NYE

We had some friends over tonight for appetizers and dessert to ring in the new year.  We made some meat candy (bacon wrapped little smokies), pizza rolls, poppers, M n M's and Egg Nog Cheesecake.  The cheesecake was my favorite dish!

We always like to do things early over here, and tonight was no exception.  The kids were in bed before 8:30 and Kyle and I had the whole evening to ourselves. 

We woke Ava up for the ball drop and then quickly passed out!

Ava's Novel

Our little dreamer has been writing her own book for some time.  She adds to it whenever she gets a chance and has let a few friends take it home to read.  She has over 50 pages of handwritten text and many illustrations throughout. Norah loves the story and is always eager to have Ava read it to her.

Hair and Nails

It's a good thing Heavenly Father blessed us with girls who not only have beautiful hair, but actually let me style it!  I love braiding and curling the girls' hair and sometimes I even love doing their nails-only if they stand still and let them dry though!!!!

Today, Norah rocked a big ole dutch french braid and some cupcake nails and they both turned out beautiful!

Tornado Warning

We usually sleep through tornado warnings and find out about them in the morning, but tonight we were actually awake and heading out of the driveway with some friends for a double date when we got a text and heard the tornado sirens.  A spiral had been spotted and so we all rushed home to our kids and spent the next 1.5 hours in the pantry waiting for everything to pass.

Nothing got hit in our area, but about a half hour away extensive damage occurred when a coaster touched down and totally destroyed homes and caused a few deaths.  We were safe and left the kids with the babysitter and headed to a hibachi-style place with our friends.

Longboarders

For Christmas we got each of the kids a present and then helped Nana get something the kids had been asking about.  Ava got a new long board, Jack got a nerf bow and arrow set, Norah got a doll that hooks up to the IPad and talks to you, while Ben got a TMNT playset.  Most of the kids liked their presents!

Ornaments

The kids all made ornaments for Kyle and I this year.  Norah and Jack's were super cute and then there was Ava's hand sewn Christmas tree and NM cabin, and lastly, Ben's coasters with his funny mug on top!

Hope I'll remember these handmade beauties and not horrible I felt today!

Christmas Fail

We thought wrapping the kids into their rooms would stop late night wanderings and allow us to get some sleep-not so!  Jack was up around 12:30 trying to catch Santa, and didn't get back to sleep until around 3:30 (and neither did Kyle) and then Norah was up at 5 and somehow everyone besides Ava made it downstairs without Kyle and I getting a video of it.

All in all, another bust of a Christmas morning.  Missing the magic seems as harsh as kids who are too old to appreciate it.

Probably the worst part of everything was when I ripped down everyone's wrapping paper who was already out of their rooms and then got an earful from Jack about how much he hates me!  Merry Christmas to me!  Wish today could have started a lot better!

Fans

Ben and Norah were super excited to stay home with a babysitter and watch a movie, while we took these big kids to see the new Star Wars in 3-D.  Seeing it again was still fun, the 3-D added a new dimension, but the story was still great and so was all the action!

Bat Man Fan

Outside of the new Marvel ride, Kyle and Ben ran into this guy and actually got a good picture him!  Ben is so serious in this photo, its pretty great!  Wish the rest of our day was as good as these pictures, instead, though, it was filled with fighting and tantrums-not cool!

Koala Girl

Ava brought her purse with us to the market and bought this cute little ear warmer headband with pom poms.  It was super cute on her and the tree outside the runaway mine seemed like a great place to take a picture of this sweet girl.  She is so photogenic!

Six Flags

Even if the German market isn't as great as the ones we experienced in Europe, a trip to Six Flags right afterwards always seems to cheer us all up.

We got right on the first few rides, but stalled out towards the end when the park got busier.  Glad it was such a nice day to be standing around in a line!

Kristkindle Markt

Last year we discovered a German market in Arlington next door to Six Flags, and today we hit it up again!  The food is always less than authentic, but there are some booths that boast handmade items and it's always nice to spend time outside walking around, especially when the weather is nice!

Cookie Party

We have some friends who have three kids that line up well with three of our kids and today we had them over to kick off our Christmas break with some sugar cookie decorating.  Jack always feels left out when they're over, because they don't have any older boys.  I can't win them all!

Star Wars

I had lined up a sitter for tonight despite the crazy few days I had and the long day of travel today, fortunately all we had planned for the evening was a viewing of the newest Star Wars.  So good to see it with this guy and so good to be able to sleep in my own bed tonight!

Not Possible

Originally I was going to make this trip by myself, but thankfully a more level headed individual (Kyle) knew I needed some major help and recruited Cass to help me out since she was not working for the next few weeks and could actually take the time to meet me. 

We had our struggles with such an insurmountable amount of tasks to complete, but somehow we managed to get everything done in time, including staging and photographing everything for the website, before we left this morning to head back to Albuquerque.  Thank you big sis-I could never have done this without you!

