Ski day at Brighton

Shane and I had so much fun skiing over Valentine's weekend that we decided that we wanted our girls to learn how to ski so that we could go and ski together as a family. Even though it's towards the end of the season, we thought that it'd be good to get a few days in this spring and then get back into it this next winter. We took the girls up to Brighton and they were all in the same class and they LOVED it! When I was 9 or 10, I took ski lessons through a program that Deseret News had at the time. My girlfriends and I had so much fun (right Les and Em?) and I'm so glad that those simple lessons have stuck with me. I'm not a great skier, but I'm an okay skier. At least I can keep up with my kids, for now that is!

Shelb and Sage were rock stars and did so awesome. They're so excited to go back again!

I love the above picture with Lexi holding her arms straight out coming down the mountain. She did great!

Skate Park

I know it seems like I post a lot of stuff about this little twirp of mine, but I tell ya, it's never ending excitement with her. Lexi has been begging me since Christmas, when she got her skateboard, for me to take her to the skate park. Finally, this last Saturday we ventured up to the skate park and let have at it. Shane and I were a little hesitant because the park was packed with lots of kids, mainly teenagers, riding their bikes and their boards. Do you think this slowed her down? Heck no! That girl hopped on her board and was hanging with the big boys. She's a riot!

She insisted on going down this ramp that was way too steep, but I just had to let her go and she made it half way down before wiping out. She just has her mind made up that she can do anything- and most the time- she can!

Look out X Games- I think we have a future rider on our hands!

My world is spinning...

I have benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. What is this BPPV, some of you might ask. Well it is the feeling that you are spinning or that the world around you is spinning. AHHHHHHHHHH! This last Monday morning I went downstairs to do my usual exercise routine and it finished with sit ups. When I stood up, my head was spinning and I had to fall back to my knees. I eventually made up the stairs and began feeling nauseated. What in the world, I thought. I spent most of the day on the couch with every movement of my head throwing me into this spinning motion. Tuesday I went to the Dr. and this was the diagnosis I was given. He said it was from me doing sit ups and that these little stones in the inner ear were dislodged and it caused me to have vertigo! He said it could take a couple weeks for me to completely feel better. What- who has a couple weeks to give with their head spinning?
To make a long story short, this week has been interesting to say the least. Being a mom of 4 kids doesn't allow you to have a couple of weeks to recover. I've tipped over while picking things up off the floor, in the shower, while making dinner, and wrost of all, while pulling my pants up after going to the bathroom. That's pretty humiliating! Each day has slowly gotten better so hopefully, I'm well on my way to a full recovery. And to think I'm going bowling tonight...wish me luck!

Valentine's Weekend

We had such a great Valentines Weekend. We have a family tradition that on Valentine's Day, Shane and I make a really nice dinner for the girls and we try to teach them proper etiquette and manners. It a really fun dinner and I think the girls really look forward to it. We set the table nice and have a couple of courses and teach them what silverware to use and how to place your napkin and all that good stuff. They'll be dating before we know it!

Shane and I stayed at the Zermatt Resort in Midway for 2 nights. It was fabulous! It's such a beautiful place and we LOVE that area up there. The food was wonderful, the outdoor hot tub was perfect in 13 degree weather, massage was much needed after a day of skiing and all around it was a great weekend away with Shane! I love you!

Shane is so sweet. He had planned to have roses sent to our room while we were there. They'er beautiful!

Shea and Mindy met us up at Park City on Friday and we went skiing. I don't think any of us, except for Shane, had been skiing in about 10 years. We took our time warming up but I was pleasantly surprised that I did alright. Kind of like riding a bike- it all came back. Shane is a snowboarder and I talked him into trying skiing since I thought that might put him more at my level. He is so awesome for trying, but it just wasn't his thing! I couldn't help but laugh at him as he fell and got back up and fell again. At one point as Shane was coming down the mountain, Shea asked him how it was going, and just at that moment Shane fell again and said, "I love skiing!" Needless to say he switched over to his snowboard at lunch and had a great afternoon on the mountain!

Here's Shane with such grace..

We had the best weekend. I told Shane we should make that a tradition. We'll see if it happens again next year!

Update..

