Pine Wood Derby

Cameron had his first pinewood derby this past weekend. He made his car two days before the competition and decided to create a star wars car. He worked hard on it and I think it turned out quite well! He came in last place every race but had a great time hoping his car would "blow up" at the finish line and even begged the guy to not stop it so nicely! Next year he wants to try making a more simple car that will maybe go a little faster...we think that if we would have put the recommended stuff on the wheels he would have had a pretty good shot this year since he wasn't that far behind...but you learn as you go! The whole point of it was to have fun and thats just what we all had!!! Dylan can't wait for next year to make himself a frog car...imagine that!

New Hair Cut

Here is a quick shot of how short my hair got cut! For those of you that hadn't heard...I decided to try trimming my own hair. After cutting off almost three inches and still not having it even, I decided it was time to have someone else do it! I went into the cosmotology school and a very wonderful girl took her time getting me a new cut. (It looked a lot better the day she did it then when I try to style it but I still love how easy it is!) In the end alomost 7 inches were cut!

Sledding

We had such a blast sledding! I am shocked still by the change in Dylan from last year to this year. He has no fear of it now and you can't get him to stop going down. Ethan also is such a go getter and had no fear of going with someone, by himself, standing up, sitting down, on his knees, on his tummy, etc, etc. He also ran into one tree and almost knocked a kid down and all he can say about it all is "dat was awsome!" Cameron again had to try snowboarding on the sled. He fell several times and I really wanted to freak out but everyone kept me calm and so I continued to let him be the dare devil he is. The boys loved having the girls there to go with them down the hill and Dustin, Terry, Dawn, and I even joined in on several runs....I also fell once really hard and decided maybe I better stay at the bottom of the hill for a while....the whole top was pure ice! There were so many pictures I loved from this outing but since I really don't have the space on here some of the other favorites of mine are on my facebook page. I still can't say enough just what a great time we had with the Desaulniers, especially sledding!

Kids late Christmas present

For the kids Christmas present, Dawn and I decided to do something a little different. Instead of getting them gifts that they wouldn't remember for years to come, we planned a treasure hunt. Dustin and I made up clues for around the house and the kids spent about 15 minutes running from upstairs to downstairs searching for more clues. At the end we had a box filled with pictures from past times together and I had bought them each a scrapbook. The girls spent the next couple of hours working on their books, while the boys spent about five minutes and were done! Dawn and I helped finish up the boys books so that they would have some pictures at least in them! The girls' books turned out great! They worked so hard on them. The best part of the books was each kid and adult wrote or drew a little something for each other to include in thier book. The boys loved seeing each little message! I am so so glad we did this for the kids....I really think they will remember it for years!

Fun

Skiing

My sister and her family came out and we all went to Bridger Bowl (minus the younger two). Dustin and Cameron decided to try snowboarding for the first time. We were all impressed with how quickly Cameron got the hang of it (no lessons) and how good his balance is on it...the kid can't walk without tripping but strap a board to his feet and he is a natural! He does need warmer gloves though! Dustin liked snowboarding but decided he was too old to pick it up now! Next time he is going to stick with skiing! We were just as impressed with Danielle and Kayla who had never been skiing before. They both did a great job and Kayla loved going just as fast as she could down the hill. Danielle and I buddied up pretty good and I realized just how much I missed the thrill of skiing. I sure love the feel of the breeze just whipping past ya and the snow flying up and hitting you in the face! I was surprised how easily it was to pick back up again after over 10 years between trips and I really want to go again soon so I can go up higher to some of the more challenging slopes. We had such a good time though!!!!!

