Snow day

So after all my family went home and we were heading back to school, we wake up Monday morning to this:

Without a word weston slipped into his room to gear up and head into the backyard to inspect things. I looked up from breakfast and saw him wondering thoughtfully through the yard. My initial thought when I saw the snow was, "well, I guess we won't be walking to school." But then I thought, "why not? people do it all the time in other states (uphill both ways naked no less)." So we did (uh, with clothes though, lots of them because we're weak desert rats). We bundled up, tossed the boys in the new covered wagon and trudged through the snow to school. And boy, I'm glad we did. It was amazing to see! I stuck my new camera in a ziploc around my neck, because I'm lame and didn't get a case yet but it was still snowing and we were walking under lots of trees that threatened to dump snow on me and my lens at any moment.

Snowman on the kindergarten playground. that's why he's pint sized. Or maybe that is an actual kindergartener.

The park we pass through to get to Em's school. Weston for once agreed that sliding today was out of the question.

The development we're in backs up to a beautiful walking trail that happens to lead to the park (pic above) that is connected to emma's school grounds, which makes for a nice walk to school. There are two tunnels where the path takes you under the street and looking out ahead through those was such a magnificent sight! I'm not one that could handle living in a place that sees snow regularly but this snow that comes for a day and is gone by the end of the week and the next week you're back in your T-shirts, that's my kind of winter.

Family

It gets hectic with so many people in one house but I love having all the family around! I love the closeness, the humor, the food, the fun, and the traditions.

I love watching our kids play together. They get so excited to get together. Andrew kept tackling his cousins and squealing "my buddies." And Julie and Emma wrote love letters to each other. They're too busy enjoying their time together to fight or be bored.

One of the most heartwarming things for me is watching my brothers and sisters being good dads and good uncles/aunts. Watching my older brothers patience and kindness with their children and mine and watching the others tireless efforts to provide a constant source of love and entertainment is one of the greatest treasures of watching my siblings grow up. I love seeing Jesse snuggling Andrew when he needs a hug or Nate tossing Weston in the air as he squeals with delight was a common and welcomed sight during our time together. I love that my children have such a great circle of people who love them and are good examples to them. Their treatment of my children and watching how they handle their own inspires me to be a better mom.

Gifts

Everyone got spoiled rotten this year as always. Even Rascal. My mom made pj pants for all the kids and used the leftover material to make Rascal a sweater but it was a bit snug and kept slipping down so that it looked more like a diaper. Poor thing, doesn't he look humiliated.

Jamie's mom stuck these light things in his stocking. I didn't see the packaging so when we got home we had fun trying to figure out what they were for. I liked this idea:

Zhu zhu pets, we're all fascinated. Grandmas know how to find the winners.

My mom found these cute animal blankies.

Well some fashions beat others.

Cute jammies from Grandma. Boys shared the floor in our room at night. Some interesting arrangements came about.

Weston got a nice tall bike with Spiderman safety pads. Feeling like a big boy.

The little boys got nerf guns but the big boys had just as much fun.

cookies, wagons, and parachutes

Decorated sugar cookies. Aren't they lovely?

My super-deal-finding SIL scored us a deal on a fun wagon for Christmas. The puller wasn't included, had to attach our own Steed.

Had fun playing with Nana's parachute

Ethel M

Took the kids to Ethel M chocolate factory to see the chocolate and the lights in their cactus garden. Had to get some pics of the glowing cacti for our friends back in Georgia.

But the highlight for the boys was the free chocolate samples after the tour.

Like kids in a candy shop

Red Rock

We took advantage of the sunshine and headed out to Red Rock with all the kiddos. No broken bones.

Talent show

For Family Night the Cannons did a talent show. It was entertaining to be sure. The boys had been practicing "Picture a Christmas" for weeks and were ready to perform but Andrew decided to enter his new favorite word at the end of each line turning a song that normally helps you remember Christ into a laugh riot. He was loving the attention!

Jamie impressed everyone with his Kip skills (of "Napolean Dynamite" fame) and sang Kip's wedding song.

My dad is a very animated storyteller, shown here telling his famous "wide-mouthed" frog story. Great entertainment for the kids (except Weston apparently).

Brooke on the piano

Julie displaying her piano skills.

Chimes and Smiles

One of my favorite childhood traditions is playing chimes at Christmas and I may or may not have outgrown the fascination. My aunt made these chimes for our family many years ago and we pull them out every Christmas. I used to hang all the chimes on a broom stick between two chairs so I could do the songs by myself. When I was teaching school I had my first graders impress everyone at the Christmas program with their chime skills.

Are we having fun yet?

Gotta love aunts and uncles who throw you around, let you hang on them, and play horsey. Poor Maria she probably is so sore from my kids hanging all over her and abusing her with their love.

Gingerbread houses

The Cannon grandkids decorated some gingerbread houses, well some decorated and some mostly just ate as much candy as they could get their hands on. My boys may be in the cramming candy club.

Here's the houses and the very sad gingerbread man.

My nephew James loves trains so I suggested he make a train instead.

My niece Julie was clever and made a graham cracker temple

We held them off as long as we could to display the masterpieces but the vulchers hovered and wimpered for days (and picked at what they could reach, including a "smokestack" bitten in half that was still attached..hmm). then the demolishing and devouring began and Weston was heading up the project.

Nativities

I haven't posted in a couple months and one of those months was a really busy month stock-full of pictures so you know you're going to be getting ambushed with a barrage of posts in a short time now. I could just say, "Gina it's February, no one wants to hear all the details of your Christmas as they prep for Valentines," but I like my pictures and want to remember all of this and record it because this is my journal/scrapbook/storage back-up. So just brace yourself and skim through, or not, this is really for me. But to reward your patience I will post some overdue Dr. Emma material when this is all done

Our ward did a cute nativity with the kids for the ward Christmas party. Are those not the cutest lil angels you've ever seen?!

I refused to put time and money into costumes for the boys so I pinned some socks onto a headband and threw a brown sweater around Weston's shoulders. Donkey? And yes, his friend's a ladybug.

andrew was a reindeer because I had some antlers around the house. Yeah, the Steed kids are a little disfunctional.

We did our traditional nativity with the Wixom bunch with the cutest lil shephards. I have a video on YouTube of the production. Forgot how to post those. Try this link