Skiing

Nate took Ben skiing for the first time yesterday. After lamenting the fact that they didn’t have a GameCube there, Ben had tons of fun. His favorite things were riding the lift and blowing on the fire in the lodge. Nate fashioned a little harness out of the strap from the camera bag and the one from the duffel bag. It worked great to help Ben learn the ropes.

The rest of us had a fun girls' night. Emily and Elise spent an hour making cute cards for Nate's birthday. Then we ate some quality take 'n' bake pizza and watched Ever After.

Ben in his ski gear.

Blowing on the fire.

Ben and Nate on the lift. Brrrrrr.

Cousin Slumber Party

The kids had a fun cousin slumber party this weekend. They played pool and MarioKart for most of the night and then watched Harry and the Hendersons and Ratatouille. We moved four mattresses into the movie room to make one giant bed. They had a fabulous time. Grandma Reatha came to play too, which made it lots easier for the grown-ups in this house. Ben was the only one still awake at the end of the second movie at 11:30 p.m. Emily was a close second and stayed up past 11:00. We have crazy, party animal kids. Abby wins the prize for being able to sleep through extreme noise. We are glad that the kids have fun cousins to play with. Having nine kids to feed and entertain for a day makes taking care of just four seem like a breeze!

Happy Birthday Ben!

We had a fabulous time celebrating Ben’s 7th birthday yesterday. Ben got to plan the whole day. He opened presents first thing. Nate made crepes for breakfast . . . mmmmmm crepes. Ben built his new Darth Maul lego ship (aka "the coolest ship I’ve ever had"). We went to Taco Time for lunch and then went swimming at the Clearfield City Aquatic Center. The kids had tons of fun at the pool. We finished the night with pizza, a cool Star Wars cake, and a sibling slumber party. It was a fun family day.

Ben loved the independence of being tall enough to go anywhere he wanted in the pool.
He is a fish in the water.

Elise finally mastered balancing in a life jacket, but still wasn’t great at getting around.
Emily was a good sister and gave her a little rescue tow whenever she needed one.

Abby was happiest hanging out next to the hot tub and having us splash warm water on her legs. (I’m not sure what’s happening with the off the shoulder look. We’ll have to have a little talk about modesty.)

Ben loved his Star Wars cake and the matching shirt from Grandma Reatha.

Abby got to have her first taste of ice cream. She was not a fan.

(She's not crying, just pulling a face.)

Snow Fun

We had an awesome snowstorm today . . . 19 inches of new snow in less than 24 hours! It made for an adventurous day. Ben’s bus couldn’t make it up our street this morning, so the kids all ran down to the bottom of the hill to get on. His bus driver had to call a city snowplow to come and drive in front of him to make it to the school. I guess that was enough fun for one day, because the busses wouldn’t bring the kids home. They had to wait in the gym for their parents to pick them up. Luckily, a neighbor with four-wheel drive volunteered to get Ben since our wimpy van wouldn’t have made it out of the driveway.

Once everyone was home safely and the shoveling was done, the snow became much more fun. Nate turned our massive snow pile into a mini luge run. It quickly became the most popular attraction in the neighborhood. The kids loved taking turns going down. They stayed out and played until their snow clothes were soaked through and their cheeks and hands were freezing cold. It was Abby's naptime, so she missed out on all the fun.

The swingset was a good yardstick to measure our snow totals.

Emily thought it was pretty funny to sink waist-deep into the snow.

Ben on his first luge run. (Don't be deceived. Nate was on the second step of the ladder he had set up for the kids to climb the hill. We didn't really have a lame, waist-high sledding hill.)

Elise taking her turn. She was already "freezing" at this point and didn't last long.

The kids with our neighbor, Zack, from across the street.

Our Family

We like to think of ourselves as being on the cutting edge of technology, but we are way behind the times as far as blogging goes. It is time to take the plunge.

Here's a quick introduction of our family:

Nate is the fun parent in this house. When he went back to work after Christmas, Ben came up in the morning and said "Mom, maybe you should get a job so that Dad can stay home and play with us all day." That pretty much sums it all up. He works hard for our little family and in his free time likes to play with the kids, do home improvement projects, and finally enjoy a movie in our movie room (aka Nate's pride and joy).

Malinda is a stay-at-home mom who loves her job 92.6% of the time (but wouldn't trade it even during the other 7.4%). She likes to find great deals, listen to talk radio, make an occasional sale on ebay, and come up with ways to keep the kids entertained and happy. If she had a million dollars, she would pay someone to do all of the laundry that is made by a family of six for the rest of her life.

Ben will be 7 years old in 10 days (time flies!). He is a character and is the master of extremes . . . he can be the sweetest, most loving, tender kid in the world, but when he sets his mind to something, he can be one stubborn little stinker. He is a Star Wars fan/fanatic and has recently expanded his interests to include Spiderman. He loves playing GameCube, building Legos, reenacting lightsaber fights, and making Abby smile.

Emily is 5 years old. She goes to preschool two days a week and loves every minute of it. Her free time is usually spent drawing, painting, coloring, dancing and being a princess. She is a mini-mom and thinks everyone should follow the rules. She easily slips into the "I'm in charge" role when Ben is at school and can talk her little sister into just about anything. She is one sharp cookie and never misses a thing that happens in this house.

Elise is 3. She is our most self-entertaining kid. She never seems to get bored when Ben and Emily are both at school. She just spends the time making presents (post-it notes with scribbles on them) for "the whole family", taking care of her babies, and playing board games (with her own one-player rules). She occasionally reverts to the terrible twos, but is typically happy to go with the flow. She loves playing dress-up and gives the world's best hugs.

Abby is 9 months old. She is the life of the party at this house. Every new trick wins her oohs and aahs, smiles and applause from her brother and sisters. Recently she has entertained us by learning how to crawl, clap, make kissing noises and say "bye-bye" (or something close). She is truly the happiest baby we have ever met -- except with babysitters. What can I say? She's a mama's girl. Her favorite activity is to take a bath and she gets super excited whenever she hears the bath water turn on.