My Mother-of-the-Year Nomination's in the bag!!

I got woken up to Gabe begging me to stay home today.  His argument?  Snow.  Six beautiful inches of it in our backyard!  At first I furrowed my brow and just said, "whatever".  but he begged even harder saying that if we waited until after school, it would probably be melted.  I got that!  Every bit of snow that we've received this winter, which really isn't much, has been gone by the latter part of the day for the most part.    Part of the deal (Gabe's idea) was that they would do some major cleaning.  Without too much more pleading, I caved!  I think the idea of clean bedrooms for the weekend sweetened the deal for me.  I can't lie!!!

I posted my deed on Facebook and as more and more people commented, I realized that these are the things remembered!  The exception.  The one thing that never happens.  It's these types of moments that are the memories that our children remember best!

I went to a funeral this week that made me realize that these are the times that will be the happy memories of my children.  Todd's uncle Denny died after battling Parkinson's disease for 35 years!  Each of his children had wonderful moments, simple moments, that were the thing that they spoke of fondly as they remembered their father.  Most of the children only knew their dad with this debilitating disease.  But even so, he somehow remained the fun-loving father that all of us want to be.  It was a lesson to me.

Now if I could have only been the fun mother that was out there in it.....well, who said I was perfect?  Poco a poco!!

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

On New Year's Eve day we joined most of the rest of the Sparks family up at Soldier Hollow for a fun-filled two hours of tubing!  The best part of it is that it's the total Lazy-man's tubing area--you don't have to hoof it up the hill!  There's a rope tow that hooks right up to the tube and pulls you and the tube up the hill.  The hill is groomed into 5 or 6 lanes.  You can just cruise down on your own or you can hook your tubes up to multiple others and slide down together.  I did both and had so much fun!   The two hours flew by!  The best part was watching my kids having such a blast!  My mother-in-law went down with me almost everytime and we really booked it.  

Here's Gabe heading up the rope tow.  It was snowing lightly when we first got up there.

 We took my niece, Claire with us since Todd ended up working.  She was so glad she came!

 Gabe waiting in line for the rope tow.

 Kickin' back on the tube while he rides it up the hill!

 Tiff looking warm.

 Jeannie gearing up to make her first run.

 Foo standing in line and looking extremely cute in her festive red coat!

 What?  A picture with me in it?  Imagine that!  Me with my boys!

 Jake, Gabe and cutie Claire

 Hi Iver!

 Hey Gabe, turn around and look at me!

 Jake, is that you up there?

 Pretty blue-eyed Claire

 Having so much fun!

 Max getting pulled around in his tube

 This is what the hill looked like

 Another shot of Gabe

 Jakey

 There are two rope tow lines going up.

 Awww...Brooke with Ellie all snuggled in and cozy in there!

 I think that's Alec

 What up Zach?

 Brigham and Zach

 My hero of the day....My mother-in-law Jeannie!  She was totally game and had so much fun!  She wants to make this an annual family event!  I think we need to!

 Another shot looking down the rope tow

Then afterwards we went inside for hot cocoa and homemade pb&j's!  Really, what could be better!   Thanks everyone and especially Sparky and Jeannie for a fun family activity!