Today Lex happened to be grounded so Nojah and I went snowboarding. He is getting much better and functions well on his own, but can't seem to get the t-bar. He had a little bit of a melt down today while we were there and was convinced everything would be better if we could just go to Anthony Lakes, where they have a "real chair lift" and "fluffy powder". After awhile he gave up hiking (I think he was pooped) and tried the t-bar and although he didn't make it to the top I am sure it won't be long. (as long as he has the Chamberlain "I think I can" attitude :-)

On Saturday he competed in the districts Elks hoop shoot contest in Hermiston. He didn't get first place but he did great. He has another 4 years to keep trying to advance. Alexyss opted to stay in LG at the last minute with her cousin Danny for the afternoon, while Isaac joined us. Grandma Teri, Grandpa Wes, MaKenna, and Grandma Val also came to watch him shoot, and as always we appreciate all the family support :-) It turned out to be 5 hours total of driving for 30 minutes of free throw shooting.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Alexyss has been begging to have Katie over for awhile now and in my delirious state yesterday after a long week of work and 3 hours of sleep I said yes.
They have so much fun together and it's so fun to watch them. They giggled, painted nails, made jewelry, giggled some more, soaked in the Jacuzzi tub, climbed trees, giggled, created their own version of hockey (in the hallway), watched a movie, and filled in some mad libs which started with giggles the lead into full blow belly laughs. The best part (besides all the laughs) was they were in bed and asleep by 9:30 pm.

Physical Education Class
by Alexyss and Katie

All SMELLY schools have physical education classes. The teacher is usually the MAD LIB coach and everyone gets a metal BOX in which to put their DIAPERS when they put on their gym suits. First the phys. ed. teacher makes all the students do SCRATCHY exercises to warm up their TOILETS. He or she will say "SOCKS" on hips. Now everyone do a full GUT bend!" You will have to hold this ICY position until your gym teacher counts up to O GOOGLE or until one of the students in the KATIE faints. Then your teacher will make everyone play volley FAT CAT or lift heavy HOUSES. After what seems like ZERO hours, your teacher will make all of the HOT COCOAS run around the SEWER until they are dripping with COFFEE and panting and HEARING.

Gotta love little girls :-)

Presenting to you ......

Wallowa County's 8-9 year old Elks hoop shoot contest winner!
Nojah scored 17/25 free throws at school yesterday and 15/25 tonight at the county wide hoop shoot and is moving on to districts! He has 2 weeks to practice before his shoot off so wish him luck :-)

I forgot my camera tonight but will be sure to take it with us on the 30th.

Pay it forward

This is how it works..... I will send a handmade gift to the first 5, only the first FIVE people who leave a comment on this post! The best part of the whole deal is I have 1 year to accomplish this task! I encourage everyone else to do the same and pay it forward. :-)

January has brought very little snow, which changed our weekend plans from snowboarding to mountain biking. We drove 2 1/2 hours for a little warm weather and fun trails to ride. It's been several months since the kids have been on their bikes and when they finally mounted up they couldn't get enough. We enjoyed 3+ hours of riding with NO whining, NO crying, NO fighting, and NO "I wanna go homes"....etc. It was awesome. They both have improved so much and are proving to be a little more daring this year :-)

We started out the adventure a little overdressed. Guess we aren't use to 50 degree weather in January. These trails have fun antique engines, farm equipment or something around each corner for the kids to investigate.

Tob explaining to the kids where he believes the steering wheel should be.

There are a lot of fun bridges and jumps a long the way for both kids and adults to improve their skills. This one Nojah crashed on the first time but tried again and waa laa, no problems.

The boys went ahead and Lex was drawn to the old culvert pipe. I am just glad she was able to play without slicing herself open on the sharp edges. I noticed before we arrived at the trails that we had no first aid kit. I thought that may be disastrous, but as it turns out Tob and I were the only ones bleeding at the end of the day and we were ok without bandaids.

Another cool bridge for the adults to ride over and the kids to run over. Nojah tried to ride it, but without success, this time.

Most importantly: We were all still smiling at the end of the day and we all had fun! Next was a special trip to McDonald's for the kids on the way home, which was an added bonus in their book! We are thinking if the weather keeps up the way it does we may go camping this winter instead of participating in winter sports. I wonder if this means it will start snowing in March??

Christmas #2

We celebrated our second Christmas with my parents, brother, and Grandma on New Years day this weekend. I sat next to my dad while we all opened gifts and I decorated him as we went along. My parents and Grandma of course spoiled us with gifts, however my favorite was a recipe book my mom put together for me. It's compiled of her favorite recipes and some of our favorites growing up. She spent the past year writing them all in by hand and I love it.

We played games, went for walks, and ate a lot of food. The kids worked on crafts, building lego ships, had nerf shoot offs and played with their cousin Makenna.

We also spent quite a bit of time watching the interactions between Myah and Chubby the squirrel. Chubs lives in my parents back yard and feasts regularly on grains set out by my mom.


Chubby thought it was great fun to tease the dog and kept it's eye out closely for her.

Despite her sneaky nature.........

the squirrel would escape before she could reach chub at it's plate of grub, each and every time. Glad to see Chubs survived 2009!