Finishing up with Winter

For New Years Eve and Day, Missy and Bob invited us to come up and go skiing with them and Abby, Matt, and Ryan. We were very excited and had a great time. NO! we didn't end up in the hospital nor did we break or hurt anything, just a little stiff. Thanks Missy, Bob and Kids for a great time.

Ready for another day of skiing.
Jim was doing great going off ski jumps and skiing like a pro.
Looking good I do remember how to ski! :)
Missy and I had a good time riding the chair lift and talking.

Getting ready for a day of skiing. It has been about ten years since I skied. Jim skied two years ago. He really got going and wanted to keep up with Abby, Matt, and Ryan.

The reason we needed to be ants during the summer

Why we need so much wood. . .


First the ice storm came and we were without power for 7 days. . .




Then the snow started. . .

It came and came and came. . .






I was beginning to wonder if it would ever go away. . .

Then Brian and Michelle moved here and we got even more snow. . .

Austin, Lucas, and Papa built a snowman and it was okay again to have so much snow. But I will be glad when spring comes.

Staying warm through the winter because we are ants

From the very beginning. Our pile started out very small and grew. I hope that you enjoy our journey from the beginning of us being ants to us enjoying our hard work each day during this long hard winter.





Here the wood is cut down and some split in the woods.

It just keeps growing

Out of the woods we come.


Just a few more piece to cut and split.
All the wood split and ready to go into the shed.
Jim was taking pictures of me from on top of the pile and slipped he ended up chipping his ankle bone. I couldn't get him out from behind the pile so I had to call 911 and have them move some of the pile to get the gurney in to take him out.

The results of Jim's fall

The young men of our ward came out and put the wood in the wood shed and stacked it for us I am so glad that they wanted to do service for us.
The pile is ready to keep us warm I am so grateful to have the wood.

The wood stove is all ready to go with wood next to it and everything. Boy has it been a long time coming.


Here we are enjoying all of our hard work all summer this is why we did it. So nice when the wind, ice, snow is going on outside we are safe and warm.

NYC at Christmas

For our Christmas presents to each other we decided to go to NYC for the Christmas season. It was so much fun. We spent a couple of days just touring around and seeing the sights. I love NYC and so does Jim. This was a perfect gift for us to share.











Jim and I took the subway to Canal st. He usually takes a taxi but I talked him into trying the subway. It was really an adventure. Of course everything we do is an adventure.

The first thing that we did when we got to NYC was go to Canal street to do some shopping. Jim was there a long time ago and I was there just a couple of years ago with my sisters. So it was fun to go back. We ended up in a van. Jim wouldn't get in. The lady kept saying you get in and Jim would say no. I couldn't believe how many police were there this time. It kinda took the fun out of it, especially since everyone thought Jim was an undercover cop. The sales people wouldn't help or show us anything. So we bought a couple of items below the asking price and left.










We had lunch at Bubba Gumps in Times Square. The city is so festive at this time of the year. After lunch we headed out for some serious shopping.










This is one of the windows on the tour of department store windows. It was so fun to look at all of the windows and how they were decorated. The stores went all out. The Sleigh rocked back and forth. The picture really doesn't do it justice.








This is Santa checking the naughty and nice list. Notice who is standing in front of this window. Of course we all know which list he is on. That is why I am not standing there.
















Of course we had to go to the famous F. A. O. Schwarz toy store. It was great to go into and see everything that they had.











This is the door man. He was so nice. He let people take pictures of him with their children, wives, and families.

















Dolls Dolls everywhere. I love dolls. I couldn't decided which one I wanted to buy, so I didn't get any. There where so many to choose from. Jim said it looked like a pediatric ward.











This Darth Vader is made up of lego's Ryan is really into lego's so I had to this picture for him.

















We went to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. They had a large nativity in there. It was so neat but the baby was missing. They said that it was because he wasn't born yet. I thought to my self well then the shepherds and the wise men shouldn't be there either, but it was still neat. Jim bought me a beautiful nativity from there. This I believe is number 77.






The tree at Rockefeller Center. It was so pretty. It was so much fun to be in NYC for the holiday season.

















This is us in front of Rockefeller Center. It was such a great day. The wind was blowing but not to cold and not snowing or raining.












We decided to go ice skating at the Center. It was something that I had seen in so
many movies that I thought it would be so much fun. We had to stand in line for some time and the rink had a lot of people there some had never skated and some were really good. But most were like Jim and I skated once a long time ago and was trying it again. I would say we did pretty good no trips to the hospital. :)




Yes, I fell down but nothing hurt except my ego. I was trying to turn to take a picture of Jim coming up behind me and down I went. Jim said wait right there until I take a picture, so by the time he was done I really had a wet bottom.















Jim, enjoyed himself even if it took a little while to remember how to skate. He might not look like a professional (pathetic) but at least he didn't fall.
















Here I am showing how great I really can skate. But I tell you right now it is a lot of work and I realized that for 2009 I will need to get into better shape if I want to do this again.










We got pretty good towards the end of our skating. We had such a great time. I just kept saying that I can't believe that we were there ice skating at Rockefeller Center.










We thought about which show we wanted to go and see while we were in NY and finally decided that we wanted to go and see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. I had heard all about them since I was a little girl and was really excited to go and see the show.














This is inside of the theater it was great to be there. I have always wanted to see them and I have enjoyed dancing since I was 3.
















This is at the end of the Rockettes' Christmas show. It was so neat that they portrayed the birth of Christ. I was really surprised and thrilled. It was the perfect ending of our trip.