A helper during an ab workout!

Mommy and Skyler were doing the "workout dice" that Aunt Adrienne made for Christmas when Maizey dog hopped on top of Mommy while she did crunches!

"Hello??"  "Why are you on the floor?"

"I see no problem with any of this!"

Buddy seat?

Maybe a "Buddy cushion"!  Skyler has grown up enough that he no longer fits on my lap in the tractor cab.  :(  However, his tiny butt just fits between my seat and the outside of the cab and there's enough room on the fender for him to sit.  We had a chance to try it last week and his only complaint was "it's too hard".  Cue Mommy and her amazing seamstress skills!  A few minutes later, and Skyler has a cushion to sit on!

Complete with JD fabric of course!

Tiny butt fits just fine.

Door closed and he's rather comfortable especially since he's directly in front of the heater.  Hopefully we get to try it out in the snow later tonight or tomorrow. 

Reading.

I found Skyler reading in the loft room yesterday.  He was sitting on the heating pad and enjoying some "Piggy and Elephant" by Mo Willems.

Pretty cozy!

Microscope!

Grandma & Grandpa got Skyler a microscope for Christmas this year and it's been a HUGE hit!  He's looked at the included slides, and yesterday he set the microscope outside to cool to ambient temperature so he could look at snowflakes!

Getting the microscope out of the case.  Maizey had to investigate.

Cooking with Skyler.

We got Skyler an "America's Test Kitchen The complete cookbook for young chefs" for Christmas.  He wanted to make some breakfast this morning and settled on the pancake recipe from the new book.  With a little help from Mommy, he made banana pancakes!

Pretty good!  Note the 1980's vintage 4H apron that my sister made when she was a kid.  Thanks Grandma!

Christmas 2018.

It was pretty great!

This kid got LOTS of great gifts!  Here he is sporting the scarf that Sebastian from next door gave him.  :)

Merry Christmas!!

Someday, we'll head to Kennedy and get to see the SLS launch.  If it isn't delayed anymore!😡

On this day...

50 years ago, we first got to see Apollo 8's picture of "Earthrise".

The Atlantic has a nice photo essay today.

Christmas Eve broadcast here.

Do you want to build a snowman?

Skyler did!

Wednesday was his last day and the class got to wear pajamas all day and do arts and crafts.

Look how happy he is!

Better at it than I am.

I loathe wrapping presents!  Not really sure why, but it just bothers me and seems wasteful.  Skyler on the other hand, has learned how to wrap his own gifts this year!

So careful!  What an excellent helper.  :)

"Hey, that's mine"!

Said Maizey dog as I opened up her dog food delivery yesterday!

Somehow, she knew it was her dog food!  Even in sealed cans!

Out!

Skyler is out on Christmas break along with Mommy.  Lord, give us strength to get through the next 2 weeks!

Working hard on Tuesday this week.  The kid deserves a break after all the hard work he's been doing this school year.

Cat on the tracks!

Eddy had the "zips" last night and ended up behind the Christmas tree on the train tracks!

Holiday program and a special guest.

We attended Skyler's school Holiday program last night.  He was amazing!  An added bonus?  Great Grandpa was in attendance!  He flew all the way out from Omaha to visit this past week and Skyler couldn't have been any happier.  :)

He was a "chimney sweep" all dressed in black.

93 years old next to 7 years old.  Pretty good!

Kitty Monday!

Best buds!

Scooter ride!

We headed to the Redwood Nature Center yesterday afternoon to take advantage of the nearly 50 degree temperature.  Skyler and Mommy rode their scooters and I walked the dog.

The Nature Center was a little depressing all dressed in winter.

Octopus!

While we were in California, I buried Skyler up to his waist on the beach to prevent him from drowning in the ocean.   My plan worked!  We ended up turning him into an octopus.

(All pictures courtesy of Altair).

Starting on the legs of the octopus.

Pretty good!

Sculpting away.

I used his shovel to make the suction cups on each leg.

Mr. Octopus!

More Montessori Math.

He got to use an abacus to help with math earlier in the week.

1's,10's, 100's &1,000's tiles.

Math expressions book.

Lefty, just like Grandpa!

After dinner birthday walk to see the lights.

After I made a delicious birthday dinner of Swedish Meatballs, Mommy wanted to walk up to the cemetery to see this years light display.  What a good idea!

White lights this year.

7 year old (who's the size of a 9 year old) for scale.

The tree is astounding this year.

Wearing his homemade Santa hat.

Look at the tree!

Every branch was covered in lights.

WOW!

He just sat down under the tent and stared at the tree.

Incredible!

Skyler wanted his picture with the tree.  We're going to come back on either Friday or Saturday evening to see if the light the fire in the bowl.

Fountain was a little frozen!

He really wanted to break the ice.

View of the tree from the East.

So many LED's!  They had to swap out the colored lights from last year to the white lights this year.  That's a ton of work!

Happy Birthday Altair!!

We celebrated her birthday Sunday at our place.  I made a flourless chocolate cake that was VERY rich!

Birthday girl!

4 candles.  One for each decade.

Not pictured, Skyler helping to blow out the candles.

Christmas Crafts.

Skyler made this cute Christmas artwork last week at school.

Pretty great!

Can we go back now?

Winter in the Salt Lake Valley has settled in.  That means temperature inversions and shitty air.  It was a rather gloomy weekend.  Is it time for an escape to the ocean?!

Giving back.

We made our annual trip out to the City's Animal Shelter yesterday to donate dog food, cat food, and litter.  It makes us happy to provide some comfort to scared shelter pets.  Side note, West Jordan Animal Shelter is now a no-kill shelter according to a recent Facebook post.

Skyler's colorful blankets that he drew on and donated.

At the end of the donation period (4 hours) they had quite the haul!!  You can see the blankets we donated just to the left of the tree.

Not too bad!

My truck hit 44,000 miles on Tuesday returning from the emissions test.  Pretty good considering it's a 2002 model that I purchased December 5th, 2001 after nearly losing my life in a car crash the week before!

There's a reason Mommy calls it "Princess"!  My baby. 🚚

Backyard Fat Bike fun!

Since it snowed here on Sunday, I busted out my Fat Bike and packed some trail in the yard.  This worked out twofold, I got a workout,  it made Skyler want to ride his Fatty and that made him burn off some energy!

Pedal!

Uphill!

On the single track through the forrest.

Even though I packed the track, he was still working pretty hard.  He probably made a dozen laps and had enough.