big gorka

Jeremy wasn't sure about Sonia speeding down this slope at first... He tried slowing her down by jumping on top of the sled. Instead, he fell and rolled down the hill. Well, well Sonia just giggled and giggled. "Look at this bunny!" yelled a bystander mom. "She is going fast!"

My heart would also sink as I watched her sliding full speed. Was she going 20 or 30 mph or any faster? Will she collide with someone else? Is she going to hit a pole?

I have a great role model... my mom. Thinking about how my mom let me go down huge Ekat hill by UPI on a so-so skateboard when I was about the same age as Sonia is now, gave me strength ;-) I still remember that day!

Sonia had great time and never stopped making joyful noises as she headed down. I think she was the only baby on this slope so people must thought we were bad parents. She also laughed when I went down on her little sled. We even talked papa into trying it out.

No worries the sled is fine!

looking for books to read...

I am in need of a list of good books to read for myself and for Sonia. Please post even the most trivial, well known books. We might have forgotten about them or may have never heard about them. We are signing up for a new library card in a few days. Yesterday Jeremy read Alice in Wonderland for the first time and right now I am rereading it. Sonia's new fave is Go Dog GO...
Sonia was excited to get this book for Christmas. When I asked her to turn it and show it to me, she was not so sure about it.

blessing in disguise

The water heater blew up in the middle of the night. We had no running water in the house and had to figure out something to keep our toilets sort of sanitary. So Jeremy filled the bath tub with snow. What fun it all turned into!

Watch out it is North Pole with polar bears, whales, sea lions and lots of freezing but excited hands in the icy cold water.

Jeremy, Sonia and Mike were first to discover the fun.

Soon hands got red and numb but they didn't seem to mind it all. Finally I had to ask for help with finding a home for the frozen animals and with putting toys back in the box.

Nana and Opa gave Sonia this polar set from Animal Planet for Christmas. We are so grateful we have such wonderful and thoughful parents who know what we need in the time of no running water!

a day after Christmas

All good people were shopping this Friday, I am sure. We woke up early and joyfully drove to Sundance to be a part of one of the best ski days ever! Jeremy went down the mountain first and floated in the fresh powder, covering himself in the snow from hat to board. "It was one of my best runs ever!" he would tell me on the lift a few minutes later.

I stayed on the groomed part of the course, venturing several times out into fresh snow and getting stuck. Oh, it is impossible to get up! The other time it was bliss though ;-) Jeremy took a few shots of me on the board.Taking yoga classes and running in the park last fall helped me have more confidence. Sitting down and getting up is part of a day for a new person like I am.

I practised carving and hope to be good at it by the end of the season.

We are planning to go once a week to Brighton for night skiing. It is our Christmas gift this year. We love Utah and the mountains. If only Sonia was here with us, I can't wait until next year... our little Sonia will be joining us for sure!

December 25

I don't know why but Jeremy and I woke up first before any of the kids. We just sat under a tree and enjoyed the stillness of the moment.
When everyone woke, we opened the presents. Sonia enjoyed wrapping the night before and she loved tearing the paper and playing with her new toys. Thank you, Heather, for a lovely doll in the purse. Sonia loved all her presents.
We had cinnamon rolls with apple cider and played and played until it was time to drive to Babulya's home for Christmas dinner.Sonia's rocking in the chair and enjoying herself. I love this shot ;-)Then she helped Babulya to open her presents. Two pals. We had such a great night.A real winter storm awaited us on the way home. Our poor little car was struggling to make it up big hills; snow covered all the road and street signs; car wheels were spinning and Jeremy lost control of the car for a split second. We lost all our bearings and drove without knowing what direction we headed. Eventually we made it to Grandma and Grandpa's and then safely home.

Christmas Eve

Sasha, Katya and Misha looked lovely before going to a Baxter family brunch in the morning; Sonia snuck into a picture in a blue shirt. My little angel ;-)

When everyone left, little Santas went upstairs to put presents under a tree.

Sonia loved Scotch tape and helped me with wrapping presents, including some of her own. She also caried everything and carefully put presents under the tree. At night we enjoyed Christmas stories. While papa read the most important verses about an angel, a donkey, a star, Mary and baby Jesus from the bible, we put stickers that went along with the story.

We had so much fun that we had to tell the story again ;-)

Merry Christmas !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry we are way to busy to update but we will be back.... perhapse later ;-)

a ride in fresh power

A week perfect for snowboarding but not so much for running errands. Another day it took me more than half an hour to get out of our driveway. Sonia thought my efforts looked rather funny after I got stuck and had to dig the car out; she was just such a great sport, patiently waiting on the backseat.
Jeff and Sascha built a fort and posed for a picture last week.
When Jeremy got home (that day he took a bus; it was snowing nonstop), he took Sonia for a fresh powder ride. The snow was super sticky so it actually was pretty hard to pull her through it all. Sonia had a blast! She lost her hat at some point.

Deck the cookies

Last week Sonia wanted to visit Babulya every time we ran an errand. I kept assuring her that we'll see Babulya on Sunday. She was super happy when we finally were on the way to Babulya's house today.
All Sonia's hopes came true with my mom having very jolly time with her granddaughter. They ran around and chased each other with a butterfly that can flop its wings. We had a wonderful a la Russian dinner with oven baked turkey and veggies in personal clay pots then enjoyed decorating Christmas cookies.

