Gagey Baby turns 3

My baby turned 3 today and we partied!

I feel so much love for this little boy and his big self. 

Gage is the boy that tells me to stop what I am doing and look at him.

The boy who lights up any room that he walks into.

The boy that makes jokes and is a crowd pleaser.

He is the boy that lives and breathes his routine and if I don't give him his vitamin when he wakes up he goes ballistic. 

He's the child that I have had to negotiate the most with. He will argue with me all day that he is taller than me, which he is not.... yet.

He is the boy who loves me so much and says sorry when he's done something wrong even without me asking him to because he can read me like a book.

The boy who works just as hard as the other kids around this farm and my personal helper when it comes to collecting eggs everyday.

He is so spoiled and it's so wonderful. 

He is genuine and true and I love that he doesn't pretend to be happy if he's sad and he doesn't hold grudges. This kid is angel boy or monster boy and sometimes both in the same 5 minutes. 

He is our favorite fourth and we all love him so, so much!!

Happy Birthday Gagey!

Gage waiting so patiently last night at his birthday party combined with Kate and Braxton's

They even all took turns opening gifts and he waited so nicely each round for his turn. 

Boy was he happy to receive his granola from Auntie Melissa!

If nothing else, four kids has taught me that when your sister invites you to her daughter's October birthday party you hop right on and combine both of your October kids in there too. 

And when your mom asks your two year old what he wants for his birthday and he says, "A popcorn cake!" you let your mom make it for him.

The party last night was so awesome and all I really did was make homemade salsa for the tacos and homemade pumpkin pie.

The first thing he said this morning when he came down the stairs was, "I'm three now!" 

And all day he continued asking me, "mom, am I two or am I really three?" It was so much fun.

He asked to eat his granola for breakfast with yogurt.

After we got the kids off to school Gage and I played with some of his new toys. We read his books with the computer from Bama and Umpa. We set up with marble tower and tried to put all 400 marbles down it. This boy is so funny with his gift requests but Bryce and Chelsey and Lesha and her family came through with the marbles he asked for and they are his new thing.

Then we played with the trucks he got from Auntie Angela and Auntie Rebecca and cousins Baylee, Joe, and Ole.

After we played in our jammies for a few hours and read all of our favorite books I asked Gage what he wanted to do. He quickly responded, "make more popcorn cake!" But since he already had a popcorn cake that his Bama made him I asked him what else he wanted to do. Next he said, "eat at my restaurant." I said, "you have a restaurant?" He answered, "yes, the pig slop one is mine!" Ha, that's my aunt's restaurant in front of our property and we are lucky to get slop from there for our pigs. His perception was cracking me up.

I said how about we go pick apples and he loved that idea so we drove to our neighbors, Bellewood Acres and got busy!

It was a rainy day so we bundled up before we left and got rained on the whole time which was half the fun. I drove the golf cart out to the orchard and I would have taken more pictures except that every time I took my hand from his grasp to shoot the camera he would say, "give me your hand back," so I decided to hold his hand rather than to take a bunch of pictures. 

Here is my little apple picker with the only apple he actually picked. He was all about picking out the apples, pointing to them, and then having me actually pick them. Which worked for both of us.

After we picked our apples Auntie Rebecca and Ole and Uncle Bryce and Aunt Chelsey met us at Bellewood for lunch and Gage ordered a burger. It cracked me up how specific he was. First of all, he never orders burgers. Today though he said, "I want a burger for lunch, mom."  It was like, "now that I am big and three I am going to eat burgers." Then when I ordered the waitress said, "without cheese?" and I replied, "that's fine," to which Gage interrupted, "no! that's not fine I do want cheese on my burger!" Cracked me up the whole thing.

After lunch Uncle Bryce and Aunt Chelsey came back to our house and played with Gagey and his new toys and then Chelsey got to lay him down for nap.

This Gagey guy is so loved. He is funny and full of whit and he is constantly making us laugh and roll our eyes with what he comes up with.

