SNOW SNOW SNOW

Well we are out of school for the 5th day this year - 3rd day this week!  One day we went up skiing and it was awesome!!   And my brothers wonder why I was not excited about and Alaskan cruise this summer!   Here are a few pictures to remind you why in the summer I don't need to cruise to Alaska!  We even hook zoey up to the sled and have a dog sled rides! hehehe

Dereks doing his homework after school - we are so proud he learned how to spell his name!

The deck and my hot tub this morning!  Boy that is going to be fun to dig out (again)!  Notice the christmas lights are still up - No chance to take them down yet!

Hawaii

We spent a week on Maui- Steve was attending a meeting and I was just relaxing.  Steve golfed and I played at the spa.  The ocean was incredible!  I love the ocean!   We went on a whale watching trip and saw humpback whales jumping out of the water it was really fun!  Got to eat out and lay around on the beach!   It was really fun!  The kids did great they stayed with Steve's mom and dad.  We came home to highs of 23 and about 2 feet of snow!   But I just close my eyes and hear the ocean and look at my fading sunburn and it keeps me warm as I shovel the snow off the drive way!  

This is our Friends  Tim & Pat Greene who are retired so we always drag them along to our warm destinations so Steve has a golf partner and I have a spa partner.  They are great fun!

Steve's brother Don and wife Dee-Anna who were also at the meeting

Steve playing in the ocean!   The waves were huge!

I got a new Job!!

I had my interview today and was offered the job by the Make A Wish foundation to be a wish granter for my area!  My kids are so excited!  I now have the coolest job in the world!  It is a volunteer position so I will get to choose how much time I spend.  They will totally work around my schedule.  I go to Wish Granting school the end of January!  

Trip to Oregon

We had a great Trip to Oregon. We stayed up on the Mountain at my dads house!  Friday, My Derek got to ski with his cousins and Uncle Derek while the rest of us went bowling with the Pennington cousins and Johnson cousins.  Saturday we had a birthday for Cassidy and Gavyn with the Penningtons and got to visit with Grandma & Grandpa Green!  We went back to Grandpa Johnsons and met my Nephew Ben's fiancee Jacquie!  She was great!  How fun to start adding to our family.  Sunday after church we went and visited Grandma Pennington!  I was so sad when I came home and our picture we took did not turn out!   we spentthe rest of the day  with my dad and some old friends the Robinsons with their cute little girls!  It was a great visit.  We came home and then left for another few days of skiing!  

Grace and Hailey set up a CAFE in Grandma Madges basement with all kinds of candy and treats.  This is Grandma enjoying the CAFE.
Grandpa took Savannah and Mitchell on a Garbage run - My favorite was when savannah came running through the door saying "I always wanted to jump out of a moving car and Grandpa let me do it!"  Leave it to Dad to help the kids achieve their dreams!

Grace & Aaron in the Hot tub at Grandma Pat and Grandpa Jerrys

These boys are too handsome for there own good!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas eve with new PJs

Christmas eve we go to our neighbors the Mosmans.  We had a great dinner and the kids did a Christmas play.  We came home and wrote our presents to Jesus and put them on the tree watched Luke II and then we put out the cookies and milk and off to bed.  The kids all sleep in the same room - so Grace's room is still full of matresses!  They woke us up about 6:00am and we went down to see if Santa came!  HE DID!   Grace was so excited!  Steve has been really sentimental this Christmas he thinks this is going to be one our last Christmas's with a true believer!  Grace was also so excited to open presents - not for hers but for everyone to open the present she got them.  She made blankets for everyone and got a special build a bear for everyone!  She was so excited!  We got a waffle maker for christmas so we made waffles for breakfast and then Jackie made us a 4 course Italian meal for dinner and then we just watched movies, played with our new toys and just really enjoyed the day!

Grace so excited about the presents!

Playing with the new Wii

Christmas Vacation!

We started our Christmas Vacation by Skiing!  This was only the 2nd time for Grace and if any of you remember Derek as a beginner skier - She is just like him.  Absolutely no fear- she does not turn just goes straight down the mountain with a little snow plow when she wants to slow down!  When I would tell her to slow down or try to turns she would get mad and say " You keep saying to have fun - well its fun to go fast!"  hehehehe  She takes after Derek that is for sure!  It was a really fun day - lots of great snow!  Jackie decided to stay home and sleep she has been a little off with jet lag!   She wakes up at 4:00am  and goes to bed about 6:00pm  She is getting better each day!

Steve and Grace on the Chair lift

Savannah and Grace who are really cute but look behind them at the view of the Lake!

Here is the whole crew after lunch before we started our afternoon runs!

JACKIE IS HOME!

We went to the airport at 10:30 last night to pick up Jackie!   Everyone wanted to come - so we will have some tired heads today for their last day of School!  Derek assured me it wouldn't matter they weren't doing anything anyway!!!  

All Jackies flights went well and she is home!   We were so excited!   She is now already busy applying for jobs (Italy drained her bank account)  and making plans to see all her friends.  After school we are on our way to Schwietzer Mountain and go skiiing for the weekend!  Then Christmas!   YAH!!!

grace christmas program

Lauren Makes the Paper

We were reading the paper this morning and Lauren was in the paper.  She plays on the girls Varsity team and they had a home game last night and she was the picture!  They lost their game in the last minute of the game - it was really close!  She did great!  

ITALY!

We had so much fun! It was a great Success! Ever since I was in 4th grade and we studied Italy and Micheal Angelo I always wanted to go and get a stamp in my passport! I now have one! I loved every minute! It was so great to see Jackie! She is doing great! It was so fun to have Darren, Laurel and Nick with us! We got to see Venice which had those attacking birds, Rome and the Vatican with the Sistine Chapel. St. Peters Cathedral is impressive! Then we went to florence and saw the Duomo there is incredible and we got to see the David! We drove out to see the Leaning tower and the Ferari Factory! One of the Highlights of the Trip! I've never seen Darren so excited! Then off to Milan and a Day in Paris which was unbelievable! Then back to Viterbo and then home! We miss Jackie and the incredible Gelato! We took a million pictures - here is just some hightlights! This is in Florence over the Arno River

This is Uncle Darren really Buggin!
Venice
Leaning tower of Pisa
Eiffel Tower in Paris
Nick & Savannah climbing to the top of St. Peters Basilica
View from the Top
The cars are little Nick got the Trunk
Darren & Laurel at the Train Station with Darrens new friend - A crazy old Italian who didn't speak any English - Darren talked to him for about 10 minutes!