More birthdays and SNOW!

November is birthday month at our house and it is always crazy. Dave starts us off and then Amanda and I roll around with Thanksgiving. This year we spent the week in St George visiting with Dave's family and it was wonderful. Lots of good food, great company, fun rock scrambling, wood working for Dave, and cousin time for the kids. I even got a little shopping in on my birthday which was fabulous. I used to not think it was fair to have to share my birthday with a holiday. But now I think it is the greatest as I get to spend the day with family and/or friends and always get my favorite foods. Spencer took the picture of me and I think it is perfect cheesy grin with lots of wrinkles and a crazy smile. Life is good, even with a few wrinkles and a few gray hairs.

Amanda turned eleven this year and was thrilled with very simple gifts. Love this girl!

The only thing she really asked for was a rubiks cube, and it has been fun to see her get stumped by something . It is funny, I never even tried to figure that thing out as a kid, but she is determined to get it. And I am sure she will, it is just a matter of how long.
Yesterday Amanda was telling me about a friend who thinks she is "too good" and tries to get her to be less kind and more like the other girls her age. She told me she likes who she is and it made me smile to have such a beautiful daughter inside and out in my home. She's not perfect, but who is? But mostly I am thrilled that she is happy with who she is, for that is what matter most. And I am also thrilled that she is still willing to visit with the man in red.


And because three birthdays aren't enough to keep us busy we have to add this fun in mix...
We have been looking forward to real snow for the last six years, so once we heard that the ski trails were open up on the mesa we wasted no time in freeing up a Saturday afternoon to spend cross country skiing and sledding with the kids. It was beautiful and the kids had a great time. Well three of the four did. Spencer struggled with both the ski's and the cold and lasted all of about 5 minutes. Next time we will put him in the chariot (arrived today!). But the girls had a good time and Spencer and I hung out in the car while Dave took the others for a while, then we traded off and it was all good times.

Eating pizza in the car watching movies while waiting for Amanda and I to get a loop in.

After all that we headed to the sledding hill to more thoroughly wear everyone out. Now I can't wait to get out with my hubby for a more vigorous ski...

And this weekend we headed up again, the idea was to find a Christmas tree and then go sledding. After hiking in about 1/2 a mile and scrambling around on some pretty significant slopes we found the perfect tree. It wasn't too far of the trail so it was great. Only it was down the slope from the trail and we failed to realize how tough it would be to get a 13' tree up a snow and brush covered hill. Needless to say two hours later we were heading home with our perfect tree, four tired kids, and one extremely exhausted dad. But it is beautiful and smells lovely in our house and only cost $8!