Winter’s Morning

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Winter gave us such a beautiful morning!(and look at those cute bunny tracks! …at least I think they are bunny tracks…)

I feel like winter has given me a lot of good things this year, inviting me to slow down, refocus, and finish up some things that have been needing to get done. And despite the really cold temperatures, it’s actually been kind of fun experiencing a new climate. Jake and I often watch our phones on cold nights to see just how low it will get. Then we run outside to feel it. Brr!

All of this makes me so grateful for a cozy home. So grateful.

Long Drives

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I don’t think we’d be able to do so many road trips if our kids didn’t enjoy them too. But of course we all get a little stiff being in the car for so long, so we reeaally appreciate our quicks stops, especially Hyrum. He gets all sorts of excited.

Family Time

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We LOVE being with our families. We both come from big families, and we feel like we can never get enough togetherness with them.

So why do we live so far away!?

It’s interesting how that works. We feel like North Dakota is where we are supposed to be, for now. We love being out on our own, exploring new places and growing together as a little family of four. We love our life here, AND we love being with our family in other states. Eventually we would like to live near them, but for now we can be just as happy.

With that said, we had a BLAST with our families in Utah. We packed our days full of Christmas parties, potlucks, game nights, lunch dates, late night chats, downtown lights, charades, dodgeball, basketball, settlers, sledding, backyard ice skating, and a whole lot of togetherness. It was such a good trip.

The Road to Utah

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We love road trips. We love the time together, the hotel stays, the snacks, and the views. We took the route from North Dakota through South Dakota and Wyoming, following the sunset and greeting the sunrise along windy roads and dusty white fields. We loved it.

And as you can probably tell, if we ever stopped for me to take a scenic picture, we would probably arrive hours later. So thanks to fast shutter speeds and car mates that don’t mind an occasional winter blast through the window, we can remember the pretty scenes that graced our windshield on our trip.

Good King Wenceslas

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If you are wanting some good Christmas tunes, check out David Tolk‘s holiday albums. They are all instrumental, and I listen to them all winter long because it’s more a warm and cozy sound than a cheery holiday one. One of my favorites is “Good King Wenceslas.” Jake had it on his iPod when we were first married and going to school, and sometimes we would listen to it on repeat when life and school got stressful because it always made us feel good. I really appreciate music that brings peace like that. Also, my parents gave us a book about King Wenceslas a few years ago for Christmas and I don’t think that we ever read it until this year. It was a beautiful story. And now we love the song even more.