Pierson Family: January 2012

Saturday, January 14, 2012

New Years in Idaho

This year we spent the week between Christmas and New Years in Island Park at my parent's cabin. Unfortunately (for us and us alone) we didn't get to spend the week with my dad and Penni. They were cruising in Mexico. We did, however, have Lindsey and Marci and their families up at different times during the week. Mason had so much fun spending time in the woods with his cousins, and we loved spending time with with some of our favorite people.

Mason

Chloe

Carson

Abby

Nic and Sage (note the scab lip).

I think these two pictures are awesome.

Love it!

Cute kids!

Buddies. After dinner on Christmas (before the cabin) Carson hugged Mason and said, "Mason, I'll never forget you." So funny!

This girl loves her daddy.

Playing some Wack-a-Mole

The spa treatment.

Sage wasn't crazy about being outside. She liked it fine for the first few minutes (and she laughed when she rode on the snowmobile), but after about 10 minutes she was done.

Love these kids.

The fearless leaders.

This picture is kind of a big deal. This girl simply does not sleep anywhere but in a crib or (occasionally) in the car. We were making lunch and I looked over to see this. I was shocked.

Love this picture.

Sweet Abby. I love this girl. She is so funny.

The girls were running from the stairs to the kitchen and having a great time.

The kids were playing upstairs for quite some time when they came down to get us for a "show." A "wrestling match show". We came up to find that Mason, Carson, Chloe and Abby had been having wrestling matches. It was really funny to watch. Mason and Carson really were going after each other. Luckily no one got hurt and it ended up being super funny.

They assumed the Sumo stance prior to contact.

Abby and Chloe

Then Nic got involved.

And a naked Sage.

There was a day between when Lindsey's family and Marci's family came up where we had no one at the cabin. So we took a quick trip to West Yellowstone (in a blizzard) and did some light shopping at the bookstore, then had dinner at a local deli. West, in the winter, is a little less inviting than it is in the summer, but it still holds a very special place in my heart.

Later that day Marci, Seth, and Ellen came up and we were able to have some quality time with them.

Mason and Ellen loved playing with the "Giant Peanut" (aka the love sac) and the kids spent a good amount of time and energy jumping from the couch onto the "peanut". I figured it was a good way to get out some of Mason's ever present energy.

Cute kids! Mason, Ellen and Seth. These guys loved going on the snowmobile.

We had an awesome time at the cabin. Seriously, I have such great memories from the week we spent there. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our own little family, as well as some of Nic's. I had a goal to not get out of my pajamas for the whole week and (with the exception of going into W. Yellowstone) I achieved that goal. I don't really know how to describe how wonderful it felt to be up there, away from everything, tucked into the woods with my sweet family. It was really wonderful. A big thanks to my dad and Penni for first, building the cabin (from start to finish, by themselves) and second, for letting us stay. Hopefully they'll let us stay again after reading this post!

After spending 5 days at the cabin we decided to go back to Idaho Falls and spend New Years eve at Nic's parent's. We put the kids to bed early a few nights and went to movies, and we brought in the new year with Marci, some Martinelli's and some stinky cheese. It was perfect.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Christmas

We started off Christmas eve with some chocolate chip snowman pancakes.

Sage enjoyed sticking her fingers in the chocolate and licking it off.

Later that morning we went for a walk through the neighborhood. Going for walks is a daily activity in our house (mostly due to Nell, but partly due to general cabin fever). We decided to change it up this time, though, and instead of a stroller we brought the wagon. Bad idea. As we were walking along I turned just in time to see Sage take a header out of the wagon. Luckily she landed on the grass and not the sidewalk, but I almost wonder if the grass did more damage. She bled pretty bad from her mouth and had tiny puncture wounds all over her face from the stiff, frozen grass. We sat with her head on my lap while Nic made sure her teeth were intact and there were no stitches required. Several neighbors came out to see if they could help and Mason was awesome and grabbed Nell and just stayed back letting us know that in fact Sage was "bleeding a lot." In the end she was fine and just had a nice big fat lip and later a nasty scab for the week. She's a pretty tough girl though. She has to be with her lunatic brother!

Post head dive at the walkway near our house.

This picture is golden and warms my heart.

Our crazy dog and her crazy doggy daddy.

Mason very much enjoyed rolling down the hill.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and eating ham.

We left Santa some hot cocoa (per Mason's request), cookies, and carrots for the reindeer.

Sage ate some carrots.

Mason's letter. He wrote all of our names and then dictated what it should say.

The Christmas eve spread. I was so excited that night I could hardly sleep. I spent a lot of time this year trying to find the perfect gifts at the right price. I also really wanted to have all my shopping done early so as to spend the week of Christmas with my head in the right place. I think I nailed it and I was proud.

Sage woke up earlier than Mason so we tried to entertain her while we waited for Mason to wake up. Pretty much she was just wondering why she wasn't getting some breakfast.

I have tried and tried to crop this photo (as I look like a posessed Quasimoto) but it keeps coming out like the original. Mason's face is just too good to not include it. So there you have it. Merry Christmas. Love, me.