Winter time fun

We have been enjoying our Colorado winter.  It's not quite as "snowy" as we thought it would be, but we have had a couple of good storms that have been fun!  One thing we have noticed is how DRY the snow is out here.  It is very hard to build a snow fort, build a snow man or have a snowball fight.  The snow just doesn't pack!  Sometimes if we wait a day or too, the snow will get wet enough to pack, but it just depends.  It sure makes for some fun sledding though, and we have a great hill right next to our house!  Bonus!

 I do have an honorable mention photo.  Anya got a snake right after we got home from our New Years Trip.  Not exactly sure how I feel about it yet, but she is happy, and I am getting more used to it.

Hunter got stuck on one of our snow piles.

He thought it was stellar!

 Yes, my boys still eat snow.

gross.

 Our one and only snow man we have been able to build this year.

The snow is just so dry it won't pack!

We enrolled all the kids (except Anya ) and myself into ski school this year.

The boys loved, Cora hated it, Hannah was on the fence (which surprised us!) and I finally learned how to ski.  Kinda funny since I grew up in Utah, just down the road from several ski resorts!

Aren't they so cute!

This is one for the record books folks!
The whole Jeppson Crew in skis!
I am not sure you will ever see this again...

There goes Jack.

He is so athletic, he took to it like a pro right away!

 The boys both loved the ski lift.

There goes Dad and Jack.

There goes Dad and Hunter.

Matt and Anya are the "pros" in our family.  They got season lift tickets this year and have gone so much.  They have really enjoyed their time on the mountain this year.

 Hannah and I.  I can't believe I know how to ski now.  It is fun, I don't absolutely love it, but I can see myself going like once a season or something.

The miraculous thing is Hannah is skiing!  She was absolutely against it, but we convinced her to try it and she doesn't mind it.  We even got her to go once more after her ski lesson!

 Grandma Overton gave the boys these sleds for Christmas.

We have gotten some very good use out of them!

At the bottom of our hill...

 Marching back up the hill, to go down again.

 My boys do love the snow!

 This is the view at the end of our cul-de-sac.  It sure is neat to live up in the mountains!

 We went to a ski resort to go tubing this year.  It about cost us an arm and a leg, but we bit the bullet and did anyway.   We tried it, we had fun, but we are going to ferret out the free hill from now on!

 We sure do love winter time activities in the Colorado Rockies!

New Years Trip to Utah

Since we opted to stay home for Christmas, we decided we would travel to Utah for New Years.  Honestly, since we have moved to Colorado, we have been back to Utah every month from June to January.  We figured our extended family was probably getting sick of us anyway, they haven't seen so much of us since who knows how long!  Anyway, we spent about a week in Utah, hanging out with family, sight seeing and just having a good time.

 While there, our Overton side of the family decided to have Christmas 2.   We woke up, had breakfast all together and opened presents...just like we would if it was Christmas.  My sweet sister even had stockings filled with fun goodies and tinkers for all the kids.

This year Aunt Trudy and Uncle Oz had some exciting news.  Grandma opened a present and learned she was going to have a new grand baby later this year!  Trudy is pregnant!  We are all so excited.  A few days later (New Years Eve in fact) we learned that my brother and his wife are expecting a baby this year too.  2 new grand babies...so exciting!

 I am so lucky to be married to this guy for time and all eternity.

 My oldest and I

 I think the last time we went to see the Christmas lights at Temple square in SLC was when Cora was a baby!  That was 9 years ago!  I really wanted to go again this year.  We had a great time, even though it was cold, snowy and wet!  Matt's sister and her family came, and my Sister and her hubby came, so we had a big group.  I don't know why I didn't try to get a shot with all of us together, but here is my little family at least.  Well...the ones you can see that aren't too bundled up anyway.

I love to see the Temple.

Our first family picture of the New Year.

I hope 2015 is a great year for everyone!

