Holiday Project

By popular demand, here's a closer look at the igloo.

Christmas in Colorado

When we left Vegas to drive to Colorado, there was still plenty of snow on the ground 3 days after the storm. The drive was long and uneventful. We were glad to arrive at Grandpa and Gramdma's house to find even more snow waiting for us to enjoy. When I say "enjoy," that also means plenty of shoveling and plowing. It has snowed on and off since we arrived.

Colorado Christmas 2008

And along with the beauty comes a fair share of fun and games including sledding, snowball fights, making graham cracker houses, way too much good food, movies, and never enough sleep! Kalvan even got ambitious and made an igloo in the front yard.

Of course we had our traditional Christmas Eve nativity reading as we celebrate the birth and life of our Savior. This year we had enough cousins to act it out the nativity as well. Christmas came and went with more snow and even more presents. Santa Clause was very good to us this year. How greatful we are for good kids! We hope that everyone has been blessed this Christmas and this year as we look forward to 2009. We miss and love all of our family and friends we couldn't be with and wish the best always.

Click the photo album link above to see some of our photos so far.

Things I thought I'd never say while living in Vegas...

1. I need a snow shovel.

2. The kids have a snow day.

3. Our neighbor is stuck in the middle of the street.

4. We had to dig the car out.

5. We can't go to the store because the streets are too icy.

6. Our neighbor boy is stranded at school due to the weather.

7. It's snowy and bright out.

8. I'm concerned about some of our pipes freezing.

9. Our chase tree is being pinned to the ground by the snow.

10. The weather forcast says to expect 5 to 10 inches of snow on the valley floor.

I thought I'd seen the amazing part of this storm when the snow started sticking at 2:30, but by 4:00 we had around 3 inches and snow was still falling. As far and I know everyone around us has

made it safely home and their cars are in their garages after we shoveled their driveways with shovels that weren't made for snow. Karter even took a few rides down our driveway on our little "tube" that we use in the pool. It's been a really fun day and the kids are excited about the first "snow day" in Clark County School District history since the 60's. The main problem they're facing is that no one budgeted for snowplows. Seriously, why would they?

2:30 Update

And More Snow.

What's with the white stuff?!?

As you all know we put up with 120 degree weather during the summer but the pay off is that it's very mild here in the winter. Well, not so much this year. Our highs have been in the 30's for several day and today it's SNOWING! Now snow isn't totally out of the question here, but it usually happens at night and is gone by 9am. But today it's almost 1:00 in the afternoon and a good amount of snow is falling from the sky. UN-Believable! I LOVE IT!!! Of course I'm not totally impressed with the cold, but this is really cool! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

As Christmas draws closer it's become very apparent that Christmas cards aren't highest on my list of priorities. So if you do happen to get one please don't expect them till around New Year's. Unfortunately, they're not New Years cards they're Christmas cards. So, in an attempt to make some effort toward being on time I'm going to post a quick "card" of sorts here. It's been a wonderful year for us. Our kids are growing a getting smarter by the day. Pretty soon they'll be the teachers in the house and Kal and I will be the students. Oh wait, they already are. Having children is such an education. Karter continues to advance with his speech and is such a lively little boy. He's so full of life! I can sit on the couch and feel like I've gotten a workout just watching him. Sage is our sensitive sweet girl who is absolutely in love with horses. She's pretty sure she's going to grow up and have a field full of horses. She loves American Girls, especially Felicity, because she has a horse. Kaleb is still a Lego Maniac. He's such a smart boy and surprises us everyday with the level of compassion he's capable of. He's a fantastic big brother and tries so hard to take good care of his younger siblings.

Kalvan and I are still working hard and are so very happy with the life we've been blessed with. We'd like to thank each and everyone of you for your thoughts and love. Christmas is a time when we draw close to family and friends. While we can't take to time to visit everyone of you, we'd like you to know that you're in our thoughts and prayers. Have a wonderful Christmas and may the New Year bring joy to each of you.

With all our Love,

Kalvan, Miki, Kaleb, Sage, and Karter

Thanksgiving Pictures

For some reason when I tried to post the pictures it wouldn't do it. So I'm posting the pictures in a separate posting. Here they are:

Tis' the Season

When I started blogging I just hoped I'd have time to keep up. Well, so far I'm not doing so good. With Christmas only a few weeks away guess it's that time of year.

Happy Thanksgiving!
We had a fabulous time at Thanksgiving in Utah! The kids and I left a full week before Thanksgiving and traveled up to my sister, Kale's, house. We had a fabulous time tearing her house apart. My kids are pretty sure I'm the meanest mom every since I made them clean it up daily. We enjoyed shopping, doing a little stamping and even had a little craft time. My sister is training to walk a marathon. I must say it's very practical of her to walk it, but she's still crazy. Anyway, I did a minor amount of helping on her fund raising project. She's making Christmas advent calendars to sell as part of her fund raiser. If you'd like to check out her fund raising progress go to: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ut/cmc09/ksnyderq2u. You go Kale!

