More Friends and More Sledding

Last Saturday we had the privilege of attending the temple sealing of our good friends Heather and Royce to their adopted baby Otis. It was an amazing experience to be there! We also enjoyed going to Otis' baby blessing right after that sealing. Plus, just being able to see a number of other good friends who were also there for the occasion was wonderful.

As things turned out, we ended up going mattress sledding with everyone that afternoon. This was pretty momentous since we had never been before. I had heard many stories about previous such events though, so we were excited. It turned out to be a good deal of fun too!

We started with an old mattress that was found on KSL ads. Then we wrapped it completely in a tarp to reduce friction.

And then we took turns riding it down the hill!

And pulling it back up the hill for another run.

Nate tried to ride it while standing up once, but he was unable to stay upright for very long.

We had other sleds and tubes available to ride as well. After all, as big as the mattress was, we still couldn't all fit on it at once.

 

As Ryan went down the hill on a tube at one point, Nate stood right in his path and jumped over him. I wish we had gotten that on video.

We are so glad we were able to spend time with such a great group of friends!

Pre-School

Austin with his Bread Family

This last fall, Austin started doing some more regular pre-school things. We had been doing some such things together for fun before this time, but it wasn't very organized. We had wanted to do Joy School for him this year, but I was unable to find enough people to do it with us. Instead, I did find a couple other mothers in our ward to do a weekly pre-school thing with. We have been having lessons based on a 38 week Gospel Lesson Plan that I found online, plus we have been doing other lessons and activities based on themes both related and unrelated to that lesson plan layout. Austin has really enjoyed spending time with a couple of his friends every week, and he seems to enjoy the lessons and activities too.

Creating a night sky with play dough and plastic stars

Austin with his Rice-Krispie treat pumpkin and fall tree

Austin with a tracing of his body

Austin with a leaf turkey and Runt candy filled cornucopia

Mimi, Sarah, and Austin with their turkey crafts and edible Mayflower boats

Austin's turkey and Mayflower made with doughnut, pretzel, paper, and fruit roll up

In addition to the weekly lessons with friends, Austin and I have also been doing some homeschool lessons from The Family School Online, a program created by the American Heritage School. These lessons are not specifically geared toward pre-school, but they can all be modified based on your children's ages/interests. Austin has been enjoying these lessons and activities as well. In the picture below he is painting his little sculpture of a sun. This was done as part of an art lesson in which the activity was to make a sculpture with the theme of "Look to God."

Post-Christmas Activities

The morning after Christmas, Nate and I went snowshoeing with Ben, Allan, Katie, and Zipper while Austin stayed with my parents. It was a very cold morning, and the snow was very powdery. We just went a little ways along the Bonneville Shoreline trail.

It was super fun to spend time together with everyone. Zipper was delighted with the snow, and had a fantastic time chasing snowballs. That is one of her favorite winter activities, after all. We laughed to watch her trying to jump and otherwise make her way through the snow that was nearly as high as she is tall.

Nate was having such a terrific time, he decided to do a cartwheel in the snow.

The snow blanketed landscape truly was beautiful.

And I just love spending time with this group!

We were mesmerized by the tiny individual snowflakes we could see when looking closely at the snow.

The snow clumped like big lumpy cotton balls on the bare winter foliage also created interesting texture in the landscape.

Dry Canyon

Saturday afternoon we were able to see the exhibit "American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell" at the BYU Museum of Art. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and apparently went through it much much slower than the rest of my family. When I finally finished viewing everything, I found that all my family had left except for Nate and Austin, who were patiently waiting for me outside the exhibit. I highly recommend seeing this exhibit while you can to anyone who is close enough to go.

We also dropped by Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Norm's place after the museum. It had been awhile since we last saw them.

Sunday afternoon we got together again with Nate's old roommates and their families. It was a fun gathering!

We went back to our house Sunday night, but Nate had the week following Christmas off work too. Therefore, we tried to do some fun things as a family during that time. We played games, went bowling, and Nate and I went on a date to see the new Star Wars movie. Nate's sister Melissa and her family came over to our house on New Years Eve, so we had a nice turkey lunch together and played more games with them.