Alright I didn't grow up doing this so kudos to my mom who did a bit of research on what goes into the dough and what to put on top of Christmas cookies. We had two kinds: sugar cookies and some Russian honey "pryaniki."

Here is how it all turned out.

Sonia had to share some with her papa and deda.

She loved eating and giving away her cookies! I hope we'll keep this tradition in our family ;-)

Our morning at Sundance

In the last 24 hours we've had 11'' of new snow and I had to shovel the driveway twice yesterday. We couldn't stay away from the snow any longer and this morning Jeremy woke me up with words: "Oats are ready! Wake up and let's go."
I thought we got out of the house super fast and soon were up in the mountains having fun. Sonia loved going up and down the hills in her new sled.
She loved hanging out in the cabin and watching bigger kids. We played at a tree and had our lunch there.Sonia wanted to go on the lift like a big girl. Too bad she is still a bit wobbly on her feet. I think next year I am going to look for little skies on craigslist for her.
Soon I realized one thing I forgot was diapers this morning. Sundance is a short drive from home. We made it back with no accidents leaving papa to finish a day and enjoy new snow for the rest of the day.

Bean adventures

Someone dropped of three kids at the Bean museum last night. They just wondered around and played scavenger hunts with a curator, a BYU bio student who quickly took notice of their loneliness. She was great.

Before other kids arrived, she gave Sonia a private tour with excellent points on the tallest animal and brought out some old stuffed animals for Sonia to touch.

Sonia's fave was a soft little duck.

She petted, hugged and carried him around. She finally got brave enough to touch a lion head with papa and pointed how many teeth this lion had. "Two!" Yes, two big ones on top and two big ones on the bottom.

Our curator also brought some real animals from the secret downstairs vault that I have never heard about before. First, up came a four year old tortuous, Austin, I think. Kids were thrilled to feed him and see him run around.

Austin will grow up to 200 lb and he will live to be very old. He was fast surprisingly fast and he enjoyed munching his carrots.

When our curator left to get two more animals, Sonia with her shoes and socks off marched up and down big stairs.

Then we saw a big Python from Africa. He was let down and slithered around freely. I have never seen a snake slither before so it was really cool. Last came out a monitor dragon, Chechee. Chechee was a handful; she was wiggly and could easily open her plastic container.

Chechee popped her head and climbed out very quickly. The longer she was out, the faster she moved around. Two of these lizards can lure a crocodile out of her nest and eat crock eggs.

Putting Chechee back into a carriage container turned into a battle. The head had to go inside first; then the tail was gently folded in; then you had to stay on top or Chechee could easily escape.

Winter wonderland

We woke up to a beautiful white snow covering trees, roads and cars outside our widow this morning. I couldn't help but wanting to go outside. We got bundled up and with good breakfast in our tummies we spent more than an hour playing with fresh snow.

Sonia marvelled all morning, peeking through the window and watching Jeff shovelling the snow. She has never touched snow or really walked in it before. The snow was all fluffy but perfectly sticky for building a "snegovik", also known as a snowman. Mike and Sonia worked hard until their hands got super cold because they didn't want to keep their gloves on no matter what. Then they figured out how to feed a bunny and gave him about sixty helpings of bunny food. I had to hide it eventually.

We finished our snegovik with a carrot and button eyes, took a picture and run home for a hot lunch and good nap.

Both kids were exhausted and fell asleep at the same time today.

Tree at Babulya's home

Babulya invited us over for Christmas tree decoration and a lovely borsh dinner, yummy! The tree turned out perfectly shaped but a bit wider than expected. So thick that it took five light strings to light it up from the inside. Jeremy took charge with putting lights on and did an excellent job. Deda Mike said that "some people not only have excellent resumes but also wonderful hidden talents!" ;-)

Sonia quickly learned to hide white balls deep inside of the tree, just like her papa hid the lights. Babulya tried showing her what to do with the ornaments. She still would try grabbing a few balls and hide them.

Soon Sonia learned what to do and became an excellent help. My mom even let her handle real glass decorations. Surprisingly nothing broke.

We had a fun assembly line with Jeremy putting hooks on, Sonia passing ornaments and Babulya, Deda Mike and I putting everything on the tree.

This way the tree was done quickly and later on we walked to the Temple Square to admire the lights. It always amazes me how detailed and fine all trees look like with even tiny branches all lit up. The Nativity scene with full size figures was also lovely; with Pr. Hinckly's recording it all seemed almost heavely. Sonia wanted to play with Babulya, she wanted to hold Babulya's hand and to be held during the show. I wish I could freeze these moments in my memory and never let them pass.Then Sonia was ready to run around some more. People were surprised to see her on foot because most kids her age were bound to strollers. Sonia felt right at home in the crowd of so many people. It is the closest she felt to NYC so far.

We had an amazing time with hot chocolate and waffles at an end. It is good to be close to family! If only we could see our Nana and Opa this Christmas but they are way too far in sunny CA.