Haven't written in a while...

I could make all kinds of excuses as to why I haven't written in a while, but the honest truth is...I didn't want to. I told myself it was because of another failed cycle...I told myself it was because of Christmas break...I told myself it was because I have my nephew living here...I just didn't do it.

So, here I am now...let me tell you about our Christmas break. We (My Love, two 4 year olds, the dog, and I) drove halfway across the country to visit family. On our way, we visited my grandmother. There was no snow on the ground except where it was plowed from a parking lot...so we searched for a section of clean snow and let them play...

On our way from there to my parents, we drove through a cattle drive and that was pretty awesome except that our dog went insane because our car was surrounded by cows.

When we got to our destination, it snowed, so that was really awesome for the kids.

They had so much fun sledding

Ok, so I'm sure that moment wasn't fun for him...they hit a snow bank and it got him in the face...

and eating snow

and making snow angels!

The kids helped Papa and My Love to clean the pheasants they shot too.

We visited friends and family and had a good time and we had a great time on our way home. 
We stopped to visit some friends and went ice skating (both kids first time),

I have to say that she kicked butt at ice-skating!! She didn't want help and if she fell, she got right back up!

Our little buddy needed a lot more help, but he did really well

then went to the Gateway Arch the next day

The weather was icky and windy when we went into the arch...

but it cleared up some as we were there

That is a long ways down...

as we left the arch, the sun was out (but it was still very windy)

and drove to spend New Year's with our good friends and their children.

We drove through a lot of mountains on our final leg of the journey and let the kids out to play at one point:

We were all glad to be home when we finally got here...

Oh...I just realized I forgot to mention anything about Christmas!! I didn't get what I wanted, but it's been 3 years of that...so pretty used to that...anyhow...

We had a lot of fun at my mom and dad's for a small gift exchange:

Gramma got everyone silly suckers!

And the men all got silly string!

We had a fantastic time with my extended relatives for our Christmas gift exchange and party!!! There were 31 of us there and it was awesome! We didn't have room at anyone's home, so we celebrated it in my family's bar. Here is a picture





Santa came for the kids (guess they must've been good!)