Feeling Thankful

Having just gone without power for the better part of five days, we were feeling the gratitude this year on Thanksgiving.  Aunt Kristi and her family came into town so it was fun reuniting with them.

  Stacy and Hailee being silly with some gloves...

  Kristi and Matt tagged along with us to scouts that week since we were having a tour of a fire station... Jace was obviously enamored the whole time, but surprisingly wouldn't put the fireman helmet on!

Hailee had purposefully left her coat at home (she couldn't find the one she wanted to wear) and lest I look like a crappy mom in the snowy weather, I let her wear mine... I have no idea where it came from, but she found a face mask in the pocket which, together with the fireman hat she brought, she wore most of the night... 

Nice photobomb Matt!

 The firetruck was out on a call, but as we were wrapping up, it came back, so the kids got to see it back into the garage and all the firemen unload from it- Jace was in awe and was all too eager to climb in after his siblings, but somehow, I only got pics of Dallin, Eli and Hailee =/

 Bryson felt the need to go to school on Wednesday, but I let the rest of the kids stay home since the Bair family was leaving that afternoon- they came over and the kids (and puppies!) played in the snow...

That night, Scott and Dayna came into town and stayed with us- it was so fun to have them stay with us!  The boys had lots of fun despite the melting snow...

Thanksgiving Day I got most of my Christmas shopping done online while the dough for the rolls was rising (thanks Amazon!)...  We ate at Kim's house and had a great time and great food...

 Jacob had his senior recital Saturday morning- he played both the piano and trumpet... absolutely amazing!

I love this time of the year- the weather, the baking, the family gatherings!  I have so much to be grateful for.  With the recent change in Nathan's office schedule, I've been working quite a bit more- I frequently see, through the lens of a nurse, just how fortunate my family is to have such good health.  Though we have our share of difficulties and trials, I know that through our challenges, I learn and grow so much.  Most of all, I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope that it brings of forgiveness and eternal life with my family.

Wind Storm

We got our first reality check of living out in the boonies last week.  We get a fair amount of wind from time to time up at our house, but there was a huge wind storm predicted last Tuesday forecasting 70+ mph gusts.  By the time the kids got home from school that day, it was for reals- enough so, that I had the boys help me bring the grill in from the deck and secure some random stuff outside.  The puppies were all too happy to go into their kennels.  The wind was FIERCE!  Even though it was only 3:30, I decided to go ahead and make dinner, figuring that if/when we lost power, it would be easier to reheat a partially cool meal than prepare it from scratch.  Oh, and I guess I should charge my phone as it was only at 20%.  5 minutes later, the power went out.

Fortunately, it was light enough that we could round up the candles and flashlights without bumping around too much... but it gets dark early this time of the year, so soon enough, the kids were doing homework by candlelight.  After Nathan got home from work and we got a few more things settled, we enjoyed a romantic dinner with candles setting the mood *grin*

That night, the kids slept in the basement, warm by the fire... they were actually complaining that it was too hot!  It was surprising how, because there was very little artificial light, they just naturally settled down and were so sleepy by 7:30... maybe that's something we should capitalize on in the future...

Reports that night were of widespread outages and the utilities were advising everyone to be prepared to be 72+ hours without electricity... we were confident that meant a much longer time for us.

The next morning, I was shocked to find that Freeman was still on a regular schedule, as most every other school in the area was either cancelled or running late.  So we fumbled through getting ready and out the door, and managed to get to school on time.  Having a gas cook top meant I could still cook, but once the pipes were drained of water, we were out... apparently having a 2700 gallon holding tank of water does no good if the pump that brings it into your house has no electricity!

After dropping off the kids, I went to my moms to help her with something.  Since they had only lost power momentarily, I figured I'd also take a shower, charge my phone and fill up some water jugs while I was there.  While I had seen very little damage on our road, once I got into town, the downed trees were everywhere!  My parents next door neighbor had two huge trees that fell completely across their driveway and just barely grazed the next neighbors garage- it was amazing that it didn't cause more damage-

40 gallons of water and a fully charged phone later, I headed back to my house.  It did seem a little ridiculous that as I left my parents upscale, fully-electrified neighborhood, I passed a street sweeping truck...

While our wood stove was putting out lots of heat, we were concerned that it was 'over-firing' because it wouldn't damper down- as a result, it burned through an entire load of wood in 2-3 hours.  We fiddled with it and I poured over the instruction manual and verified we were doing the right things, but it just didn't seem right.  Wednesday afternoon, when I was adding wood to the fire, something seemed off in how the door was latching closed- it wasn't quite engaging... as I opened it and then tried to re-close it, all seven or so of the inner pieces of the latch mechanism fell off INTO THE ROARING FIRE!!  Over the course of the next several hours, I somehow managed to fish the pieces out of the ashes- absolutely a miracle that I was able to retrieve all the tiny pieces and still have eyebrows.  Once Nathan put the latch mechanism back together, we discovered the reason why we couldn't damper the fire down and were burning through wood so fast- the door hadn't been sealing properly so it was sucking in tons of extra air.  We were both so happy to have figured that out so the fire could burn through the night without reloading!

