Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

The snow is really coming down, so why not blog a little and drink some hot chocolate. 

Here are my finished stockings. You should see them in person, they are super cute. The hexagons took the longest by far, but its my favorite (hence, I get it!)

 We had a small Christmas at home but the boys were pretty happy. 

 This is pretty much what GJ has played with the entire time since opening presents. 

Man, I just love those cheeks!

 Then we went up to Tad's parents house that afternoon and stayed a few days. Aren't my boys handsome?

Hope you had a great Christmas!

Progress

You probably can't tell, but I do have 3 of the 4 stockings at least started. 10 days to go! SM's was failry easy as he just wanted stripes, no piecing, but I still need to do his lettering so I haven't sewn on the cuff. More hexagons to sew tonight while watching a movie. I did some HST for the first time ever (I know, how can I be a quilter if I have never made half square triangles) and then of course felt like they were too big, but I am not going back. I am still deciding on what to do for #4 and #5, but so far I am liking them. 

Christmas Program

No "holiday" programs around here, they sang about Christmas and it was a very cute Kindergarten program.  Great job, SM!

Which do you like better?

I know, I only have two weeks to go, I am sick, pregnant, tired, etc, but my goal is to make cute stockings. I had settled on these:

But then today I came across these really cute one.


So I need to make 4 (and I will probably make 1 more after christmas, maybe two)

With either one, I will have names at the top.

I already have the Riley Blake fabric I got on sale at my LQS, so now I just need to start cutting!

What do you think? I am so indecisive!

New Favorite Hiding Place

Too Short

Last Thursday, Brother happened to be passing through town so I got to see him quickly at Cabela's as he got the remaining items for his hunting trip. He has lost a lot of weight since the reunion and its always nice to joke with him. The next day Shelly flew in from dulles and her and I drove up to Star, ID where we picked up Karli for my Aunt's funeral. It was a fun/sad weekend with extended family. 

 Shelly came back with me Sunday and Linny, Matt and Lincoln came over for dinner and a game of Settlers (which if I recall, I won). The next day we all went to breakfast (minus my kids at school, so nice to go out without having to worry about the kids!!) Then everyone left. Its always a sad day when the sisters leave, Linny left two days later to go to Nana's for Thanksgiving and I am a bit jealous.

Luckily I got some pink fabric in the mail that day to cheer me up. Busy, busy planning some girly quilts for little Matilda! (no, that is not her name, just what I call her, like I called GJ Grover. Please leave some name choices if you have some great ones though, more specifically I am looking for a 2 syllable middle name)

Outnumbered

In case you don't live close and haven't noticed my sudden weight gain, we are expecting baby #3 in March and are clueless as to what we are going to do with a girl. Though SM is disappointed he will not have another brother, I think he will eventually come around, even though he does not like girls. GJ of course is still oblivious. 

Saying Good-bye to the Sun

Looks like this was our last week of nice weather! We haven't been up to much:

Being silly. Never tire of running in circles while daddy plays. 

 I have been finishing up a baby quilt. This was my fake string quilt. 

 I love the back!! I was going to go plain, but decided I need to do some real string quilt blocks and I am so glad I did, I am so pleased with how it turned out. So crinkly and lovely when it came out of the drier, I hope baby Chayse loves it! 

 Playing at the park

My two sillies. 

Halloween Eve

In our neighborhood,  we got to Trick or Treat Saturday instead of Sunday this year. We actually went up to G&G's house for the weekend so other than the rain it was a great weekend!

 My Walrus/Seal and Dragon. He would turn and show his wings if people called him a dinosaur, but they still didn't really get it. Oh well. 

 You can't tell so much, but it was raining pretty much the whole time. 

 By the end they were finally both saying "trick or treat" and thank you. A few times when GJ would forget, I would say "What do you say?" and he would say "Please" and help himself to a second piece of candy.

Last Game of the Season

I have to admit I am ready for a break till March, plus it is staring to get COLD! SM improved a lot. He had fun though and that is the point. He is the littlest one on his team, but he wasn't the worst! 

 

 Nothing like a cupcake at 10am in the morning. 

Halloween Parties

Friday was kind of a marathon going between both boys schools and such, but it was a fun day. SM had a huge parade (I mean every parent and grandparent were there, I had to park two blocks away, the place was packed) but it was a cute and the kids had fun. I then went to his party for a few minutes, helped glue on ghost eyes, and then went over to GJ's school.  

He had a very cute little program with lots of songs and then yummy cupcakes.

Not being my favorite holiday, I am glad for a break till next year from the candy and costumes!