Dining Area

I'm not sure this room could look anymore awesome with this beautiful rug, adjustable copper stools, farm style table and bistro seating for 8 with a telescope and Christmas tree to entertain!  The new chandelier is pretty fantastic too!

After a long day of finishing things up around the cabin and waiting for the handyman to put together the bunk beds for 8 hours, we ate dinner at H2 Uptown and called it a night!  We missed out on sledding because he took so long, but are so grateful we were able to get beds in the second bedroom!

On My Way Back

After dumping the trash and grabbing the camera I headed back up and ran into this stud on the way.  Since I had such horrible encounters with wildlife last night, these few sweet ones were that much more enjoyable.

Unreal

I left Cass at the cabin and took another load of trash down the mountain on my way to our realtor's office to borrow his camera, since ours broke after it was pushed off of a box on our first night in the cabin.

Cass stayed with the handyman who was still working on some stuff.  So I was by myself when the most amazing thing happened.  I came around the corner right by the cabin to find a small herd of deer on the road.

I pulled up slow and they moved over for me to pass.  I happen to be eating lunch and decided to share my sandwich, at which point a few of them approached the car and ate right out of my hand.

I couldn't get over how close the mom and baby deer were to the car and even got out to get a closer look.  I got a little scared and ran back to the car, but was able to take a short video of them and a few more pictures before needing to leave to get the camera before the office closed.  

Seeing those 7 deer, 4 of which were small ones, was the highlight of the trip for me-so sad that Cass wasn't there to share it with me.

Kitchen

We are replacing every single light in the house.  All of the previous fixtures were not our style at all.  It's seriously crazy what this kind of change can make.  Somehow we managed to make this cabin feel so much more up to date without any renovating!!  We plan on doing some major stuff this summer, but these little tweaks have made a hug impact already!  I'm loving the progress we made by just swapping this pendant putting in a new faucet.

Artwork

Our first piece of original artwork finally got the attention is deserved with the installation of this picture lamp at the landing of the stairs.  The painting is visible from the main living area and as you walk upstairs-it couldn't be more prominent!  Glad it looks so amazing!

Family Room

We didn't do much renovating this trip, just a lot of furnishing.  The house was completely stocked when we bought it, just not with furniture/decorations that we liked.  Swapping things out when you aren't local and the house is in a very remote area with no stores nearby is a lot harder than you'd thing. Everything had to be purchased online and shipped in.  A few days ago, I went to IKea and Homegoods and found some bedding/pillows/accents that I shipped here via UPS.  The whole process was not something I'm familiar with and therefore more complicated than I anticipated. 

This room turned out great, with the exception of the broken arm chair and couch, media console and  ceiling fan that all need replacing.

When I got up this morning and the light was streaming in, I snapped this gorgeous picture.  It will definitely be part of the photos on the rental website-that rug is stunning!

Christmas Party

I was gone for Ben's Christmas party-the first time I have missed any of the kids' programs or parties, but thankfully Kyle made it for the end after his morning of phone calls!  I also missed Norah and Jack's parties.  It was great not having to worry about volunteering, but sad to miss these big events.

Seriously Crazy

All day, we worked on unpacking around 50 boxes and hauling them down the mountain to the trash center while plumbers, handymen, security and homewatch guys were working on the house.  We got so much done, and then when we thought we were done around 4:30, we realized that the bunk beds that were supposed to arrive today, hadn't.

On our way down the mountain to dump some more trash, we called the homewatch office to see if they had had anything delivered, since our shipping details showed the beds were delivered to "a woman."  They had the beds, because the FedEx guy said he couldn't make it up the mountain (even though two other delivery companies had).  No one had called us about the mix up and now we had to get the beds up the mountain so they could get put together tomorrow at 8am, because miraculously we found someone who was available to work on them.

The homewatch office closed at 5 and we had a car full of boxes.  We dumped them off and headed over right before closing.  Somehow we were able to fit all the boxes in the car with the two of us still able to sit comfortably (I was more comfortable than Cass, though).  The office staff was astonished we were able to carry all the hug boxes, let alone get them to fit in the car!!  They called us "true mountain women!"

After hauling everything back into the house and unpacking the 5 mattresses for the bunks, I realized that we didn't have any mattress protectors for these new beds-that's a problem when you are renting to families!!!  So even though it was 10pm, we got back in the car and headed to Toas where there's a Walmart open until 12am.

Our drive there was crazy, we almost hit an Elk when it was standing in the middle of the road!  Such a big animal!  I was so freaked out and so tired that we spent the first part of the 11 o'clock hour looking for a place to get some hot cocoa-5 restaurants/gas stations later we were still empty handed and even more tired.  Walmart did have enough mattress protectors for all the mattresses, though!

