snow baby

I took Lucy out for a little snow time while I shoveled our driveway.
According to that big smile on her sweet face I will make the
assumption that she liked it.

one gone....one to go

Canyon lost his front tooth the other day... the long awaited one that has been loose FOREVER! He was getting some good movement going but still had awhile. Nothing a good knee to the face while doing a summersault at a rock-n-roll birthday party won't fix. Not to mention he lost more than the tooth in this little accident. But at least the tooth finally fell out right? (no party holders are held responsible for this minor incident.)

blue hat

This Saturday we were all ready to go riding/skiing except for Lucy she only had her diaper on. So we play a joke on Ellie. We put this blue hat on her and told Ellie that Lucy was all ready to go. Of course Ellie panics at the mere thought of Lucy being at the lodge wearing only a diaper and a hat. She tries her hardest to convince us that it is not acceptable for Lucy to wear this. So we cave...and Ellie beams with victory. Before I got her dressed she looked SO cute, I quickly had a little photo session. I was surprised how much I ended up loving them so I had to post a bunch.

new years and a snowman

This is where we spent our new-years...what a great little get away to start off the new year.!! Which leads to one of my goals for the new year....go and see more places like this and this. I wish here to learn to do this but I know it will have to wait. I also want to visit old favorites like this one.
Another must for the new year a gym pass.

There were other things that were a part of our new years get away.. like this snowman. Canyon and Ellie like to call him Mr. Tickle bush... that's what they have named every snowman in the past few years..... Your guess is as good as mine on that one.
Other cabin activities included.....
Snowmobiling, Fireworks for bringing in the New Year (big ones), collecting aspens, building a snow fort, tubing, and food food and more food and that = gym pass for the new year.

Canyon had a great time.. his favorites: the snow fort, getting huge icicles, and shooting his brand new Red Ryder at soda cans and man-made targets only!! (at the request of his mother). I did make the exception for a poisonous animal if he happened to encounter one.

Lucy experienced her first snowmobile ride. That is the only form of transportation into the cabin she had no choice. We bundled her up and she did great coming in and getting out... and brrr.. it was a little chilly. Good thing singing pat-a-cake will take her mind off almost anything including below freezing temps it seems.

Hoping for a great 2008!

snow bunny

Ellie Apsen loves the snow.... She is very good a trudging through waist deep snow, trail blazing the way. She thinks it's funny to be unbalanced and almost falling every step I guess. She wont even accept to be helped when she is really stuck....and somehow every time she pulls off the great escape all by her big girl self. Then she always seems to make it back to a big cup of hot coa coa waiting for her... Her very favorite on a snowy day.

winter earth

A little holiday get away...led me to this lovely winter spot.
With a hint of fall left behind.

Cox Christmas

We had a great Christmas.... the kids loved it and were so excited but once again we had to wake them up on Christmas morning along with Grandma and Grandpa Cox...and tell them all that Santa came. Christmas is so magical with kids.... Canyon heard Santa come in his room twice.. and he was scared so he kept his eyes closed.. Ellie put out reindeer food.. and loved seeing the tracks they left in the morning..How fun is Christmas when you still believe?

Canyons highlight..... the surprise wii as the last present for the family... he still brings up Santa's writing on the card he said he loved Santa's fancy cursive handwriting.. he was sad when he found out I threw it away.. whoops.. sorry canyon.

Ellie's highlight.... How the tracks looked like the reindeer just flew away like magic.. the Barbie laptop.. and the new Island Princess dress.

Lucy's highlight... Probably music, lights and lots of paper to squish and hit.

I loved celebrating Christmas with our little family and the feeling it brings into our home.

Christmas Card 2007

This was our Christmas card this year. We come up with something every year and Shane puts it together. Shane has been quite creative in years past so when Christmas time rolls around and people start asking about the "new Christmas card" we start to feel the pressure to come up with something great. I dont know if this one topped some of the past ones but I liked it a lot. Leave it to Shane to take my ideas and vision and make it even better.

