Marshmallow World

 Thursday on the weather channel there was an article listing the 5 areas that are the furthest behind their average to date snowfall. The Rochester area was #2. So far the official snowfall had been 1.5 inches and typically by mid January, Rochester has received about 35 inches. There are no complaints about the lack of snow so far. In fact is has been pretty nice.

But Friday the weather decided to help us start to make up that deficit by finally bringing the snow. Time to officially haul out the boots, scarfs, gloves, etc. And the temperatures have dropped to re-enforce that it is actually winter (today in the mid-teens). Hopefully this delayed start doesn't mean it will still snowing in June.

Kansas City New Years

As we headed across Kansas we stopped to visit several grandparents. First stop was to See Grandma Georgie and Bud. This was the first time we had been to their house so we got the grand tour. They took us on a tour of Wamego to see the Christmas lights. We played a bit with Bandit and his toy. It was a good visit. On our way through Topeka we were able to stop and see Grandpa Fisher and Wilma and also Grandma Marcell.

 We went down to the Plaza to see the lights, see the windows at Halls, and stop at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. It was so nice outside that we were able to eat at the tables outside. Such weird weather for December.

We were also able to stop by and see the Kansas City temple in the process of being built. It was a lot bigger than we expected--definitely seemed bigger than St. Louis or Palmyra. It was such a nice day we didn't even have to wear jackets.

You will see that there are no pictures of Sadie and Sylvester with Zoe (Nellie's dog). Zoe has a lot of energy and Sadie and Sylvester are a little more low key. Generally they just avoided her, although once Sadie had had enough and she put Zoe in her place. By late the last night there, Zoe and Sylvester had warmed up to each other and had a good time chasing each other around the living room. Zoe however never warmed up to Caleb. Every time he walked into the room, she would start barking at him. It drove Caleb crazy, all dogs always love him.

We spent New Years Eve with almost every in the family up at the Kearney church building so we would have plenty of space. There was the traditional shrimp, crab legs and steak dinner, followed by some Christmas games and gift exchanging. Some Wii Just Dance, a basketball game, shooting the new rubber band guns, and lots of snacking on the treats we had made in the afternoon. We celebrated New Years "New York Style" ( at 11pm in KC) so that everyone could head home before all the crazy drivers. It was a whole lot of fun.

We had a great holiday and are so glad we got to spend it with family. Happy New Year!

A White Denver Christmas

We decided to drive out a day early and surprise the Ipsons. We are glad we did because the night we arrived we got a foot of snow.

All that snow meant we got to shovel the snow and then we went sledding at Eaglecrest. Good thing we had Kattie's Suburban that we could all cram into. It was a pretty good hill and we all had a lot of fun. Our sledding trains were less than successful and there were several crashes.

Camberly helped Jerolyn make little flannel nightgowns for the twins so they would match the rest of the pjs. It was a challenge because we didn't have a pattern, so we had to make it up as we went along. Some of the other pjs needed a little work too.

Can anyone say awkward family Christmas picture?



Christmas Eve was full of the typical baking fest. Lots of cookies and treats and of course all the stuff for dinner. Kattie and I fulfilled Mom's dreams by playing the viola and violin together.

It made for a different Christmas morning to get up and head to 9am church. Afterwards we worked together to make our traditional Christmas breakfast/brunch. Finally we did the present thing and had lots of fun surprises.

It was a fun time with everyone all together--bowling, playing round robin ping pong, doing Wii Just Dance, playing Stack, sewing baby blankets for church humanitarian aid, and just hanging out.


We got to celebrate Anna and Millie's 1st birthday. It was fun to watch them chowing down on their cakes. Will certainly liked the heavy heavy hangover part of the gifts.

Sylvester and Sadie had a good time too. Sylvester quickly learned where to hangout during meals. The girls on their seats were just the right height for him and the food that fell off the trays were great treats. The kids all did great with the dogs as well. Will was a little timid at first but he would do sneak attacks to pet them both when they weren't paying attention. Millie didn't seem to care at all when Sylvester would get close and would just push him away if it was too much.

Sadie, ever the timid one, just tried to avoid most of the madness. She learned that Trenton was the calm one to hang out by.



By the end of each day Sadie and Sylvester were both exhausted from being on high alert around the kids and missing out on their typical all day naps.