Lake Tahoe Ski Trip

Last week we went on a ski vacation with Ben's family to beautiful South Lake Tahoe, CA. We left early Christmas morning and made it there in time to play in the snow before sunset.
Wilson's diet consisted mainly of snow while we were there and then he would complain of being cold.

Thank you Aunt Barbara for the sleds.... The adults enjoyed them too! They came in handy as a shield as well when being pelted with snowballs.

Snowball fights with the Guthrie boys! It was mostly boys against the girls and Wilson. Bailey, Wilson, and I were unfairly outnumbered, but we fought a good fight!

JD and Bay Bay... Snowballas!

Hot Chocolate at Seattle's Best
Indeed the best hot chocolate I've ever had!

Topped with whipped cream, white chocolate shavings, chocolate syrup, and caramel...YUM!

Snowballin' by the Lake

Just trying to mind my own business and capture a few priceless memories. These boys wouldn't let up.

Et tu Brute?

Guthrie boys/men... but mostly boys

Wilson catching a ride from Pop Pop

This was our first day of skiing. It was absolutely the most perfect ski day ever! No wind, clear blue skies, and fresh snow.

Bailey went to ski school for the day so I spent the day skiing with the Guthrie brothers.

I took this picture right after John David took out that orange SLOW sign trying to spray Ben. It is a wonder they didn't come home with a head or knee injury the way they try to push each other down while skiing.

Ben laughing at John David

Davis and Bailey ready to run with the Big Dogs!

Heavenly Village

Scott, John David, and Austin

Davis skied with Ben and me on the second day....and Bailey with the other boys.

The weather wasn't quite as pleasant as the day before, -10 degree temperatures, wind, freezing rain....not exactly favorable conditions for skiing, but we stuck it out anyhow. Davis punked out and went down the mountain with Pop Pop after lunch. Bailey was definitely a trooper. Only one day of ski school and she let John David talk her into skiing the blues that afternoon, but it wasn't without a few falls, tears, and curse words. It reminded me of my honeymoon when Ben did the same thing to me after I had only been educated in ski school for half a day. I thought if I didn't kill him, we would be divorced before we made it down the mountain.

Bailey with her coaches Scott and John David.."Bend your knees Bailey!" "Lean Forward!" "Snow Plow!"

Having lunch with the whole gang at Tamarack Lodge. Davis loves him some ribs!
This is the only picture I have of the whole group.

Austin, Lindsey, Me, Wilson, Scott, John David, Davis, Ben, Bailey, Pop Pop, P.C.

Scott, Bailey, and John David riding the Big Easy

Icicles are multipurpose

Wilson found one for a snack

Davis found one for a weapon

Aren' t they cute? I could just eat em up!

The last day we took the boys up the mountain to sled.

They had a blast!

Racing!

The brothas and Pop Pop took turns lugging the boys and sleds back and forth. I'm glad they were there. Last year I had to do it by myself.

CHILDREN!

I had a blast with all of you guys and girls! Thanks for the memories!

The view of Lake Tahoe coming down in the Gondola


One last picture... I promise

and then

A couple of videos

Santa Claus Came!

Santa Claus had to come to our house a day early this year, but nonetheless he came! I dread the day when my children stop believing. A couple of weeks before Christmas Ben made the comment, "You know this might be Davis's last year he believes in Santa Claus." Me with tears streaming from my eyes, "Why would you say something like that Ben Guthrie!" I mean really, we have a good 5-6 years left at least. Right?

I've discovered that Santa Claus likes to bring things to the boys that Ben enjoys playing with too. This year it was the Nerf machine guns. Oh, and what fun they bring to Mommy being the target and then having to pick up the 100 + Nerf darts all over the house! Last year it was a remote control helicopter. I guess Santa doesn't pay any attention to the age recommendation on the box.

Wilson's favorite thing was his tool bench. He loves fixing things and taking things apart.

Davis was most proud of his pellet gun. Ben took him out that morning for target practice.

