SNOW snow SNOW

Off to the slopes we go!

Reed, Melanie, Emma, Brian, Jacob, Eric and Brandon in the Northstar Village...getting ready to head up the mountain!

Eric, catching some SWEET air!

Brandon, trying out a jump.

The Boys: Eric, Brandon, Brian, Reed, Jacob and Dad.

The Girls: Emma, Jen, and Mel.

Brandon and me. We havn't been skiing/boarding together since before Jemma was born! That's THREE YEARS! So, it was a real treat to go together.

Thanks Mom, Sharee, Natalie and Jewels for watching our kids!

Reed, with a nice board grab.

Jacob is my hero. I guess I am just too weak to get my legs tucked in that tight.

Brian doin' some kung-fu moves mid-air.

Brandon with a board-grab...oh so talented.

Emma rockin' the jumps...what a dare-devil!

Home for the Holidays

Our family has been so fortunate to be able to travel home and spend the holidays with family. The Christmas Season is such a wonderful time to reflect on all of the many blessings we have been given by our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. I truly feel that our FAMILY is one of the greatest blessings we have.

We had such a wonderful Christmas...thank you to all of the family and loved ones who were so generous with our family.

Jemma and "Nina" being creative with their gingerbread house!

Jemma and Aunt Jade...and baby Trey!

Carter in his lego dump truck! He was so adorable Christmas morning...If he wasn't eating wrapping paper, he was just observing the excitement!

Jemma was super excited this year about Christmas...it was the first year she really understood what was going on.

The kiddos...Jemma was kind enough to help Carter open his gifts too!

We made my Mom a scrapbook of her mother's life this year. (Grandma Packard passed away in June of this year.) We were so glad to be able to preserve these memories for her. WE LOVE YOU MOM!

The girls...Jemma and Daphne...playing with there dolls.

Sharee, Emma, Jemma, and Jenny.

Working on the Christmas FEAST!

Carter learned to crawl up STAIRS while at my parents' home!!!

Me and Mom!!

Carter, headed up the stairs!

Jemma eating her DELECTABLE pie!

Grammy and Grandpa Stone with Dad, Carter, Jemma and me.

Just a few of my FaVoRiTe shots from the last month...or two or three!

Carter!!!

Man, he's growing up so fast! We're already prepping him for his driving permit! :o)

This bottle is his most favorite bath toy. We can't get a shot of him without it!!!

At the beach. He really loves to be outdoors!!!

Goin' for a ride at the Portland Zoo. (We are "official members now...Jemma and I even have special cards to get in and out of the park! Oh, how we love the animals!...especially the baby elephant and the tigers.)

Jemma and Carter on Halloween. A lot of folks thought Carter was a lamb, but he was actually a little bunny, the idea was for him to be one of "Snow White's" forest friends. Oh well. They both looked AdOrAbLe!!!

One morning, Jemma and Carter were just chillin' on the couch together, and he seriously couldn't take his eyes off of Jemma...always a very serious expression...must have been wondering how he got so lucky and ended up with such a super big sister! :o)

Jemma all geared up for the snow. We got a TON over the last 3 or 4 days, but that didn't keep us inside!

Brandon and Jemma headed out on a walk in...the snow...whatelse!

Jemma at the Zoo.

Jemma is a fearless little explorer when it comes to the outdoors. I sure wish it made her half as nervous as it makes me to be far from the rest of the family. Here's ione of her and the stick she found on the beach.

Our little family on the beach at Seaside, Oregon.

Just a fun fall photo...Thanks Jewels and Eric for taking it for us! We can't wait to see you again over Christmas!

What a fun Trip!!! We will miss all of you! (Including those I didn't have pictures of!)

Oh The Memories!

So, Monday was Jacob's birthday, but with Nathan's being on Friday, we went ahead and celebrated both with just family...they're having their "friend party" Friday. Anyway...my dad's parents were here and my Grandpa Stone was doing all these things with Jemma that I remember him doing with me and my siblings when I was a little girl. Neither one of these videos REALLY captures the full effect, but I had to put them on here for my other siblings' sakes if for nothing else. This first video entitled "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is the tail end of Jemma running around in a circle (along with her awesome uncles Jacob and Nathan) to this little ditty Grandpa used to play EVERY time he came to our home. Us kids would run around in a circle and at the end of the song we would all say "AGAIN, AGAIN!"

Grandpa also used to do these little coin tricks with us. We could never figure out how the quarter got into our ear or in our toes or whatever...this time, it magically falls from the sky :o). Whenever the money would re-appear, Jemma would say "I got the money!"... Grammy and Grandpa got a kick outta that.

Grandpa Stone also always held his children up in the air with one hand, and my dad did the same with us. My Grammy was holding Carter and commented on how strong his legs were...he must be ready for the family trick! So, my dad gave it a whirl. At first Carter seemed a little in-secure (although full of smiles)...

But he DID IT! What a talented little 5 month old! (Gotta get 'em trained before they realize how high they are and how scared they schould be!)

With all the reflecting I did that night...it really brought me up to speed on how OLD I'm getting...YiKeS! I can't even tell you how many things I've told Jemma not to do or to stop doing since we've been here that I did ALL THE TIME when I was growing up in this house! It's been just a little trippy.

CoRn MaZe!

So, I just spent like 20 minutes trying to make a slide show, and I must be half asleep because I finished it and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get it onto my blog...hmmmmm. So, here are a few photos of our trip to the corn maze last Monday. There were so many things to do! The older guys did the corn maze...I don't know that Jemma would have appreciated it. We also shot mini pumpkins out of these air cannon type things..very cool! Even Jemma gave it a shot.

Jemma experienced her first pony ride! She was SOOOOO excited. She did really well too. I really thought she might get a little scared, but she didn't at all.

We rode a little train around through the corn maze (those stalks are SuPeR TALL!) and visited the petting zoo.

Because I'm so tired and, frankly a little annoyed with the wasted time I spent trying to get that slide show together, I'm just gonna call it good on this post. Hope the pictures are worth scrolling through...there is a link to just a basic slide show at the bottom if for some reason you wanna see more than 10 photos! (Ha ha ha.)

To see more photos, visit the following link. http://www.slideshow.com/galleries/3570-corn-maze