Almost 8

I just can't believe how old Canyon is getting..when I hold him his long skinny legs almost hit the ground. I miss him so small and cuddly. I wish I could go back for a moment and see his big toothless grin or watch him toddle around. Back to the time when it was just me and him all day long and my face was the one he saw the most. But I do love who is now and spending time with him doing older almost 8 year old stuff. I guess lately I have just noticed how much older and independent he is and I miss him. Maybe I should just be grateful that he still likes me .... instead of all those girls that follow him around at school (who can blame them). I am looking forward the the long break off school and work coming up and the time we will spend together as a family doing the stuff we love to do... maybe that will help me get my Canyon fix I need right now. That is just one more of the reasons why I love this time of the year..time off from the daily grind to just be together... Merry Christmas.....

yummy rice cereal

Lucy had her first bite of yummy yummy (bland yucky) cereal!! She just loved it... can't you tell.

Yes..... this special occasion was a family affair.. in this picture every person had their mouths open waiting for Lucy to open hers.. Geez what pressure for your first try at food with all those staring eyes wide open mouths... good thing she strives under pressure.

Horay! she did it.... well kind of anyway. She is probably just happy that there is no longer a
strange sloppy substance being put in her mouth.

skiing days

Ellie did so great! Started out the season right where she left off last year.. She already had her first yard sale of the year.. but she wasn't scared... she got back up and raced down the hill. Brave girl Ellie

Canyon started off going for any powder he could see good boy Canyon!

Lucy hangs out in the lodge.. she stares at all the people. She takes mental notes on how all the stuff works...I'm sure of it.

tis the season

What a beautiful first day out! Fresh tracks in lots of powder oh.. it felt good.
It even felt nice to have sore legs the next day!

Our new stomping grounds where we hang out with Lucy awaiting our turn. Not a bad spot to wait... We even found a perfect corner with a window to claim for the season.

Waiting for the lifts to open... huge tree fell on a chair lift = 2 hour delay.! Laying in snow piles and catching snowflakes will pass the time.

Lucy spent most the time having sweet dreams in the lodge but she did hang outside for a bit and ate some snow. She was so good to hang out in the lodge for hours on end.. Thanks Lucy!

little miss brown eyes

Is 6 months old

A half a year old and very charming. Lucy is our tiny little peanut but is doing very big girl stuff like.....eating yummy cereal...sitting up.....drinking large glasses of milk.... entertaining the entire family... and she even gives big sloppy kisses. Could this be love... I think it must.

brrr..... its cold outside

Canyon and Ellie got in the hot tub the morning after the last storm... Canyon spent a while talking Ellie into getting out and jumping on the trampoline with him. It took some convincing but finally she was up to the challenge...but she wanted him to hold her hand of course. The rest of the pictures tell the story. The way Ellie's face looked in some of the pictures made me laugh so hard...(double click for the full effect.)

whew!! finally warm again... mission completed!

winter wonderland

thoughtful canyon

I think Canyon has to be one of the most thoughtful 7 year olds out there. The other night Shane was gone to a meeting and I was doing 10 things at once..while holding Lucy. Canyon was doing his homework and he looked up at me contemplating something and said "Mom is it hard being a mom?" I said, "do you think it is ?" His reply was so sweet he said " Yah I think it looks really hard and I am glad you are the mom because your good at it". How thoughtful and sweet is that?? I don't think when I was 7 I gave it a ounce of thought if it was hard or not for my mom. Canyon has always been my little sweetheart it's his beautiful gift in life. I could not love this boy more...I am a lucky mom.

let it snow...

I love this new snow SO much! Looks like we need to get the gear out.. all the boards waxed up and ready to go! Starting this weekend you can find our family here somewhere on this mountain. We have never had passes at Sundance but this year is the year due to lack of funds and an infant by our side we our saying goodbye to our longed loved resort the Canyons and exploring Sundance this year. Sure it might not be quite as big or elaborate as the other resorts but I am looking forward to the coziness and beauty of this resort and lets face it.. a pass somewhere is a better than a pass nowhere. Oh, and when most of your time on the hill is spent with your 4 and 7 year the greatest tree stash and the steepest and deepest just aren't as important... (but still important.. I will miss them. ) I'm sure it will be a fun year and Canyon and Ellie are SO excited. The bonus side to Sundance is that your pass is good for the whole year for hiking and biking I guess this will be the year of Sundance for our little family.