Jeff laughed that I put a candle on a big football plate with our dinner which consisted of carrots and crackers and tuna fish. I am not a pro at this mom thing and I am certainly caught off guard everyday with my children and their various needs but today I figured that playing with Gage and his new toys all day was more important than making a big dinner. And none of the kids even noticed that we didn't even eat cake.

There is nothing quite like seeing your kids love each other. It's just really the best thing ever.

Braxton wrote on the chalk board his own message:

Happy Birthday Gage
The best football player ever!

This is my heartbeat song and I'm gonna sing it..

The neighbor found me at church and asked me if everything on the farm was okay. She said she saw that the chickens had gotten out. I wonder if she saw the farmer throw the jack across the field as well? That part she didn't mention, neither did I. If she knows anything about the farmer she would know that he must have been at his whits end and if she knows anything about farming she would know that such is the name of the game sometimes. She is older than me, and wiser, because I am figuring out that those two things go hand in hand.

It wasn't the first day that the chickens had gotten out but it was the first day the chicken tractor collapsed when the jack broke and the first day that our kids didn't get breakfast until almost noon. I wouldn't have chosen for my kids to be so hungry but in the scheme of things it's not all bad and I think more kids these days should have the opportunity to work hard, even if it means waiting on breakfast until all the chickens are back and safe within their fence.

Later I taught my kids a lesson. Something along the lines of the chickens are in the fenced area with food and shelter and water because that is the safest area for them to be. Likewise, mommy and daddy have rules for you to follow because we want you to be safe and we know what is best for you. Venture out of the fence rules and you will be some coyote's dinner. More or less. I think they got it though and they will most likely never break any of our rules. So I am glad that we all had that experience.

Then there was the day that the pig got out of the fence. While I was in the garden harvesting corn on the cob I could hear the pig snorting and it sounded as if he were right beside me. Come to find out he was right beside me, beneath the apple tree eating not only the apples but branches and leaves as well. Better those then Emmett's shoe I guess which he later tasted only to find dissatisfying. 

Being the confident, get in and get dirty, farmer that I am I quickly grabbed my two year old and ran to my house to find my cell phone and call my ever ready reinforcement, the real farmer, to come help me. He was on his way home anyway which was helpful and sure enough, without really even sweating it, Jeff saved the day with a stick he guided Wilbur back into the pen. I called my brother and then a girlfriend while I waited for him to come home figuring that if the pig attacked me someone would hear and get help so even if my life was taken, Gage's would be spared.

And that, you might think, is life right now. And it is. And it's wonderfully fun and entertaining and tiresome. But the real life, the one that weighs on my heart, is the one that accounts for the little chicks that I have here in the home. My little nest with my four little peeps that if I could I would just probably sit on for the rest of their long lives. Not really, of course. But with school starting this past week and our momma hen hatching 5 little chicks, I have been teasing my kids about being a momma hen myself. 

"Look at momma! She's tearing the french fries so that each little baby chick can have a small bite," they notice and I tell them that that's what momma's do. 

Braxton has surprised me that most with how concerned he is for momma. He was the one who found the hatched chicks first because he had been checking on momma and he heard the first peeps. Then after school he ran from the bus stop that day to see momma and hopefully one or more of the chicks. 

But I am not a hen and my kids are not chicks and I don't know if that makes things easier or harder but I know it makes this life better and fuller. Momma hen thinks she has it good because her chicks enjoy the french fries she gives them but I know I have it better because I get to see them hope and dream and become good people. People who care about each other. People who care about themselves. People who are anxious to get out and experience all there is out there in the big world including a new school, new friends, Kindergarten, riding the school bus, playing tackle football.... and the list goes on.  Momma hen doesn't get to take a tub with her one baby who is still at home during the day. She doesn't hear him say to her, "I am a big, nice, human shark!" as he splashes her and dunks under the water. Momma hen doesn't get to hear the voices from the back of the bus hollering, "Braxton, back here," as her 4th grader gets on the bus to find teammates in the back wanting him to sit by him. She doesn't get to see the smile of her daughter on day two of school when she made a friend and her expression went from uneasy to excited to go back. And lastly, that momma Hen has never taken her little cherub to Kindergarten only to have him look at her with eyes that go all the way to her heart, and confidently say, "mom, please can I ride the bus home instead of you picking me up?" 

