Puppies

Our friend's yellow lab, Sadie, had 10 puppies a few weeks ago. We have been to visit them many times and can't wait for them to fully open their eyes in a few days. Can you tell Haley's saying,"Awwww....their so.......cute!" in this picture?
Here's Sadie with her puppies. We dog-sat her alot last summer. She is the best dog in the world.....so calm and obedient. We LOVE Sadie.

I don't know who's cuter in this pic...... Jordy or the puppy......

Jacob loved holding the puppies but kept wanting to trade it for a "new" one.

These puppies are well loved by the Ledbetter kids.....

Momma's Boys

I was uploading pics to the computer the other day before we headed to wrestling and the boys all decided they wanted their pictures taken with me. So here they are. Jackson took the pics he wasn't in.

What a sweet little face!!!!

And the bruise still lingers from a fall at the ice caves.

My little loverboy.....this guy is VERY sweet on his Momma and always is hugging and kissing and cuddling me. I just LOVE every minute of it!!!!

Boy,oh boy, do ever love all these boys!!!

These Days.....

.... we're trudging around in slush.....
......taking guitar lessons from grad students.....

.....making very dramatic fashion statements.....

....eating very random,yet healthy, lunches....

.........LOVING LIFE..........

Are You Ready To R-U-M-B-L-E........

We signed Jackson and Jordan up for the Three Lakes district wrestling team. They've been practicing twice a week for about 8 weeks. Here they are doing some of their warmup exercises. Jordan had been pitching a fit about doing one of them. He was just being lazy we thought. But after a conversation with Mommy followed up with another one with Daddy.......
..... Jordy now completes all assigned warmups.... happily and proudly! This crab crawl was what had him. He just didn't want to do it because it was so hard for him and everyone else would finish before him. After our talk, he realized that it didn't matter how fast he finished it, as long as he did his best and finished what he started. He really has gotten really good at it and has fun while doing it. He was intimidated as he is one of the smaller boys in the class, but he now realizes it dosn't matter how big or small he is.... he can do whatever he really sets his mind to do. He needed some encouragement and direction and is now one of the best in his group and even finishes this particular exercise even before some of the big boys!!!

Jacob, watching the matches. He gets out there and wrestles sometimes too...... and when he does, it is really funny to see. He gets really serious!!

Jackson taking down one of his teammates. They all have so much fun. So much fun that Haley could no longer just watch the wrestling. She has been participating the past few weeks........

........ and boy, can she hold her own!!!! Here she is slamming Jackson. I couldn't believe she picked him up like that!!!! It was so funny to watch and although I definately don't want my little girl to become a wrestler, she definately had fun these past few weeks and I'm glad she's learned a few things so she dosn't just have to just "take it" from Jackson anymore!!!!

Jackson and Jordan are in a tournament this coming Saturday morning, so stay tuned......

Skiing at Big Powderhorn Mtn.

We went with a large group from HoneyRock to Big Powderhorn Mtn. to go downhill skiing. Dell and the kids had never been skiing before and it had been years and years for me.

Even Jacob went. These were the smallest skis I've ever seen!!! You can't really tell, but they came up to Jacob's chin. It was so cute. I didn't get alot of pics of our time here because I was teaching 4 kids how to ski. Jacob and Jordan went down with me between my skis. Dell wasn't feeling well and only went down once. It also was his first time skiing of any sort. So funny. Haley and Jackson picked it right up. Jacob just got to enjoy the slope without any work of any kind, and Jordan was doing well and went down ahead of me by the end of the day. I can't wait to take them again!!
Jordan and I on what felt like our millionth trip up the chairlift. Working with him took alot of patience. We had to take several breaks as I was getting quite frustrated. I took the kids in for lunch and I skipped out and went on a few runs on my own on the Mtn. Needless to say, I kept getting disoriented and it took me awhile to find my way back to the lodge. I wound up having to go down some harder routes.... I was actually concerned on my way down some of them... but it was fun and I laughed at the sight of myself a whole lot. By the time I got back, I was ready for some more work with Jordy and this time, was able to stay unfrustrated.

This actually dosn't look like a slope at all but it was. Haley and Jackson progressed quickly off the "Big Bird" slope and moved on to this green(easy) slope. They loved that they were skiing on a "grownup" hill.

It really does look totally flat but it really wasn't...... they can't wait to go back!!!

