New Year's Eve Snowstorm!

Our tumbleweed snowman became a real one today when we received around six inches of snow! Tim has lived here in Cottonwood for 14 years and says he's never seen it snow here like it did today. My kids (except for Selah) loved playing in the snow, and it kept them occupied all of the morning and most of the afternoon. 

Tirzah enjoyed the snow the most. She begged me to take everyone to the park because there is a small hill there and wanted to go sledding down the hill. I didn't though--she had a play date with a friend of hers and I was not up to taking five kids (especially a toddler who intensely disliked the snow) by myself sledding at the park. (Can you blame me?)

Before we made our snowman, Sunshine, we watched several videos on youtube so they would all know what to do. By the end of the second video, the kids were so ready to make their own. Here is a picture of Sunshine, our snowman. (If you're wondering about the snowman's cheeks--I read about putting red food coloring in water and spraying it on the snowman's cheeks to look rosy so decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, the red cap was on the yellow bottle (the kids had used my food coloring when they experimented making their own paint a few weeks ago) so our snowman ended up with yellow cheeks! :)

Acarith decided to make her own little snowman (she loves to be independent when she does projects). Hers turned out so cute!

Tim also had joined in the fun and he and I attempted to build a snowman. His idea of building one involved a shovel and a big piece of board, while mine had the rolling-the-snow-in-a-ball method. Well, we combined the two but when he used his board to "pat" down my snowman's middle ball...you could just imagine what happened. Anyways, it was our first time building one together and we laughed through it all. Afterwards, Tim made everyone hot chocolate...a perfect way to end making snowmen! We made some wonderful family memories to celebrate the end of 2014. Hope you all have a very Happy New Year!

Sunday Christmas Pictures!

One tradition I have every year is to take pictures of the kids under our tree the Sunday morning before Christmas. This year I didn't know until picture time that my camera battery was dead, and also my backup camera's battery was dead! I had a decision to make: do I wait 15 minutes to charge the batteries and arrive a little later to church (still 15 min. before service) or do I skip taking pictures this year? Obviously you can see which choice I made! I am so glad I did--I always cherish these pictures.

The girls looked so adorable in their Christmas dresses!

Me with my handsome Hardy boy. I thought Tirzah did a great job taking this picture! He wanted me to be in the picture with him. Awww....

Last Sunday evening my junior church class, with the help of the two and three year old class and a few teens, put on the Christmas play "Wise Men Still Seek Him." Our church had a record-high of 78 attend and three people accepted Christ as their Savior. It was a great night!

Tirzah did an AWESOME job playing a girl named Anna. She really is gifted in acting, and, in my non-biased opinion :), did the best job! :)

Acarith was a sheep and her teacher Debi was a big help making the costumes and organizing the girls for the nativity scene.

Hardy was an adorable Wise Man and really did a good job. He remembered every line and really sang out. I believe singing is one of Hardy's gifts, and it's fun to watch him enjoy his gift.

I can't post any more pictures during the actual play because I was too busy directing and playing the piano to get pictures, but am hoping to round some up from friends who took pictures in the audience.

I hope you all are celebrating with us the birth of our Savior. Have a Merry Christmas!