It's NOT a Snowman.....

It's a snow Miss!

After months, if not years, of wanting and wishing for the chance to make a snowman and snowballs for a fight, after seeing it on all their favorite cartoons and their favorite Christmas movies, FINALLY today was the day.

Dace and Zade decided on their own that they didn't want a snowman but rather their Sissy would be their muse.  Hence, Snow Miss was built.

Shortly after the first photos were taken, SnowMiss received cosmetic surgery and earned herself a smile.  

It was gorgeous weather here today in Utah.  We were outside for over an hour and nobody got cold.  They even took turns riding scoorters and the crazy coupe in the driveway.  Happy Kids = Happy Household.

I rarely catch Ammon with a good face but didn't want to leave him out.  

 And sitting on the stairs and being able to peek through is definite a favorite here at Gramma's.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Merry Christmas from the Deans

From Sand to Snow

We went from this:

drove this:

Just a quaint 3440 mile jaunt, battling rain, icy roads, snow for the first time in 8 years, a flu of vomiting and diaahrea that circulated through all of us, a van heater that quit,....need I go on?  but we survived in one piece to Utah to spend a week there with family then headed up to Canada for Christmas with my family.

And landed here in this:

We are no longer South Carolinians.  We have moved.  Stay tuned for more details later on.  But we are having fun here for the holidays.  The kids are meeting uncles and aunties on my side for the first time, some of them, and are loving their first experiences with snow.  The wind chill has been relentless so the trips outside are very brief.  Zade braves it more than the rest.  He is in heaven.  2 days away from christmas and the energy and excitement is already through the roof.  Gotta love that magic!

Grateful Feather

Dace had a homework assignment.  The class was making a big turkey on the wall at school, Albaturkey.  (isn't that cute and clever?!  I love it! Anyway....)  I asked him what he wanted to put on his feather for the things that he was grateful for.  After a moment to pontificate, he listed off the following:

1) Lego
2)Daddy
3) Cousins!!
4) Turkey

What about me?!  What about the momma?!  What am I - chopped liver?!  ;)
I am so in love with his artwork....

A Good Brother

Miss plays with a lot of trucks.  She plays in the dirt.  She plays soccer.  She plays blocks.  She wrestles.  she puts up with all things 'boy'.  And Ammy is such a good brother that sometimes he knows that its time to just do the girly things.....

A Momentous Moment

No. More. Highchairs!!!!!

The twins have been eating at the table for lunch with Zade all week and quickly started mutinying against the highchairs.  so tonight, we literally threw them out the backdoor and welcomed back the booster seats.

Another end of an era.  Counting down to final potty training commencement.....

Random pics... but mostly of Miss

Sometimes, she just wants to be one of the boys -

Of course, Zade just thinks that looks cool so he joins in and then builds them a train to ride:

These two can be quite inseparable at time.  Miss watching ZayZay play a game on the phone.  

Dace nailed his first ever primary presentation, thanks to the help of Lego bribery.  Hey, it took 3 years but we finally got him up there.  Now he knows its fun and not so scary.  Monday after school he was ready to shop. He found the coolest Ironman lego set, complete with flip masks and was much under budget.  Bonus!

the second day, he built something totally out of his imagination!  These creations are getting really good!

My pumpkin swirl cheesecake won the pumpkin category at our RS Fall festival:

My prize was a pumpkin turkey:

Freezie buddies:

Miss on the grass -

Squishy Face

The other morning, we were heading out to the porch to play.  Ammon was the first one there and discovered the butterfly net on the ground.  This is what he came up with:

I laughed so hard and grabbed the camera, of course everyone else wanted to try: 

Trunk or Treat & Trick or Treat

Our ward party was a huge success.  It was the biggest one yet.  We had a DJ, fishing for the kids, a bean bag toss, other games, pumpkin contest, chili and hot dogs and corn bread and fruit.  and so many vehicles parked and giving out candy.  The kids brought home so much!  and of course our costumes were a hit!  Everyone always loves the family theme schtick.

Then Trick or Treating in our neighborhood last night was a riot.  I haven't had that busy of a trick or treating since I was about 7.  But it was so much fun!  we have a lot of houses decorated in our area so we went around to all of those.  We did a pretty decent sized loop, probably a couple miles.  At first, we had the twins getting in and out of the stroller since they were learning the ropes for it.  But once they figured out what was going on, they took off running!  Bam-Bam petered out fairly quickly but miss kept picking up speed.  She insisted on walking and didnt want to be in the stroller.  She wanted to join the party.  Dace took the lead and went off on his own ahead of his because our slower baby pace wasnt working for him.  so we let him go ahead as long as we could see him and he liked that independence.  We got home at 8 with a stash that will take months to get rid of if we were to eat it all.  We sent a couple lbs with Dace to school for his collecting contest and it barely made a dent in our pile.  It was the best halloween yet!  and now for long naps today for everyone...