one, but it has totally been his comfort item at bedtime that helps him fall asleep.  Several nights ago we were trying to find the paci at bedtime and he announced that he had thrown it away because a little piece of it broke.  He had a slightly sad look on his face for a moment when I told him that that was the last one left, but hasn't asked me for another one since**

The Holiday Program that I totally Missed

Guess what? I am such an awesome Mom that it took a friend sending me these pictures to realize that I totally missed the Morning Sing holiday program.  I couldn't even justify missing because of work.....I was completely off work and just spaced it.  Well, thank you Maren for actually attending your child's program and then going ahead and taking pictures for me.

 -Robby is front and center in a maroon long sleeved shirt-

Cookie Crawl

December was such a great month with tons of activities throughout the month.  So much, in fact, that there were a few weeks that we had some kind of party of activity every single day.  Exhausting? Yes. But also oh so fun.  One of those fun parties we had was a "Cookie Crawl" with some of the Tuck Partner women.  Two friends organized this and held the first part at one house and then we "crawled" over to the second house to continue our festivities.  We talked, laughed, smiled for pictures, and tasted to our hearts delight.  Yum is one way to describe the evening.

Love these ladies so much!

One week later, we had another "Cookie Exchange" with the women in Lebanon Ward. I am part of the activities committe at our church, where we organize a different activity each month for the women to participate in.  It has been so much fun to get to know the women on the committe a little better, and to be involved in the organization of these activities.  We ended up having everyone bring 2 dozen cookies with them, and we had a lovely Christmas devotional by a fellow lady, listened to some beautiful Christmas music, sang more songs, and in general enjoyed the company of one another.  I left feeling uplifted and inspired to make our Christmas a little more simpler.  To focus more on the birth of Christ instead of Santa.

SNOW

We were more than ready when our first snow finally hit West Lebanon this past weekend.  It started on Sunday while we were trying to drive to and from church and continued all night long.  In the end we probably had about 2-3 inches of beautiful white snow blanketing our little town.  

The next morning the school announced late start (2 hours) so that the roads could all be plowed.  That was a huge blessing to me.  First off I hate, that's right hate getting up in the morning.  Secondly, I worked Monday from 11am-11pm, so this gave me several hours of time as a mother with my children.  We had so much fun watching cartoons in the morning, eating a lazy breakfast, and then putting on snow clothes and heading outdoors.  My children love to shovel snow and will spend hours clearing the sidewalks near our house (Eli is not quite so keen on snow and does tend to come inside and hide away). 

 {Robby really can be quite a good helper when he wants to be. He was very excited to help outside, including clearing the snow off our car}

-I can't get over just how big and grown up he looks in this picture

Little Miss

{and yes, E does have a GIRL scarf on, it belongs to Miss M but he absolutely insisted that he needed one as well}

"Boo-Hoo Buddy" face on Mr E

The only sad thing for Eli was that he REALLY REALLY wanted to build a snowman and we never really got a chance to do this.  

Thank heavens we played that morning though because by afternoon the rain had started and turned everything into a slushy dirty mess.  We are already watching the weather constantly on the look out for another round of snow!

tree

Until I can successfully steal away my husbands phone for the evening and download all the pictures we have been taking for the last month, I will settle with posting a few pictures of decorating our freshly cut down, super yummy smelling Christmas tree.  

This year we had the opportunity to go to a real Christmas tree lot and cut down our very own lovely tree.  It was a particularly cold Saturday morning and started to snow just slightly as we were searching through the rows of trees. 

We showed up to clean our church house around 8:45am only to realize that the ward Brunch would probably just make it dirty again AND we didn't have any keys to get in.  We quickly altered our plans and bee-lined it straight over to the Christmas tree lot.   After walking and walking around the kids found our perfect tree.  Robby and Jesse took care of sawing it down and then Jesse and I carried it up to the front. The three children were rather cold and wet so we bought hot chocolates for all and quickly had our tree firmly attached to our roof.  We headed back to our house to change clothes and make it back for the tail end of our Christmas brunch party.  We spent the next few hours cleaning our church building, but managed to keep enough energy contained to come home and clean our own house and then put up/decorate the tree.  

It is always slightly chaotic trying to string the tree lights and manage three children bouncing off the walls with excitement at getting to hang ornaments.  Despite all of this I LOVE how excited they get to pull out our family ornaments.  Our tree may not look fancy like those trees you see in the Home Decorating magazines and is definitely not Pinterest worthy, but all the same I love looking at our ornaments we have had for years and remembering memories associated with many.  Some of my faves include:

*water-skiing Santa- I got this one the year we went to Hawaii with my parents 2007

*Tiffany head with pipe-cleaner body in a wreath- from gymnastics when I was at Starfires club 1994

*Suns mini ornament jersey- the year we purchased season tickets 2005

*boy on top of a mail carrier bag- I got this when we moved from Utah and was mailing TONS of letters to all of my friends back in Bountiful 1994

*Nurse Bear- I received this one from my parents the year I graduated with my RN 2004

*Bear with a ring- the year Jesse proposed to me and we were married 2003

And now that my children are all finally to the age that ornaments don't get pulled off constantly, we have a tree with a fairly equal proportion of ornaments spread throughout.  

