Found New Sledding Grounds

We usually head up to the mountains for our sledding thrills, but with the dumping of snow we got this week, we headed over to a place I heard about in Kaysville, and  boy did we hit payday.  There are hills for everyone there - big, little, steep, icy, jumps, no jumps - you name it. 

I also found out its private property, so with the owners blessing, we got to enjoy the sledding paradise, much to the detriment of John's back (ever since breaking it sledding 5 years ago, it has never been quite the same).  

Okay, this picture is actually the sledding hill the neighborhood kids created down the driveway of the folks across the street from us.  

Here is one of the hills at the sledding place.  Really, it was more for the little ones - I neglected to take a picture of the huge, steep hill at the front of the property, where Kimberly and Alicia spent most of their time, and where Natalie and Megan (with John) enjoyed too after warming up on this hill. 

 

There was a stream that ran down the middle of the property, which you had to try and avoid, but other than that, a sledders paradise.  If you bring me a plate of treats, I may be able to reveal the location. 

New Christmas Tradition

We started a new Christmas tradition this year.
Well, technically, a slight variation to an old tradition. 

Ever since Kimberly and Alicia were little, we've had them purchase gifts for one another and for John and I to teach them about giving to others.  As Natalie and Megan joined the picture, we've had them exchange names each year, so they are only having to worry about one sister.

This year, we decided to try something different by having them make gifts for one another, using $5 or less.  We were so pleased with the results, that we are going to continue it in future years because I think the girls caught on to the spirit of giving far better, having spent quite a bit of time working on their projects for a sister and parents, versus just buying a gift.

Here are some of the results:

Alicia sewed this cute doll for Natalie, having designed the pattern herself using fabric from my fabric box and finding an old pillow we didn't need anymore for the stuffing.  Cost:  $0.  Time spent working on it out of love:  truly priceless.

Kimberly sewed up several dresses for Alicia's American Girl doll (one shown here, though the  jacket was made by Grandma Meldrum).  The Darth Vader Alicia is holding is one of the origami designs she did for John.  The girls had a great time folding a bunch of star wars origami as their gift for their Dad. (Cost of origami paper, $4.99, coming in just under budget)

For me, the girls helped John with this frame made out of bead board and wood for the side pieces.  

 Okay, technically this one didn't fall into the $5 budget because we made five of these frames for various family members that we were in charge of with different photos inside, so we just added an extra one on for us.  We spent countless hours trying to get these frames done in time for everyone, but thankfully, I didn't have to finish my own - the girls helped John do that.   

Not shown is the play dough Natalie made for Megan, the modeling clay Megan got for Kimberly, and the scarf Kimberly made for me and garage tools she made for John out of duct tape. 

More Christmas Fun

We had some great Christmas fun this week, and now we're digging ourselves out of the Christmas tornado ever so slowly.   

Here are some of the highlights from the past couple of days:

 We made our gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve, with the help of Shannon and Derek. 

Christmas morning was nice and relaxing, with present opening beginning around 8 a.m.  Now that is my kind of morning.  How did the kids wait that long you ask?  We kept them up late the night before doing gingerbread houses, so they all slept in :).  Megan did get up at around 7ish, but with no one else up, she climbed into bed with John and I and promptly fell back to sleep.  Alicia admitted to waking up around 7 a.m., but upon hearing no movement in the house, she remained in her bed and played her DS. 

We did our Christmas strings as usual, with their big-ticket Santa item at the end.

 Santa made Kimberly go outside with her string.  ha-ha.

 It was a lovely, relaxed day - the kind where we got to stay in our PJ's all day, didn't shower until dinnertime, and enjoyed being with each other as a family playing games, tinkering with toys, watching movies, and eating lots of Christmas candy.  It really doesn't get any better than that. 

Now on the day after Christmas, we are digging ourselves out of the snowstorm - John has taken care of the driveway four times today - two with the snow blower, and two with the snow shovel.  Now he and the girls are headed out to do doughnuts in the parking lot.  I think I shall pass on that adventure. 

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

 We decided to brave the crowds down at temple square on Sunday night, especially since my sister Shannon and her husband Dereck were in town.

We had a great time with them
(especially the girls...can you tell?)

