Christmas in Stanley

After a couple days in rainy California, we headed up to snowy Idaho to celebrate Christmas with the O'Malleys. And there sure was a lot of snow! The boys weren't so sure about the snow at first and they certainly did not like putting on snow gear but they eventually warmed up to both. Brandon and I had lots of fun and especially enjoyed getting to relax together before the start of this crazy semester.

The boys really loved helping shovel snow off the deck. I'm not gonna lie, it was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Daddy and Cullen

Sledding

The view from the O'Malley's cabin... pretty awesome, huh?

More sledding

Cullen and his Uncle Scott

Making (and taste-testing) a fruit salad one night

Cullen touching the ceiling beams, he loves being up high!

Ashlee in the apron I made for her, another of my handmade presents.

I also made one for my sister Renee. Sari drew up a simple pattern for me and it only took a few hours to sew each one. It was a really fun project to work on too and I love thinking about Ashlee and Renee wearing them!

Needless to say, the boys were completely spoiled with presents! Thank you everybody, especially Grandma Whit, Schmidts and Klansnics! We were sad we didn't get to see you all at Christmas but are looking forward to being together at the wedding in March!

Brandon and I made a rule that our gifts to each other had to be free and homemade this Christmas. So I made him a prayer scrapbook with each page listing a different area of his life that I'd be praying for him this year. It now sits on our nightstand and is a good reminder to me to pray for my husband daily. Special thanks to my sister Rachel for loaning me all the supplies to make many of my presents this year and for helping me out when I was lacking the craft skills to do something myself... which was often ;-)

We almost never give the boys sweets but these cookies were handmade by Brandon's aunt and cousin and had the boys' names on them, how could I refuse them? Thanks Aunt Wendy and Aaron!

As you can see, the boys loved the cookies!

Playing with trains of course. Our home now has more train paraphernalia than I know what to do with. Even as I type this, a Thomas the Train video is playing and the boys are driving their trains around the track while making "choo choo" sounds. At least trains are a toy that they probably won't outgrow for several years... I hope!

More sledding

The boys had a (what else) Thomas the Train themed birthday party. Brandon and I had lots of fun decorating this cake for them.

Excited to open their birthday presents

I have no idea why he's crying here, probably because he didn't want to wait any longer to tear open that train set.

Digging into the cake!

Sharing cake with Daddy