They are not chicks and I am not a hen, but man do they have wings that are spread wide and man is it joyfully uncomfortable to sit back and watch them fly. 

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

KINDERGARTEN, 2ND GRADE, 4TH GRADE

NEW SCHOOL CLOTHES FOR THE BOYS

FROM OUR OWN PUMPKIN PATCH! HOPEFULLY THEY STAY GOOD UNTIL OCTOBER!

MY BIG KINDERGARTNER 

MR. COOL

JUST A LITTLE TERRITORIAL

GOOD JOB LADIES, 323 EGGS

 

AND GOOD JOB ME! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU COLLECT THE EGGS. THEY ALL COME UP AND PECK AT YOU!

BRAXTON HELPS HIS MOMMA OUT

WAITING FOR THE SCHOOL BUS

THIS MOMMA HEN HATCHED HER OWN LITTLE FLOCK

PIGS ARE FATTENING UP NICELY IN THE BACK

THE FARMER JUST PUT IN 240 FEET OF WATER LINE.

LIKE A BOSS

NOW WE HAVE WATER TO THE BARN AND TO THE GARDEN!!

Farm kids

 Baby Corbs loves the bauk bauks

 herding hens

 everyone has to help because we are way outnumbered around here

 too hot to snack outside some days so we snack on the floor in the kitchen with the fans

 the "girls' fort" aka just found a spot and took it as is

 wiped out cousins Carson and Gage

The boys' fort, aka a whole weeks worth of 9-5 labor and teamwork

 sister cousins Kate and Adelle

 the daily slop run, highlight of most days

zucchini for sale!! $30 profit earned

 Home sweet home

Ah! it pooped on my hand when I went in to swoop it up!

 My happy farmer taking it one swing at a time

 farmer Gagey

Emmett and Dad

 adventures on top of the silo

two of my loves

I attempted to mow the lawn with my ol push mower but it got stuck in tall grass so now  I am blogging instead. I would be on the rider lawnmower except that Farmer Jeff thought it would be a fun idea to let our 5 year old drive the lawn mower and therefore it is now broke and our lawn, more like, weeds, are out of control.

And I get it, "their farm kids" like he tells me, but when I am casually making dinner and I look out my window to my sweet Emmett driving the lawn mower, pulling the trailer filled with all the cousins, my mouth drops and I have to watch in slow motion as the kids are hollering at him which way to go and how fast and while looking back at them he drives up onto the concrete barrier and the next thing I know they crash and since then, no lawn mower. Not a bad crash, thankfully, and everyone is fine and sure, I'm the mom so of course I am over reacting but really. And when my husband takes a detour on our way home the other night to look at buying a new lawn mower it's all I can do to bite my tongue. I personally don't think buying a new lawn mower is the solution but then again, what do I know.

Bless Emmett. He did know what he was doing, it was the dang herd of kids he was hauling that messed it all up for him but if you know kids it was bound to happen.

And bless Braxton because he was sharing his chore, which he adores doing, with his little brother. And Braxton is really good at driving down and getting the slop for the pigs and hauling all the kids with him so bless him for doing chores.

And bless Adelle because she has shown me how she drives the lawn mower and dang that girl is fast and good at it but now that we don't have a lawn mower to drive she doesn't get to.

And bless Gage because he looks cute in the back trailer and thank goodness he hasn't asked to drive.... yet.

And bless my farmer. Bless him as he continues to learn the difference between toys and heavy machinery and bless him to realize that when I not so lovingly ask, "why was he even driving?" that I'm not undermining his role as a parent, I'm just curious to why little people are doing big things around here.