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

This is my most, absolute, favorite time of year...besides summer break,  I love having my kids at home with me!!  Too bad I don't feel disciplined enough to teach them, or I would keep them home with me everyday!  Anyway, I digress...IT'S CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!  I love starting and keeping traditions with my little family.  We have been having so much fun the past couple years doing Christmas on our own.  First off, we stay in our pajamas ALL day!  I love it.  We see what Santa leaves us, peek in our stockings and then we eat breakfast.  Cinnamon rolls and fruit salad are usually on the menu, with the occasional bowl of cereal.  After breakfast we read our last few scriptures about Christ's birth and what that means for us today, and then the present frenzy begins.  I love it!  Did I say that I love it yet...because I really do, love it that is.

We like to take our time and do it slowly, we open gifts one at a time.  With the boys this year, it went extra slow...they wanted to unpackage and unbox everything!

I think Santa came....

This picture is so dark, but it is the only wide angle shot I took.

Here is a better one.

I love our tree...we left it up until the third week of January this year...

Getting ready to open our first gifts!

The boys had to try it on!

Here they are as their beloved "White Guys".

My things!  They sure loved their new pillows!

 Every gift HAD to come out of it's packaging...we just couldn't possibly go on to the next gift until everything was unboxed!

It took awhile, but it sure helped prolong Christmas, so I wasn't complaining.

 This guy...

 I sure do love him...more every year.

He is such a Character, cracks me up.

 I think Cora has a bit of her Dad in her...

Somebody tell this girl to stop growing up please!

 My awesome brother and his wife made this tray for me.  It is repurposed pallet wood and I love it!

 All the Christmas packaging mayhem.

our recycling only comes every other week...it took us a full month to recover!

 The boys got this beast from Santa.  Not quite sure what Santa was thinking, but they Love it!  They had to try it out right away, jammies and all.

 I sure do love Christmas and all that it brings.  Mostly I love the time spent together with my sweet family and the memories that we build together.  I hope we always feel this close together!

Merry Christmas, may we always remember our Savior's Birth.

Christmas Eve

Long over due, I know, but I have to add these glimpses in our lives for my kids...since this is basically our family journal.  We decided to stay home again this year for Christmas.  I am finding I like this more and more.  Traveling at Christmas gets so busy, and your always worrying about seeing this person or that family, and frankly you just run out of time.  Before you know it Christmas is over in all the rush.  When we stay home for Christmas break, we can just relax in those days before Christmas.  There is now huge rush, all the shopping has been done, we can just enjoy the season and enjoy the moment.  When we travel, we usually don't have our own kitchen at our disposal.  When we stay at home, like we have done for the past few years, we can bake cookies, make gingerbread houses, prepare yummy treats for Christmas and make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.  These are all traditions I have loved starting with my own kids.  And that is exactly what we did Christmas Eve.  We ended the evening with our traditional Christmas Eve soup, Driving around Christmas light hunting and watching "The Christmas Story".  

 I love to find the little Christmas touches the kids leave around the house.

Cora decided to decorate our (empty) bubble gum machine as Santa.

Don't you just love little boys in Long Johns?

I do!

We got snow for Christmas Eve this year, so the boys have to wear their long johns to play in the snow...it's part of the snow playing code.

 Hannah enjoyed teaching us how to use mini wheats as shingles.  

 Cookies for Santa

 Our Christmas Eve soup dinner

 Of course we get to open our Christmas Eve present.  This varies from year to year.  It's not always pajamas.  Sometimes it's a book, sometimes it's a toy...it just depends on if the kids need jammies or not.  This year, all the kids just happened to need winter jammies...so that is what they got, along with some cozy slippers!

 Ani is such a great big sister!

 We decided to leave out oats and carrots for Santa's Reindeer.  Shortly after we put everything outside, we looked out the window and saw these beautiful visitors.  We quickly grabbed more carrots and went outside to watch them eat.  They weren't Santa's reindeer, but we still felt pretty honored they chose to visit our home for Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!