Ice Crystals

So this post is just to show off my photographers.  Sam and Justin set out to take pictures after we had had a night of some dense fog.  Everything was covered in ice crystals. The first set of four are from Sam, with no editing (I just picked my favorites).
 

 

 

 

Then the next four are Justin's with all his finishing work done to them. 

 

 

 

And then I found this one.  I know it is not really in focus but it gives you an idea of what the snow looks like after a freezing rain shellacs it.  Justin thought it looked like fondant and I think everything looks glossy.
 

Snow fun

We started to get a little bit of snow.  And then we got more snow and more snow and now we have snow.  One thing this means is that we need to shovel our driveway fairly regularly.  If there is too much snow (pretty much any) it becomes difficult to get up.  So here are pictures of what the kids enjoy doing while I shovel snow.

This is the first of the snow so there isn't much, enough for the younger kids to want to play in and slide in.  There are no pictures of the freezing rain.  That was the day that when we went to go and get kids from school, Michelle and Ben slid to the bottom of the driveway and then they couldn't get back up.  I went to go help them, ending up running down the driveway because I knew if I didn't I would end up on my backside.  Then we had to walk up through the snow with them following my footsteps because they couldn't break through the ice on their own.

Oh and Hannah decided this little hill was a good place to practice snowboarding. 

We started getting more snow.  We don't typically need the extra part of the driveway for parking so I don't bother shoveling it, for which the kids are grateful.  They loved sledding down it.

And then on Saturday after the snow I sent Justin out to build a snow hill for the kids.  He wanted to take them sledding someplace but instead built this and they have played on it so much and the neighbor kids as well.  You can get from our porch to the sidewalk.  This wasn't the best packing snow but they managed.

There are the snow activities.  :)

Mess Maker, Mess Maker make me a mess. . .

This post is all Ben.  When Uncle Jared came and stayed at our house in the spring he would sing songs for each of the kids, variations on other songs.  Well, Ben's song is "Mess Maker" from the original song of "Matchmaker."  When Uncle Jared was once again here, he learned that Ben is still very much a mess maker.  Here is a sampling of Ben:

Let's dump the flour on the floor.  Once mom finds out we will try to make everything better by trying to help sweep it up (and spill two more times on the trip to the garbage can). 

Oh look, the compost scraps got left out with a knife, let's make sure those scraps are cut small enough.  This picture was made safer because when I initially found him happily cut apples up he was using a sharp knife.  And it doesn't matter where you have them, the kid will find them and try to use them.  He also finished up by dumping the whole bowl out to make sure there was nothing left to cut up.

What, don't play with this because I might spill it?  Oh you mean like that.  And yes, these three events happened the same day (hence the orange shirt in all, it wasn't just coinsidence). But these messes happen all the time. 

Here's more spices on the counter.  I don't have a picture of the time he emptied two different spice containers onto the top of what I was thinking was going to be a part of dinner. 

Is this what we do with pudding?

Oh wait, both hands, that's right.  We have the hardest time with pudding, yogurt and the like.  I think it is because it falls of the spoon before he gets it too his mouth and then since it's already on the counter or table he just spreads it around. 

This is a good dancing spot.  All I can say is at least he was sitting on the counter and not standing.  And this picture was taken before the kids broke my CD player.  They still won't stay off the counter.  Even Sam sometimes.  We consider this independence and call it good most days.  :)

And here is the cute boy not making a mess.  He's a darling, but he is two years old!

Happy New Years!