But most of all bless me. Bless me to let it go and move on and accept the fact that he will always be the kids favorite parent and I will always be the party crasher.

And please bless us to always remember these summer days. They are glorious.

One hundred and twenty days later

It's 6:00pm and I would be cooking dinner, but my sister is taking a turn. And I'm letting her. And each of our youngest are in the kitchen, at her feet, bugging her, but I'm letting that happen to. The other 5 kids are out in the fort that was just completed 20 minutes ago. They started building it last weekend and we've barely seen them since but once I saw the completed project my mouth dropped wide open and I was reassured that even though they haven't read their 100 pages of the summer, they are really using their brains in different ways. For example finding sticks, weaving them around branches to make walls and a roof of a fort. And I think that's one of the many awesome and amazing blessings I feel since moving onto the farm. I love that my kids can be outside. I love that we are all outside. All day. The boys will sleep in the fort tonight and that is really some kind of wonderful.
Instead of cooking dinner I am sitting down to record my thoughts because for the past 120 days I've intended to write my thoughts but it hasn't been on the top 100 things to do. So, it hasn't gotten done. And I've been outside. At 6:00am outside running on new country roads with no shoulder or in my backyard on the ladder picking cherries. Or hanging laundry, doing yoga,  picking blueberries, or reading quietly on the couch next to my oldest who is my early riser. Those are the mornings. When the other kids wake up they come outside too. They go on egg hunts to find where our hens are laying these days or they take the leftovers from last nights dinner out to the pigs. They run to the fort to get to work finding sticks or they find the blueberries and raspberries for their first breakfast. They run around barefoot and get dirty everyday and I think there is nothing better in the world.
The last 120 days have been lived, in a new way that I haven't yet accepted. Things aren't done, and the old me goes crazy when things aren't done! I wake up in the morning with a to-do list that grows throughout the day instead of shrinking. When people stop, and let me tell you... people stop by constantly,  they are greeted with everyone's excess of shoes out on the back patio and buckets from berry picking scattered on the lawn. There are slop buckets with feed for animals and kiddie pools filled with grass. There are tools everywhere because my husband leaves a trail to and from his projects and as he sees it that's just how it is on a farm. As I see it, there is lack of order and this farmer momma likes order.
The afternoons are different then the mornings and I think that's why I rise with the sun. The mornings are my time. There is something amazing about waking up with the rooster and going outside barefoot in the dew frosted grass.  I feel so blessed. The afternoons don't offer that. I still feel blessed I mean but differently. Afternoons are loud and busy and filled with fun. Kids squealing as they wiz by on the 4-wheeler (the warning says no drivers under 16 but Jeff says that doesn't apply to farm kids). Water being sprayed out of squirt guns. Chickens bawking and squaking, pigs feeding. The kids running from here to there in their boots. Yard toys, yard tools, same thing these days.
We have picnics in the yard almost every night at dinner time because the sun beats into our dining room and it gets bloody hot in there. Jeff comes home from work, tired from working, and goes to work outside or in the barn. There are projects galore but it's way more fun than working he assures me. The kids help out when they can and glean the garden if their hungry. We eat a lot of eggs and zucchini because we have a lot and we aren't picky. Emmett's gotten really into making zucchini bread with me and let me tell you when I ask him to put in a handful of chocolate chips he fills his little hand just as full as he possibly can.
