Margaret

If you ask Kenney who his best friend is he will without hesitation tell you it is Margaret. Margaret is a great friend to have, she is smart, funny, pretty and a great example. I'm not sure why these two formed the friendship they have (other then their mom's are pretty good friends too) but I'm always happy to have Margaret come over. Their bond ranges from sheer toleration to kissing fancy's. It's heartening to see them play together and I hope they will always remember their first favorite playmate.

Happy New Year!

Everyone having a "nap" on New Year's Day.

The first of many sled rides

I did a lot of sled pulling this winter. We went every time it snowed because the roads had snow on them. The park owner's where we live are not the best at plowing the roads. They refuse to put snow melt down for fear that it will ruin the road, so even if the plow has come there is still a thick layer of snow on the road for a few days after a storm. Norah had a fun time once we got going I think. I guess I should have tried having them pull me...

Christmas dinner

two days later. We had planned to have a fancy Christmas dinner on Christmas of course. But when that day came we really just wanted to sit and relax. So we had Christmas dinner two days later. My first time making a complete dinner.Here it is after we had eaten. I was proud of myself because it was the first time I had fixed a Turkey dinner without assistance from Mike. He was very busy at this time busting out some dissertation. Not very pretty, but I do remember it tasted good!

Pajama hat...

As I was organizing pictures tonight to finally start blogging again I found this gem of Kenney in one of his infamous "Pajama Hat's". I'm not sure where or why he came up with his own version of a night cap (really just pajama bottoms), but he wore one for most of the winter. I looked online and while shopping for Christmas to find a real one but had no success. I loved going in at night to check on him. Usually the "hat" had come off, or was hanging precariously in some disarray. On this night he asked me to take a picture of the tree lollipop he had gotten that night in his Santa Advent calendar. I'm so glad I have this picture to document such a funny phase.

O Christmas Tree

Proof that Norah was happier once we got home and warmed back up. We decorated the tree that evening and enjoyed the fresh pine scent. We had held onto our tree stand from back in Salt Lake and this was the first time we had used it here. It was fun to have a tree up and enjoy Christmas at home, but it was also hard to be away from our families. Who knows what next year will bring!

Christmas tree farm

This picture is a pretty good summary of our trip to the Christmas Tree farm. There were a ton of trees! We walked through the fields in search of the perfect tree, of course. I think we ended up in the farthest field possible and Mike finally gave up the search and just started sawing. Not really but we all had had about enough by them so in desperation we decided between a couple in close proximity. Those we had tagged as possibility's were quickly forgotten as some of us (Norah) realized how cold it really was. (She refused to wear her gloves). And we still had to drag the tree back to the car...
I'm glad we did this trip, it was a fun time, but mostly I remember Norah being very unhappy about the cold.