Happy Christmas Snow!  We took advantage of the 4-6 inches of new snow and went sledding at Dinosaur Park Hill. Ruby was a happy dog when she got to run after the sledders. 

We take this picture every year -- they kids are getting taller than the sleds! 

Luke face planted and said "for some reason, my cheek is cold" - he's so silly. He's a trooper. They both carried their own sleds up every single time.  

The front side of the hill was too busy to let Ruby loose, so we sledded down the back side. Ruby was grateful for the activity. 

She was on her leash, and almost killed Luke in a  freak clotheslining move, but all in all she was great fun. And Luke's just fine...Josh dropped the leash quickly. 

NERF WAR--Take 1

Josh and Luke have been planning a nerf war since the summer.  Today they had a trial run, with daddy and Luke against Josh.  It looked fun, but to me it looked like they were on time out more than they played -- lot of reloading and tweaking. 

Josh looked sniper-ish with his all black clothes. 

Luke was aggressive in his fleece jimmies and safety glasses. 

Christmas Magic

Christmas Morning was 6:08 this morning.  Josh was told that 6 is the earliest he could wake up, so  he took it literally. 

Josh was astounded at the size of the present that Santa brought for Ruby.  

Luke got tired of waiting for the grown ups to come to the living room and pretended to take a nap.

Luke took his place on the ottoman for opening stockings...and was a smiley little elf. 

The first present the kids opened was from Santa and it was a big one -- look at Josh's face. 

They pretended to pass out when they saw it. 

Our own little Vanna White displaying it -- Disney Infinity 2.0.  

Santa also brought some cases to keep the game figures in, and Luke posed with it like a little "business man" he said. 

They each got game figures from Santa -- Luke thought getting Rocket was kind of amazing. 

He was so smiley when he displayed his gifts that we had to take a ton of pictures of him.  

This is the Nerf Striker gun he wanted. He saw this present a few nights ago and declared it the first present he wanted to open!

Josh got this football from Santa. He said "This is The Football I wanted. Wow!"

Josh got that Hurley hat and this Life Straw water purifier from Santa too.  Josh had been wanting the water purifier since his birthday in June.  He was thrilled, to say the least. 

He got this jersey -- Jenkins for the 49ers -- and flipped out. He was so happy! 

He asked for "sports fashion" and he got it. He got MSU bobcat shirts, nike shirts, and on and on..

Luke got this fuzzy Seahawks throw blanket and immediately cuddled up with it after the presents were all opened. 

He also got some lego sets, which he decided to do in a box. Why not? 

Ruby got a LOT of rawhide bones for Christmas. She's a lucky girl.  Actually, we are all really lucky.  We are spoiled with material gifts, but mostly we're extra lucky to have spent the holidays with family. 

Christmas Eve

Heading to Christmas Eve church, three of us were happy to be there.  One of us had serious issues with wearing "dress clothes" (not sweat pants!) and one of us just had to photo bomb. 

Ruby had nice daily (at a minimum!) walks with Grampa Harley.  She was kind of tuckered our, and she found herself near the presents.

After church and our feast, the boys took to the front yard to give the reindeer some magic oats to help guide them into our house. Josh (tongue out) took his task seriously. 

Then he realized he could/should throw the oats on the roof.  

They had the giggles big time!

Luke's jazz hands.  No words. 

His aim for the roof...bare belly and all. 

We left cookies and milk for Santa, and two carrots for his reindeer.  Josh left him a note that said "Santa. Please don't eat the gingerbread houses, but enjoy the cookies."

Baker Boy

Luke was all business when he and Gramma were making the cookies for Santa. He's a terrific roller.

There, I convinced them to smile for a second. :) 

Spire Camp

The boys went to Spire camp for two mornings the week of Christmas.  They usually end camp with jumping off this giant rock.  Josh loves it and can be kind of a show boat...

This time he grabbed the trapeze bar with one hand! Brave and crazy if you ask me. 

Luke is not near as comfortable with this little exercise, so he wasn't sure he wanted to jump. 

When he did jump, he yelled "I'm going to DIE!"   Courage is being scare and doing it anyway, right? 

Luke's Rock On Party

Luke chose to have his party at Spire Climbing Center.  He designed this cake -- how great that we found an affordable baker willing to do this for us! 

Decorations at the Climbing Center are a little sparse...what looks nice against plywood exactly? 

Goody bags (with pop rocks, cliff bars and a carabiner naturally) 

And refreshments for the tired climbers...

Luke climbed a bit on the ropes, and he did great!

Sweet brown eyes..

Ashtyn did a great job climbing!  With a flower in her hair no less. :) 

The four 6-year olds like hanging from ropes more than climbing. I'm just glad they had fun. 

John, from Luke's class did a great job! 

Look at this kid!  25' in the air, and smiling for the camera.  Love it Kyler!

It was fun to watch Josh climb like a monkey.

He has incredible strength...and confidence. 

Action shot!

He was only on the ropes once, but I'm glad we caught him smiling at the top!

And concentrating on the way down. 

His little friends were joking with him about the wish and the candles. 

He did great job blowing out all the candles this time!

And then it was present time! He's so animated. 

So exciting.

He loved this part -- all the attention and the goodies!

To close this post out...a snapshot of the thank you card he sent last week.  Perfect placement. Ha ha. At least you can tell it's from him and not me.