…And Then it FINALLY snowed!

So, its been a strange strange winter for Utah, starting with he driest December on record.  (It was most certainly NOT a white Christmas.)  Then, we moved into January-still no snow.  Dry as a bone.  On the bright side, living at least 2 hours from any ski resorts, the lack of snow has helped to ease our “skiers withdrawals”.  Winter in Price is really unique, too.  One thing I love about it is that it is almost always sunny.  While the wasatch front experienced a nearly month-long inversion that brought nasty air quality and smoggy skies to the Northern half of the state, the sun just continued to shine on us Price-inians.  It was quite nice.

Seth has been lucky enough to get to do some backcountry skiing way up in the high country on the Forest for “work”.  They are letting him train with the Utah Avalanche guys and he thinks its just about the coolest thing he’s ever done.  He goes once a week or so (and therefore has been able to get his skiers “fix”).

These are some pics from the office on Friday:

They set off a small avalanche.  On purpose, of course ;)

He got home from work about 2:45 and announced that it was 58 degrees outside and we simply must get out there and do something fun.  The kids get home from school early on Fridays, so we left Kenni in charge and went to go do some mountain biking. 

Yes, I said mountain biking.  On January 18th.  It was weird.  Really weird.  But really fun.

I know my aunt jemima do-rag is especially flattering and I look like I belong on the short bus, but my ears were cold!

Just a skull hangin out in the bushes……. Don’t ask me…….

 

Anywho- it was a fun day, and Seth realized that he got to cross something off his bucket list: it was officially the first time ever he has snow-skied and mountain biked in the same day!

We were just starting to realize that snow or no snow, we could make the most of winter………..

We woke up the next morning to 6 inches of fresh snow right here in our Price driveway.  Wow!  Finally!

Luckily it was Saturday, so the kids spent pretty much the entire day outside playing in the wet, heavy snow.  Their daddy helped them build this awesome snowfort.  They had a blast.

Welcome Winter.  We’ve been waiting for you!

Ice Skating

The Carbon Rec. Center offered a free ice skating day last Saturday over at the fairgrounds, and the Wallace’s love free!  I told everyone that I had signed us up to attend on Friday and you should have heard the grumbling- “I don’t know how to ice skate mom!”, “That sounds boring”, “Its too cold to ice skate”, “its not cold enough to ice skate!” –that last one came from Meteorologist Seth.  It does seem weird to have an outdoor skating rink when the weather has been well into the 40’s for the past week or so.

At least, it did until we arrived.  The Carbon County fairgrounds sits in a strange little cold spot that is at least 10 degrees colder than the surrounding area and much, much windier.  We almost just drove back home.  But, we stuck it out like true Wallaces- and so glad we did because it was really fun!

Sparky- the number ONE complainer ended up being a natural! He even wants to go do it again next Saturday!

The little ones were a bit more difficult.  I ended up driving back home to get a chair for them to push around.  It made all the difference in the world!

There were still plenty of falls, though.

Not sure what happened here…….

They served Chili, hot cocoa, and smores for the kids to roast by the fire.  It was really great.  I love the local rec center here.  They offer so many fun activities, there is honestly something for everyone.  Anyway- thanks to Carbon Rec for letting us use your skates, eat your food, and teach our kids to get out and try something new!

My “One Little Word”

I’m feeling inspired here folks!  My friend over at H&H did a great blog post about creating a word for yourself to basically describe your goals or your theme for the coming year.  Since this is officially my first post of 2012, I thought it would be a great time to come up with a word for myself.  I’ve been thinking about it for over a week, and I think I finally have the one.

Are you ready????

My One little word for 2012 is……..

 

Finish

What do you think? I guess I should explain. I’m merely a housewife.  I spend the majority of my time in my home, working on raising children, keeping a home, and the various chores associated with such tasks. But I am also a person with talents, hobbies, ideas, etc.  So, most of my days I am keeping a running list of things I’d like to accomplish.  Only problem?  I do a little here, and a little there, until I am spent- and things rarely get DONE.  I just want to check things off the list, ya know?  (I have a feeling a lot of S.A.H.M.’s feel this way).   Anywho- so my 2012 is going to be about FINISHING what I’ve started, accomplishing those little dreams I spend my time fantasizing about.  Case in point?  I have a bag full of this really really great fabric I bought almost TWO YEARS ago, that I was just sure I would sew into something great.  But its still sitting in a bag.  Its time Mandy….. lets go ahead and FINISH!

