Maiki Went Skiing!!!

Yesterday was one of my favorite days ever. (It would've been perfect if Beth and my dad were there too.) Even though it's January we had an awesome day of spring skiing.

Chris and Dave brought Maiki up in the afternoon and she sledded w/Josh, skied down the hill, and spent a ton of time being hauled around the mountain in her baby backpack. I thought she'd like skiing on her own more, but she REALLY hated the boots. I was scared to death to take her on the chairlift, but she was very still and loved watching all the "awesome people" go down the hill.
"I don't want to ski! Hold me!"
Sledding on Uncle Josh's snowboard
Chris, Maiki, and Annie (just before trying the rope tow)
Uncle Slone, Annie w/Maiki, and Grandma Sherrie
Maiki cruising down the hill w/mom

Melissa and Celeste

January has been a really fun month! First, Melissa came to town (from TN), then Celeste and Rome brought Jasmine for a visit (from England). I don't have any pictures of Melissa's visit, but I'm hoping to steal some from Krissy's shutterfly site SOON.

Heidi hosted an awesome get together with most of the girls. It's crazy how many kids we have! (I guess that happens after ten years.) Not all kids are pictured. . . Heidi's oldest two-Alek and Sam and Krissy's little Mikade were playing in the back room.

Too Smart. . .

Maiki has been amazing us with her higher order thinking skills. She has two new tricks that are super cute. We think she's brilliant. . .

1. Maiki absolutely LOVES to yell ECHO while in the garage. She started yelling "echum," but she now says "echo" 80% of the time. She'll repeat things that you yell too, but she mainly likes to yell her own words.
Maiki also just discovered that while she's in the driveway we get a really good neighborhood echo too. =)

2. Maiki frequently tells us, "I'm funny." I have a bad feeling she's going to tell us cheezy jokes for years.

December Events

-While hanging w/Grandma Sherrie Maiki amazed us once again. She got the poinsettia dish and a Clementine, sat down and peeled the orange ALL BY HERSELF! To top it off she very carefully put EVERY piece of the peel in the bowl, and then she threw it in the trash.

-Maiki went sledding w/the neighbors and tried out her sweet, new snowsuit. Thanks Uncle Dave and Aunt Beth!!!

-The girls got together and surprised Heidi w/a birthday lunch at Happy Sumo!

-Chris finally won the Christmas tree battle and got to pick out a REALLY tall, skinny tree. He was pretty mad when I told him it was my favorite too. I had no idea I even liked that kind of tree. (The picture doesn’t do it justice.)

-Maiki has enjoyed unwrapping a lot of presents. Eventually, I got lazy and just taped the parts she ripped off.

Chris is 30!

I've been slammed at work getting ready for the Schools to Watch presentation (which was today), and I missed the post about Chris' b-day. . .

Chris turned 30 on January 3rd!!!
Happy belated birthday!

For those of you that didn't see him last week he split his chin open taking out the garbage.=( We got to spend New Year's Eve in the ER. He had three stitches; that were only in a week. It's too bad Jon wasn't in UT at the time. It would've saved us a $100 co-pay and 3 hours of misery (telling Maiki not to touch anything in the ER).

Long Time No Blog

I can’t believe it’s been almost two months since I posted. I was feeling really guilty until I started checking everyone else’s blogs; I’m not the only one who’s been busy! :)

Here’s a quick summary of the last two months:

-We spent Thanksgiving w/Chris’ family in St. George and Koosharem. While visiting Grandpa and Grandma Williams Maiki rode a 4wheeler for the 1st time.
*Thanksgiving pics are on the Kodak site.

-Our two vacancies turned into THREE and Chris has been working his butt off renovating the house on 1st and Harrison. He’s days from finishing and praying it will stop snowing so he can quit shoveling and return to renovating.

-We had a friend Christmas party and Maiki said the S word for the 1st time. (It’s too bad there were a lot of witnesses. . .)

-The ski season finally started and I’ve enjoyed getting lots of time on the snow. (Yes, a lot of it has been while Chris is working his butt off on the rentals. it's a good thing he loves me.) It’s nice to be able to enjoy my new skis (Volkl Auroras) and work on teaching, instead of just telling people what lesson they get to teach. I learned about concentrating from a 5 year old Hawaiian boy and tried to figure out how to put a 12 year old from Michigan on time out-which is nearly impossible while in a ski class.
I’ve been searching high and low for a pair of skis that will fit Maiki. The shortest I’ve found are 80s, and size 10 boots. Unfortunately, that’s WAY too big for our little squirt.

The picture of Maiki and Dylan showing off their new winter hats was too cute not to share. :)