Christmas

Even though Dustin and I had very little sleep, and Christmas started very early at our house, we had a wonderful day at home. All of us stayed in pj's all day and the boys loved all of their gifts. This year we ended up picking names for our family (it was suppose to be like a secret santa but the boys each wanted to pick the person themselves and wernt happy with the names they drew...so Cameron wanted to buy for Dustin, Ethan wanted to buy me a gift, and Dylan really wanted Cameron's name...so thats what we did!) Dylan did a great job picking out Cameron's gift and Cam (as you can see from the picture) was so thrilled with it he hugged him! Ethan had been very secretive about the gift he got me and when he handed it to me was more excited about giving it to me then about getting a present himself. He had picked me out a princess Barbie! It was so cute to watch him and see how proud he was of getting it for me! The day was much longer then most but their is just something about spending the whole day inside with family that makes it all worth it!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent at Vanessas house enjoying time with family. We had to miss the dinner since Dustin was working but everyone was nice enough to wait around for us to get their so we could spend some time. We arrived home just in time to sprinkle the reindeer food, open the first gifts (which are always pjs) and read our Christmas story. The boys were more then willing to head to bed and I still had a lot of work to do! I decided this year for the boys I would make them each a quilt....well I had been so busy that they were taking longer then expected and Ethans was not done...it wasn't even half way done! So as soon as the boys were in bed I quickly got to work making the last quilt. Dustin helped finish wrapping presents but we ended up not getting to bed until almost 1:00. Cameron woke up at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 4:00 and then every ten minutes after that! This is the first year he has had this much excitement. Finally at 5:30 when Dylan was also awake, we went in to wake Ethan.

Cookies for Santa

The boys and I spent the morning making Christmas cookies. I went the lazy way this year and just had all the prepackaged kind. It was not the same as Mom's good Christmas cookies but hey they boys loved it and we at least had something to give Santa!

Wedding

The day of Cayla and Juggy's wedding was a long day for me. First of all it was my birthday and I volunteered at Cameron's school for the morning. That was a lot of fun and I loved being around the kids. I came home though to the task of trying to see if I could find our dog...she had gotten out the day before and had last been seen running around here at 4ish. After calling the SPCA and finding out that in order to get her back I would have to go into the police department, pay some fines, and then pick her up and pay them some money for her being there for less then 24 hours. I knew I would be rushing to get this done and get to the wedding by 3:30 (it was 1:00). I decided to pick Cameron up from school early because we would be rushing as it was and headed to the police station where I waited with the three boys for over an hour to fill out some paper work and be told that it was going to be over $100 in fines. I cried! I then continued crying to the SPCA where I paid another $55 in boarding fees and still continued to cry because I knew that by this time it was 3:15 and I was not going to make it to the wedding. I was not dressed for it yet, the boys were all in play clothes and we still had to get the dog home...oh ya and the roads were not good and I was driving my van with bad tires and no registration (that is another story all together but quickly I was stubborn and didnt want to pay the $350 to have it registered....it wasn't a matter of couldn't pay but a matter of I didn't want to be punished for driving a newer vehicle and so was trying to make a stand by not paying!) I finally got the dog home, ran in and grabbed shirts for the boys, decided their was no helping me....the little bit of makeup I had on was streaked down my cheeks, and I had not done my hair but their was no time to spare! Dustin called me as we were heading to the wedding spot (which ended up being right back at the police station and so I had to go face everyone I had just left crying in front of!) and let me know that things had not started yet. I ended up making it at almost 4:00 and was only a few minutes late walking in! The wedding itself was very nice. Everyone understood my day and forgave me for my lateness and presence! Cayla looked beautiful though and her and Juggy are such a cute couple! It was very nice getting to be there for them and I wish them so much happiness for their future together! What a birthday though!

Christmas Tree Hunting

We went up the mountain with Ryan, Crystal, her Dad and some friends of theirs, and then some friends of Dustins from work to get our Christmas tree. Although we did not have as much snow this year we still brought the sleds up and enjoyed a day of play! This years tree was choosen a little smaller then last years (thank goodness) and although it was missing a lot of branches and looked very much like a Charlie Brown tree, we had such a good time getting it that it was ok....you just had to squint at it once it was all decorated and then it looked beautiful! Oh and this is the first time Dylan was willing and wanting to go sledding! We were amazed by his no fear attitude this year!

Grocery Shopping

Cameron's class this year instead of having a gift exchange used the money to buy groceries for those less fortunate. Ethan, Gabby (niece) and I volunteered to take a group around to shop. The kids had 30.00 to spend and had to try finding the best prices and products for their money. Our group had a lot of mixed feelings on what to buy and it took a long time to finish getting all the items (we were almost left)! But it was a lot of fun watching the kids interact and feel so grown up getting to shop on their own!