Let it Snow!

We are really blessed to live somewhere where it snows but only a couple of times each winter. Just enough to still like it. This past weekend we had 5" of frozen precipitation fall, some snow then some sleet then more snow.


It didn't pack well for snowballs or snowmen so we picked up chunks and were throwing them at each other.

We had to make it a rule that we threw it at each others backs or we had to be prepared to catch it so you didn't have the breath knocked out of you.

Tanner was convinced that it was a big snowcone so he just ate it.

Micheal and Clayton realized that if you threw a snowblock and someone tried to block it, the icy block would explode all over the victim.

I happened to be the victim once, and boy was that a cold awakening, like having someone throw snow right in your face. It was fun though! Especially when I got them back:)!








Then Saturday night it got down to 13 degrees and all the roads were a solid sheet of ice so the Stake cancelled church to protect us. So we took the opportunity to make a big pot of Gumbo and then finished it off with some King Cake. That was the perfect meal for a cold day in the snow.

Christmas in Arizona

We went to Arizona for Christmas and had a blast! We saw all 11 of our cousins/nieces or nephews (including our boys that is a total of 14) and played with all of them. The boys got to meet 3 new cousins this visit, one of which (Elise, Jason's little girl) was only a month old when we got there.

Jason arranged for all the kids to go to a fire station on Christmas Eve for a tour. The firefighters were so kind to spend an hour and a half showing the kids everything and answering questions. They let the kids climb all over the ladder truck, try on equipment, opened up every box on the truck, and even showed them all the gear they had to wear. It was funny to watch some of the little kids get a little worried when a firefighter came out all geared up, but when he took off all of the gear they weren't afraid anymore. It was a great day, one that all of us will remember that we were together to experience. I'm not sure if the kids had more fun or the adults...hmmm...it's a toss up!

We were able to carry on Chapman tradition of doing a LIVE Nativity. All the kids were dressed up to play the parts. It was really cute to see them all together. We even had some impromptu "sheep" that were allowed to disrupt (Rylie and Paxton), they were very fun to watch crawl around.

Diana went through the temple for the first time on Dec 26th and that was an incredible experience. For me, it is always a very special experience to go through with family since I live so far away from all family but to go through with Diana was AWESOME!

Mom wanted to get some family pictures taken since it had been 4 years since our last one and the number of grandkids doubled. We did that on the temple grounds and most of us thought we were smart and only packed short sleeve shirts for Arizona weather. It ended up being 43 degrees while we took the pictures. Some of us froze! But it was all good.

My mom, sisters and I, except for Sarah, went out to "surprise" Mark. He actually lives in Surprise, AZ which makes that funny. Anyway, he wasn't able to make it out due to his work schedule so we went to see him. He was very shocked when we jumped out at him, he totally didn't have a clue we were there. He thought for sure that I wasn't going to get to see him and I couldn't have that! We didn't have much time to visit but it was better than not seeing him.

I had lots of late night chats with my sisters, which I love to do. I value my sleep but I'll stay up late just to spend time with them. It is always worth it!

Monday night we went to Nate's for a bonfire as our last get together. We played as long as we could before we had to say our see ya laters. That is always the hard part. I cried more in Arizona than I had in almost an entire year. I just don't cry, it gives me a headache. Then we went to see Jason, he was on call so he showed us around the ambulance. He even cut a penny to show my boys how strong their special scissors are. As Micheal put it, "Cool!"

Lots of fun memories! I had so many pictures to share I had to do a slide show.
Enjoy!

Gingerbread cookie's

For a fun family activity last Sunday we made some gingerbread cookies.


They were so yummy!

My Marathon Man

On Saturday, Jeremy ran a marathon! That's 26.2 miles to be exact. He spent many, many, many hours preparing his body and mind for this goal. He had a few moments when he thought it wasn't possible but he kept pushing on. There were scary moments when he would collapse from exaustion, I watched him carefully, wondering if this goal would kill him, but remained supportive. When race day came, we both approached it with excitement and nervousness because he had some challenges that he would have to face on race day like the temperature being 25 degrees, and pain on the top of his foot from tieing his shoes too tight, and his knee still isn't perfect either but he had to try.

The boys and I met him at mile 14 to cheer him on.

I worried for 4 hrs. and 33 minutues about whether or not he was injured somewhere on the course and then all of the sudden, there he was giving it his all at the end.
WE were so proud! He got his finisher's medal and we immediately had to get him out of the cold. He couldn't feel his hands (the hand warmers didn't work) and the temp only warmed up to maybe 30 degrees so he needed to get out of his wet clothes. The cold temp took more out of him then we expected but he did it!

3 new blessings!

Our Thanksgiving weekend was a nice break away from the craziness of life. We enjoyed the family togetherness, food and quiet. Then on Sunday we got 2 text messages. Jeremy's sister Ali delivered a little boy and... my brother Jason's little girl was born. Within 20 minutes of each other. Who gets to be an aunt/uncle/cousin 2x in one day without the birth of twins? Isn't that awesome!
Then on Friday Jeremy's brother Rich announced his new little boy had arrived too. We are so lucky to have all these sweet new little people to get to know. Unfortunately, we get to meet only one during the holiday's but we hope to meet the other 2 soon. Congrats to the new Mom's and Dad's. Welcome Walter, Elise, and Little Rich, we can't wait to meet you!

Micheal's Informance

Micheal has had the opportunity to do band this year at his new school. His wonderful Grandpa Fowler let him borrow his trumpet for the year so that Micheal could participate. Part of Micheal's grade is participating in an informance (he chooses a parent that he will teach to play a song on the trumpet.) Micheal chose Jeremy to teach and I was able to take pictures and video of the experience. I have video of the parents playing but the song "Hot Cross Buns" wasn't easy to recognize so I just added a picture of Jeremy with the trumpet. Then the 5th graders played some of the songs they were practicing for us. Keep in mind that they only get 30 minutes a school day in band so they are still very new musicians. And to make it even more interesting this was the very first time that the brass and the woodwinds have played together, ever. Micheal's favorite song was the theme from "Jaws". Micheal had a hard time playing it because he was smiling too much. I have video of it, but unfortunately, my camera battery died in the middle of it and it won't let me load it for whatever reason.

Harvest Run

Today was race day! It was really foggy and a little wet but was perfect for the run, not too hot or cold. I'm not sure you can see too well in the picture but the leader on the bike had long pink hair and wings. At least it's halloween right!


I completed my first race and first 10k all in the same day! My time was 1:04:41. I beat my goal of doing it around 1:05 so I'm pretty happy considering I've never done this before. Micheal and Clayton ran with me at the end so that was fun too.

There were 6 sisters (including myself) from my ward that all trained and ran the 10k together. And...the Relief Society Pres. was there to cheer us on at the finish line and then ran the 5k herself. It was so great to do this with so many friends. We were there to keep each other moving and motivate each other to endure to the end. The bishop is a runner too so he said that he was really excited that we have a running group with lots of first timers, he says that once you get one race under your belt, you are hooked. We'll see...

I am glad that it was on Halloween morning because I finally have something orange and black to wear for halloween (I do not dress up) and I can eat chocolate tonight without guilt:)!