holly jolly christmas

our weekend was wonderful, full of family, food (oh, the food I consumed!), and frolic. we hope that all of you enjoyed Christmas, celebrating the great gift of our Redeemer and eternal families. Ian was able to give a talk yesterday in primary and did a wonderful job summing up why this season is wonderful and why we celebrate. His theme was 'I know that my Redeemer lives'. He talked about Grandpa Dan (my father), Grandpa Harry and Grandma Duck how even though they have died and aren't with us anymore we know that we'll be with them again because of the gift our Savior gave each of us. Such a simple subject, but it has had me thinking about how blessed I am and what a wondrous gift the gospel is to each of us. Merry Christmas to all of you and I hope that you feel Heavenly Father's great love for each of you throughout the year. Enjoy some of our picsenjoying the Cementary luminaries.  Grandpa & Grandma's headstone looked beautiful.  They were so loved.

the nativity at Grandpa & Grandma Denie's house a holiday tradition that gets better and better.  we're pro now, we even have costumes.  we're just missing one wiseman and everyone seems to think that means austin & i are supposed to have another baby.  i'm still not too sure about that yet, though it's not entirely out of question either.

Joseph and Mary

Christmas Day at our house.  Busy fun.

Josh got a thumbwrestling ring and was the champ for quite a while till Tyler finally took him down.

Austin got a catapult, which Mick used to bombard the other party goers with cottonballs.  I liked this pic because of his maniacal look picking out his next target.

The whole nativity cast.

pillow pets were a huge hit at our house Christmas morning.

Ian "mantis" Cope

Fiona & Lydia loved the furniture that Santa found for their dollhouse

Fiona, the baby unicorn

 

the boys working on their legos

 On Christmas Eve we played outside and had a great time in the snow.  It was perfect for snowmen, snowball fights, making snow mountains to climb on, sledding and even building snow forts.  Austin worked on his fort while the kids were down for quiet time.  It took him a little over an hour to finish it.  He leveled the ground, made sure it was square and level.  He's quite the builder.  The kids loved it and it only took them less than 15 minutes to totally destroy it while Austin was napping to recuperate.  We had a talk about non-destructive play.

 

they really brought the walls down fast.

snow day and ornaments

We decided to follow last years ornament tradition and make them at home.  We made paper stars and they really turned out cute.   The kids had a great time tearing up the construction paper and watching it get turned to pulp in the blender.  I found the idea in this month's family fun magazine here http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/homemade-paper-stars-954207/

we couldn't get a family shot to turn out, they were all blurry whenever we used the timer.  The kids were more than happy to help austin & i get a quick pick

with lydia we had to make sure we put our faces in the way of the lens

wesley decided to cut out daddy

ian finally got one that looked pretty good, all of fiona's turned out blurry.

i just wanted to throw this one in for fun.  she did 'fish lips' for the camera and i always laugh when she makes this face.

Today we actually had a snow day. this is the first one i have EVER experienced in Utah. I think we got over 3 feet in one day. austin spent 2 days snowblowing and it just kept coming down. the kids weren't as disappointed about missing their class parties as i feared they would and we had a great time playing in all that snow.

ian sitting on the giant rock in our front yard

beautiful fiona, that face is to die for

lydia helping daddy make a trail to our chickens

we found a great hiding place under one of our giant pine trees out front.

santa claus is coming to town, aaaah! cry!!

 
we took the kids to see Santa. the boys have always liked this tradition and start listing all the things they're going to tell him as soon as we're in the car. the girls not so much. the past years have always produced a crying fiona or lydia and making mom & dad laugh (we are such rotten, mean parents). but this year we've had a break through. the girls actually stayed long enough for not only one, but actually three pictures. there were no tears, no screaming and when Santa asked Fiona if she wanted a unicorn we even got a nod! 
 

these were last year's pics, even with an m&m peace offering it was a disaster.

poor Santa

a christmas greeting

the girls looked so cute i had to get a pick. we went to our last kindermusic class till after the new year. this week has seemed like it's been more than 7 days. monday i got calls telling me about 2 deaths in the family. one of the cousins lost their 2 month old baby that morning. it was a horrible and unexpected tragedy, one that any mother fears. i know the only way i could cope is to remember that families are eternal. the other call monday afternoon came after our beloved grandma davis finally got to rejoin her sweetheart on the other side. since august she's been in pain and suffering, it was a relief to hear that she wasn't having to endure any more, but still sad to think she's gone and now our christmas and other family traditions are going to be very different. her funeral was wonderful, probably the only one i've ever enjoyed attending. the thing i like most about the davis family is their ability to laugh at themselves. grandma davis was a wonderful lady, one i'd like to be more like.

 

i also wanted to share these pics from our FHE building a gingerbread house.  it was a lot of fun, my mom had bought a kit so it was really a no brainer.  the kids had a lot of fun building it and even more fun taking it apart and eating the candy.  lydia was upset when we first started taking it apart, she was still in building mode.  but after eating a few m&m's she quickly changed her mind.

snowman and cookie race

The children are always making me laugh.  With the first snow Ian ran out to make a snowman all by himself.  He rolled the balls so big he couldn't lift them onto one another.  So instead of letting that discourage him he smashed 2 of them and used the other for his 'sinking' snowman.  I think I may have a Calvin in the making.


I love Wesley's face in this picture.

Last night we watched America's Funniest Videos.  The kids just love it and laugh so hard.  Ian & Wesley decided they wanted to try the cookie race that was featured.  I think they deserve the $10,000 just for effort.

I almost lizzed (again, if you haven't watched 30rock you are missing out).

tangled no more

this is our beautiful fiona.  she's not one to keep things in her hair.  we've been talking about it for a while, her & I.  I hated putting in all the time to braid or create designs in her hair which was down her back and she hated keeping elastics in for very long.  so when I asked if she'd rather cut her hair short like her sister's she said yes.  I'm not feeling much regret, it grows back fast (this is how long it was just last November) and maybe by that time she'll have a better relationship with elastics.  plus she pulls it off so well, what a cutie!

terrific, tremendously funny, at times tipsy TWO!

Aaagh! our baby just turned 2. Everyone has been telling me that it must be time for another, but that just doesn't feel like the way our family should be going right now and our little lady lyds might possibly be our last. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to accept growing out of the baby stage yet. There are definite perks, like leaving the nightlights in all day instead of rounding them up before little hands can yank them out. Or putting crayons in reach of everyone and most of the time they're only used on paper and usually not getting eaten (note the usually and it's not usually the 2 year old either). Lydia is such a joy and has been so much fun, she's the best little sister I've ever met.

We celebrated her birthday with family this weekend and we had a great time. She picked out the biggest balloon star I've ever seen (she has a thing for twinkle, twinkles), it was honestly as big as she is. So here are some picks to celebrate our girl.

can you believe how much both Lydia & Fiona have changed in 2 short years.  That outfit Fiona is wearing is now hanging in Lydia's closet for this winter!!!!

A year ago.  Sorry the pic wouldn't cooperate with me and I decided it was a battle I didn't want to engage in any longer (I'm learning as a mother the all important 'pick your battle' mantra really puts things into perspective, just not this picture)