MORE SNOW FUN!!!
Last weekend we went to our friends cabin for some winter fun. I have to say that I don't know if there is a prettier place on earth than the Utah mountains!!

As many of you know I love winter and I was so excited to play in the mountains over the weekend. There was so much snow at their cabin. This is the deck right out the front door. It was about a 20 foot drop off the other side, but it didn't stop the kids from walking and jumping around like there was no danger involved.

Ellie wastes no time joining in with the boys in whatever they do!

I had to put this picture in because it is classic Ashton. He gets the crazed look in his high and just goes wild when he is having so much fun!

As I said in my previous post, snowmobiling is one of my favorite activities. I haven't been in years, and now we got to go twice in one month. Braxton was thrilled to have a turn driving! I know you are all jealous of Ricky's awesome hat. You should see it with the ear flaps down. Hah!!

The Bratt's cabin is only accessible by snowmobile in the winter, so they have this awesome little sled to transport people and supplies. We went to a frozen lake to play and this is how we got there. I sat with my three younger kids for about 2 miles and it was so fun!!! The older boys stood and held on like a mushing sled. I can't think of anything I would rather do on a Friday! I was a sunny perfect day and the mountains were more than beautiful!!

Look at all this perfect snow just waiting to be played in!!

Bradley was such a trooper. He was sick all night before this, but he did great all day. He ate and ate snow all morning. He likes to stay with daddy on the snowmobile, but he had fun just walking around with me to; eating as much snow as he could.

Ashton loves going for rides!! He has an obsession with anything that has a motor. Quite frankly it makes me nervous for the future.

Can I just say that I love this girl! She has no fear. She wanted Pres. Bratt to go faster and faster and on the biggest hills they could find. She loves to have fun and was not ready to leave when the time came.

Poor Burke got a little beat up this trip. He had quite a few mishasp's and minor injuries, but loved every minute of it just the same.

By the time we rode back to the cabin, Brad was dead asleep in my lap on the sled. I layed him on the couch, and even though he was awake, he didn't move for a good 10 minutes!

This is perhaps the most classic picture of all. The parking lot is 2 miles down the road and we had to go slow because we had all of our gear to haul down. Ashton was completely worn out and slept about half the way down. We all had a good laugh. Brad also slept most of the way down, but I didn't get a picture of him. So much fun!! We are so grateful to have friends who give us fun experiences!!

Yeah!! We got some pics from Montana!!

My sister in-law Lisa sent me some pictures from last weekend and I was thrilled to have the memories on disc!!
You have to come down a big hill to get to their house and the kids had a ball sledding down on sleds and snowboards. Ashton loved this helmet! He would not take it off. I love this picture of him!

Ellie and Logan were such little buddies this trip. I think they had just come down on a snowboard together and couldn't have been happier.

Burke workin' it in his helmet.

This is Dalin, Landon, Brax and Ash coming down fast!

Me, Haley and Emily on the back made a train and it was so fun! Bradley loved it! He wanted to go over and over; needless to say I was worn out by the time we were done.

Later that day we went skating at the boys and girls club. It was my kids' first time skating and they had fun. Uncle Ryan was a big help!

Ashton and Briar were so funny on their skates. The wheels were locked, so they mostly just walked around, but they thought they were so cool! Ashton kept jumping up and landing on his haunches like it was the most amazing trick!

They had a limbo game where you had to skate under the bar. Logan, Landon, and Ellie were great at it.

All the kids slept on the floor in the front room and it was near impossible to get them to sleep. Who wants to sleep at a time like this?
P.S. those big glass windows overlook Flathead Lake. It is an amazingly beautiful view!

On Saturday we went snowmobiling. I have to say this is one of my favorite things ever!! I haven't been for years and I was so excited to take my kids. They all LOVED it!!

Burke, Uncle Bill, and Braxton. Thank you Uncle Bill for treating us to this awesome day!

Haley, Ryan, Ellie, me and Ricky. It just doesn't get better than this!

Ellie, Ash, Brad, Landon and Briar. These little rascals were raiding the treat box. Brad hung out here most of the day in is snow pants. He was cold and he loves snacks.

Where will they serve??????
Well, the days has finally come for us to tell where my parents will serve as mission president. I have to say it is has been a suspenseful three months waiting to find out. My mom and dad will have the privilege of presiding over the Rochester, NY mission. I have been there with many of you friends over the years and you know what a special place this is. There mission covers the Sacred Grove, Palmyra Temple, the Joseph Smith homes, EB Grandin Building-where they published the BOM, the Hill Cumorah, The Peter Whitmer Farm, and Niagra Falls. We could not be more excited about this call! They are thrilled and humbled at the opportunity to be in this sacred place for three years. We can not wait to take our kids there and have their testimonies strengthened at these sacred places.

I just have to say that I LOVE Montana! We came up this weekend to visit Ricky's brother and sister. I am very, very, very bitter that you will not see any fabulous pictures of snowmobiling, or sleding because I forgot my camera!! Yes I am bitter about it. Anyway, if you ever have a chance to visit this beautiful place don't pass it up! It is well worth the drive to get here.

Humor at it's Best, I guess!
About three weeks about three weeks ago I was getting dinner ready and Ellie walked in the kitchen with her hair looking like this....
And this...

And this...