Dell was sick and Jacob was just pooped from skiing.....the poor dudes!!!!

We all had a great day, with great fun and great friends!

Where Is My Baby???

So a few weeks ago, just as winter started coming to an end, Jacob decided he was going to go tubing. All winter he has always just stood at the top of the hill and watched us tube and he would also push the empty tubes down the hills and I'd have to drag them back up. On occasion, I would just grab him and hop on a tube and go down and he always laughed and had fun, but he never voluntarily went down. On this particular day, I had asked if he wanted to go with me, and to my surprise, he said, "No, I wanna go by myself." Not knowing if he was bluffing or not, I pulled out the camera just in case. Sure enough, he wasn't bluffing and I caught it on video. (A very rare occurance to ever be able to catch anything the first time it happens.)

I just love how he continues giggling and laughing just sitting at the bottom of the hill. And from that moment on, there was no turning back. That boy tubed and tubed! He even went down the big tubing hill on the other side of camp alone!! He refused for anyone to ride with him. Since then, the past few weeks he's grown even more independant. He wants no help with anything..... getting dressed, putting on boots, putting on his coat, getting in and out of the truck..... he wants to do it all.........
So gone are the days of my baby. He is a big boy now, and so every morning he comes down the stairs and just wants to sit on my lap and cuddle, I just drop everything and anything to savor these precious moments with him so I can soak them up. The other morning, he cuddled on my lap, looking out the living room window for 30 min..... perfectly quiet and still...we just cuddled..... and then just like that, he was Mr. Big Boy the rest of the day with not even a glimpse of the cuddlebug of the morning.......... Sigh............ these days are flying by and my kids are growing up!!!

Apostle Islands Ice Caves~ Awesome Experience!!!

I would recommend going if you're ever in the area in the months of January through early March. It's a really beautiful and fun experience. We'll definately be making a day trip of it again next year, so feel free to come join us!!!!

Just A Few More....

Just around the corner......
.....were several of these enormous waterfall looking ice walls. Truly amazing to look at.

Back view of 1 of the frozen waterfalls.

Breathtakingly beautiful.....

More Apostle Island Ice Caves

Definately one of my favorite pics. The ice here froze so clear, it actually looked like running water. It was, yet again, just beautiful.

Climbing into a cave that held a special treat for us to see......

........the most tiny and intricate icicles. They were everywhere inside this cave.

It was so hard( even for us adults) not to touch them. They were just begging to be touched but we decided we were going to leave "no trace" that we were there so that others could enjoy these tiny little wonders. They were so small, they appeared that they would just crumble if you touched them. I had to zoom in quite alot to get even this amount of detail. I was wishing I had a better camera, but these pics are nice too.

More again.......

We loved looking at the rock. There's so many layers and it looks beautiful. This pic dosn't do it justice at all. It offered a great opportunity to teach and converse with the kids about the different kinds of rock and stone.

Haley kept climbing up this very slippery piece of ice to hold on to the rock and then she would try to move her way off of it, just holding on to the rock and trying to get in a spiderman pose with her hands and feet. I guess she was practicing for this summer's many rockclimbing ventures. She was so funny and kept saying,"I sure do wish we had ropes and a harness. We could totally climb this and Case!!! You could belay me back down!!!"

I can't believe how beautiful ice can be!!! We stayed a safer distance away from some of these ones though as there was evidence that some of these enormous chunks had fallen. You wouldn't want to be under one of them if it did fall.....

And Even More ....

I loved this specific area at the caves. This hole in the rock is so perfectly round and smooth and it was fun for everyone to climb through. We ate lunch on the other side of it. I think it's safe to say, we were definately the only people picnicing out there and on turkey wraps with blue corn chips and salsa, grapes and sliced oranges to boot!!!!
This place was just incredible.....

Jacob, taking a well deserved break. He did really well. Towards the 3 hour mark, he had a little meltdown, but soon fell asleep in the backpack on the trek back to the truck.

The caving crew. Dell has been working a whole lot lately and wouldn't have been able to go with us before the ice wasn't safe anymore , so 3 of the guys from HoneyRock, Case, John and Charlie, all went with us. I must say, I can't imagine having less than 1 adult per kid when climbing and exploring the caves. We all had a great time and look forward to planning a trip again next year with Dad.

More Ice Caves.......

More exploring.....

Inside a cave with the flash off.....

......same cave, flash on.

The kids exiting a cave.