Why I love Winter

Summer used to be my favorite season until I married Erich. Since Erich is gone so much in the summer fighting fires, winter is when our family really gets to play. The last two weekends we've been on a cabin theme. Last weekend my cousin Chelsea was nice enough to invite us to her in-laws cabin in Island Park. It was a very relaxing winter wonderland trip. I didn't realize just how much snow they get up in Island Park, snow as high as our car. Jake had quite the time following Chelsea and Justin's three little boys around. Aside from the company the highlight was sledding down the hill in kayaks, a fun and different way of sledding. We also made a big hole the boys jumped in...Jake only after much coaxing.



I laughed pretty good when I got this picture. I guess this is what you get when you try and make three little boys pose for a picture!


This weekend we went the more rustic approach. Erich and I are part of a nordic skiing club in town. The club puts up a canvas tent that you can rent to ski into so we backpacked the kids in and head a very fun little family adventure. It was pretty windy and Jake was sure the sound of the wind through the trees was a waterfall...he kept on asking for us to take him to see the waterfall.
It was our first backpacking trip with the two kids and overall it was a very fun time. Since we had to carry our gear down we didn't want to take sleeping bags for the kids so we put them in our down coats instead...I thought they looked pretty cute sleeping that way!

The Pains of Parenthood

We love our little guy but he sure has a lot of personality and it can be hard to contain all his enthusiasm and energy. Unfortunately Erich has the mark to prove that sometimes parenting is painful. He and Jake were playing with Jake's wooden airplane (that his uncle made for him), Jake got a little excited and whopped Erich good in the face busting it open in two places. Of course this was the day or two before we had an appointment for family portraits!

McKinley thankfully is a little less rough on us (unless we are talking about nights of sleep). We've been struggling with tummy time for a month or so and finally today she stayed on her tummy for a whole five minutes without crying...a very exciting moment (yes I know when you are a parent you get excited over little things that are fairly unintersting to the rest of the world but thrilling to you).

Now that the weather is a little nicer we've been able to get out skiing. Although our first skiing trip with both kids was a bit disastrous and very discouraging, we gave it another chance and the kids have been great since. Jake has become quite the little ski instructor telling us to slow down or not fall or to go this way. We took Gauge on his first trip and he loved it!!! On the way up there Jake insisted on holding Gauge...it was pretty funny as Gauge pretty much took over Jake's car seat. Our little boy sure loves his dogs.

Happy Holidays

Christmas was extra magical this year. For the first time Jake got into Christmas songs, Santa clause, and presents. (Well actually Jake liked to talk about Santa clause but not visit Santa clause. We waited in line 45 minutes so Jake could sit on Santa's lap, but when it was our turn Jake SCREAMED and yelled scary, scary!) Nonetheless Jake got what he wanted from Santa a big Thomas the train set. Although I am not sure who has more fun with it, Erich or Jake :) It's a great bonding thing for them.

We spent the holidays in Utah with Erich's family. Erich's one sister has five kids and they really helped get Jake pumped for Christmas. There is nothing like Christmas morning with lots of kids.

Since we had so much family gathered together we blessed McKinley. It's a good thing we had the blessing when we did because she has just about grown out of her dress!

Welcome Winter

I love winter--it means time for skiing and sledding and the years best holidays! To kick off the season Erich and I went to Park City for the ski swap. If you need gear this is the place to go--plus it is a whole new kind of shopping experience. The first night of the swap runs from 8pm to 1 am. People from all over come to this event. We showed up an hour early and the line was already several hundred yards long, people had been camped out in line for hours. It was hard to imagine there would be any gear left by the time we got in but there was plenty. We were quite the spectacle with a month old baby and 2 year old.
Anyhow both Erich and I bought new skate skis which we are really excited to try out--and I don't think we'll have to wait long as the snow has been coming. Last year we thought Twin Falls was just lots warmer than MT or Northern Idaho because we had no snow but we were wrong...we've had snow on the ground for a couple of weeks now and it just keeps on coming!
Anyhow last weekend we got the kids all bundled up and went outside to play. After what seemed like an hour of bundling kids up in snow gear we finally headed out on McKinley's first ski trip. She did great--fell right asleep in her little backpack. And Jake helped us look for a Christmas tree. It's a lot harder having two kids and we didn't make it terribly far but it was fun to get out and start the ski season. I think we will make it a tradition to ski back in the woods to find a tree. (Yes they do have trees in Twin Falls...if you drive far enough up into the hills!)
Anyhow hopefully there will be more winter fun posts coming.

Oh yeah, and one more little detail...our family got even bigger! We, or I should say Erich decided we needed a pointer (a special kind of hunting dog for those unfamiliar with hunting) so we bought a very cute little German Shorthair puppy we named Gauge. I was petrified at first but it has actually been lots of fun. Jake LOVES having a little puppy and puppy loves harassing Jake so it's lots of fun!

Everything is Delayed these days

I know Halloween is old news now, but it is taking me longer to do everything now, so here is my late Halloween update. We had lots of fun with our adorable little puppy Jake. He was so excited to be a dog, when we took him to the mirror so he could see what he looked like he just smiled and smiled, and then barked! I'm traditionally not that festive but trying to be better now that I have kids so we went to the corn maze, picked a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, and even made pumpkin (or kind-of pumpkin looking) sugar cookies. Erich and I got a good laugh out of Jake's cookie, every inch of that cookie was covered with 3 layers of m&m's. Have we mentioned that our little guy has quite the sweet tooth!
The best part was trick or treating with Jake. he was very good at saying Trick or Treat and Thank You.

We didn't dress up McKinley this year, maybe next but here are a few new pics. My good friend came down from Grangeville and spoiled me by taking some pics (these aren't hers but mine that I was taking behind the scenes).

The first few weeks

We've had lots of fun with grandma and grandpa and little McKinley joining the household. Mother nature has been spoiling us with good weather so we've been sneaking up to the mountains for some bird hunting (erich) ATVing and open fire cooking. McKinley has been a great sport. I just can't believe she is growing as much as she is! There are not enough hours in the day to cuddle the snuggly little girl, and she is one cuddle bug. She is also quite the grunter and squealer. It's hard to get too much sleep with her around. Anyhow I thought I would post some more pics of her.

It's been a long time coming....

Well it seems like it was a very long nine months but our little girl FINALLY arrived on Tuesday, October 12, 2010, though she wasn't TOO little as she weighed a whopping 8 lbs. 10 oz. She is 20" long and we decided to name her McKinley Jo Gleckler!
Although we think she is as sweet as can be she really surprised us with all that hair and chunkiness. She looks absolutely nothing like Jake and we can't really relate her to anyone else in the family but we sure think she is cute.

Thankfully both sets of grandparents have come in to help out. Before McKinley came, Erich's family came and got Jake and McKinley's rooms put together and us all ready for the big addition. Then Kara's parents came the day before McKinley was born to help out with Jake (perfect timing). Gotta love grandparents.

Kara came home from the hospital on Wednesday morning and we have wasted no time introducing McKinley to the great outdoors of Idaho. We've been to the mountains for a dutch oven dinner and 4 wheeling (don't worry Kara sat out the 4wheeling part) and down to the fish hatchery and park by the river. McKinely is a great little traveler. She sleeps all day...only problem is she is awake a lot of the night. Hopefully she'll get her days and nights figured out here soon. Other than not sleeping at nights she really is such a sweet and good baby. We feel so lucky to have her!