 Eli, Maddie, and Robby

--loves these three, even if the pic is somewhat blurry

*For some reason, I cannot seem to take a decent picture of my Christmas tree.  Every time I try I get this funny blurry glare near the mid-section of the tree. Nevertheless here is our tree in all it's glory.  And if you can't tell, my children LOVE Christmas lights and they love to do a full room decoration-fest.

Fall Overview

Some fun things we have done this fall include:

1. Attend the final Dartmouth football game (thanks to scoring several tickets from a friend)
**it was amazing how few people attended the game. My kids kept asking me if it was a "real" football game

2.  Dress up in full winter gear {minus warm pants} and pretend it is really colder than the temperatures show.  Okay, I guess the only one in our family that really likes to do this is Miss M.  She made us all laugh near the end of October when she would dress herself such as the picture below in preparation for going to school.  By afternoon bus pick up she had stripped herself down to her normal clothing and maybe a jacket.
#can'twaitforcoldweather

3. Running running and more running in the early fall.  I joined several friends in training for and running a half-marathon this fall.  Although I definitely didn't do as well as I would've liked on the actual race, I enjoyed the motivation and dedication it gave me to run on a regular basis and enjoy the much needed "me-time".  Although after the race was over I have now turned into a total lazy person and have hardly ran, I am proud of myself for doing this and I know I will be back at it again in a few months.

4. Tiny Tuckies Annual Halloween parade/party.  Our party ended up being delayed by one week due to Hurricane Tropical Storm Sandy.  We had a weather alert placed on our area so the school had early release and all other parties and festivities were cancelled that day.  This ended up pushing the party to the next Monday, after Halloween.  I have to admit it was a bit awkward to pull out the costumes post-trick or treating, but luckily the kids didn't seem to mind in the least.  They were excited to put on their costumes one last time and collect another bounty of candy.  It was a fun night to remember!

Eli with his "Captain America" buddy JJ 

5. Ice skating with Uncle Ben two days after Thanksgiving.  One of the only requests Ben had when he came to visit was to ice skate. So we looked up a rink that was open on Saturday and away we went. We had a really great time and luckily no one needed stitches at the end {Ben took a particularly nasty fall a few weeks prior to this on the ice and ended up cutting his chin open.  I had the pleasure of removing his stitches while he came to visit}

**once again the one and only picture I had on my camera phone before the whole thing died. I am seriously counting down the months until next July when my contract is up and I can finally get an I-phone

6.  Had lots and lots of one on one time with my Mr E.  I have sure enjoyed this fall having some well deserved time with my youngest.  He has been so helpful, quiet, funny, quirky, and easy to have home with me and I am not looking forward to a few years from now when he will be sent away from me all day.  But for now I am cherishing these moments I get to hang out with him.  He is easy to please as the only child at home and loves to do puzzles, play with toys, watch television, do the dishes, etc. 

7. Watched Robby's school class perform at Morning Sing and was a total proud Mama! (every Friday at the local elementary school they have a sing-a-long type of activity where parents are invited to come and sing with the school.  Each week they feature different classes and groups of students performing for the school)

 **Robby is the boy in red in the middle left walking on stage

**in this picture, Robby is the 5th child from the left hand side

8. Attended a super fun Christmas Party at Brud and Jen Fogarty's house that included a "crazy ornament swap".  It was fun to get together with a bunch of our Tuck friends and not have our children running around.  We had plenty of laughs through the ornament exchange that was done White Elephant Style.  I have to say that I was plenty pleased to end up with a cute high heel ornament for Miss M for Christmas and a shiny star ornament.  Thanks for such a fun night all!

9. Maddie's pre team group at gymnastics did another "Secret Sister" gift exchange the last few weeks before Christmas.  I loved to see her grin as she came up with inexpensive thoughtful gifts for her secret sister.  She was pretty pleased when she got a jewelry box that was decorated in lots of bling---her fave!

10. The whole Elementary school went to a special Holiday music program at the high school and Maddie was chosen out of the audience to come down and help conduct the musicians for part of the program.  She was bursting with excitement when she came home after school.  I was even more pleased that the front office lady was thoughtful enough to take a picture of the occasion and e-mail it to me.