And my front room floor looked like this. I about died!!! Those of you who know me know that I am very partial to long hair. To make the story even better, her little brother Ashton is the one who cut her hair, but under her direction. What do you DO!! Thankfully I have a neighbor across the way who was home and took the time to fix what had been done.

Thankfully it is cute but let me tell you people, I don't have 20 extra minutes Sunday morning to round brush my 5 year old's hair. BAH!!! Ellie told my friend Lisa something like this, "yeah, I wanted short hair but I knew my mom would say no, so I had Ashton cut it." For those of you who know Ellie, this isn't that shocking. All I can say is I love my daughter! I am pretty sure she figured that Ashton would be the one in trouble, since he did the cutting. Who did she think she was kidding?? Poor Ash was the innocent bystander. What a fun day!

Christmas Happenings

We had so much fun over Christmas so I thought I should post some happenings. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents with all the family.
Brax, Maggie, Burke, Ellie, Josie and Cora.
My sister Molly and her family came from Missouri for two weeks and it was so fun to have them here. Rebecca wasn't there yet for this picture and we forgot to take one when she came. Duh!!

After our lesson about Christmas we went out on a caroling hayride. It was so fun!!! It was cold, but so fun to carol together to the neighbors.

Me, Brad and Ash.

Rebecca and Colby

Molly and Burke

Brigham and Lily. This is sheer excitement.

This is just one of my favorite pictures from Christmas day. My sweet Bradley.

What is better on Christmas than p.j.s and cousins?

Classic cousin pic. Brad, Ash, Maggie, Josie, Savannah and Ellie.

On Christmas day we had a surprise visit from Santa Claus. He was very tired after such a long night. It was so fun to see the reaction of the kids when he showed up. They weren't sure what to think of him, but they were excited he came.

Our favorite winter activity is to pull the kids on sleds behind the four wheeler. This is about a week after Christmas when it snowed a ton.

The kids can't get enough of this.

Nothing like a lap full of snow to cheer you up!

Ricky took it up a notch and used 5 sleds this year instead of three. We had Molly's girls with us and they had a blast!

Ash and I played in the snow longer than anyone else. I am a snow lover and loved playing with my little buddy!

This was perhaps my favorite day of Christmas break. We went to Sundance on New Year's Eve and it was the BOMB!!! The snow was amazing and I got to be with my dad, Molly and Ricky. All I can say is I love Skiing.

My own personal heaven would be to have all of my kids old enough to ski and spending time together doing just that. We saw a family getting out of a suburban and there were like 6 snowboards on the ground. Someday that will be my family only with skis of course.

The evening of New Year's Eve we went to Salt Lake to a Pow Wow were we saw Tanner perform. It was so neat to see him do what he loves to do. His mom made all of his costume by hand. It is beautiful! It was so neat to participate in his life.

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!!!!!!

Our family had a true Christmas miracle this year. Many of you may remember the story about my parents trying to adopt a baby boy 20 years ago. When I was 11 years old my family had the opportunity to adopt Native American baby boy. You can imagine that in a family with four daughters, this was a HUGE deal. We got him and named him Tanner Jack Christianson and loved him with all our hearts. Then when he was 3 months old he was taken away from us. Because of tribal laws, we were not able to legally adopt him and so we lost him. As you can imagine, it broke our hearts, and my parents were devastated. We were able to see him a few times after that, and we knew that he had cerebral palsey pretty bad. After he was about one and a half, we never saw him again. We heard that his grandmother had taken him to a reservation and that was all we knew. My parents felt very strongly that he had died, and so to us we had lost our little brother.
Well, two days ago on Christmas Eve, my parents had the most amazingly happy shock of their life! A woman came over and asked if my dad was Jack Christianson and she had pictures of her son, Tanner Jack. It was indeed the Tanner that we had lost and she has had him for the last 10 years, living in Alpine, UT. Can you believe it??? For 10 years the son my parents had lost was living only 15 minutes away!! We don't know much about the first ten years of his life before she found him and took Tanner into her home and family. This woman's best friend attended an adoption conference my dad spoke at a few months ago at UVU. He told his experience about losing Tanner 20 years ago and this woman thought for sure it had to be the same Tanner. They put the pieces together and realized that it was indeed the same person. Tanner had no idea that we had ever had him. He didn't know that he had a family that loved him and wanted to keep him very much.
On top of that great news, my parents called today and said that Tanner was coming over to visit and could we come over to meet him. Stupid question! So, we went to my parents home and got to see this brother we haven't seen in 20 years that we thought was dead. It was awesome! He was so funny and told us all about what he does and really neat things about the Navajo culture. He is very involved with that and plays his drum at Pow Wow's often. In fact, he invited us to come and see him perform on New Year's Eve. I am really in a state of shock that this is really happening. I am so happy for my parents. This is such a blessing for them at this time of life. They have been called to serve as mission president and will be leaving for three years and it is such a blessing to have found Tanner before then. Who knows if it would have happened after.
I have an absolute testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. My parents have prayed for 20 years that they could know something about this lost son, and by the hand of God it has finally happened. They were put in the right place at the right time and people were put in their way to put the pieces of the story together. I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose in all things, even when trials are so hard and we can't understand why, he knows what we need and he always has a purpose in trying us. I love Him for that. I am so grateful to see and meet Tanner. He is an amazing person!