When Candice and I were much younger, my mother thought it would be cute if we took ice skating lessons. Much like most dance lessons for little girls, this course included pairing up with other kids, practicing, humiliation, tears, and best of all, really tight spandex outfits that a child of my stature looked pretty ridiculous in. (one of which had blue flames on it. I have pictures to prove it.) Looking back at that experience, I am now very grateful for it. Setting aside the goofy outfits, I feel like I learned some great balancing techniques and of course, how to skate.

I was most thankful for my skills a few days ago when we decided to go ice skating with my family. Unfortunately they were all out of size 15 skates for my dad, but Kate, Paula, Liv and I got our skate on. We were all a little shaky at first, but after a few laps, we were really having a good time! Liv was in heaven and wanted to go back the second we left!

Here are some more fun things we have been doing these past few weeks. Kate came to Salt Lake for Christmas and then for New Years Eve. It was so fun to be together with the girls again.

Liv and Grandma built a snowman, and turned the backyard into a snow angel haven.

Megan invited us to go sledding with her and Ryder. We got this little 2 man sled and they had a great time. We sledded until the sun went down, even though it was a terrible snowstorm that day. It was so quiet and peaceful when the snow was falling. I love it when the snow looks like it is glowing. So beautiful.

Christmas morning was so exciting for Olivia. She was so excited to get her beautiful Barbie doll house that my dad (Santa) made for her. My mom had been busy working on a bunch of new little crochet animals to add to her collection. I can't believe how many new cute ones she had made. She also made this cute little blanket with pockets for them to be able to sleep with her. Thank you Mom and Dad for all of the cute (amazing!) gifts that we got this year. I feel so spoiled!

My Dad spent COUNTLESS hours in the hut working on these incredible shelves for all of us girls. They turned out so perfect, he is such an amazing carpenter. The best part about this gift is that he has to take a trip down to AZ to deliver it to me!