We go through stages around here based on what nature presents us with. Cherries were first and convinced me that dreams come true.  I have always wanted a cherry tree and moving here we have 3 trees full of fruit. The way I saw it, it was free, ripe, delicious fruit from Heavenly Father. Given to me because He knows me and I am important enough to be blessed with my favorite fruit. The kids and I would pick. Gage would climb up that ladder when I wasn't watching and holler at me from the tree. Monkey boy! We would take turns. If you weren't picking you were sitting on the grass poking pits out of cherries with your thumb and putting the seedless fruit in the bucket. Jeff came home one day with the man lift from work and we were able, after failed attempts, to finally reach the fruit at the top of the bing tree. Jackpot. We made cherry pies for the night Brent and Jessica got into town and we got to meet Iaasic. Cherry salsa, cherry salad dressing, cherry crisp for breakfast... The kids got into making cherry limeade by blending pie cherries with some water, ice and fresh lime juice.
I will have memories forever of Bryce, Brent, Jessica, and Braxton all sitting in the shade pitting cherries. My freezer is loaded.
Then the blueberries came on and we picked blueberries every day. Everyone came and picked blueberries. For weeks we had them, more than we ever could have used. Visitors got up and picked buckets. Friends came with their kids to stock up for muffins. There were levels I determined on the blueberry plants. The bottom was for the chickens, and they would eat their little hearts out. Then up from that was the kids' pick. They would go out and eat their weight in blueberries. Then up from that was my level and those were all I needed. There was enough to go around and then some. We made muffins pancakes. The kids experimented with more juice and smoothies.
The blackberries overlapped the blueberries this year because it's been so hot. I decided I am sort of like a blackberry. Thorny boundaries making it sometimes hard to get in. Sour one day but super sweet the next. Rotten the day after that. Blackberry crisp is my favorite though and so when Adelle requested it for dinner one Sunday with ice cream it was a no-brainer, automatic yes. Jeff and I like to pick berries together. One day Braxton and I had plans to pick out by the road past the pasture but the day got away from us and when it was time for bed he reminded me that we never picked berries. I let him stay up that night and he got to come out and pick with Jeff and I. It was fun, and he felt as big as the moon. We picked into the dark with flashlights and then we let him drive us back on the 4-wheeler while we hung onto each other on the back.  It's fun to grow up with your kids.
Picking berries isn't the only thing Jeff and I like to do together. We also scoop up a lot of poop. One night, back a month or so, and of course one of the nights we didn't have guests to help us, the hose in the barn got a hole and leaked water all over the bedding where the chickens slept. So here we are at 10:00pm shoveling wet, soggy, poop laden bedding into the wheel barrow to haul out to the garden for compost. I can still smell it when I think about it and that's when I know I'm not really a true farmer yet. I'm still just a showy girl who wants credit every time she fills a wheelbarrow with poop. I think I deserve a medal. I want everyone to know that Jeff designed and built the whole chicken coop and we take turns every single day walking down to the creek, filling the 5 gallon buckets with water, walking back and filling the trophs so the chicks have drink. It's such hard, tedious at times, work but it's gratifying in the same way as raising a child. Fulfilling and worth it, even the hard parts.
One hundred and twenty days sounds like a lot but I don't know where the days have gone. I know they have been the longest days of my life but they have gone the fastest. The days are filled and enjoyed. Jeff and I still pinch ourselves sometimes at the end of the day. The kids are asleep upstairs when we come in from our most recent project outside. The stars shine bright and the sky is black. Our bodies tired in that good old way that I never really appreciated before. We feel like we are in a dream world, living the life we've been wanting to live. Like really doing it. I know that I prayed for a house to be able to host and I have never hosted so many people in my whole life. And finally, now, after 60 total days of overnight guests I am letting my sister cook dinner. We've had visitors galore and I joke that the spare bedroom is the only room in the house with clean sheets because I am constantly washing them and changing them for new guests. People come to see and help. We love having company and sharing the farm. We love our life and this season. There is beauty all around and we are grateful.

