Our house at night

The light display is pretty minimal this year but we do have a total of five christmas trees lit up. The two porch columns are wrapped in red and white lights like candy canes, although you can't really make them out that well in these pictures. Next year I hope to add a bit to the exterior illumination display.

Sleep Over

Gracie got to spend the night with her friend Michaela at the beginning of Christmas break and Lily got to spend the night with Beau so Abbey thought it was her turn to have someone over. She decided to have her cousin Brandon over. They had a great time playing the Wii and playing games. They watched movies and Nana came over to fry tacos for them. Then Kent and I made chocolate chip cookies for them. Then, we had a camp out in Abbey's room with the kids on the floor and Lily and I in Abbey's bed. Brandon and Abbey were very gracious with the two younger girls.

Weird weather!!

Ice on the trees.
Even our trash cans had icicles on them.

Yesterday (12/26/08) our weather was 62 degrees and melted pretty much all of the snow on the ground. Last night it was a lightning storm with rain and high winds. We woke up to freezing rain/rain and by the evening the ground was covered again in snow....tomorrow 12/28/08 they are forecasting 40 degree weather......I guess even the weather is having a hard time deciding what season it should be.

Christmas at Mimi's!

Most of the grand kids all assembled at Mimi's house yesterday evening and we had our Christmas dinner and presents were opened. Here are some pictures of the girls with some of there stuff. We again ate well and had a lot of fun with family.

Christmas Morning!

Abbey is really surprised that the girls got new cereal bowls, actually she thought these were the bowls that Santa and the reindeer used and left behind...just believe!!

Gracie is showing off her My Little Pony that walks and talks.

Lily got a new Doodle Pad all of her own. The girls really like to draw so Lily will make good use of this.
Too much fun! Lily finally gave up in the late afternoon after a full day of playing. Looks like a nice solution to me.

The girls woke up early Christmas morning to see what was under the tree. We had a great time Christmas day, we didn't have anything scheduled so we just stayed at home and the girls enjoyed their toys, we played many games of Battleship, watched movies and enjoyed each other.

Christmas Eve at Nana's House!!

Dave showing us his new sweater.



Teresa "Nana" gets in on the action and opens her gifts.

Uncle Nick and Aunt Sarah were up from Liberty and joined in on the fun.

Abbey showing off one of her gifts.

Gracie is really excited about getting the stuffed giraffe....kids truly are wonderful!!

Lily showing off her princess wand, she really had fun with this later on.

We had a really great time with our family. We had an absolutely delicious meal of prime rib and all the fixin's. The girls were having a great time playing with their gifts. It is a joy to watch children get so excited about all that the Christmas season brings.

All 3 of the Girls on the Ice

It was just for a moment, but they were all three on the ice at the same time! Uncle Clint was trying to get Lily convinced to try it but she wasn't going for it! This is the best we could do for Dave's Christmas card!

Abbey Was a Natural Ice Skater

Clint convincing Abbey to take off by herself

Abbey getting Fancy!

Clint and Dave coaching the girls

Dave and Abbey getting ready to take off!!

The girls had a good time ice skating today (except for Lily). Then, we came home and made some beef stew to warm up. They're already talking about when they can go again.

Gracie Ice skating

Gracie getting ready to get out on the pond.

Gracie and Abbey testing it out

Gracie getting ready to go. Uncle Clint helped her get her skates on

Lacing Up!

Uncle Clint helped the girls get laced up to go ice skating for the family picture. Dave found his family's old ice skates from when they were little and found a pair for each of the girls to wear. Lily's were way too big. That might have been part of her problem!!

Just when I brag about how brave Lily was to go sledding... we go ice skating!!

Just when I brag about Lily being so brave when we went sledding, Dave decides to do a family photo on the pond of the girls ice skating. Needless to say, Lily was not impressed!! She got down there long enough to get a quick picture but was ready to go in after that!! Nana took pity on her and took her in for a snack and to get warmed up. Dave checked the pond and the ice was 6 inches thick!

Early Out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School dismissed early today due to the ice storm heading this way!! So, the girls and I dressed in warm clothes and headed up the hill to Grandma Smith's house. They all had sooo much fun. Lily really surprised me at how brave and grown-up she's getting. She had just as much fun as Abbey and Gracie and argued that it was her turn just as much as the older girls did! They're not getting anything past her. It was especially nice this year since I didn't have to carry the sled up the hill each time. All I had to do was be the first one down to prove that it was safe and then the girls took over; each of them carrying the sled back up the hill. We had so much fun. Of course, hot chocolate followed.

Enjoying their cupcakes

Here are a few pictures of the girls enjoying their cupcakes. They wanted to make them Christmasy so we did. I colored the frosting green and they put red and green sprinkles on them.

One chilly morning!

I woke up this morning thinking it was rather chilly in the house but since it was snowing outside and the wind chill readings were around 10 below zero this morning I didn't think much of it. After being awake for a bit I decided to go down and turn up the thermostat so it would be warmer when the girls got up. Upon checking the thermostat I discovered it was 49 degrees in our house this morning and we didn't have a furnace running.
After driving around town to locate the local HVAC guys ( you have to know what coffee spot they are at depending on the time of morning) I could not locate them. I was then told they had fresh homemade cinnamon rolls at the lumber yard so I headed there. I did find them at the lumber yard only to be told they could not work on my furnace because they could not work on a Lennox furnace and would have no parts. (The cinnamon rolls were really good though) They told me to call another place, after calling them, they told me they were snowed under and didn't know if they would get there or not.
I was just standing there looking at the furnace and said "God I don't know anything about this furnace but you do, you were there when the engineers designed it and you know how it works better than anyone, give me wisdom and direct me to fix this furnace." I then felt like I should take this cover off the front of the furnace, I took a bolt out and the furnace started, ran for about two seconds and shut off. I then took out another bolt and the furnace started and continued to run. I thought how strange, but I noticed that the furnace was sucking air in through the bolt holes and it came to me that the furnace was not getting enough air for combustion. I headed outside to check the intake and sure enough it was covered with snow. I clean it off, installed another fitting so it wouldn't happen again and the furnace started right up and continues to run as I type this. Isn't God good!!!! I thank him for the Holy Spirit and his guidance and direction....He cares about our furnace running.

SNOW DAY!!!!

The girls and Shawna got out of school early today because of the snow storm that we are getting. Shawna told them previously, the next snow day they could make cup cakes so... that is what they did.

Here is some video footage of the cup cake making event...

Collander Head

Lily was playing around with the collander the other day. Thought it was a cute picture. (I washed it before we used it again)!!

Too Cute!!

Lily was wearing her stocking hat around the house this evening. I think she has been watching big sister, Abbey wear hers around the house and was trying to be like her big sister. I thought she looked too cute to pass up a photo op.

Our First Snow

The girls went out real quick before we went to Mom's house and enjoyed our first snow of the year. I don't know if I am ready for the snow to start. The girls can't wait until they can go out and play a while in the snow.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We had Kent's dad and Kim and his twin brother Kevin and his daughter Colby over tonight for dinner. After dinner we decorated the Christmas tree. The girls had fun playing with Colby. They even got Uncle Kevin to play the Wii with them. It was nice to have everyone here and visiting with Bill and Kim.