  We enjoyed watching the Nativity and even checked out the old tabernacle.  

 

 Did you know the Mormon Tabernacle Organ has 11,623 pipes in 200 rows?  We learned that on Sunday night.  See mormontabernaclechoir.org if you want to learn more about it. 

 I love this picture of Kimberly - so sweet.  

So, there were A LOT of people there, but of all people to run into, I bumped into one of my Meldrum cousins, Bruce Merrill and his wife, April who live up in Oregon, oddly enough, right near my sister, Christy.  Bruce is my Aunt's son.  It was so fun to catch up with them.

On a side note, you can see here that my sister Shannon got the tall genes.  I come in at 5'6", and Shannon is 5'10" (I think).  I am the shortest of my 4 siblings...and I'm the oldest too.  Weird. 

Christmas Time Fun

 My mom came to town last weekend, so we decided to head up to the Ogden Christmas Village.  The only problem was that it was pouring rain, which eventually turned to snow.  We decided to go anyway, and just bundled up really well and used all of our umbrellas. 

 They had this really cool train for the kids to ride, and with the not-so-great weather, the line was really short - my kind of line. 

 We had lots of fun with grandma, including decorating cookies and gingerbread houses. We even took her to see the Christmas Carol.  Of course the weekend was full of lots of fun games (grandma LOVES playing games). 

On another Christmas note, for a story I'm working on, we got to see this massive Christmas village one Farmington woman puts together every year.

 I don't usually take the girls with me to stories, but this was on the way home from dropping grandma off at the airport and the girls were fascinated with all of the different houses and accessories set up in the village.   The woman was so nice and let the girls help set things up too.   

We have been having so much fun this month that we haven't finished everything on our list of traditions.

We still need to go see the lights at Temple Square, make our gingerbread houses, make and deliver all of the neighbor treats, take the girls to get their gifts for each other, and finish making some of our Christmas gifts.  

No need to remind me that there are only a handful of days left until Christmas.  

I may be making my neighbor treats AFTER Christmas and perhaps temple square will be a New Year's visit instead.

Have a Wonderful Christmas My Friends.

Merry Christmas 2012

Lincoln City, Oregon July 2012

I know we usually send out a fancy, hand-mailed copy of our Christmas letter out each year, but alas, we've decided to move it to our blog as I'm trying to simplify our holiday month (and truth-be-told, I wanted to save on stamps so I can still afford buying a real Christmas tree, which is no cheap item in the desert land of Utah where the lovely trees have to be shipped in).  

This year, we’d like to wish you Merry Christmas with a few questions and answers about our past year.  

Dinosaur National Park - September 2012

How often does it rain in Vernal, Utah? 

a. Rarely, according to the campsite host.  b. Only when the Rimingtons go camping.  c. Quite often actually.

a and b - We learned our tent holds up really well when the rare desert storm - complete with thrashing wind, lightning, and two hours of torrential rain pour - came crashing upon our campsite one evening during our Labor-day weekend in Vernal, Utah to visit the Dinosaur National Monument.  

Kimberly and Alicia sanding the play room

Amidst finishing the basement, which included Kimberly’s new room and the play room, what prevented John from doing as much sanding as he would have liked? 

a. Too much dust.  b. Child labor was much more effective.  c. Elbow Injury - Too much sanding, obviously.  d. The wife was really anxious to participate in the sanding.    Child labor of course, though Dana did get roped into a lot of sanding too.  John truly did have an elbow injury from all the sanding.

Why does Dana like getting up early in the morning? 

a. She doesn’t.  She would rather stay up late.  b. She can’t wait to get up to spend every waking moment with her handsome husband and 4 darling girls.  c. She is anxious to see where her articles landed in that days edition of the newspaper.  d. She likes to get some quiet reading time in before the kids get up. 

She does love to read, but only the newspaper in the mornings - and yes, she loves spending time with her husband and cute daughters.  

John and Dana - Lincoln City, Oregon July 2012

With all girls, how does John plan to spend the next few years getting some boy-time in? 

a. Building a man-cave.  b. Playing Legos with his daughters.  c. Being the Scoutmaster.  
 d. Having the girls help build his next project.    