Ok, another example.  Since I am finally past the stage in my life where I am either constantly knocked up, birthing, or recovering from birth, I am trying to re-discover exercise and athletics.  However, in doing so, I have also begun to realize that I live in a HIGHLY competitive athletic, outdoorsy community.  Don’t get me wrong, I love all those people, and I while I am impressed by their accomplishments (first place, second place, setting new records, blah blah blah…..), I have come to realize that I have no desire to be competitive in sports, I am in it merely to do what I set out to do- FINISH.  Case in point?  I ran a marathon last year.  It was a REALLY big deal to me.  But I had no intention of running super fast, “placing”, or otherwise competing to impress.  Sorry folks, my goal was simply to finish.  And I am so proud that I did.  I have other thoughts in my head now (triathalon?  Bike race?)  Who knows?  But I would just like to be able to say “Yes, I did.  I finished.”

Last Scenario: I have little thoughts pop into my head all the time.  It could be the spirit whispering to me, it could be my subconscious reminding me of something I already thought of, I don’t know- but either way, I have a hard time following through on these items.  Call a friend to check on them, send a thank-you, tell the sweet sister who spoke in church last Sunday how much her lesson impacted you, etc.  Whatever it may be- I feel like I have a lot of unfulfilled inspirations.  I hope this year to DO more of what I think about doing.  It usually doesn’t take much time.  Just DO IT- just FINISH what you started (in your head….)

Does that make sense?  I hope so.  I really have thought about it a lot and it makes perfect sense to me, but sometimes it’s hard to put into words.  One of the Prophets had a motto, I think it was Pres. Hinkley?  Much like Nike, his goal was “Just DO It”.  THIS is what I am trying to say.  In fact, if I were allowed three little words, those would be the ones I would choose.  But, since you only get one, I will say to myself each and every day, Just do it- just FINISH.

This has already affected me.  The other day I had three specific things I wanted to accomplish.  They were: take down the rest of the Christmas stuff, clean out my closet, and clean the bathroom.  Over the course of my day I did manage to do the first two, in between driving to preschool, bathing the dang dog after she jumped in a mud puddle AGAIN, working on scouts stuff,  rotating laundry, etc, etc. Anyway, it came to the end of the day and I realized I hadn’t made it to the bathroom.  Normally, I would just say “Well, that will have to wait until tomorrow.”  But, I was thinking about my motto, and I really wanted to get it done.  I wanted to FINISH my list!  So, at 9:00 p.m., I filled up a bucket with hot soapy water and headed for the bathroom.  Seth couldn’t figure out what was going on because honestly, you rarely find me working at night.  I generally give up, surrounded by mess, and just go ahead and watch a T.V. show. :)  But I did it!  I FINISHED!

Ok, now I just have to keep it up for about 354 more days. Wish me luck!

The Ugly Sweater Party

After plenty of complaining to my friend Tricia about the fact that we were arriving in town too late to attend any Christmas parties, she gave in and decided to host a post-Christmas Holiday extravaganza!  (just for me, I’m sure :)

We decided to make it an “Ugly Sweater Party” because after Christmas is over, you can find some great deals on these baby’s!  It was so much fun to get out and enjoy other adults.  We need to do it more often!  Thank you Buss’s.  Can’t wait till next year’s party!

This was our “serious face” pose.  My favorite is Seth holding Tricia’s dog.  It’s the perfect look to compliment his outfit.

And our silly face pose….

And of course the “cracking up after our funny face” pose…..

Seth and I in our holiday attire.  Let me explain Seth’s outfit: My brother Bryce had access to a stellar ensemble that I wanted to get my hands on, but couldn’t.  So I headed down to Savers in an effort to re-create it.  Forest Green corduroy pants (highly pleated and oh-so unattractive, btw).  One black dickey covered by a thin cream sweater (yum!) and to top it all off, the maroon jacket with stunning Christmas lapel bling.  He was so funny!  I am wearing my sister Stephanie’s favorite Christmas sweater fresh from her days working at Christopher & Banks back in the 90’s.  (Yes, she really wears this sweater, and yes, she loves it! ) It even had shoulder pads- and stunning gold rope trim. Bless!

 

So, as Rachel was taking our “Couple’s Photo’s” we started laughing about how it looked like we were at a high school dance, so everyone started posing in their favorite "high school dance pose”.  I was cracking up.  Here are a few of my favorite poses:

Oh dear- I am still cracking up just looking at them.

The winners:  Posing for their podium finish- Seth with the Gold medal, Justin with the Silver and Rich with the bronze.  Rich’s pink sweater kept cracking me up and Justins was so funny.  I don’t know if you can see it very well in the pictures, but he had stapled enormous pine boughs onto his sleeves and there was a giant musical tree on the front of his sweater that lights up and dances around when you push a button.  It was all highly entertaining.

Oh Wow- what a great night! Can’t wait until next year – I am planning my outfit already, and I recently acquired a few fantastic White Elephant gifts- so if you are coming, watch out!

