Jack, skiing, and a bow and arrow

We got a new crate for our growing Jack. The first night, Nate wanted to get in the crate with Jack. They fell asleep so quickly. Nate sure loves having a buddy in his room. The other night I went in to say goodnight to Nate and he was having a full conversation with Jack. He was telling him that when Jack gets big, Nate will ride on his back. They will ride through the forest and Nate will slice off the coyote heads while Jack gets the other animals. Yikes. But...I really loved hearing Nate talk to Jack like a good, good friend.

We squeezed in two ski trips this spring. We were so glad Sage could come with us. Sage and Sadie were such fun ski buddies together. Ash was true to form and wanted to take the more cautious and careful route for skiing. I was so proud of her for trying so hard at something that didn't come easily to her. Once Nate decided he wanted to ski all by himself, he took off. It was fun to watch him fly down that mountain trying so hard to balance.

Dave helped the kids each make their own bow and arrow. They had so much fun making these. Ash sewed a quiver for Nate to hold his arrows.

Ashlyn as Abigail Adams

Ashlyn had a big report to write up on Abigail Adams. Along with the report, she had to give a 6 minute presentation in first person, describing things about her character, and then at the end the class had to guess who she was. All of the kids dressed up like their character. It was such a fun day at school! Ash did a great job.
The week before Ashlyn's presentations we were practicing curlers in their hair (and how many we would need to get Ashlyn's hair in ringlets!) so we did curlers for church.

Happy Birthday Ash!

Birthday kisses for the birthday girl.
Nate and Sadie spent a long time making special birthday cards for Ash. Nate wanted to explain every bit of his note and drawing to Ash.
We surprised Ash on the morning of her birthday and told her that we were taking her to get her ears pierced. She was shocked and so excited and I think it made the whole day that much more fun! She kept saying "I can't believe I'm a girl with my ears pierced!"
Ash chose a chocolate mint cake with chocolate mint frosting. She has an "A" of Andes Mints on her cake. And she wanted to light her own candles! Hard to believe we have an 11 year old girl!

Sledding

What fun we had sledding when Mom came to town! We hurried to snap a picture by the car before we hit the hill, but if we had moved over just a bit, we would have had a spectacular view of the mountains! Oh well!

Jack

An explanation on the puppy change from Dave: We all loved Jude, but sadly saw very little of her unless she was on a leash by our side. She rarely showed interest in being around us and I started wondering if this wasn't going to be getting better. We hired a dog trainer who gave us little hope. She said with Shiba Inus, it can take over a year of work to get her to want to be around us...not exactly the buddy I was looking for for Nate and the girls. I had read that they had an "aloof" cat-like personality, but I guess the good sides of her breed clouded over that.

Anyway, we found a good home for Jude with people that already have a Shiba Inu and understand their breed. I decided to swallow my desire to have a different, more rare breed and we ended up getting an 8 week old yellow lab puppy....Jack! Nate finally has a male pet!

What a difference in personality! He follows us everywhere and is always up for any sort of playing with the kids. He loves to sleep with Nate in his bed.

He'll definitely be getting a lot bigger than Jude!

Hey Jude

Jude made her debut Christmas morning. Yes, Jude is a girl. It took us a while to figure out her name. We went all over the map for name ideas but just couldn't find one we all liked. Dave really wanted Nate to be Jude. We were deciding between the two names (for Nate). I suggested that Dave make the final choice since it was his first (and last) son. Even in the delivery room Dave was still vacillating between the two names. So this way Dave can have a Nate AND a Jude. The most common phrase to hear around the house is "Hey Jude" in a sweet high voice from Nate or the girls. Nate likes to sing "Hey Jude" to Jude for a lullaby.
She is a sweet, sweet little puppy. So mellow and calm inside the house and then outside she's a bunch of fun and loves to run around.
Christmas Morning...
One other notable thing around the holidays. I was making our usual green smoothie to go with breakfast. The girls were putting the dishes away and were currently in the middle of unloading the silverware. I ran to get the next ingredients for the smoothie when Ash somehow (still not sure how) bumped the on switch and boy did that VitaMix do its thing. It sent spinach flying every which way. In the entire silverware drawer, on the butter on the other side of the counter, in every groove in sight, in the girls' hair and clothes, on the cupboards, all over the floor, ETC!! It was quite the mess. I seem to recall a similar post back in our Georgia days except it was a berry smoothie. At least it was a Christmas-y color.

Cousins!

We had the treat of having Sage and Micah stay with us for 5 days. What fun we had!
I had fun pretending I had 5 kids. I loved it.
One day it snowed all day. Dave was planning to shovel when he got home. The girls decided to surprise Dave. They spent over an hour in the freezing cold, shoveling away for their dad.
The kids got to open an early Christmas present from a dear friend. I took before pictures but didn't take enough "after" pictures. The girls knew they were getting something similar and didn't want to see the other open their gift first, so they positioned themselves so they couldn't see. The boxes were packed with their latest obsession and hobby...BEADS for jewelry making. They were in heaven. They spent the entire day on Saturday making jewelry and organizing all of their beads.
Nate hasn't worn suspenders in a while, but today he decided to wear them. Here is Nate about to open his box of legos. Next to the girls, Nate spent the entire day building with his new Legos. What a fun Saturday.
The kids did all sorts of shows for us. This particular show was a dancing show. They did all sorts of ballroom dancing and taught the boys how to ask a girl to dance. It was adorable. The video is much better than the still shot!
Another show was an exercise show. Again, the video is way better.
We made a CD for Grandma Shelly's birthday of the kids singing primary songs. The girls were so cute huddled together around the mic.