Endure

I have decided that the way to describe winter in Minnesota is "Endure".  When I get really tired of having to bundle up every time I go outside, I try to remind myself that winter will end some day, maybe not soon, but it will end.  And then we get a day like today.  It was 42 degrees and Megan walked outside and said it felt like summer!
 Here is a picture of our van.  A majority of the cars on the road are just as filthy as our van, it only shows better on a white van!  It doesn't make sense to wash the van when sand and salt are constantly being splashed on to it. Also, the doors freeze shut if you wash the van when it is below 20 degrees.

Notice the dried up salt on the garage floor that has been building up over the last few months.
It is supposed to get back to the teens and below tomorrow, but we just have to remember, this too shall pass.

Minnesota teen passes driver test in snow storm!

Amber proved she is a true Minnesotan today. She passed her driving test with four inches of fresh snow and more falling! She almost postponed it until the weather was better, but decided to have a trial run anyway. She was so nervous, but she did great! I think the tester gave bonus points for trying to test in this weather. He mentioned a rolling stop that could have prevented her from passing, but he passed her anyway. She is floating now. She immediately texted her whole phone book on her cell phone to spread the news. Here are some pictures from the exciting event!

Wish me luck!

Waiting to start the test

Taking the test

"I did it!"

We are very proud of Amber.  She is a very good, safe driver.  Congratulations!!

Ice Skating

We went ice skating in downtown St. Paul on New Year's Eve. It was so cold! Only 6 degrees (that's Fahrenheit, not Celsius!) We were a little shaky, but it was fun!

Sledding

We decided to take Stephanie sledding, something she won't get to do in Texas very often. It was a blast!

Steven

Amber and David

Even Dad got in on the fun!


Megan
Marissa

Stephanie had a hard time going forward at first.


Can you tell we are having fun!

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas morning. David loved his very appropriate new shirt from his Hinton cousins.


Amber surprised us with beautiful artistically painted shirts. David got Curious George, Marissa got a butterfly themed shirt, Steven got a really cool tiger shirt, Megan's shirt was covered with images from the Twilight books, I got an amazing guitar shirt and Kelly got "the world's awesomest dad" shirt. We love them! Amber is very talented!




Thank you Amber! I love it!
Zoe even enjoyed her new candy cane bone!

Christmas Eve Fun

The kids got new homemade pajamas for Christmas. They loved them! I think they look great!


Here is our version of the Nativity Story with Aunt Stephanie. Mary holding baby Jesus (we don't seem to have any baby dolls anymore), Joseph, an angel, a couple shepherds and a wise guy!

Holiday celebrations

With all of the holiday celebrations going on, I was able to help out with Marissa's school party.

We also had a gingerbread house decorating party with a couple neighbor families. Way too much candy and frosting, but a lot of fun.

A new way to sled

David decided to sled down the slide of the play structure just for fun. Silly boy!

First snow

Today we woke up to the first "sleddable" snow of the season. Notice, I didn't say "shovelable" snow, which is how Minnesotan's describe this snow. That means that you have to actually move the snow out of the way if you want to get back up your driveway, which is what I spent a large part of the day doing when our snow blower didn't work the first 30 times I tried starting it. So, in between shoveling, I would give it a yank and on the 31st try, it started. David, Marissa, Steven and two neighbor boys enjoyed sledding down our yard (one positive of having a very steep yard). They need to enjoy it while the temperature is still above the teens. Soon, it will be too cold to play outside for more than two minutes, and whenever it takes longer to put the snow clothes on than the kids actually spend playing outside, it just isn't worth it to me. Enjoy the pictures!

Marissa



Steven and David coming down (the mailbox was not injured in this stunt)



This is where they end up, good thing it is a quiet cul-de-sac



Steven

Thanksgiving fun

Amber dishing up her plate with yummy food


We had a great Thanksgiving break with lots of family in town. The kids were in cousin heaven with their Stotts cousins from Kansas, Buer cousins from Texas and Hinton cousins from Illinois to play with. The weather turned out pretty nice so they could play outside, too. 

Early morning shopping and chaos at the Mall of America rounded out the weekend.

We love having family visit!

Growing a Third Eye?

David had a run in with a rock in our front yard the other day. The goose egg was huge and bloody. I finally got a picture of it tonight while he was sleeping on the couch. We keep it covered with a bandaid and it doesn't seem to bother him at all. Talk about a shiner!

Pumpkin Carving

We waited until the Monday before Halloween to carve our pumpkins so they might not be totally moldy by the holiday. David wasn't so sure about touching the guts, but Steven couldn't get enought of it! The kids were all very creative. Amber helped David and I helped Marissa a little. We ended the activity with caramel apples. Yum!
See the resemblance?

The Finished Product on the Front Porch

Pumpkin patch fun

During our week off of school we visited Emma Krumbee's Pumkpin Patch and apple orchard. The kids loved playing in the hay stack, riding the John Deere Tricycles, checking out the scarecrows and of course, picking the perfect pumpkin. Fall here is beautiful!