Is It Spring??

We have had some crazy weather, and by crazy I mean crazy good!  You never can complain about 70 degree weather in Jan.  Windows were open and the kids played hard.  The only thing suffering is school...which takes no breaks.  Brayden was off to school today with shorts-using his free dress pass.  The kids have been coming home and running the neighborhood with friends.  Slowly we are getting to know neighbors, so fun to have a little one tagging along with the girls yesterday who politely asked for a glass of milk ( if you know my kids love/dislike of milk you can imagine Andrea's face)  Andrea loves playing with the younger kids and the mom loves having her around to entertain them.  James is into basketball and shoots endlessly-only getting frustrated when his ball rolls onto the pool cover. And Becca has been keeping busy taking the turtles out...wish they would made a mad break for it and escape one of these days!  The tramp is in constant use and now the neighbor joined in the tramp fun so the kids have been breaking theirs in.
   The weekend was rough after vacation-reports, make-up work from school.  No one was too happy back.  The amount of work each kid had to make up was a bit overwelming for all of us but we have slowly managed to catch back up-although Brayden is still procrastinating over a test.  It is the month of projects-they sound so fun but when you have multiple kids working on extra projects besides normal daily work it just makes this stressful.  Andrea completed her community Helper project this week...YES!  one down.  She was super excited to go dressed as a nurse and wasn't too nervous to give her report to the class.

Just a quick pic of her-no parents could come it but it worked out that it was my morning to help out a bit in the class.  It was so fun to listen to the kids talk to each other about what they were.  Lots of Drs, Nurses and Vets....Andrea's favorites were a zoo keeper and a postal worker.

It was also field trip day for James-turned out a good portion of his class was sick so it was a small group that went.  He had such a blast at the childrens museum.  We have not been in a long time as many of the exhibits are geared for younger kids-being able to go without the other kids and enjoy his time made for a lot of fun for James.  He had most fun being a monkey on some hanging ropes.

The dinosaur exhibit was very scary and fun for most kids...the girls didn't really want to be in this room!

Link to video of Dinosaur at Children Museum

Red River NewMexico

We headed out this past weekend on our first family ski trip.  Okay, we have skiied before with the kids along but the plan this time was to get all of them up on skies and enjoy to enjoy the Mountain together.  We weren't too sure how it was all going to work.  It was a group event-four families with a total of 12 kids, some with ski experience and some with none.  You never know how exactly things are going to go and surprisingly it all went smoothly and even better...was tons of fun!  Some kids headed to ski school while other hung with parents, each progressed at their own pace but by the end of the second day most were able to head to the top and work down together.  Such a fun sight to stand at the top of the run with a group of kids and say go...then watch the bunch criss cross their way down.  Some fast, some slow, each turning their own style-some serious and some goofballs, falling and eating snow.
We stayed in a cabin and quickly filled it up with ski gear,  The weather was perfect not too cold and most afternoons gave way to sunshine and warmth.  We ended our time with a big winter storm-lots of snow all day while we skiied. A much colder day but most all the kids managed.
Brayden, Becca and even Andrea liked to try the jumps, of course Brayden was all about them and trying the jumps with rails.  He reminded me of a racer because he skiies low and leans way forward.  Andrea takes her time and does nice slow turns all the way down.  Becca is faster but a little crazy-we were always pulling her up onto the run or waiting for her as she would always go to far or ski the wrong way...which she thought was funny.
After the first day they all get a lesson from Ron on how to get up after falling-seems like something funny but they all had to learn how to get their skies before getting up or they would just keep sliding down the mountain.

We Drove all day and got to Red River early afternoon-in time to figure out all the equiptment...it was a bunch to keep track of.

The first morning-all ready to hit the mountain for the first time.  We decided to take the kids ourselves and work with them...if things went badly the plan was to stick them in ski school the afternoon.  It went surprisingly well-no tears and with the harness James was able to stay on his skies.

Every evening we would all head to the biggest cabin to all eat together.  Two of the family's have come before together and had things well planned!  Meals went slick and easy, tacos, pasta and then a BBQ chicken.  We all cooked in our own cabin and then came together to all eat and talk about the day...and watch GoPro videos.

Last day was a snowy winter wonderland-beautiful!




You never really knew what kids or family's you would run into.  We always skiied with our kids but usually would have some others come along depending on who we would run into or which kids wanted to do what runs together.  By the second day James was able to keep up off the tow harness.  His goal was to keep up with Ron and to not ski with me.  At one point I caught him trying to get on the lift by himself...and threw and fit when I told him he had to ride with an adult!

We would work our way down on the blues, stopping to regroup at the top of each run.  Brayden never wanted to wait and was always itching head down the Mountain.

The last day we tackled the copper chair-a little steeper, a couple runs that were not groomed.  The boys had a ton of fun trying jumps and the girls didn't even seem to mind.  James just came along-he was so bundled up I don't know what he was thinking-I couldn't see or hear him with all his gear.

Just some pics of the kids riding up the lift.

They never would wait for each other...always someone riding by themselves, which they didn't seem to mind.

They had the most fun skiing with friends-four girls all together and then the boys, all similar in ages.  The girls would ride together and then yell at all the skiers riding down the mountain and then just giggle and laugh.

 You just never know with Becca...she might fall, she might go fast and surprise she might just tackle a jump!

