Dragin's

In the Writing Workshop class that Victoria takes at our wonderful co-op, they fabricated recipe.  It sounded pretty cute when she read it to me in the car on the way home.  But when I actually saw it and the creative spelling, I loved it even more.  Her being the fourth child, I now know that they do not necessarily grow up to be bad spellers. She actually does really well in spelling. It is better to get the idea down on paper than to worry about spelling and never get your thoughts out.  So I am not too worried about this, but wanted to share it with anyone who ventures into our blog to see what we are up to. So here it is along with a picture.

Dragin's

1 cup of fire

1 cup of wenes (wings)

3 galins (gallons) of scales

2 pinchis (pinches) of eyes

300 galins of teeth

1 pinch of meat

1 galin of  long tale(tail)

How to bake it.....

Put it in a cave that is 100(degrees)hotnis for 1 minit (minute).

Hearts!

Last weekend, I felt inspired to do something totally creative.  I call it messy art.

I like anything worn, tattered, lived, loved and handled.

I saw some blocks on Pinterest somewhere and wanted to do something like it.  I purposely didn't go back to the photo because I didn't want to try to duplicate what I saw, I wanted to come up with something with the supplies I had on hand.  The only resources I had was cardboard and paint.  And knowing that my wonderful husband didn't want to get "sucked" in to one of my project...(those are his words), I decided I had better stick with something that I can cut on my own.

I actually thought cutting cardboard was going to be much harder than it was but with a fresh blade in my own pink Husky box cutter, that I will not anyone use but me...I know, I'm possessive. I just need to ensure that when I want to use it, it will be where it belongs.  With Kirk, there is no guarantee that he will know where he puts things after he uses tools.  I like to know where my "stuff" is.

So....back to the cardboard.  I was a little nervous just painting it where everyone can watch.  I was hoping that they weren't thinking....ewww....gross! But the basement was too cold for my liking and the kitchen table was much warmer. I pretty much hated it until I took this stain that I had found at Michaels a while back to antique the squares.

Needless to say, it was fun. My hands were a mess. I think it turned out great for being cardboard and paint. My family isn't apalled by it's presence hanging in the dining area.

Life is Good.

Happy Birthday Kaleb!

It is hard to believe that we have added another teenager to our little family. 

Kaleb is now 13!

Thir---TEEN!

13!

I have no idea when this happened.

 He has always been the "little guy" in my mind and heart.

 But now he is almost taller than me.  He isn't quite the little guy any more.

But, he sure does have the same quirky, funny, goofiness that he has always had.

He has to be the only baby I ever knew that could be crying and laugh right in the middle of his tears.

13!?!

Wow, I'm feeling old.

I am really proud of my boy.
He is growing into a wonderful young man....
My crescent moon-eyed boy.
 

Snowflakes!

It looked like flecks of glitter falling from the sky

this beautiful morning of only 3 degrees. 

We quickly discovered these tiny snowflakes. 

This tiny little speck is a plate snowflake. 

We learned that years ago when we studied William Bentley the Snowflake Man.

And these two teeny flakes....

....look like perfect little stars!

Happy New Year

 Good bye 2012....

which was an awesome year for us!

 Hello 2013!.....

which will be an awesome year for us too!

 Enjoying the frigid temps.

We never knew that winter could be so much fun.

Everything is crisp and beautiful.

Merry Christmas!

We have experienced a heap load of "Firsts" this Christmas.

We have been homebound due to the snow falling and loving every minute of it.

We hear that it gets old and that we will be regretting it in the Spring.

But for now, we are loving it!

We spent almost all of Christmas outside sledding!

I can't remember having so much fun on a Christmas day before.  It was never ending.

We even went "night sledding" in 12 degree temperature.

All our neighbors were probably thinking....there goes that AZ family again....

 It had to be one of the most exciting moments for us to wake up and see that it has snowed even more.  Not so fun about having to keep our front steps cleared off.  They get pretty icy.

I worry about anyone coming up to the door.

We had icicles hanging from the roof.  One fell off and the wall shuddered.  I later found a pretty large one lying in the snow.

 I thought this was deep.  This is now day 3 of snowing so I am sure it will be even deeper today.

 Victoria wanted to see if the dogs could pull her on the sled.  They weren't too sure of that.  But they sure do LOVE the snow.  They get so excited to run in it.

 I think these two are determined to get the dogs to pull the sled.

I don't think it will work but when you are a kid anything goes.

Daphne did sled for a while when our neighbor was out with us. 

We just didn't have the camera out then.

We are loving life!

 



White Christmas!

We woke up to ice cream scoops on our front porch railing.

We are so excited for this long awaited storm!

It has been snowing for hours now.  This field behind our house is completely covered now. The remnants of last seasons straw is buried.

These two were out back sledding down into the irrigation ditch when there were still sprigs of grass showing.

We had trouble getting the camera to focus on the kids...it kept catching the snowflakes.

Either way, it is absolutely beautiful.

From inside the house, we feel like we are in a snow globe.

Jared tested out the pile of dirt that the construction guys left on the corner.

This is a dream come true for us.

Snow on Christmas!

We aren't quite sure if we wll be able to drive in this weather to make it to Christmas Eve service at Church tonight......