Schools were canceled this morning with temperatures like -20 degrees. It was -6 when I took Audrey to gymnastics at 9am. So, crazy cold temperatures call for drastic measures....
Audrey started preschool this month. She's been very excited to go to school and have her own "homework." Since she sees Jaden going to school and doing his homework every night, she's wanted to do the same thing. Very monkey-see monkey-do. The initial plan was for Audrey to do the winter semester at the college's preschool, but I found out in the middle of December that we were 20 down the wait list and wouldn't be getting in until summer. Luckily 1 spot opened up in the preschool that I had planned on sending Audrey to at the end of August. (She misses the deadline for kindergarten and won't go until a year from August). The spot she has taken is in the "older" class with kids that will start kindergarten in the fall. So far she has done pretty dang good. She had no interest in abc's or in writing her name, but that is slowly changing. She at least will hold the marker correctly now. Even though she has started in the middle of the preschool year, I think it's been a good shock to her system. Nothing like jumping (or being thrown) right in! :)
A few days after Christmas my brother and I took Audrey and Jaden sledding at a big hill by our house. We had to ride the snowmobiles from the house and across a field to get there. Audrey hates loud noises, so she wasn't a fan of the ride and whined the whole time. We had to go really slow. The hill is quite steep so I wasn't sure if Audrey would like it, but it turns out she did. The problem came later on when she tipped over at the end of her ride and face planted. The snow was quite hard and icy, so her poor little face was totally scratched up. So much for being brave and having fun. We had to leave at that point and took another painfully slow ride back home. I didn't take any pictures of her face, but she went several days with 2 bandages covering up the worst parts. :(
We had a good couple weeks of holiday celebrations. Before Xmas we drove down to Utah to pick up Clayton and also to see baby Layla - who is a darling little mini Jess. Santa brought exactly what Audrey ordered/expected, my aunt & family from Washington visited for 4 days after Xmas, and Dam, Brynlee and Crew came up for a few days to celebrate new years and to see Jaden's baptism. I love Christmas time and am always sad to see it go, but on with the new year!
