Happy New Year!!

One of our New Years Resolutions was to blog more. Did that. A lot more! 1 of the best things that happened to our family this year was Lindy Leighn. Worst was my crash in July. Looking forward to 2013 with my wonderful family!

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Butterfly House in STL

Grandpa took Cayle and I to the Butterfly House while we were home. It was amazing!

 

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Pics from IL

 

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Christmas

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were pretty quiet days out at the cabin. We had listened to the weather radio station and heard we would have a snow storm starting on Christmas Eve and continuing through Christmas Day. It ended up snowing about 4 inches that night, so we woke up to some amazing beauty on Christmas morning.

snowing Christmas Eve

We opened a few presents that night once the kids were in their matching Santa jammies (advent activity for the 24th!).  Lindy's pj's had a little ruffle on the back that was so cute!

cayle insisted they sit on pillows

Christmas morning we had Butterbraids for breakfast (yummmm!) and stared out the windows in amazement at the beauty of the fresh snow (about 4 inches). 

the view out the front of the cabin

the view out the back of the cabin

We let the kids open presents for a bit, then we headed out for a 2 mile ski. 

cayle was in charge of handing out stockings

the snow was like ice crystals - so pretty

I had bought Lindy a cute outfit to wear for her first Christmas dinner :)

Christmas dinner consisted of ham, cranberries, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, fruit, and pumpkin pie.  Mark and Mary joined us for dinner :)  After dinner we played some games and hung out while the kids played. 

Staying at the cabin with no technology was really quite refreshing - no phone and no internet meant for lots of time to appreciate the mountains and nature we were surrounded by.  We had a really good time as a family and started some fun Christmas traditions :)

Cabin Activities

We had a few advent activities to participate in out at the cabin.  Side note:  Nick would not allow me to take my awesome advent board, so I had to take the numbered papers and "pretend" they were hanging nicely from the board...

One night, we decorated "gingerbread" houses with graham crackers, icing, and some yummy treats (m&m's, spice drops, pretzels, sprinkles, twizzler pull-n-peels).  Some of us were more successful than others...

everyone hard at work

cayle eating more than he's helping...

patrick and his inappropriate house

stephen showcasing his project

Mark came out one afternoon and took the guys ice fishing.  I'm not sure this sounds like fun?  Being cold and wet at the same time???  But they seemed to enjoy themselves. 

patrick peering in his hole

stephen proud of his catch

nicholas with a pretty trout

the setup

Cayle loved sledding - on the road.  He was not a fan of my forcing him to sled down fresh powder, which resulted in him face-planting both times :(  But he did an awesome job of holding his sister tight when going down the hill, and even pulling her back uphill. 

this is what he hated...

this is what he loved!

pulling lindy back up the road

cayle absolutely loved holding his sister when they were sledding

We went out on a few hikes - snowshoe to get the tree, snowshoe around the lake, and cross-country ski on the road above the lake. 

nick pulling the kids back to the cabin

view on the christmas day ski

ice fishermen down below

view of the cabins

Although it may seem like more of a summer activity, we still had fires.  Nick told me it took a lot more wood to make a nice fire in the cold than it did on our typical camping trips.  And of course, we all sat around the fire bundled up.  But it felt super!

sophie learning to put her hands out to keep warm

christmas eve fire