THE NEWTON'S

I LOVE the movie "White Christmas" and in the movie there is a song that starts with that line "Snow, snow, snow, snow, SNOW..." Well we got snow, and wow... we got a lot! :) The first set of pictures are from yesterday as it was still snowing and the wind was blowing it around all over the place. Then there are some from last night when Rich started clearing the driveway- he wanted to try and get some of the snow cleared before it hardened overnight... knowing the snow drifts would cover it up again, but hoping it would be a good start... Then there are pictures from today. Rich is a snow moving machine today and has been outside shoveling for about 2 hours now. He's got most of the driveway cleared, and is tackling the back porch where it won't get any sun and won't melt away on it's own at all.

It is so neat to see how holiday traditions really emerge and come into their own as the kids get older. For years we would take a Monday night FHE or a Sunday evening and make cookies together as a family. Usually Rich would choose a recipe with two kids and make it, and I would choose a recipe with the other kids and make it... and we would all enjoy baking in the kitchen together. This year Alex and Ashley are old enough that they can bake with just minimal supervision. So this year Alex choose a recipe, Ashley choose a recipe, Alyssa choose a recipe, and Angela choose a recipe. Then we finished it up with dipping pretzels in melted chocolate and doing a couple quick and easy candy recipe's I just learned last week. It was fun to watch them take on their individual tasks and we learned that if we were going to bake like this on a regular basis we would need more mixing bowls and hand mixers. :)

We love our gingerbread house tradition! They might not be the prettiest or the most sturdy, but they are a fun tradition we love to do each year.

On Friday night Rich, Dave, Amanda and Ashley drove up to the Grand Canyon area so Rich and Dave could get an early start the next morning on their rim to rim hike. Despite some hiccups with their hotel and a later start than they wanted, they did their hike and got back earlier than Amanda and I anticipated they would. I only have two pictures of the kids and Amanda and I as we did some brief touring around the South Rim of the Grand Canyon- because the guys had the camera's with them so I was limited to my phone's camera, but here are those and some pictures from Rich and Dave's adventure. :) We spent the night at the Maswik Lodge in the Grand Canyon. The next morning we woke up to Snow! The kids had a quick snowball fight with Rich and Uncle Dave, and then we loaded up and hit the road. 14 hours later we pulled into the garage at home. It was a fun Thanksgiving week trip!

For the rest of the week we played at Dave and Amanda's house. The kids loved that they had a playroom and a Wii and some fun games for them to play. Also Amanda's sister lived close by and her kids are close in age to our kids, so they made some new friends and loved playing with them a few times that week. Another highlight was playing board games with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Dave and Aunt Amanda... every single day! We did leave the house a few times... and one day we went miniature golfing. It's still so much more about having fun than the number on the game card. I had a hard time putting away the camera at times to take my swing, because there are so many cute and funny shots of the kids trying to hit the ball! :) This hole had a water hazard... that got Ashley's ball at least 3 times I think? It got a lot of other people's balls too! And this giant cone shaped hole was a tricky one to get as well... :)