Although he did find that Kimberly and Alicia can be very helpful when he built onto his bird mew to give his Peregrine falcon a kestrel roommate, the answer is that he is now our troop’s new scoutmaster.  

Alicia, Natalie, Kimberly, and Megan at the Tracy Aviary - June 2012

What is Kimberly’s (age 12) favorite part of seventh grade? 

a. Being in the orchestra and learning to play the violin.  b. Meeting all the cute boys.  c. Being locker partners with her best friend, Evie.  d. Getting to check out a pile of books from the library. 

All of the above, except for the cute boys, whom Kimberly claims she is not interested in (yet). 

What is Alicia’s (age 10) latest talent discovery? 

a. Painting her nails.  b. Painting and drawing c. Learning how to do new hair styles.  D. Craft projects. 

b- She is actually our budding artist amidst all of her other talents (a, c, and d)

Which words can Natalie (age 5) read now that she has started kindergarten?
a. and   b. like  c. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah   d.  I’m done reading.  Can I go play with friends now?
A and b - When she isn’t doing her reading homework, yes, she is begging to play with her friends, or stealing her sister’s DS games.  (Zip-a-dee-doo-dah is actually her favorite song)

What is causing our cute angel-child, Megan (age 3), to have more frequent moments of screaming tantrums?

a. Potty training isn’t going so well.  b. She did just turn three.  c. Saying no and refusing to listen is her latest game. 

Yes, Megan is quickly picking up on three-year-old tendencies, but still just as cute and bubbly as ever, who likes to sing, look at books, or just doing whatever her older sisters are doing.  

Moab, Utah - May 2012

How many hikes through Moab, Utah does it take before a two-year-old gets tired? 

a. Doesn’t matter.  When even the four-year-old starts complaining and wants to be carried, that’s too many. b. After the last hike, we realized we should have started with the Delicate Arch hike first.  Instead, we had to take a picture from really far away because the young-uns had done enough hiking.   3.  As many as they can tolerate in the carrier.           

We learned that our kids actually do really well hiking, but after we dragged them all over Arches National Park, we knew it was time to head to the hotel and grab our bikes for a ride on one of Moab’s many bike paths during our trip to Moab over Memorial Day weekend.

Moab, Utah - May 2012

How many years has it taken John and Dana to make it back to a USU football game after graduating from there 14 years ago?  Exactly 14.  Just tragic.  

John, Dana, and Kimberly at USU in Logan - September 2012

Why did the Rimingtons want to have you read our Christmas Question and Answer Letter?  To wish all of you a Merry Christmas and thank you for your love and friendship.   

Love, John, Dana, Kimberly, Alicia, Natalie, and Megan Rimington

Journey Into Bethlehem

First of all, before I get into my blog post, I have to tell you what wonderful daughters I have.  We have all been hit with that lovely cold that seems to be going around of late, but what nearly did me in was when I got infected with a horrible stomach virus last week while John was on a business trip.

The older girls took great care of me (as I literally couldn't move the first day it hit) by making dinner, cleaning the kitchen, putting their younger sisters to bed, etc.  I was so proud of them for being such wonderful helpers.

We missed out on some fun Christmas parties over the weekend due to illness, but by Sunday, it seemed like everyone was back to normal, so we ventured out to one of the local Baptist churches that puts on a journey into Bethlehem event each year.  We've never been, but thought we'd check it out.  It was incredible, though everyone else seemed to think so too because it was a really long wait.

 

However, it was worth the long line since we got to experience life back at the time Christ was born.  We journeyed from Nazareth with a local Jew, 'Gaddiel', and his family to Bethlehem for the census and to be taxed.  Along the way (the church has a huge amount of land that we journeyed across - and yes, it was cold) we encountered Roman soldiers who made sure we had our passports with us, and then we met wise men, shepherds, and even were visited by an angel announcing Christ's birth.

We had to enter through a gate to get into Bethlehem, where our passports were stamped.  We got to visit some of the shops, and meet with some of the local people who wanted to know about the visit we had from the angel.  Everyone was so excited about Christ's birth - it was easy to get caught up in the moment.

We tried to get a room at an inn, but when they told us it was full, they showed us to some tents that were being set up by their stable where we got to see baby Jesus and meet Mary and Joseph.

It was fun to imagine what it must have been like to be there during those times.