Christmas & Christmas Vacation

This is the first year ever in any of our sad, home-bodied lives (well, except for the 2 years Seth spent in Outer Mongolia……) that we have lived away from home at Christmastime. We all collectively found it entirely unacceptable to spend Christmas actually more than 10 minutes away from our families, so we packed up the car & headed North for an unprecedented TEN day festivus!

Christmas itself was wonderful.  A little difficult to navigate, when one doesn’t have their own home & possessions surrounding them, but our accommodations were wonderful & we can’t complain.  Here are a few photos of the happy day:

Thank you M.  You know who you are.  This was a hit!

And thank you to “A” for this one.  Silver definitely went over better than pink!

TWO DS’s. So exciting!  (Thank you to a different M this time.  Couldn’t have done it without you!!)

Could it be?  Yes, we have a new member of our family.  Meet Fred, the joy of Kenni’s heart.  He is a three month old Russian Tortoise and I have no one but Mr. Claus himself to blame, er, I mean, THANK for this one!

 

After the joy of opening presents we did somehow make it to Church.  I loved it so much!  This is something I rarely get to say about church, but really, it was so wonderful to be back in my home ward surrounded by so many people we love so dearly! The service was beautiful and we got to see and talk to so many old friends. I felt really loved. and welcomed. It was really nice. (btw- I did NOT manage to get a picture of our family in our Sunday best.  Boo. )

Christmas Day was spent out at the Harward home for yet another party. Things were a little off-kilter there this year due to the fact that for the first time in Harward history, we didn’t go up to Logan for Grandma Hansen’s Christmas Eve party.  It was so sad.  Grandma & Grandpa have finally reached an age where its just not feasible for them to host such a large event, and my siblings and I are such a LARGE body that I guess it is time that we start our own family thing- but its still hard.  I’ve been going to Logan on Christmas Eve ever since I can remember and we certainly missed our cousins, aunts, uncles & Grands this year!

 

As for the rest of our Christmas Vacation, here’s what we managed to squeeze in:

* Went to “Got Air” trampoline-a-palooza with my bff & all her Bowen cousins.  That place is a hoot- but too expensive. 

* Took the kids to the dollar movie to see Puss in Boots.  Yes, I know its already out on video, but my uneducated children do not and they loved it all the same, at 1/4 the cost of a current flick!

* Game night at Jeremy & Chris’s where I got my rear end handed to me in a not-so-friendly game of Settlers.

*Due to the ridiculously warm temperatures,  I got to go running & walking outdoors with neighbors & friends and even made it to the gym for a Zumbathon.  It was so much fun!  I miss my gym!

* Went out to Breakfast with friends at Kneaders for some all-you-can-eat French Toast. YUM!

* Seth got to play in 2 of his former indoor soccer teams games.  He loves playing with those guys and misses his team.

* Went to a couple’s “Ugly Sweater Party”.  Pics to come.  (really funny ones!)

* The kids spent hours and hours playing with old friends, having sleep-overs, seeing their cousins, and even went OUTSIDE to play several times.  Yikes!

* We managed to get in a few ski days, even though what little snow there is to speak of is not the best quality.  Seth took Sparky for a day up to Powder Mtn., We took all the kids for an afternoon at Snowbasin, and I got one momma ski day with Amberlee at Powder.  Not too shabby.

After all that fun, we decided to head home a little earlier than anticipated.  Seth had been asked to speak in Sacrament meeting with the new Elders Quorum presidency of our Price ward, so we left Mt Green Saturday evening and went home to spend New Years Eve and New Years Day at home with just our little family.  After all the excitement of such a long vacation, it was sort of nice just to be with each other for a few days before we had to resume normal life & go back to school/work.

Just us with our new years feast.  Hope ya’ll had a great holiday season & I’m looking forward to a new year with new ups, downs, and adventures in between! 

Christmas Eve

The Pantone family Christmas Eve party was held at Jeremy & Chris’ new house this year.  I loved that  it was so close to where we were staying, but not actually at Grandma’s house (where we were staying).   Chris did a great job as hostess and she added some new traditions which I think were very successful!

Uncle Jeremy with Charlie & Uncle Dan with Cole.

Yes, we attempted to do a Nativity play.  It was hilarious, and really fun.  Chris bought all these costumes and the kids thought it was great.  No one even fought over which character they would play.  My nephew Ben was a duck of some sort and I kept laughing at him because I have never seen ducks (or swans or geese) in a Nativity before.  He kept honking like a goose throughout the skit.

Camel, sheep and duck, er- goose.

Joseph, Mary and my cute little donkey

Shepherds why this jubilee???

Enter stage left: Angel (Bella) & Three wise men (Jenny’s boys & Savannah)

Ok, I think that about sums it up for the Nativity play.

Next up: Christmas eve jammies with the cousins:

We missed you Ben, Megan & Maria!!!  Hope you had a great Christmas back in OR.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!