Backtrack-Western Idaho State Fair

Who doesn't love the fair?  This year we visited the petting zoo, saw an old tractor exhibit, visited the 4-H building, saw a shark show, petted some wild animals, had a guy make a rope for us, took a picture with tow mater, and best of all, we milked a cow.  We gave the girls the choice of riding one ride or buying a hair bow.  Kyleigh chose the bow and Katelyn rode the swings all by herself.

Long live the Fair!

Snow Sno-Cones

My friend brought over some sno-cone syrup the day of our first big snow.  How Fun!

Playing Build-a-Bear

For awhile the girls collected a lot of build-a-bear clothes.  They haven't played in quite awhile but I found the three of them playing away on a Saturday morning.  One vote for keeping toys around for awhile.

The Crutches

One of Holly's nieces had crutches awhile ago.  She let Kyleigh play with them and Kyleigh loved it.  One day, about a month ago, Kyleigh found a cork on the road.  For whatever reason it reminded her of the crutches.  She drew up a set of plans and proposed the idea to Rusty that he build her some crutches.  The cork was to be used for the bottom of one of the crutches and we were going to try to find another one for the bottom of the second crutch.  We dismissed the idea with a "maybe we can look at the thrift store."  The very next day we found ourselves at the thrift store and Kyleigh reminded me of our plan.  We asked someone if they had any and they did.  It just so happened it was the right color of ticket so it was half off.  I paid $2.50 for these silly crutches and they have gotten more use than any other toy in our house.  Everyone loves them.  The neighbor kids think we are the coolest ever.  Maybe we are :)

Christmas on the Greenbelt

We spent a few hours on the greenbelt Christmas afternoon trying out the new toys.  The girls started catching on to the roller blades really quickly.  The ripstick is coming along a little bit slower.  However, that could be because Rusty kind of hogged it.  It was freezing cold, but with three blankets, Ridge fell asleep, and we had a great time.

Christmas Morning

Everyone was up early.  By early I do not mean Cook early, which is 3:00 a.m., but Graves early, before 7:00 a.m.  The kids were so excited and our pretty small living room was JAM packed.  Santa was very nice to us this year! 

 

Because this is only the second year we haven't traveled for Christmas we are still refining our own traditions.  I think we have come up with a pretty good hybrid.  On Christmas Eve we had an all out turkey dinner.  I was especially excited about the turkey.  We used a new recipe from the "Our Best Bites"  cookbook.  We soaked the turkey for 24 hours, then injected it before we cooked it.  DELICIOUS!  We had the nativity with the nativity gloves Holly and I made a few years ago.  Then we opened the gifts we gave to one another on Christmas Eve.  We had taken the kids to Goodwill and let them find gifts for everyone in the family.  We had a great time, the kids were so excited to find things to give, it was all things we really needed or wanted, and it all cost less than $40.00!  After we opened those gifts the kids decorated cookies and put them out for Santa.  We listened to GPa reading the night before Christmas on our record a book, then we put the kids in bed. 

 

On Christmas morning we woke up to the gifts that Santa left (not wrapped) and the stockings he filled.  We enjoyed those for a couple of hours. Then we had a yummy breakfast.  We ate sausage egg casserole, blueberry muffins, and grape juice.  After we were done we opened the gifts from Grandparents, and Aunts and Uncles.  Only group excluded was Mike and Holly.  We had already had a party with them a few nights before.  When it was all over Rusty had one more surprise for me.  He brought down my new Bosch mixer.  Do you know that thing can whip out 4 loaves worth of bread dough without even breaking a sweat?  He almost made me cry.  We spent the remainder of the day eating lots of stocking candy and playing with all of our toys.  When we were ready to leave the house we went to the greenbelt to play with our new toys.  I'll post those pics later.   Merry Christmas...

All the Stockings Were Hung...

All the kids had high hopes, but would Santa come?  Kyleigh was sweet enough to let us use her cookie kit she got at her class party to decorate cookies for Santa.  We laid them out carefully and got ready for bed.  We listened to GPa read the night before Christmas on our recorded book and went to bed, with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads.  Santa came and boy did he come!  He even responded to Kyleigh's note.