New Years

We decided to brave the crowds and we headed out for dinner on New Year's Eve! Aaron loved sitting and cuddling with Nan while we waited for our dinner, and Ian was having fun beating Papa at tic-tac-toe! At least that is how Ian tells the story ;)

We never usually celebrate New Year's Eve since Tim is always working. Tim was working again this year and we were all pretty tired. The kids went to bed at the normal time 7:30 pm -I know mean mom. Then we stayed up and watched the movie "Dutch." Alright, I can remember watching this movie as a child with my parents and grandparents. It is a great movie -but not suitable for young children :/ We were all a little surprised and I may need to have a conversation with my parents and grandparents about parent supervision warnings. While we were all in bed and asleep by about 10:30 pm we all woke up to the loud banging at midnight. Fireworks were going off everywhere -so the kids sat out on the porch with Nan and watched the fireworks then headed to bed. 

What better way to start the New Year then skiing as a family! It was a beautiful day at Sundance and the boys had a blast skiing. Ian went down the mountain probably 10-12 times and everyone did their best to keep up with him. Aaron also went down the mountain probably 5-7 times. They could not get enough!

Ava and I had fun hanging out in the lodge and talking to people -it was a busy day and Ava attracted a lot of attention. Everyone one would come up and talk about how cute and happy she was -I could only agree and say "thank you" because it was all true :) 

Everyone coming down the mountain...Ian first (orange), Nan to the side (blue), Jim just behind them (red), and Tim with Aaron as the caboose. 

That night everyone was tired so the entire house was asleep by 7pm -with the exception of Ava and I. Too bad for all of them because she was a giggly little thing.

Then next day we relaxed and hung out around the house and celebrated Christmas again :) Nana and Papa got Aaron some Ninja Turtle weapons and Ninja turtle pillow pet that he loves! Yes, these weapons have also joined the ever growing pile of painful toys on top of the refrigerator. 

Ava discovered that her brothers also have fun toys -and was quite excited to get her hands on this transformer.

After spending a day relaxing nothing more to do then hit the slopes again! This time the whole family did not go -which Aaron was not happy about! The headed to Brighton and to say that Ian had a blast would be an understatement. This boy skied from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm with a small break for lunch. He had a blast in lessons and started doing very well turning with parallel skies -versus snowplowing through turns. 

Everyone arrived home and Aaron had helped set the table for dinner, and was excited everyone was back! We spent most of our day watching clips from Disney's "Frozen." Which we absolutely love! Aaron decided that he wanted to go and see Frozen with everyone so after dinner we all headed out to  the theater! This might possibly be favorite Disney film! We all love it -you can usually hear one of the boys (including Tim) singing the songs at some point throughout the day. We can't wait until it comes out on DVD in March!

Some footage of Ian practicing using his edge to turn. Make sure your sound is turned down so the wind sound doesn't hurt your ears.

That night Ava was a little cuddle bug and was making us all laugh at her squeaky binky! Make sure your sound is turned back on :)

The last day the boys had fun playing playing with Nana and Papa. They played doctor, built forts, and enjoyed laughing with each other.

 Ava also had fun working on her Yoga skills :) Strong little princess!

It has been a wonderful Holiday break -I can't believe that the kids will be starting back to school on Monday. We had a lot of fun times this holiday season. So notable things that happened this week... I gave Tim some new board games for Christmas (it was one of those look what I got for you gifts that was just as much a gift for myself) and we all enjoyed playing games together throughout the week. Let it be know that Blockus should be a game played in silence there is no need to speak during the game ever! Yet, even after everyone conspired against me I still managed to take the win -mwa ha ha ha :)  We also enjoyed playing Qwirkle -Ian caught onto the rules very quickly. JCW's quickly became a favorite! We discovered that a small shake is really an extra large and that Aaron loves Egg nog.  We also learned that when daddy is tired all parenting rules can be disregarded. I witnessed this when Aaron was eating a bowl of ketchup with a spoon. Gross! We have had so much fun being together with family and friends this holiday season and are sad to see it come to an end.