Skiing!

Lil Bit turning three has changed things for our family. Naps are fewer and fewer and she's old enough to participate in more activities. We've kind of been waiting to start skiing until she could go too. Now that she's three, she can take a lesson. And that's what we did.
They did very well for their first time.
When Lil Bit was all bundled in the lodge waiting to go out, she started melting on me and wanted to get all of those clothes off asap. So, I wasn't sure it was going to go well for her. But she rallied once they got outside.
 

They made it out to a short, not so steep, hill to learn how to put their skis on and how to stop. But the whole time they were over there, Lil Bit kept pointing to the chair lift and kept saying, "I want to go on that..."
So, the instructor asked me if that was okay and I said, "Go for it!" And off they went.

My baby!!

My first born!! :)

Bit on the left and Boo on the right.

I think he likes it!
ALL SMILES!

The stance: bend your knees and put your arms up like you're driving a car.

After their lesson, we went into the lodge and ate lunch. They had worked up quite the appetite.
Afterwards, I took them to the starter hill and we practiced and practiced. There's no way I could take them on the lift alone. For one thing, it's a two person lift and there are three of us. And they both still need physical help getting off. We need two adults for two children at this stage. But, we had the skis for the day, so I said let's make the most of it. They'd ski down the hill and then Boo would take off his skis and carry them back up and go again, practicing turning (sort of) and stopping. It was all good practice...managing your skis, taking them off, and putting them back on again. I would just pull Bit back up to the top. Let's be realistic.
It started snowing on us. They were big, thick, snowflakes. That slowed the hill down quite a bit, making it a lot easier for our beginners. They were doing really well at the end.

They could NOT resist eating those giant snowflakes!

I had to get a pic with the skis in it.

When you get this look on Lil Bit for five pics in a row, you know it's time to go home!
And that's just what we did!

Video of Boo during his lesson.

Video of Bit during her lesson.

Another clip from their lesson.

This was the last run of the day (on the small starter hill).
They nailed it!

All in all it was a big success! There were a few tears when we went out after lunch. They were whiny and I had to get that under control right away. But after that, it went well and they had a good time.
Bit and I were worn out afterwards! I think Boo could've kept on going! He's ready to go again!

Christmas Day 2013

The little ones had a great day Christmas Day. They played and played all day long. They were both quite pleased with the choices Santa made for them. We do miss being with our families on Christmas, but since we didn't have anywhere we had to be, we literally stayed in our jammers all day. I made a lasagna and Mrs Smith (wink, wink) made a berry cobbler for our Christmas Supper.
It's always a great Christmas when we have B-man home to celebrate it with us. Having him home at Christmas is never lost on me.

Boo was up sometime during the 6 o'clock hour, but didn't come to get me until 7 o'clock. He said he didn't think the clock was EVER going to get to 7! And then he looked over at it and it was 7 and he thought, I better get going to Mama! We anxiously waited for Bit to wake up. The first thing she said when I went to get her was, "Is Santa downstairs, Mama? I hope he decided to leave me presents. What if he didn't?"
Well, it didn't take long for us to discover that despite some naughty behavior on Christmas Eve on the part of Lil Bit, Santa did in fact leave presents. :)

A little Facetime with our pups on Christmas Eve.
It looks like Murray may have gotten into the eggnog. :)

We lit the Christ candle on our advent wreath before we ate supper.

We also got some phone calls/face time calls in to the East Coast on Christmas Day and today. Thank goodness for technology!

Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night!!

O Tannenbaum!

We decided that we would go out and cut down our Christmas tree again this year. Boo has fond memories of doing it last year. I guess he doesn't remember that he cried the entire time. Lol.  We pretty much had one day to get it done, so off we went. We had just received a huge amount of snow the day before. In fact, it was still snowing on the way out to the tree site.
The good news is that it was 17 degrees vs. the single digit temps we endured during last year's adventure.
The kids are also a year older now and that helped tremendously.
The snow was up to our knees and the kids' waists. So, we stomped down an area of snow for the kids to play in while we searched for the perfect tree. They had a ball playing in their snow circle.
It really didn't take long to find a winner. B-man spotted it and shook it out for us. We agreed right away that it was the one and he cut it down.
It was a very pleasant and fun adventure this year. And just like Boo said, it's our family tradition!

Can you spy Kenai, our elf?

More Christmas Fun

Just trying to catch up, again. As usual.

Boo's Christmas list to mail to Santa.

Ready to mail!
He was very cute when he put in the mailbox. He kissed and said a little prayer...
"I hope you make it to Santa!"

Trip to the dentist.
I couldn't stop laughing at her sitting there like this.
Too cool for the dentist.

View of shirt sans dental bib.

The lady down the street made this awesome snow sculpture!

Gingerbread house.

Olive Garden

Bit and giraffe-y sleeping.

Boo's kindergarten class had a cookie decorating party the last day of school before break.  Lil Bit joined in on the fun. I think she kind of thinks she's part of the class too. It was a pajama party as well. So fun!

Battalion Christmas Party!
I don't know how this snow got on this picture.

Holiday Concert

Wednesday night we had the pleasure of attending Boo's Holiday Concert for school.
They did a great job!

He looks so handsome!
He's come a LONG way from his first holiday concert.

Video Clip: The sweet girl on the end (to the left) has a lil crush on our Boo.
She says she's going to marry him. :)
Towards the end, you'll see him waving at Daddy and Lil Bit in the audience. 

Prior to the show, Santa went on stage to make an announcement.
Boo was mesmerized. He was so surprised to see Santa there and couldn't take his eyes off of him.
Boo definitely BELIEVES!