Here he is proudly looking at where he shot the can.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We didn't get to see or spend much time with our out of town family and friends that came in for Christmas because we left early Christmas morning. Hopefully we will y'all soon in the New Year!

Christmas in H-town

Granny and the great- grandchildren

Last weekend, we traveled to Houston to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Ben always gives me a hard time because we have like three Christmases with my family...just one more than his might I add. My brother took one for the team and drove my mother and Granny. Dustin said Granny sat in the front with him and retold the same story over and over and my mom sat in the back singing Lady Gaga the whole way. God love em. My uncle, who is closer to my age than my mother's, has two little boys who are 7 and 4. So Davis and Wilson had a lot of fun playing with them.

During these trips to Houston my mother travels to Wal-mart/Target at least three times a day on average because she's so excited that my uncle's house is only a mile away. We're used to driving at least 3o minutes to get to the nearest Wal-mart around here, but by the time you wait at the 50 red lights between the two points you've wasted thirty minutes anyway. Needless to say there's a lot of Wal-mart shopping on these trips.

Riley, Davis, Walker, Brianna, and Wilson

Matt's little boys both got bow and arrows so we all went outside for target practice.

Davis standing by where he hit the target.

Even Granny took a shot at it.

Counting Down the Days

This is our family elf, Eli. He came to us last Christmas right after Thanksgiving. Every night after getting some good dirt on the boys he uses his magic to fly back to the North Pole to tell Santa all about if they've been naughty or nice. When he returns early the next morning he is always in a new spot. The boys love to look for Eli first thing each morning when they wake up. The only thing about Eli is that you can't touch him (or he'll lose his magic) and Santa will not allow him to talk to the children. He can, however, listen to your Christmas list and report it to Santa. Every now and then I will catch Davis or Wilson whispering to Eli what they want for Christmas. Last night Eli came in extra handy when he was hanging out in our dining room during dinner and Wilson refused to eat his red beans and rice. I just reminded that little deviant who was watching, and I have never seen him lap up dinner so fast. If I had only had an elf when I was little then maybe I would have received the white kitten I wanted instead of the stuffed one Santa left me, or the Barbie Ice Cream maker that I asked for that my friend Katie Stephens got down the street. I tried to tell someone that he dropped it off at her house by mistake. I'm still sore about that one! Hopefully these elves will prevent any more of Santa's mess ups in the future.

This is our homemade advent calendar. I found the idea in some magazine I was reading and thought it was too cute! It sure beats the 70 dollars I wanted to spend on the one from Pottery Barn. I just went around the house collecting miscellaneous socks from all of our drawers and used jute string, thumbtacks, and clothes pins to put it together. Here we have mixture of hunting, skiing, baby, (I had the pink baby sock leftover from a school art project...no pink babies here)running, white, soccer, t-ball, dress, and christmas socks I picked up at the DG just for festiveness. The plan was to put candy or small toy in each of the socks for the boys, but I've missed a day or eight. I could probably just find a few small forgotten toys from our play room and they wouldn't know the difference. I guess Wilson had the same idea because on morning he put Davis's C3PO in a sock and told him to look in it.

Thanksgiving Visit

I don't have much to write for this post, but I wanted to share this picture. The baby, Mary Ellen, belongs to my BFF from high school, Ellie Axford, but doesn't she just complete the picture? I think we need some pink in our family. The boys have been asking for a baby sister since last year's Thanksgiving in Dallas where they spent time with baby Edie (Ben's cousin Ann's little girl). Anyway, I got to visit with Ellie and her family over Thanksgiving. In the brief time we were there, Ellie's husband Tommy managed to convince my boys that the rocket pack they want for Christmas is not only obtainable, but that it will actually make them fly. Thanks Tommy, I'll be returning the favor. Also, I posted this because I know Ellie is a loyal reader of my blog and is going to take the next step and actually become a follower. AND if she doesn't everyone who reads will know about it and frown upon her treasonous defiance.