If the rest of our day hadn't been challenging enough, our drive home landed us encounters with 6 more Elk, one of which was standing in the middle of my lane as I drove around a corner.  It was so scary coming that close to hitting something so big, that I had to pull off the road and park for a minute just to get enough courage to drive again.  I white knuckled all the way home and then crashed hardcore until 7am!!!!

So Beautiful

The mountain looked so amazing with all of its snow, I took a picture for the website after moving our rental car.  It couldn't have thought of a prettier way to start a long, hard day.

Scooping!

Yesterday was a crazy day!  My sister and I met up at DFW (she was coming from St. Louis) and flew to Albuquerque and then drove the three hours to Angel Fire with a lot of snow on the ground everywhere!  It was a little sketchy, but we got a 4x4 rental somehow and the driveway was kind of plowed.  When we arrived at the cabin it was already warm inside (a little too warm) and the porch lights were on. We had grabbed some groceries and Subway sandwiches at Lowe's before heading up the mountain, so we tried to unpack some of the boxes and get ready for the all the workers coming in the morning.

I was up before Cass and shoveled the porch and stairs to avoid incident when everyone arrived, especially our first ever guests who were coming the day after we left.

"American Shoes"

This guy has a love hate with these awesome Converse shoes.  He loves how bright they are, but they are a tiny bit too big, so of course he can't handle it!

Dinner

Tonight we had a little Leberkase and knodel!  So glad I was able to get some goods at Kuby's when my sister was visiting!

The Goods

This year, I almost say no way to doing goodies for friends and neighbors.  Kyle has been working till nearly 3:30am for weeks now.  I knew he wouldn't be able to join in the throws of Christmas treats, so I almost didn't do it.  The only reason this happened today, was because Ava had a birthday party to go to yesterday for 3 hours and we thought the other kids would benefit from a Christmas movie marathon.  We got a ton done during this time and finished the rest of the cutting, boxing and delivering today before and after church!  Glad that's over with for another year!

 

Goodies included:

Dark Chocolate Covered Marzipan

Mint Oreo Amazingness 

Million Dollar Fudge

Peppermint Bark

Christine!!!

Our long time babysitter of 4 years has really become a part of our family (she's like Ava's big sister).  This week, she married her missionary and the two of them plan on moving to Utah to attend BYU at the beginning of the year.  This girl has helped our family so much!  She was the first person we let put our kids to bed and the only person we have left our kids with overnight who wasn't blood related!!  To say we will miss having her nearby is an understatement!!

Attending her reception tonight was super fun for Ava and kind of surreal for Kyle and I-how long till we will be doing this with one of our beautiful girls!!  It was so hard to thing about, we drowned our sorrows with some Sugarbacon and a night at the movies to watch Krampus!!!  Late night, but good night!

Geography Bee

Ava and 25 other students were selected from the 700 strong student body at SCI school to participate in a Geography Bee.  Ava got 2 of her 4 questions right, and didn't make it past the initial 7 rounds, but had a blast being on stage in front of all the social studies classes and missing math!  Top 4% of a school of 5th and 6th graders isn't something to shake a stick at!  We love you Ava!

Finished Product

Christmas Card 2015 Front:

 

Christmas Card 2015 Back:

Enchanted Ice Castle

This is our 2nd Christmas at the house, our first Christmas was spent in AZ.  So, it has taken us 3 years to get lights on the house!  This year has been as busy as ever with Kyle's beyond insane work schedule, updating and furnishing the cabin as well as two trips there and a visit from Aunt Cassie, but somehow we pulled this off with the help of a Christmas light company and some planning on my part.

The kids love our ice castle, and even though Kyle actually hated on it, he likes it now!  And this picture doesn't even come close to doing its brilliance justice!

This Guy

I love Ben, he is a handful and almost never does what you ask him to, but when he says sorry without being prompted and still says I love you at random times, it makes the other times bearabl!!!  Love you buddy, just wish you would listen better!!!

Helper

It's a good thing we had an extra hand to help us cut, sew, glue and assemble these for the kids' teachers.  It would have taken me twice as long to get this done and it definitely would not have been twice as fun!

The Big Guy!

They always save the best for last, and this year we were able to enjoy it from the sunny side and then head to our traditional Mama's Daughter's Diner breakfast afterwards.

Cass loved the pancakes as much as we do!

Early!

One of the main reasons Cass came when she did, was to go with us to the Dallas Christmas parade!  We actually got there early this year and Cass took the girls to get a picture with the best looking Star Wars fan on the planet!

Cutest Selfies

Mattress Shopping

Since we have been back from the cabin, Kyle and I have spent nearly every free moment figuring out what items we need to buy before our first renters arrive on Dec. 20.  Since one of the rooms is being converted to two bunk beds with one trundle-first on our to buy list were mattresses.  Cass, Ben and a bag Swedish Fish were the perfect companions on this trip to IKEA!!  I love Ben's shark!