Hiking Mt. Nebo

The Story (Pictures below)

Okay, Wendy said that I (Tracy) had to make this post on the blog. I rarely make the posts, but I suppose it is fitting. When I was at BYU I really had this desire to climb to the top of Mt. Nebo just south of Provo. Perhaps for kind of silly reasons, but I did. First, Nebo is actually the highest mountain in the Wasatch although many think that the more hiked and popular Mt. Timpanogos is the highest. So I wanted to climb the highest peak. Also, when I was at the BYU Jerusalem Center we went to the original Mt. Nebo in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. This is the "traditional" site that some say Moses may have climbed to get the 10 commandments. That Mt Nebo is a real tourist thing, the whole student body and faculty ascended the mountain either on foot or on camel through the night to watch the sunrise on top. It is pretty common if you travel there. I rode the camel which was worth whatever it cost, because you can enjoy the ride, focus on the stars and not your feet, and you can say you've ridden a camel. Plus you not down in the trenches fighting the camels, their walking guides, and the smattering of angry European hi-tech hiking tourist that swear at you in other languages when your camel almost knocks them down. So anyway, I wanted to hike Nebo in Utah for sort of sentimental connection to the other Nebo experience. At BYU I tried to hike it once with some friends in my ward, but a sort of quirky kid we did not know that well kind of invited himself on the trip and turned out to not be up for or into the hike. Thus, we were unable to complete the hike. That was my last chance to try to hike it before graduation, getting married, moving to grad school etc. I was always disappointed that I did not get to the top. I always said if I went back to visit family in Utah etc I would find a way to make time to go hike it someday. Well, turns out we moved back to Utah after Georgia Tech so I was determined to not miss out again. We kept having conflicts on weekends and the summer was running out. But finally I forced Wendy to drive down late with me on a Friday after the High Priest social at Church I had to plan. We stayed at Wendy's sister in Spanish Fork, woke up early and hit the trailhead by 8AM. It was a great, clear day for hiking. The valley temp was a high of 85F but it was very breezy on the mountain and probably much cooler up there. I could have maybe preferred pants just for the wind and the sharp rocks at the top.

It was a beast of a hike. I would have done much better at BYU 8 years ago. But I still made it and so did Wendy. It was tiring, but beautiful. I was so exhausted before the peak and also the whole way down. But I am glad I did it. Thank you Wendy for coming with me to fulfill my Nebo dream.

Enough of the boring blog talk. Now for pretty pics.

At the relative beginning of the hike. Still feeling okay so far I think.

Air is getting thinner, scenes much wider, and apparently my face is getting fatter (but the fat face may have started well before we started the hike).

This trail does not mess around much. Pretty much heading upwards the whole time.
Last bite of much awaited lunch on the peak.
West View from peak. That is Mona, UT we think.
East view from the peak (Uinta National Forest land I think).

The walking and scrambling on loose rocks was getting a little old by the peak. This is right on top.
Once you're on the ridge, the trail (sort of a trail) just follows right on the ridge line.
Wendy was a trooper and moving faster than me especially on the way back down. I did carry most of our water and a lot of it. I'm using that excuse.
Looking back on the way back down. We were on the second peak. When you're going up the first time we did not really know where it would go and did not really remember the second peak. When you climb that first steep incline (straight up basically) it is quite disappointing to get to the top and realize there is a whole other peak that was unseen for most of the steep ascent. It was tempting to call it good there. I am glad we stuck out it to the top.

Wendy playing with the color capture feature on our camera. The leaves were turning yellow but this is enhanced.

Finally, after several little rise and falls we could finally see the car. We were so ready for it. I did not know Wendy left on the yellow effect when I took this picture.

Now to maybe climb some other peaks in the Wasatch (next year?).

Ross Family Reunion 2010

Well this post can't do it justice, but I'll try. For at least the last 9 months, my sister Linny and I have been planning this reunion. Its the first one we have really done since 2004, so it was much needed and fabulous. We went to Cascade, ID and rented a huge beautiful cabin.

Here is the entire crew.

The sisters and Shawn (JJ couldn't come)

My favorite part was probably the rafting. The son of the folks' cabin we rented took us down the river. We had a blast and Mark fell out twice!

Next favorite was going up the reservoir and renting a boat. This is GJ at the end of the day when he was exhausted and we ditched him for our last boat ride and came back and he was out.

Changing up the riders. We had a great boat and I even got on the tube, but was too wimpy to try the skis. But Tad and SM also went on the tube.

Family boat picture

Some of our old friends from FW came down to see us as they were having a reunion the same week and switching cabins. I didn't get any great pictures, but it was great to see them, some of them after many years!

The cabin had a huge backyard with tons of space to run and play.

We had an olympic night with lots of group games (go yellow team) and one was donut eating which Julie won. I used my hands just a little. And of course felt sick all night. Who has a picture of Lisa covered in chocolate pudding?

My granparents were able to come up for a day along with my cousin little Marq and his family (thanks for hanging out and taking pictures for us!) and of course brought some guns to shoot.

This is from the first night where we had a huge unbirthday party were we exchanged white elephants gifts and toys for the kids to play with all week.

And of course had cake to go with it.

All the grandkids.

GJ's favorite activity by far, along with most of the kids, was the little four wheelers. We rented a big one, but Mark broke his leg on it and totaled it and after that trip to the hospital, that fun was over. (he has had surgery and is healing, we hope quickly!)

The 2nd day we went to Silver creek plunge which is a natural spring pool that was about 100 degrees. So nice and clean up in the mountains!

So much fun with all our cousins! Here is Ethan who was born the day after SM.

Pinata time (Lindsey really had all the great ideas)

We went through the lines several times before any candy came out.

Again, they love the 4 wheeler.

My sweet GJ loved going fast on the boat!

And we ended the last night with sparklers, which SM says he loves when he sees the pictures, but was scared to death. GJ did as many as he could, he loves fire!

Thanks to everyone who came, it was a great trip and I can't wait till the next one, though I am glad I don't have to plan it!