"Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes, The rest sit 'round it and pluck blackberries."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

Monday, January 14, 2013

Christmas in Vegas

This year we headed to Vegas for Christmas to see Justin's family.  It was a busy week and a half and I was sicker than I've been in years so much of it is a blur, but the kids had a great time seeing all their grandmas and grandpas and their cousins and aunts and uncles.  

Swimming with the fam:  (I didn't get in, surprise surprise.)



Christmas Pageant:

Dove and Cow:  (Grant was starting to get sick here.)



Ellie got to be Mary this year:




Meg got to be an angel:


I'm not sure what they're looking at, but these intent angels look so cute to me.





This basket had a real baby in it.  Cutest little baby ever.









Waiting to check out what Santa brought:


Parents waiting to watch their kids:






Bowling:








Piano Concert:  (Ellie wrote her own song for this one.)



Seeing our friend Kainoa:  (and, of course, his parents.)



Watching a movie at Grandma Duck's:


Saturday, January 12, 2013

Gingerbread People

We made some gingerbread boys/girls with some friends before Christmas break.  I knew I had to invite friends over or I would find a way to put the gingerbread people off forever.  The gingerbread actually turned out pretty good to eat, although  I wasn't quite read to create gingerbread houses.




Friday, January 11, 2013

Iowa's Lone Snow Storm

Back in December it snowed in Iowa.  Since then, we've been warm and rainy while Utah has got its dose of Iowa weather.  Can't say I'm sorry about the switcheroo.  Living in Iowa makes it very hard to be sad about global warming.  Instead, I'm prone to leave my car on more often and produce more greenhouse gases.  Okay, not really.  But honestly, I don't really care if I never experience one of those ice storms they keep telling me about.

Here is the crew all marshmellowed up to go outside and play in the snow.  I stayed in with the baby.  Very heroic of me.











I watched and took photos for awhile, and then retreated to the warm house.  The kids had a lot of fun.