It finally snowed. These pictures are from our first snowfall a couple of weeks ago. I love the big trees in our yard covered in snow. Love having our own yard.

 The boys were so excited to go out in the snow that Bridger headed out wearing only this...

 He came running back in the house shortly after, and ran straight to the wood stove saying that he needed to warm up his thumbs... really those are the last things I would have been complaining about being cold if I was wearing the same outfit... but we pulled out their new snow coats and pants and sent them out to build a fort.

 I remember when I was little using food coloring in water to color the snow, so I loaded a couple of spray bottles with hot water (to keep their hands warm) and let them paint their fort.

 It kept them entertained for hours. Porter is in love with the snow. He would play outside in it all day, every day if we let him. Bridger is a little less than impressed. He gets excited for a little while and then wants to come inside and get warm... although he is a big fan of eating the snow. He picks up big handfuls and stuffs them in his mouth.

Christmas in Moab

Our Christmas was supposed to be here. With my new job I was supposed to work Christmas Eve. But, a very sweet friend offered to work Christmas Eve for me, which freed me from a week of work and allowed us all to head to Moab for Christmas! It was so fun to be together with Kyle's family. We haven't been to Moab in quite a while and we haven't been able to be there when Kyle's siblings were there. This holiday season was no different from the others in that I took very few pictures and really wished that I had taken more. But here are the few that I did take.

We started Christmas Eve out with some very fun games, I don't know what this one was called, but Jill was pretty awesome at it. (Drawing pictures on the plate on the top of your head.)

We played round the world ping-pong, which really should become a yearly tradition, and the white elephant exchange.

 Dave sitting on his pocket chair from the white elephant.

 Christmas morning we came out to find the presents that Santa left for us.

 We couldn't pull Bridger away from the train set from Santa. He played with it for 2 1/2 hours straight, and even though other gifts were opened, if it didn't involve a train he didn't give it a second glance.

 Porter was thrilled to open presents. He was also in love with the train set, but he was more than happy to open present after present.

 It was a beautiful Christmas morning. 

Later on Christmas day we decided to go hiking. It seemed so warm during the day while we were out in the sun... but hiking in the snow and in the shade turned out to be pretty cold.

Bridger wanted to be carried most of the way. Porter, however, ran up and down the snow-packed hills. He thoroughly enjoys being outside in the snow.

 It was a perfect Christmas.

the sleepover

or under, if you want to be correct.
I tried to come up with many new traditions this year, ones to test out and see if they would stick and become permanent holiday traditions. This one was a keeper.

We had a big family camp out under the tree. We took our bean bag chair and all our couch cushions, all of our blankets and pillows and made the biggest softest bed under our tree. We sat and watched The Grinch and fell asleep under the twinkle lights. The boys didn't want to sleep in their beds again. I can't say that I blame them... there's something magical about the twinkle lights.