That evening we relaxed, threw Snaps on our driveway with Austin, and worked more on the Neuschwantstein Castle Puzzle we started roughly a year ago. We thought for sure this would be a great puzzle when we got it, especially since the box clearly stated it was a "High Quality Puzzle!" However, building it turned out to be very difficult. The problem was that a large number of the pieces were similarly shaped and seemed to fit together perfectly even when they weren't supposed to go together. The castle portion was easy enough to figure out despite this complication, but the sky and the foliage were a bit of a nightmare to assemble. We kept getting discouraged and letting the puzzle just sit unattended for long periods between our sporadic attempts at it. Incredibly enough, we actually finished it this last weekend though! And miraculously, we still had all the pieces for it despite many times small young hands have been at it when friends have come over to play.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas proceeded according to my family's usual Christmas schedule. It was nice to spend the day with them, share gifts, and eat lots of good food. Austin was thrilled with the balance bike he got from Santa, among other things.

He also especially liked the car carrier he got from his great grandparents and aunts.

We had fun preparing gifts for my brother Allan and his wife Katie. Nate did an excellent job of wrapping up their shovel. The handle was stuck through the tree and the spade was stuck through a gift bag that sat up in the tree.

I made them a wooden puzzle too.

Nate was very happy with his new drone.

I also made Austin a couple new toys, including the rest of the car set he got part of for his birthday.

Plus, I made some ornaments for family members and packaged them in Christmas character boxes I had designed.

Christmas Activities, Christmas Preparations, and Christmas Eve

Our month of December was full of all sorts of Christmas activities and preparations. There was lots of baking, caroling, creating Christmas gifts, and other such usual activites. I also performed in a couple Utah Voices concerts.

With family at the capitol after a Utah Voices Concert

Grandma and Grandpa Scott sent us a package for Christmas that included everything we needed to make chocolate dipped shortbread cookies.

There was a lot of extra chocolate, so we dipped some pretzels and marshmallows too. It was a fun activity for everyone!

Christmas Eve we packed up our car and drove down to my parents' house. After lunch, we got ready to go sledding. Before taking off, we let Austin open one of his gifts. He was so excited to get boots that will keep his feet warm and dry as he tromps around in the snow!

I also got an early Christmas gift of boots from Nate. I am so excited to have boots! You would think that since I have lived in an area where it often snows a lot during the winter for about sixteen years, I would already have some decent boots. The truth of the matter is, I never really have. When my family first moved to Utah, they bought me and my brothers some very cheap boots because they didn't have much money at that point. My boots ended up being so bad that it hurt to wear them much, so I never did. It was more comfortable to wear my regular shoes and have my feet cold and wet than to wear my cheap boots. For some reason, I never did get any better boots over the years, so I am super happy to finally have some better ones now!

Sledding was great fun. There are more hills available near my parents' place for such activities than there are where we live. The snow was a bit more sparse by the time we got to it than ideal, but it still worked fine. Unfortunately, I have always been terrible at steering while sledding though. I haven't improved much from the time I first went sledding after we moved to Utah. On that occasion, I managed to run the sled directly into a tree. The next time down I went way off track again and accidentally hit a couple people coming up the hill...

So, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I ran the sled Austin and I were riding into the playground and up a slide on our first run, tipping our sled and sending Austin head first into the snow. Good thing snow makes for a soft landing.

Austin after our crash into the playground slide

I think my steering actually did improve somewhat by the end our our outing. Austin had a great time taking turns riding with Nate, his Uncle Ben, and me. After looking at our pictures though, we noticed Austin's typical look while headed down the hill was to have a huge smile across his face with his eyes shut tight. We only have a couple pictures where his eyes were actually opened.

After sledding, we returned to my parents' house to watch some Star Wars, eat dinner, read the Christmas story from the scriptures, sing Christmas songs, and finish a couple last minute Christmas preparations.