Once upon our Farm

This one time we had the greatest little home. Two of our children were born right there and many happy years of our lives were shared within those walls. It was our little haven. The place where all of our kids slept together in one room, on one bed. Not because it was the only room available, or the only bed available, but because they were most comfortable all together, limbs draped over each other.
We had a little yard where we played every day. Leaves to rake and jump in in the fall. Snow to bury ourselves in in the winter. Four raspberry plants that we started and that grew to four hundred. A garden that we built and that got bigger every year. A flock of chickens that sometimes laid eggs for us and sometimes didn't.
Our dad (my love) came home to us happily every day, sometimes early, sometimes not, and for the past year or so when the kids would greet him he would reply, "We bought a farm today!"
"Dad, really?" "Mom, is he joking again?" "When are we moving?" "Dad! Why do you always say that?" The kids would get excited and ask questions and I would smile and later, after they were in bed, I would ask him why he always did that to the kids. Why was he getting all of our hopes up every day? Jeff would always reassure me, "Because one day, it's going to be true," he would say.

And then one day. All of a sudden. It was true.

There had been a lot of other farms we were, "going to buy." A handful of, "okay, this is really it!"s. There were days, or maybe months years that we thought we were the ones in charge, only to find that that didn't ever get us anywhere. The Lord didn't find our farm for us. It was here all along. He prepared us though, for this new adventure and it's funny how we never know what we are being prepared for.

After preparing all year we put our greatest little home on the market last July, after returning from what might be the last vacation we ever take. We listed it by owner and hoped that the right family would find it and fall in love, like we had 9 years prior. Nothing happened. Then one day an older lady came with cash and seriously considered buying our home. No master bath led her to change her mind and keep looking.
Jeff fell in love with a place out in Everson. I wouldn't really call it even a place, but rather, a gigantic project. It was a nice piece of land with a want to be house. It was a long ways out of town. He really wanted it. The investment of it pulled him in. We prayed about it. It seemed fine. I knew I could be happy there if that's where we were supposed to be. We debated back and forth and decided to make an offer. They accepted. The offer was for 60 days and contingent on us selling our house. Our house didn't sell. No one called on our house. I prayed and prayed, wanting confirmation that our decision was right. One Monday, about 50 days after we made our offer, I pleaded with the Lord to comfort me and to reassure me that we were to move out to Everson. It didn't come. The feeling that I received was so obviously the opposite. We were truly not supposed to live there. It was this most peaceful feeling of "it's not time." When Jeff got home from work that day, (it was a Monday), I told him what I had done and what I had felt. He was considerate of my feelings and we decided to drive out to the house and take some measurements to affirm that our construction plans were adequate. They weren't. We left there feeling like we had to get out of the offer. It wasn't going to be what we wanted. That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, after talking, praying... Jeff called the realtor and we pulled out of our offer. On Friday, the first lady who ever looked at our house, who wanted the Master Bath, came to our home, with cash, and made us an offer we couldn't refuse. Done.

Part way done, that is. Our house sold. It was as if Heavenly Father was waiting for us to pull out of the offer so that we didn't end up someplace we weren't supposed to be. The lady who bought our house wasn't ready to move in so she offered to let us rent back from her until April. Totally ideal for us as well, given by this time it was November and we were starting to get busy with holiday planning and sustaining ourselves during winter weather.

The week after our home sold my aunt called and asked if I could come fill in as a waitress at her restaurant for 12 weeks. My cousin was having back surgery and needed her shift covered. Because Jeff was slow with work and the hours were later in the day it became an opportunity for me to earn a little extra money without taking away from my family. It seemed like the right thing to do so I said I could help out.

Back behind her cafe, off the beaten path of a busy road, was a long driveway with a little sign on the gate in front that read, "For Sale By Owner," and an email address to inquire about the details. Jeff noticed the sign one day after being at the cafe. He inquired. Never would we have found this opportunity if I hadn't have been asked to work at my aunt's cafe.

And that my friends is how we found our greatest little farm. Come to find out the owner of the property is a lady that I worked for when I was in college. She had raised her 3 girls in this home and was ready to downsize after being here for 40 years. She had been hesitant about listing with an agent because she didn't want someone with a lot of money coming in and wanting to change what she so loved. She was prayerful that a little family would find the farm and be able to negotiate a deal with her to buy the farm and raise their kids, the way she had done.

