A foot of new snow and fresh air to breathe!

The inversion with all its yucky air is gone (although I'm sure it's not the last inversion we'll see this winter!) In its place is a foot of new snow. Here's a shot of the tree that shades my deck in the summer.

Rollin' On In

Went out to get the mail this morning, looked north, and saw the clouds literally rolling up over the mountain there above Centerville. We've seen this happen before, but it never loses the cool factor. It's always fun to watch!

The Birds and the Gerbils

Okay, this is an incredibly long story made short. Nicole got a momma gerbil and her 4 mostly-grown babies for her birthday. The bottom picture is of Nicole holding one of the "teenagers." When Nicole came home from school today, she went to check on her gerbils, and lo and behold!! MOM HAD GIVEN BIRTH AGAIN. Yeah, we were shocked.
As it turns out, gerbils mate again immediately after giving birth, and then have another litter about 6 weeks later, which is how old the "teenagers" are.
I'm telling you, you learn something new every single day. :)

And don't worry: the buck stops here. There was no daddy around here to mate with this time. Whew!!

Gerbil, anyone?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NICOLE!! (or, the cake her friends made)

Nicole's cute friends made her a Cinderella cake and brought it over to surprise her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!! (or, you've done it! You're 18!!)

This is Nicole at one week old. I just LOVE this picture.

Nicole and Grandma Sed. We miss you, Grandma Sed!

First birthday! The sunglasses rock, but she wasn't having it...I'm holding her hands so she can't pull 'em off before Grandma Sed snaps the picture.

Happy 18th!!

A photo tribute to Nicole. Love you, Coley!!

A fun trick!

We decorated Nicole's room tonight while she was at work. Tomorrow she'll be 18!!!!

An early celebration

Lovely little Liza. Those fingers are just too delish.

My little neice Liza had fun giving everyone high fives.

This is Nicole's favorite picture from that night. She LOVES her buddy, Liza.

Opening a gift.

An interview with Libby

Daddy took Libby and Mia with him to look for shed antlers today. They had an awesome time!

Pickles and an elephant

A couple of days ago, Libby walked up to me with this jar of pickles, which Nicole could not seem to open. "Can you open these pickles?" "Yes," I said, and opened them easily. Libby took the pickle jar, took it to Nicole, and I heard her exclaim, "See! I told you mom was strong as an elephant!"

I had a very good laugh.

The view from my kitchen window tonight

Just Gorgeous!!

Looks like I've had better days!

The girls made 2 snow-women the other day, and decided that the bigger one (now on the ground) was me, and the littler one was Libby. Looks like I wasn't having a good day that day, doesn't it? :D

ONLY UNDEFEATED TEAM IN THE NATION!!

From today's Deseret Morning News...it speaks for itself!!

Today's Deseret Morning New Headline

GO UTES!!!!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year from our family to yours! This picture was taken New Year's Eve, as the kids were ready to get to work on our appetizer-themed feast. Nicole made the Tomato-Basil Bruschetta, I made the wrapped little smokies and honey mustard, and we also had a cheese roll and crackers. Not in the picture was our Cherry Cheesecake! YUM. (Jared looks mad, but don't believe it for a second. That seems to be his new "mom's taking another picture" face!)