one of those days

Today was one of those days that almost everything goes wrong and you really wish you were anywhere but the place you stand. Lucy was awake sick most of the night so with a null amount of sleep I stumbled out of bed this morning foggy headed. Some of the rest of the days events consist of ...
. a big glass of milk spilled on the floor
. an exhausting event of convincing ellie it was to cold for a skirt (we settled on knee highs and boots with the skirt.)
. a strange man at my door trying to sell me meat. (and woke lucy up from her morning nap)
. clogged toilet (serinity now... serinity now..)
. ran out of hot water in the middle of shaving my legs (ohhh.. I hate that)
. way to much laundry
. and crushed Christmas bulbs (compliments of the neighbor boy).
Maybe it doesn't seem that bad.... and I guess on most days these things happen and I take them with stride maybe it was the lack of sleep that magnifies everything 10 times but it seemed like the worst! It was the day where lucy's nap and ellie's pre-school could not come soon enough. It came and then.... Lucy woke up and Ellie got home and surprisingly thats what made me happy... the sound of the door closing and Ellie yelling my name and telling me about her day... and little lucy's big smile appearing on her face combined with her kicks of excitement as she sees me coming to get her from her crib.(feeling much better) It made me think how ironic it is that the little bundle that triggered my stumbling wreck of a day is one of the 3 things that made my day (my kids).

this face.... the beginning and end to my bad day.
(and she was sick so sad...it wasn't her fault )

Thanksgiving Weekend 2007

We had a good thanksgiving weekend the best part was just being together and relaxing. Okay I know that most people love thanksgiving but I am just not one of those people. I usually want to go somewhere so there is more to Thanksgiving than just a dinner. But this year we relunctantly stayed home and I must say it ended up being pretty great. A lot of down time with a few activities in between. Thanksgiving day... dinner of course, football, bad mitten, pie, more football, games. The rest of the weekend kangaroo zoo, BYU-UTAH football game, lights at temple square, naps, hot chocloate, hot tubbin and on Sunday we got out the Christmas decorations and turned on some Christmas tunes..! That was fun.. the kids were so excited.. I think that is the best part of Thanksgiving as Ellie says it so well "When Thanksgiving is over it's time for Christmas". I LOVE Christmas! I think I need to create other traditions for Thanksgiving weekend other than the dinner and I will like it better. Maybe I will follow in the footsteps of this year.. it was a success. I think I will trade the Kangaroo zoo in for a great movie though. So Happy Holiday Season everyone that great time of the year is finally upon us.

Thanksgiving food yummers.. look at that cute pie crust
compliments of the chef (sister in law michelle).

Canyon, Ellie and Lucy lovin the lights.

Beautiful lights..

Our little tree for the season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving To all....
I'm thankful I didn't have to get my turkey this way!
and for lots of other things too.. like this long
weekend coming up!

lucy found her toes

lucy has found her toes...I think they are her favorite 10 new things. It is so cute to see her completely entertained by them. She prefers them over any toy... for now a least. She is 5 months this week, growing up so fast.. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It makes me a little sad.

fall swing

I usually have the November glums right about now... dark to early.. not a lot to do outside due
to cold weather and NO snow... but.. thanks to this nice weather this first part of November has been pretty good. Working in the yard, bike rides, and the swing of course. I guess we are just trying to soak up the golden sun rays before the November glums set in, they are coming I know sad but true. I guess the good side to it is the glums leave and the beautiful powdery white snow comes falling in. Here are some pictures of us enjoying sunny beautiful no glum days.

boo!

(our these my children ?)

We had a fun Halloween!

- carved some pumpkins
- created some porch decor
- trick or treating
- spook alley in old farm shed ooooooh... spooky..
- and finally dinner and shane's special halloween brew you can have fun with it for hours.
(dry ice and dish soap).

Boo! Canyon was a vampire quite possibly inspired by Edward.
When he got home from trick o treating he was very good at organizing
all of his candy in a long line.. 10 butterfingers, 4 red suckers, 6 nerds ect.
I used to do that when I was little..so it was cute to see his strategies to see how
much candy he really did have, and it was a lot!! I think he might need some help
to finish it off.

Ellie was Phocohantus she was quick to correct anyone
her called her an Indian by informing them that she was
phocohantus and phocohantus is a princess. I dont think
she wanted to ruin her reputation around the neighborhood
by not being a princess.

Lucy had her first Halloween and her first Cold at the
same time..poor lucy.. I guess she was a little
coughing mouse.

our porch decor. canyon and ellie thought
these were so funny. ooooh so scary I'm
surprised we got any trick o treaters!