After the weekend at my sister's house we moved over to my brother-in-laws house just 5 miles away. As always we had a fantastic time playing games, watching movies on the wall, enjoying the family musical talents, and just hanging out. My sister-in-law Becki is the best bread maker I know. Her wheat bread is to die for and apparently it's good of us too. I get so spoiled everytime we visit. This Thanksgiving was expecially nice for me as both sides of our family were there. My entire family (mom, dad & siblings) came and Kal's parents and his brother's family were there. It was so wonderful to see so many people I love all in one room. It was a first for Kal and I to be able to spend a holiday with both sides of our family.


Thanks so much Jeff and Becki for hosting a very memorable Thanksgiving!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone!

All Aboard!

Last week Kaleb had a field trip to the Southern Nevada Railway Museum. I was really surprised at how many engines and cars they had on display. I was also really impressed at how affordable it is to go ride the train. The volunteers are very friendly and knowledgable. I'm from Durango, CO where they have one of the most famous narrow gauge railroads in the country, The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad & Museum. It's an incredible place and has some of the most beautiful scenery you'll ever see, but it costs $79 to $179 per ticket for an all day tour. Which I don't recommend doing with small kids. While the Southern Nevada version is about an hour and isn't outrageously impressive, it's fun and the kids love it. Besides the fact that it costs $8 for adults and $4 for kids. They've also got a Santa Train coming up the first 2 weekends in December. The kids get to ride the train with Santa and Mrs. Claus. The cost is only $2 per rider. During the first weekend they're also featuring a toy train exhibit. You'll never hear me discourage you from visiting Durango, it's an amazing and beautiful place. But if you're looking for something local, kid friendly and inexpensive, SNRM is a great option.

Playing Catch Up

OK so I said that a lot of interesting things have been happening lately so I thought I'd fill you in on what I meant:

Karter is our rowdy little guy who's a laugh a minute. He's regularly covered in ketchup, running half naked in front of our company, dancing while he tells stories, or just plain flat superman jumping from furniture and scaring the life out of mom. On a daily basis we have to check with him to see what animal he is today. A few days ago he decided he's a pirate and below is the video we got of that. In the first part we were at the Shark Reef and he all of a sudden started dancing! He is the funniest little guy ever!

Sagera is really growing and this past week she was super excited to loose her first tooth. She's so funny! She asks me almost every day if she looks funny. Silly girl. I keep telling her that's how most kids her age look because they're loosing their teeth too. She also got a new hair cut this week. We cut her hair off so it didn't look so whispy. Again, she thought she looked funny so she wouldn't let me take a picture. Of course that all changed when Daddy came home and told her she looks awesome! Now she wears that cut with style. It's amazing how much daddy's opinion matters. But still no picture for mom.

Kaleb just turned 9 in October and is an amazing little boy. He's got an unbelievably creative mind. He can build the most amazing things out of Legos, K-nex or his Erector set. He's doing fabulously in his new school and for the first time ever he comes home telling me that school is hard! All I can say is, "Say it again!" That's music to my ears. We had to move him to a private school to hear those words. He's currently learning all 50 states and their capitals. Of course he's been quizzing me and I don't have an answer for him. Do you know how long it's been since I studied US Geography. I don't remember these things and I have no problem saying, I am not smarter than a 3rd grader.

Kalvan is the busiest man of all. He works full-time for the city, does consulting work on the side, teaches at UNLV, and is working on his MBA. Sometimes I start to wonder if I remember what he looks like. The most common time I see him is first thing in the morning as he's running out the door or when it's time for bed and he's just getting home. Either way my eyes are blurry and pictures are my best source of memory. Not really, but some days it feels like that.

As for me, I'm keeping quite busy. Besides cleaning up Karters ketchup finger painting, being the family taxi, housekeeper, accountant, and all around go to girl, I started a Lia Sophia business. It's a direct sales company who offers fashion jewelry. You're welcome to check out my website at http://www.liasophia.com/miki. I've been doing this for only a few months, but it's been good. I'm also a part-time teachers aide at American Heritage Academy where my kids go to school. I really enjoy being in the classrooms and helping out where I'm needed. If anyone is interested there's going to be a Plimoth Plantation production on November 20th at 7pm at the school that all the kids are participating in.

Life is such a fabulous thing. No other career in life offers more diversity in daily work than being a mom. Sure there are the monotonous things like laundy, housekeeping and bill paying. But how often do you see a 3 year old imitating a dinosaur and licking everyone in sight. The paintings, projects and productions are priceless!

Happy Halloween

Well, our halloween went off without a hitch. We had our traditional halloween chili and made our trick-or-treating rounds through our neighborhood and to a few of our friends. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. I tried to take some while we were trick-or-treating, but all the "night" pictures turned out so blurry you can't tell who is who. I did get pictures of Kaleb and Sage making Boo Bugs. We had boo bugs for lunch. They're little sausages wrapped in cresent rolls and decorated with ketchup and mustard. They had a great time decorating them and it was a fun lunch for the kids.

We hope you all had a fabulous Halloween and your little ones are safe and feeling well.

Love to all!

High Pressure

Hello everyone!

Due to high pressure from many sources, I've created a blog. Yes, you heard right. Miki actually took the time to set up a blog! I know most won't believe it till they see it, but it's true. Truth be told I have had a lot of interesting things happening lately and want to share, but haven't taken the time to write about a dozen emails to share it all. So, stay tuned for more posts from Miki, the anti-blogger. (I love reading yours, but feel intimidated to do my own.)

Love and kisses,
Miki