Alyson's Announcement Joke

Alyson was so excited to tell the joke in announcements at her school yesterday. They tape record the weather forecast, lunch menu, joke and other things and then broadcast it to each classroom. Here she is telling us about it when she got home from school.

Sledding

We took the girls sledding for the very first time yesterday. They loved it! Oma gave us sleds the Christmas before we moved to Indiana, and there was no place to use them there, so we broke them in for the first time. We also used two more kid-friendly sleds that the people who lived in our house before us left behind.

We sledded for about 45 minutes, the girls trudging up the hill and sliding back down again. Their sleds kept turning midway down the hill so they experienced sledding front ways and backways. Kris and I had a blast sledding down the hill too as little Ellary sat snug in her stroller.

Just before we left it began to get dark and snow again so we jumped back in Kris' truck and had hot chocolate. What a fun family home evening!

Damage Control

Kourtney LOVES SCISSORS. So imagine her sadness when she was put on probation for cutting her bangs back in April. She idly watched on as Alyson cut objects for art projects and homework for over six months. So, you would've thought Koco had learned her lesson, right?

No such luck because about two weeks ago after having been given permission to cut lines I had drawn for her, she butchered her hair! A little here, a little there...Kourtney didn't even spare her bangs that were so desperately trying to grow back in. I found hair all over the house! She was in BIG TROUBLE!

We did what we could to remedy the situation. We even took her to the hair salon and threatened to cut her hair short. But Kourtney loves her hair long, loves to flip it in front of her ear. So, the stylist did what she could.

After looking at Kourtney's uneven hair for about two weeks, I decided to take the scissors to it myself. And surprisingly, it looks OK...and surprisingly, Kourtney likes it. Hugh!

Although her hair has changed, her punishment will not...no scissors for Kourtney until she is in kindergarten. No if's, and's or but's about it!

Winter Wonderland

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

As a joke, and understandably sick of the cold and snow, Kris keeps asking me "Why didn't you let me apply for a job in Florida?"

It snowed again last Sunday, and really hasn't stopped since then. But wow-what a site! Kris took these pictures of our winter wonderland behind our house. It's so beautiful to see the recently fallen snow so fluffy and white spread like a blanket over EVERYTHING.

If it weren't for the girls excitement for playing in the snow, I think I'd be exclaiming something like, "Kris, why didn't you make me let you apply for jobs in Florida?"

Here are two pictures of the girls as we walked Alyson to school one morning. Notice Kourtney in the second picture. Guess what...there's only so much snow a kid can take too! She got tired of trudging through the recently fallen snow that she refused to go any further at one point of our walk back home! Oh, Koco, long, cold, snowy winters have just begun little girl!

A Day in Detroit

We have loved getting to know the areas surrounding where we live, so our day trip to Detroit last Saturday served two purposes: attend the Temple and get a feel for what there is to do in Detroit.

There was a large nativity on the front lawn of the stake center adjacent to the Temple that the girls couldn't wait to see up close.

Unfortunately, most parts of Detroit that we got to see as we drove from the temple to the downtown area were very run down and actually kind-of scary. There was a liquor store, a mission and a church on just about every block. It truly made us appreciate where we live and all that we have.

The center of downtown, however, was maintained rather well. There are several museums we would like to take the children to, and we also plan to watch the Detroit Tigers take on the Chicago Cubs this summer at Comerica Park. Yeah! Go Tigers!