Blake's Birthday!!!

This past Monday was Blake's Birthday! I had a hard time trying to plan something fun as he was scheduled to work the Saturday before and the evening shift all week. As it turned out he didn't work on Saturday and we just went out to dinner at his favorite spot (Cafe Rio). We had birthday cake on Monday and opened some presents. I guess birthdays just aren't as exciting as they are when your little. But Happy Birthday anyway, Blake.

Hiking El Dorado Canyon

This weekend we went for a hike at El Doradao Canyon up to a natural bridge. It was a short hike only about 2 miles but pretty rocky. We carried the kids almost all the way back so it was a great workout. The kids had a great time though, Kierstyn is quite a monkey and always took the harder way to climb over the rocks. She also wanted to climb up to the highest rocks! The weather was perfect for hiking, we actually forgot a jacket for Kierstyn so she had to wear mine and I wore Blake's. Ben was just disappointed because he never saw a lizard.

Happy New Year!

After Christmas, we went to St. George with Blake's family. This isn't all the family but almost.




We had a great time in St. George taking in the sights, 4 wheeling, and the kids loved the go karts at Fiesta Fun Center. I can't say I stayed up to ring in the New Year but I still had a good time.

Christmas at the Chappell Home!

This year we enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home! We went out to dinner on Christmas Eve and went to see some Christmas lights. Then we've tried to start our own Christmas traditions by reading Christmas book together before putting out our stockings and going to bed. It's not like the wonderful Gardner Christmas Eve parties I remember growing up but I hope its something special that my kids will remember when they grow up. Christmas day was great! We stayed in on pj's most of the day since we have no where to go. The kids seemed excited about everything they got and Blake was completely surprised we got a Wii. Him and the kids have been playing it everyday and I have to say Kierstyn is a pretty good bowler and Ben is not too bad at boxing. Here are just a few pictures of the fun we had!

Snow Day!!

This is how it looked at about 1pm today! The kids were so excited they wanted to go out and play in the snow! Kierstyn kept saying she just loves the snow!

I now realize how inadequate their winter clothes are, of course how often do we really need them here.

This is something I never thought I would get to do since moving to the desert, make a snowman with my kids!
This is something Blake thought he would never have to do again. But today he left work at about 3:30pm and didn't make it home until 7:30pm and no he didn't stop to do Christmas shopping. There was so much snow on the roads that cars could not go up the hills by our house. So cars were blocking the road and he had to help 500 up the hill (so he says!).
This was Ben throwing snow balls, thinking it was so much fun!
This is Ben being hit by a snowball in the face!
He didn't like that too much!
This is our 2nd snowman and probably the biggest one I've ever made! It was a great snow day and one to remember as we don't get them much.

Enjoying the Holidays!

O how I miss the days of family Christmas parties, where Santa would come and you get to play all kinds of cheesey games. Since we live far away from family the only way my kinds see Santa is if we take them. So last weekend we went out to the Bass Pro Shop. We wrote a letter to Santa and the kids put it in the mail box. They sat on Santa's lap but weren't too excited about it. I think they liked sitting on the 4wheelers better. This weekend we went to Winterfest in downtown Henderson. My kids love it because there's a parade and they get a pony ride. This year was really windy so we didn't stay too long, but it was still fun. And the last picture is Ben showing off his train he made at joyschool. He's been having an even better time picking the candy off it and eating it. We also had our ward Christmas party this week. It wasn't quite like the parties I remember growing up, but its nice when you know or at least recognize most of the people there. We really love our ward and have made some wonderful friends!!

Our Thanksgiving

Christmas always seems to come so quickly, but we had a great Thanksgiving. We were able to go to Idaho to visit family. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house and had all of my family there. Amazingly we didn't get a picture of us all but we had a great time. The weather was even good and the kids were able to play outside for part of the day. My kids loved playing with their cousins. Even now anytime we drive in the car they pretend Sydney and Lindsey are in the back seat along with Kierstyn's pretend tiger. Its pretty cute. Ben had a great time playing with Granpa's tractors. But he still thinks tractors are for tipping (thanks to the movie Cars) so here he is tipping over all the tractors. I guess I need to take him to the farm during harvest so he can see more of what tractors really do. So now I'm focusing on Christmas trying to get my shopping done so I can just enjoy it. At least thats my plan.