Snow Hiking

Dogsled racing!  Mommy and daddy are the dogs.  Fun for kids.  Good work out for mom and dad.

 

We also found a frozen pond to play on.  I know I've said this before, but the kids LOVE ice.  It's such a fun thing to play with. 

Jensen's First Cello Concert

 We had Jensen's first Cello concert!  He played twinkle twinkle little star in 6 different variations of rhythms.  He did a great job and we are very proud of him.  He was pretty proud of himself too!  He was very brave and even did a little encore piece for us (after we explained what an encore was) and played "French Folk Song," another song he's been working on.  Unfortunately, the camera didn't start recording when I pushed the button so I don't have a video.  Lame.

 Jensen with his great teacher!  Yes, I know the certificate is up-side-down, but nobody realized it until later and then when I took another picture it was really blurry, so I had to use this one.  Oh well.

Of course we had fun snacks afterwards too!  Fruit pizza and peanut butter bars!  MMmm.

Ice Skating

 Evy- "I don't need help."

Ryley, getting brave on her own!

Christmas 2012 in West Virginia

 This is the first thing Ryley did when she woke up at Grandma's house and saw how much snow there was!  Face first.  She woke me up at 6am to help her find the snow clothes... even though we didn't get in to my mom and dad's house until 2am because of the crazy blizzard making us drive 25 mph the last 60 miles.

Then we celebrated my brother's Jared's 23rd birthday

Ammon helped make the cake.  It's the center of the Mayan Calendar.  Significant because the Mayan calendar ended on Jared's birthday.

Look how long Ryley's tongue is!!

Evelyn played Mary in the Christmas pageant.  She played the part perfectly.

Christmas morning.  Evelyn looks kinda grumpy.  It's cause she was.

 Can you see the pain on Jensen's face.  Just let me open the presents!!  Hurry and take the picture!!

Break out the toys!  Can't wait to play with them all!

The day after Christmas, when we were supposed to go drive to D.C. for Jake and Jenny's sealing, we woke up to a crazy ice storm.  There was a sheet of ice over everything.  They made it to the temple, but me and the kids ended up turning around after 2 hours in the car and making little progress.  The roads were so bad.  It took them 6 1/2 hours to get there!  The kids had fun playing with the ice chunks though. 

 You'd be surprised how creative you can be with ice.  It could be a serving platter, or karate chop board.

 We did LOTS of sledding every day.  It's good for you.  It was especially fast after the ice.

This is what Evy's face looked like every time we went down.  "Let's do that again!"  

We played games every night at least until midnight.  This is me and Ammon giving the smack down on Cribbage.  That's the smack down sign in case you are wondering what I'm doing.

These are the losers.  Dad and Jake

 Very sore losers.

The whole week we had to come up with new and creative ways to get Evelyn to take her medicine for the raging double ear infection she developed just in time for Christmas.  She can be very stubborn.  Each method only worked once.  The headphones seem to be working here.

More Snow!  MORE MORE MORE!  We just can't get enough!

Hmm.  What to do with all this snow?  Build an igloo of course!  A MEGA igloo!
Ryley's idea.

 Quite roomy inside.  Complete with window and shelf space.

Of course, the kids wanted to sleep in it.  And they did.  

Ammon... checking to see if they're frozen to death yet.  

 In the morning Ryley and Jensen said it was the warmest, coziest night of sleep they'd ever had.

And then we had to drive back to Baltimore.  Boo.  No snow here.  Boring.

Ready for Christmas!

 We ended up getting a real tree just for tradition's sake even though we knew we were going to my parents house in West Virginia for Christmas.  It just makes the house smell good and feel like Christmas!  And the kids love to decorate it.  All by themselves.  We have a pretty random assortment of ornaments.  It looked lovely.

We also went to the D.C. Temple one night.  When we came in view of the Christmas lights Evelyn let out a really loud  AAAAAAAhhh of excitement!  We watched Jenny Oaks Baker and her kids perform at the visitor's center.  They were amazing as usual!

We also made gingerbread houses to get ready for Christmas!  Very elaborate and time consuming ones.
Evelyn mostly ate candy.  Not so much decorated with the candy.

 I helped with Jensen's and I must say, it's one of the best I've ever come up with.  It was nothing next to Ryley and Ammon's of course.

 

2012 Posey Family Crossword Answers

Here's the answers.  The explanatory pictures are below.  Enjoy
Across
2.  school
5.  cello
6.  scooter
10. Evy
12.  crafts
13.  four
14.  bike
16.  baptism
18.  kindergarten
19.  illustrator
22.  rough
23.  violin

Down
1.  soccer
3.  house
4.  phonetically
7.  yoga
8.  books
9.  playdead  (I know it's not one word!  sorry)
11.  stubborn
15.  hiking
17.  pool
20.  two
21.  trail















 
The Balance Bike.  She loves to FLY down the hills and ruin her shoes to slow down.






















"I love school!  I just can't get enough."

















 She got this dollhouse kit for her birthday and has built the thing bit by bit every day with a little help from mommy and LOTS of hot glue.

Jensen on the Cello (did the spelling of Cello throw anyone off?) and Ryley on the Violin.

They're very good about practicing almost every day and it's really starting to show.  Amazing!

                    






Ryley's baptism day!  We're so proud of her!

















Ammon: "Trail running rocks!"
Ryley: "I like licorice."

















Our everyday summer activity!  Thank goodness for the pool!