The first time we came to the farm was on December 6th, on our way out to meet friends at a light parade. All 6 of us showed up, the owner greeted us, gave us a tour and when Adelle walked into the room upstairs with the dainty wallpaper and canopy bed she exclaimed, "Ah! This is the princess's room!" And from that point on the lady we purchased from was in love with us. The next time we came with our business plan was that next Monday and when we didn't have our kids with us she was disappointed  because she had made them cookies to decorate for Christmas.

The rest is history. After a lot of negotiating and working things out it became apparent that the seller had been praying for us just as we had been praying for this opportunity. Neither of us lacking a family or support but finding in each other a common thread of work, love and faith. When we came to meet with her and crunch numbers lots of evenings I would bring her the leftovers from our dinner and she would be so grateful. I didn't need a new couch but she chose to leave it for me because she wanted to and because she thought it matched so well with the carpet. We brought boxes over before the deal was even done and when I had to clean my old house I borrowed her steam mop.

There is money involved, obviously. And loans and interest and the sort, but this farm is a miracle and one that we will forever feel grateful for opening our eyes to receive. I knew back in October that it wasn't our time to move. But this April, when we signed the papers, we were right where we are supposed to be.

Sledding away the past and Plunging into the future

New Years Eve 2014 was spent driving up to Mt. Baker to do some night sledding by moonlight. We stopped along the way at one of our families favorite spots to watch the eagles.

Driving up to Baker was so beautiful. It was clear and everything was lightly dusted with white enough to make it seem like we were far from home.

Night sledding was such a blast. The kids were total sports and loved every minute of it. Adelle and Braxton especially got really into it.

Braxton wanted to go the fastest and the furthest. It's so funny how daring these kids are. I, on the other hand, once was fun and daring and now I am a total scardy cat. Before I went down for the first time I stood up at the top and my mind was racing. I was thinking, "it's okay, your kids just did it!" and "You have done this hundreds of times in years past..." 

So, I did do it. And it was fun. But. I am sure not as daring as I used to be. Funny how that happens I guess. 

Jeff on the other hand, hasn't grown up as much as me I guess. Just kidding. He is still such a kid at heart and was building jumps and trying the whole time to make the ride more thrilling than it already was. 

The idea of the trip was Bryce and Chelsey's. Obviously they don't have kids and only had to ensure their own selves were warm and their own tummies were fed... but we were happy to join in the fun and needed someone else to instigate the adventure.

My mom and dad came along too and I was impressed with how much stamina they had climbing up that mountain. It really was a good workout!! I have so many good memories of night sledding as a kid and it's fun to think that I will be doing it with my grandkids someday. 

Gage is ticked off in this picture. Jeff took him down on his lap and Gage was sprayed with snow in his face the whole ride.

Happy little snow people!

After sledding Jeff and I were certain our kids would be exhausted and fall asleep on the drive home but no such luck. It's as if they could sense that the night wasn't over. That and the fact that they are very good listeners when it comes to things that Jeff and I are discussing and one of them, I think Braxton, overheard that we were all coming back to our house to have a late dinner and play games until it was time to ring in the NEW YEAR. So no sleepers.

Gage went down once we got home but the other three stayed up until Midnight!! They laid on the airbed and watched a movie while we adults played Balderdash, and then we all played a game of fruit basket before toasting in the new year.

Cheers!

New Years Day was gorgeous and clear. We went out to my parents to do the Polar Bear Dip. It was so rejuvenating and nice. Jeff and I both said we should do it more often. It felt shockingly cold but so good and fresh.

My mom is such a go-getter. She was the first one in and I will take the proud 2nd. She practically ran in as soon as we got down to the beach. 

Braxton, Jeff and Bryce kept each other company on the shore the longest. Poor Braxton was freezing but apparently he has a little Froberg in him and he wasn't going to let us all pass him up so he got in, but only waist deep. 

Here's to a risk taking, faith building, family strengthening New Year!