Snow Days & My Sunbeam

Snow!  Since we had our "big" snow of 2013, the kids now expect it to Snow in St. George, we've been telling them that most years it doesn't snow here and that we've been lucky the last few years to get some snow.  But they are always wishing.  Jens' Christmas winter dreams came true and it finally snowed a tiny bit on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day!  I took him out that night that it was snowing and he was so thrilled!  Ryan had Pierce and Madi out at Carolyn's for a New Years Party and I had stayed home with Jens, not wanting to keep him up late, he got his own little party when the  first little flakes started falling.  He had been wishing for snow all Christmas Season!  

This sweet face says it all!  So happy for snow!  

He was so excited to get up the next morning and find a nice little sprinkling covering the ground, he got out there fast and I was glad, most of it was gone by afternoon. 

 So fun to have a little snow for New Year's Day!

The first week of January also meant new Primary classes and this boy started primary!  Saying goodbye to nursery was a little tough, Jens has loved his nursery teacher Sis. Neumeier and she has been so sweet with him.  He also had Sis. Jewel and he enjoyed seeing her lead the music in sacrament and pointing out his teacher.  He had a hard time going into primary the first week (what no toys?) but after the first two weeks he was doing great!  He has the most amazing Sunbeam teacher, Sis. Stratford, she is dynamite!  Always has the cutest little crafts and activities for them to do and is such a fun teacher, I am so grateful for her!

 My Little "Sunbean"  I'll be sad when he stops saying "sun-bean"

He loves singing "Jesus Wants me for a 'Sunbean'"!  Love this boy more than words can say.

In February, I made some cookies one Sunday and Ryan and the kids took some over to Kimball Gardner, a sweet guy in our ward who greets us each Sunday and always has a hug for me, love him.  Kimball has a very fun backyard and the kids made a wish in his wising well, Madi and Jens wished for it to snow and Kimball told them that next Wednesday it would snow.  Well that week came and went and they were so disappointed that it hadn't snowed on the day Kimball said it would!  The next week it snowed again and they were so excited!  They thought for sure that Kimball had just gotten the day wrong and it was indeed their wish coming true.  This time we got a little more and it stuck around a little longer!

 Pierce has to leave for school while it's still dark so he missed out, but Madi and Jens were so excited!  Madi didn't want to leave for school, I was happy to hear later that the snow had stuck and they had been able to play in it at recess, her teacher, Miss Spencer, had snapped some phone pics which I was able to include in the yearbook so I was happy about that.

 My pretty girl all set for the snow day!

 Love how beautiful our house and yard look with a dusting of snow!

 My favorite Flowering Plum blossoms

 This sweet boy stayed out until he got too cold, then he was ready to come in and warm up with hot chocolate!

 The night before the snow Ryan and I had just returned home from LA, the kids had stayed with JoAnn while we had a weekend getaway!  That may be worth a blog post in itself, but we had gone down to spend some time with Gregg and enjoy a weekend alone together! We had brought the kids each a souvenir from the California Science Center, we brought Jens this little toy "Endevour" space shuttle.  I loved watching him play with it.  Of course the clothes had come off but he had at least stayed in his snowman shirt since it was snow day.

Awhile later he decided he was ready to go back out and went and put his coat on all by himself.  He came to me looking like this and announced he was ready to go back out!

 You'll need a little more than a coat Sweet Boy.

And so back to the Endevour.  Love this boy.  So glad his wish came true and he got to enjoy some snow this year!

Snow in Dixie!

I don't think we'll ever forget the "big" Dixie snow of 2013. For St. George this was a lot of snow! The kids were in Heaven! We woke up the the morning of December 4th to this...

The kids have never gotten ready for school so fast! 

They could not wait to get out and play in it!  I felt bad it was a school day.

My cute girl in her beloved Hello Kitty hat.

Beautiful Snow! 

This boy had so much fun!  Thankfully I had Madi's old Hello Kitty boots still hanging around the garage, they worked perfect for him.  After the kids left to school we came in for a bit and soon he was ready to go back out, I let him out in the backyard and he was so funny, in these pictures he kept saying "look Mom, I found grass!"  He was just amazed at all that snow and looking under to find the grass.  Notice he is wearing his Spider Man pajamas.



Saturday December 7th, We got MORE snow!  It was really coming down all day I could not believe it!  Here are a few shots of the kids early in the day when it first started coming down...

Kaden & Pierce 

That evening we went to Annie's baptism, which was a great night that I didn't take any pictures of!  Annie was so sweet and beautiful for her baptism, I just love that girl and I am so thankful Madi has her for a friend.  When we left to the baptism the roads were pretty covered in snow, I really couldn't believe it was St. George!  After the baptism we came out and it was just a beautiful blanket of perfect, clean white  snow all over!  It really was so beautiful!  What a special day for Annie's baptism!  We went to the Woodbury's house for dinner and we parked on the side of the road and I could't believe how much snow I was getting out into!  While we were at the Woodbury's our kind and generous neighbor, Jon Olsen, came over on his 4 wheeler and plowed our driveway.  I was very grateful because I don't think our van would have made it our of our driveway the next morning if he hadn't.  But I was a little disappointed I didn't get a picture before the driveway and walk were plowed.  Such a novelty for St. George.  Here is our house that night.  

SO much snow for St. George!  I always say that I don't miss the snow of Northern Utah, and most of the time I don't.  I don't miss driving in it, I don't' miss being cold to the bone, and I don't miss the snow when it's dirty and ugly and stays in Huntsville until May!  But I do miss it for Christmas.  In my perfect world it would snow for a week for Christmas and then be gone.  I very nearly got my wish this year, I really was loving it so much, the only thing that would have made it better would have been it happening two weeks later.  But we can't have everything we want.

The next morning I was SHOCKED to find out that church was cancelled for our whole stake and most of the stakes in St. George.  I couldn't help but think it was silly, I think school only got cancelled twice in my life in Huntsville and it was when it had snowed several feet in a day and people couldn't even get out of their driveways.  But understudying that the city and the people down here aren't prepared for the snow, I just laughter and enjoyed it.  The kids had a GREAT day!  We enjoyed having a fun day at home as family and of course playing out in the snow.  The best part was having Dad play with them and build a snowman with them.

Our View

Over the last few months I have realized that one of my favorite things about our new house is our view! I love that I have so many windows on the back side of my house- I can be doing dishes, in the middle of dinner, cleaning up the playroom, or in my bedroom and I have this great view!



We see such gorgeous sunsets! I love it! (I have also realized that I suddenly have this thing about taking pictures of the sunsets too!)

Our New Home

We are so happy and excited to finally be in our new home! We LOVE it! I feel very spoiled! I have to admit that I do feel like all I am going to be doing now is cleaning!