We're singing in the rain now...

The snow has all finally melted, just in time for the rains to begin. It has warmed up to a balmy 50 degrees now and it feels wonderful outside. Now if we could just get the rains and wind to stop it would be perfect! There are rivers, streets, and highways flooding all over the place. The rain is coming down in sheets, causing trees to topple and roofs to cave in. This extreme weather has to stop sometime, right? Wish us luck as we try to navigate through another mess...

Old pictures...

John and I worked on Dad's computer when we were over at his house after Christmas. While I was backing up his computer, I found lots of old pictures of our family on hikes, at Christmas, in Vegas, and in eastern Washington. I'm going to try to share the pics over the next few weeks. This picture is of our family on a hike two years ago to French Creek, our favorite hiking destination for many years. Last year the trail to French Creek was washed out and they closed it for repairs until 2010. We've really missed our annual hikes there.

We're back...

We just got back from eastern Washington yesterday. The kids have been reaquainting themselves with their Wii games and playing with the toys they got for Christmas.

While we were at Dad's house, we took the kids skiing at the Leavenworth Ski Hill. It's an awesome place for them to learn to ski. There are two rope tows, one on a little hill, and another on a bigger hill. The kids spent most of their time on the little hill but they were brave enough to attempt the big hill a few times.

Amanda is in the pink jacket, Nicole passes her (in the gray jacket), and Nate speeds by in the red ski suit at the very end of the video.

They had a wonderful time and are very good at skiing after only a few days!

Our annual Christmas gift from Todd...

I don't have much time to share because we're getting ready to go to Grandpa's house right now. I just wanted to share pictures of our special gift from Todd, Stephenie's husband. Every year he builds a special gift for all of his friends and family. The gift is always made from the heart and comes with a special story that he includes in a letter with the gift. You can tell he always works very hard on the gift and the letter and our entire family looks forward to experiencing opening the present, reading the letter, and playing with the gift. This year he sent a wooden truck, painted with left over paint he found in the garage and built with scrap wood.

The kids' first question was "Can we play with it?" and it actually took John a few minutes of thinking about it before he grudgingly told them they could. Amanda immediately snatched that baby up and moved it into her bedroom right next to her bed because she was going to be the FIRST ONE to sleep with it. Hmmm, sleep with a truck? Whatever works. Tonight is Nate's turn to play with it and we'll see how long it takes Nicole to wrestle it away from him. Thanks for our incredible gift, Todd! We've enjoyed receiving all of your gifts over the years!

We are now proud owners of a Wii!

John and I finally broke down and bought a Wii. Geri and Grandma bought several games and controllers for the Wii and we were set! We waited to open the Wii for the very last present and the kids opened the games and controllers while I opened the Wii console. I made everyone look at me after I got the paper off and you wouldn't believe Nate's reaction. He looked at me in disbelief, then he looked at the Wii, then back to me and everyone else in the room as his face lit up with joy! He yelled "WE GOT A WII!" and immediately ran downstairs to set that guy up. He's been playing it for three days straight and there's never a dull moment. Even Daddy and Mommy have gotten into playing and we've enjoyed it immensely. All three kids agreed that this was his best present ever!

Merry Christmas!

It's snowing again! It seems a little more special since it's Christmas today. For the first time in years, we're having a white Christmas! The kids are incredibly excited. They've already gone through their stockings and are going to start opening presents right after breakfast. I'll post pictures later...

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Snow, snow, go away! Find someone who wants to play!

Like Sis! I think Louisiana could use some of this wonderful snow...

This is too much... It's snowing really hard again. Just when I thought it was going to clear up it started up again. It's filling in the one lane that has been plowed on our street and filling up the path we made to the front door. This has been an incredible week!