It's been a while since I've blogged so here's a quick update..
Sage is such an awesome bball player. She runs so fast up and down the court and has her hands up on defense and has a great time. It was fun to watch her play this year!

I love my little Sage because she is game for anything. She always wants to participate and has fun with whatever she's doing. So for a week at school the kids dressed up every day. These pictures happened to be from "Nerd Day". She's such a good sport.

Every year Shane and a few of his buddies travel to Colorado for their annual goose hunt. They've gone now for quite a few years and really have a great time. My favorite is when they come home and clean these yucky geese in my garage and stink up the entire house because the stench is so potent! YUCK!

Glad Shane gets to have some "Man Time" once in a while! :)

I LOVE Sundays...?????

Shane was put in the Bishopric about 6 months ago and so since then, the girls and I have learned to adjust to sitting each week by ourselves. I've tried to teach them what's expected of them during that 1 hr. and 10 min. meeting- reverence, respect and that's it's a time to sit and listen and to try to learn something! YA RIGHT! Okay, I'll give Shelby and Sage some credit because they do try hard to do what they're suppose to, but we, and I include myself in that WE, all have our moments. Like yesterday...
Lexi (I know you're all wondering what she did now) well, she grabbed a straw on the way out the door to church. I didn't realize it until she was blowing through it at the little 2 year old in front of us just as the meeting started. She wasn't just blowing through it, she was spittting through it- disgusting! That little 2 year old didn't appreciate it and started spitting back, so of course, Lexi not EVER backing down, blew harder and spit more. So then as I realized what was going on and I took the straw from Lexi. She did not like that so of course, here comes the tantrum, full blown! Come to find out, Lexi had brought this straw so that she could drink the water from her sacrament cup with it. That's right, she had a sole purpose for that straw . How many kids do you see with a straw at church drinking from that little cup? Or for that matter, would a big ole straw really work to drink that water? Maybe one gulp? Lexi thought so! She began kicking and hitting me and our friend Doug who is a widower that sits next to us during sacrament.
Meanwhile, I look up at Shane for some support, sympathy, whatever you call it, and there he was enjoying the sacrament. Obviously in thought, like we're suppose to during the sacrament. The thought crossed my mind, "How do I get his calling? How do I get an hour or so of sitting and enjoying a nice spiritual meeting?"
Then I came back to reality with a kick in the gut from that sweet girl. I then grabbed Lexi by the arm and with Libby on my hip dragged her out of the sacrament meeting. We had a nice ole chat and she eventually calmed down. I think I sweat more at church with these little battles then when I go for a quick run sometimes. Yeesh! I did tell her that she needed to apologize to Doug for kicking and hitting and of course she wasn't about to do that.
After church was over we , the girls and I, were walking out to the car and Doug just happened to be parked right by us. He was in his car and called me over. He then told me that earlier he was walking down the hall when he heard from one of the classrooms, "Doug!" He said he stopped and turned around to find that it was Lexi calling from her primary classroom. She then said, "Hi Doug! Sorry!". I can just see her with her big ole smirky grin calling for him and apologizing. What am I to do with this little thing! I'm glad that she took it upon herself to do this, but I guess I'm learning that sometimes it's better when they do it on their own rather than when mom or dad makes them. Is that right with a 4 year old?
Anyhow, I was exhausted! I'm finding that I'm battling more and more with Lexi. She has so much energy and it's always her way and on her terms and I'm struggling...I love this little girl because she makes me laugh and smile all the time. Last week, I had gotten upset with her about something. Then I started vacuuming and when I turned the vacuum off, all I heard from the back room was "Mom, you should be ashamed of yourself!" What? What did I do that I should be ashamed of myself? But then she makes me think. I should be a little more patient and little more loving and a little more unconditional. I'm learning these little lessons each day and I think that's the beauty of being a mom. Right? At least that's what I keep telling myself...

New Years Eve

We have celebrated New Years Eve at my sister's house for the past 6 years, I think. It's a fun night with lots of good treats (usually everyone's left over hoilday treats, then everything just gets thrown away...you know, gotta start those new years resolutions) and good fun. We always write out new years resolutions and Mindy hangs onto them until the following year. So each year she pulls out last years paper and we all have to admit whether or not we held true to our goals for the year. I love it because I feel somewhat accountable for the goals I make and I actually think about it a little more so when the time comes, I'm not the only one that hasn't reached my goals. I've done pretty good the past few years. We'll see how this year goes. This year, per someone's request, I think she might even send out quarterly reminders of our goal. YIKES! Better get busy!