 A little snowy the last day... this is the look I got when I got close to him. He was all about about hanging with daddy.

Brayden warranted a helmet!

We had one scary incident...last day with all the snow Andrea managed to fall off the chair lift.  It is the gold chair lift that was just to the top of the first green run, you can see it in the video of James learning to ski.  The kids road it a bunch by themselves, up and down as it was the perfect beginner slope for them.  Not a fun time but thankfully she fell into a bunch of fresh powder saving her legs.  She was back up and skiing shortly-lots of prayers were surrounding her!

Everyone you can see Skiing down the slope is with us...so fun to see the group make their way down.

Ron has amazing patience and was just the best teacher.  He did his share of teaching not just our kids but most others as they would ski down with us.  It was so fun to see the kids learn from him...and of course to see how easy he made it look.

James learning to Ski Video



Becca

Emma

Andrea

Brayden

Andrea and James

Andrea, James, Ron and  Brayden

More Video of James Skiing
This was of him coming the The Face...a black that the kids were all trying to do.  You can hear the kids at the bottom yelling and cheering him on.


A little too much snow for the camera..last day lots of snow!

Mulder Christmas

Yes, we are almost halfway through Jan and I am still getting through Christmas pictures.  It is fun  to look back at all the fun with family.  Christmas brought a full house to my parents with everyone in town for a couple days.  It was lots of fun to just hang out together.  The weather was tolerable-meaning we could get out and play and walk, just no snow.

What a fun time for everyone to be together, be healthy and of course meet Will for the first time.  What a fun little guy, always up for a hug and never short on entertainment!

Just a quick pic of all the grandkids...and then everyone.  Funny thing, Matti - who spent most of the time just trying to find a quiet corner away from the kids mozzied into the shot just at the last minute. What blessings-so nice to take a break from life to come together to celebrate.

 Stocking are always a lot of fun Christmas morning, never know what crazy things might be in them.

One afternoon we were all out back playing at the park-Megan disappeared and when we all got back to the house this was how we found her...too much fun!

Lots of fun opening gifts.

Just a little kissing under the Big Blue umbrella.

Lots of playing and eating!

Just a little more celebrating and running off a little steam at the Bounce House for Zoe's Birthday. Who is happiest???  Tyler, because he got is first big can of POP!

Haveman Christmas

We were finally able to all get together with the Haveman Family after Christmas.  So fun to all be together after being scattered across the country.  Our enjoyment was cut short due to a horrible flu virus that ran rampid through the house...17 people, I dare say no one was spared.  Funny thing was the one person who I dread getting the stomach bug, Ron- somehow held it together and didn't have to take over a bathroom-which there was hardly enough for at one time during the night.  The cousins loved playing together, when they could.  The girls spend a ton of time playing and planning a play-complete with costumes and a heartfelt solo from the movie Frozen. There was plenty of work in the kitchen-thank goodness for dishwashers.  The were still able to decorate cookies and everyone enjoyed some super yummy breakfasts, complete with tons of bacon!  The boys were into a big, LONG battle game...they lived in the basement, when they weren't playing video games or braving the cold outside. They did manage to make it out to the hills before sickness hit to do a little hunting.

The boys!

The Girls!

All the girls with Becca's scarves, she had the most fun figuring out who would get which color scarf.

 Thankfully most everyone was functioning for the Christmas party. Although bringing everyone together was fun the results reared their head later that evening... creating a whole other set of memories that where not as fun filled as the day!

 From painting nails, lego's marshmallow guns, yummy food, special/thoughtful gifts the days was full of fun and smiles.

Jump Rope link

BunkBed present video

Marshmallow gun link

Tulsa Christmas

The holiday season has been so full of fun and parties it is a little hard to remember when we are started!  The kids we super excited to open gifts in Tulsa before heading out to Michigan.  Ron had been working on an indoor basketball game downstairs all day on Saturday and the kids were having a hard time waiting.  Sunday morning they woke up and ran downstairs to figure out what all the noise and work had been....it was a fun surprise!

 Becca is the craft girl of the house-home made manger scene that she made with a friend one afternoon.  It is amazing how different it is having girls over verses boys!

Never ending Christmas cookies, We made a batch that turned out HUGE! lots of sweets.

 This was the bunch waiting patiently...church, dinner and then finally gifts.  They had the most fun giving gifts to each other as secret santa's this year.

They were pretty excited to give Lilly this toy seeing as she kept eating and chasing Brayden's Frisbee...sad to say she played and destroyed this one as well.

An old game that is still a lot of fun.

They don't have a lot of ear for pitch or tune but they still love to sing!
Brayden had learned this poem for School-he was pretty proud of learning it, sad to say like most things we memorize it doesn't stick around long!
Braydens Christmas Poem

Simplify has been the goal for a while for us and being able to stay home and hang out is always something the kids love, although having friends around might top that.  But being able to just play and not have a schedule or clock to catch has been wonderful.

Brayden got a Rubik cube for Christmas, we are not to great at solving although Ron is making headway.  Brayden's solution is to have his little lego computer/robot solve it.  we will see if that is any easier??

 This is what the girls love-endless crafts, endless school.  Becca is always holding school-mostly so they can have movie time or snack time.

 James has figured out how to play baseball on the Wii.