I am finally get around to getting some more pictures up and I just realized that I completed bypassed Christmas.  In my defense, those pictures are on Justin's camera and thus on his computer.  Maybe later.  New Years Eve is the party we host for every year.  It's easier than trying to get people together during Christmas.  And Jared usually comes so I don't have to do any cooking, he does it and could probably feed the whole group himself but everyone else helps out.  This year there was no theme (okay so in reality there has only been one year with theme).  We had soup and bread.  Oh and a hot chocolate bar.  That was fun.  Although there are lots of chocolate things left for me to think about snacking on.  My favorite part of the hot chocolate bar was the spoons that I created for the kids.  I had melted chocolate, dipped the spoons in said chocolate and then put marshmallows, crushed candy canes, or red hots on them.  The kids could then take a spoon, add it to hot chocolate and bingo, they got their add-ins and a spoon with less mess (ideally).  The younger kids loved it.  Sam and his friend Lucas decided to try their hand at how much chocolate they could mix in (or just take home in a cup).
This picture is my proof that my kids all stayed up until midnight.  Yes all four of them were still up.  Ben was up because he was still moving.  Michelle was up because she fell asleep at 5 and woke back up at 7 pm.  The other two, well, Hannah was up because everyone else was and Sam was the one trying to stay up until midnight.  This is the first year in a very long time that we have stayed up until midnight.

The other fantastic part to our party is we know full well that we are not getting everyone to stay until midnight.  We all have small children, we know how that goes.  So our party starts in the afternoon and usually ends around 8 pm.  Now with that being noted, we do fireworks at 7 pm.  Sparklers for all the kids (and me, I love fireworks!) and then Justin lit some fireworks.  Not a lot (and not all strung together like in July) but enough.

Here is what happens when you throw ground type ones in the snow, kinds of cool. 

And here is blurry evidence of people at our house.  Yes is was freezing cold, the kids who did sparklers are about all who ventured off the porch.  We discovered one of the windows was a prime location but by then we were mostly done with fireworks.

So happy new years to all our friends and family.  We are excited for a new year with new things to do.  My big plan for the year is to finish a bunch of unfinished projects (the first being Christmas presents) and hopefully not start too many new projects (that really depends on how many really good sales the quilt store has, most of my unfinished projects are quilts--and yes, I am trying to get something on that frame to quilt, but first I have to get to the frame, yeah, organization should be on my list as well).

It's Christmas time

Here are photos from various activities from the last little while.
We had a good snow storm and of course Michelle and Ben headed out to play.  I don't recall them being out there too long, and judging from the capris that Michelle is wearing, they probably weren't out long.
 

Here are the kids checking out the tree at the Gateway. 

Here was date night checking out the lights without kids (well, one got to come).  A couple of spouses are missing, taking pictures.
 

And then here is the family trip to see the lights downtown.
 

The City Creek Center has fire with their water show!
 

Here are some of the kids riding the jingle bus around town.  They loved it because they were allowed to sit on the back bench kind of thing.
 

And one day Michelle and Ben and I went and checked out the Grand America window displays.  We found this Santa for the kids to get a picture with.
 

And my craft project with the kids, decorating some ornaments.  Sam and Hannah each gave an ornament to their teachers with a card telling them the favorite thing of the school year.  We used glitter paint and q-tips to swirl paint inside the clear ornaments and then later I let them use glitter glue to make designs on the outside.

And now we are just having fun and enjoying family time.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! 

Halloween finale

Here are the final pictures from Halloween.  It was a beautiful night for trick-or-treating.  We had a good time and are still eating the candy from the kids haul. 

This is the picture of just Ben, with his attachment.  He was feeling much better but Mom didn't let him go far.
 

A quick look at pumpkins.  I am pretty sure we have another picture somewhere that shows them all but here is a fun picture. 

And now, happy Thanksgiving!   

Science Fair Part 1

Today we skip the rest of the Halloween pictures for a science fair update.  We have one down and one to finish (provided he can find the data we already collected).  This experiment, which Hannah titled Disappearing Candy, came from the book "Science Experiments you can Eat" by Vicki Cobb (and it is an older version I just discovered).
Here is what you need:

Take three hard candys (we used dum dum suckers): one stays whole, one gets broken in pieces, and one gets smashed.
 

Put 1/4 cup water in three glasses and add the sucker or remnants of sucker to the glasses.

Every ten minutes check and see how dissolved the candy is getting.  45 minutes total, from start to finish!  We did have a short discussion about surface area and how much of the sucker was touching the water.  After the results are recorded, drink your yummy juice.
Sorry no picture of the board, it went to school this morning and was finished just after bedtime last night.