Scott and Julieanne introduced us to the game BLOKUS at Thanksgiving time. So I think everyone in the family got that game for Christmas. It is so fun and a little addicting. We played plenty of that all night long...

Meanwhile, who the heck knows what's going on downstairs. We usually don't check until someone comes up crying. Ryder got a disco ball for Christmas so he had a dance contest all planned out for the kids. The music was blaring and the kids had a blast. I think Lexi was the only one that crashed befor midnight! Definite good time-
Here's to good things in 2009...

Shelby's 9th Birthday

Can I possibly be old enough to have a 9 year old? Shelby's birthday was 3 days after Christmas and she has been bugging me about blogging her birthday. Finally...I'm getting to it!
Shelby is a really special little girl. She reminds me so much of her dad and she tries so hard to do what's right. She's a good student, a good reader, and a good friend. People are naturally drawn to her and tries hard to be nice to everyone!

Shelby's birthday was on a Sunday this year so she and I spent Saturday morning shopping and getting our nails done. That's exactly what she wanted to do. Then that afternoon we went to a movie with her cousins and walked to Red Robin for dinner. It was fun to share the day with her and family.

Our birthday tradition is breakfast in bed. So Sage, Lexi and I made Shelby scrambled eggs with bacon and toast and juice- that's her absolute favorite meal! Shelb is great. Then Sage and Lei had to serve her the rest of the day. They made her bed and helped her get ready for church.
In the meantime, I made her birthday cake. Look at that detail and frosting job. Didn't I do great! It actually tasted really good too. Shelby's favorite is Chocolate! She's just like her mom when it comes to treats!
We love you Shelb and hope you had a happy 9th birthday!

Christmas morning...

Christmas morning is so much fun! I think Shelby was the first one awake at 5:00, but she patiently waited upstairs until 7 am when we told her she could go wake up her sisters. I actually think she was too scared to go downstairs, for fear she might actually see something...! It's so fun to see their faces and their excitement. Libby is old enough now to have fun with it and want to "do it herself". She was lots of fun!

This is what we woke up to- a big snow storm! Shane's mom was going to come over but she got stuck in her driveway and wasn't able to dig out until later that day. On the picture below, you can kind of see Shane on his 4 wheeler plowing the snow- he LOVES to do this and will spend hours and hours outside on the 4wheeler. And he did just that after our Christmas morning festivities were over.

Our kids are so blessed and lucky to have so many people love them and want to share the christmas holiday with them. If there was only a way to truly teach them how lucky they really are! My favorite thing about christmas is just taking it nice and easy and enjoying the choas and quietness of the season. We are blessed to know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and to be able to celebrate that with our families is so wonderful. We hope you all had a Happy Holiday seaon and a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day at the Hammonds

We went to my parents house christmas day afternoon for dinner and gift exchange and games. Jon and Jess and the boys were in town from Missouri and it always makes it a little more special when they come from out of town. We also had yummy food at moms. We had ham and potatoes and salad and pies for dessert! Always good food!

Of course, Uncle Jon is at the kid's table!

Since there's a lot of us it takes a while to go through all the gifts. We exchange as adults and the cousins exchange gifts and then we do with my parents and of course all the grandkids are each given more than their share.

One of my favorite things this christmas was taking my kids to go buy the gifts for their cousins. It was fun to watch them try to find that "perfect" thing that they thought their cousin would absolutely love. I think they were all pretty right on the money with thier ideas!

I'm sure this Y flad will be hung proudly outside my parents house. They really are True Blue!

Shea went and saw Twilight with my sister, his wife, Mindy and my brother in law Ryan has continually given him a hard time about going to see it. Not sure Why?, but anyhow, he gave Shea this poster of Edward to hang in his office at work- it was pretty funny!
Christmas this year was great! Quiet, snowy and fun times with our family! I love this time of year and hope that we can cherish the memories until next year...