That night I boiled water for the kids to take modified sponge baths... Bryson had a basketball game, so I had warm water and baby wipes all ready for when Nathan and Bryson got home-  Nathan was in our {freezing cold} bathroom 'washing up' when I heard splashing water followed by a gasp and him shuddering- I quickly realized he was pouring freezing cold water over him in a desperate attempt to get clean!  I quickly informed him that I had a whole pot of hot water, but, not realizing he wanted more than a sponge bath, had left it in the kitchen!  "Ggggggo ggggggo gggggget it!" was his desperate plea...  =/

A few months ago my dad brought out an 'extra' generator to store at our house- he has two others and he figured that we'd probably be in need of it at some point so we may as well keep it at our house.  Nathan had tried previously to get it running, but it wouldn't idle... something with the carburetor.  So for the first 2 1/2 days of the outage, with no generator, we had no electricity at all.  Fortunately, the kids were in good spirits because they thought it was all a great adventure.  We were able to cook, had plenty of water (in jugs), and between the gas fireplace and the wood stove, stayed relatively warm.  We were blessed.  But, when late Thursday night, we got the generator up and running (thanks Papa!), it was amazing how much better just a little bit of electricity made life!

We were pleasantly surprised (despite the well pump guy telling us otherwise) that this little baby would run both the reservoir tank AND the tankless hot water heater, which meant HOT SHOWERS BABY!!

I worked 16 hour shifts both Friday and Saturday, so I was pretty tired when I got home Saturday night- though we had stayed warm in our bed the previous nights, Nathan had set up an air mattress for us to sleep on in the basement to be closer to the kids.  Despite the basement being warm, the cold air from the concrete floor below felt so so cold all night... we are both very confident, that in our 15+ years of marriage, we have never spooned as much as we did that night!!  Brrrrr!

We got our electricity back Sunday afternoon, and boy was it a joyous event in our house!  Overall it was a good experience, and while we learned a lot about how we can be more prepared, I sure am thankful to live in this modern day of electricity!

Goodbye Braces!

Two weeks ago at Bryson's ortho appointment, his orthodontist said he was done!  And then made him wait TWO WHOLE WEEKS to get his braces off.  Cruel and unusual.  To make matters worse, Bryson had to wear the most complicated band pattern of FOUR bands in triangles on his back four teeth every night.  He pretty much counted down the minutes until today when we left that appointment two weeks ago.  And then this morning, he went from THIS:

 to THIS!!

He looks so grown up!!

We had dropped his brothers off at school at 8, but his appointment wasn't until 9- that was about the longest hour of his life- he tried to go in several times (against my better judgement), but the office still wasn't open...

The sweetest thing: on the way to the appointment, I was talking to my sister Sandy on the phone about something, and I made the comment that "I'm not a soft and gentle person- a little more of a  'do it yourself', 'school of hard knocks', 'life is tough-put on your big girl panties' kind of person."  Bryson (eavesdropping as usual) chimed in from the back seat, "that's not true mom, you have always been soft and gentle for as long as I've known you"- it was so sincere and sweet and just melted my robotic heart *wink*

Only child

Jace has quickly adjusted to being home with just mama.  The first few weeks after the kids went to school, he really tried to convince me that he needed to go to school too- even grabbing a lunch box most mornings, as if he could just get out of the car with the others and no one would notice.

But we've settled into a nice groove.  We play together, but he's very good about playing independently too.

He loves his cars, and spends the majority of his time doing this:

Building towers:

One night, I came into my bedroom to find this:

He was pretty sure he had it ALL figured out!

The highlight of his week... 

We had to have a little work done on the drain field, but he was convinced they were building a house.

The Biggest Number

Last night, my parents watched Hailee and Jace so Nathan and I could attend a short dental meeting.

On the way home, Hailee, apparently realizing that her brothers wouldn't be dominating the conversation, seized the opportunity to display her mad counting skilz.  She thinks that "one" hundred is actually pronounced "de" hundred.  I'm going to clarify it for her one of these days...

I assume she started at "one-two" and may skipped a few to "de" hundred, but pretty faithfully counted up from there:
Hailee: ...de-hundred ninety-FREE, de-hundred ninety-FOWA, de-hundred niiiiiiiiiiiinteeeeeeee-{pause-pause-pause}... de hundred nintey-FIIIIIIVE, de hundred ninety-SIX, {all the way to} de hundred ninety-NIIIIIIINE, de hundred DE HUNDRED!
Me: Hailee, after one hundred ninety-nine, comes TWO hundred!
Hailee: No, hundred-hundred!
Me: No, after 199 comes 200, then two hundred-one, two hundred-two all the way up to 299 and then 3 hundred!
Hailee:  Well, I just love de hundred, it's my favit numba.  It's the biggest numba, that's why I love it, it's bigger than all the other numbas... 'cept all the numbas after it!

Nathan and I just laughed and laughed- there's a lot going on in that little mind of hers, she just needs a quiet moment to let it out.

First Snowfall

Bryson wasn't feeling well today, so he stayed home from school.  Nathan and I had to run to town, so we took Jace and Hailee with us and left Bryson home alone for a while.  He called after about 20 minutes:

Bryson: Mom, you are not going to believe this!
Me: {a little concerned} What?
Bryson: It is SNOWING Mom, SNOWING!
Me:  {relieved} Oh..., wow!
Bryson: I mean, it really looks like a blizzard outside, there is just lots of snow and it's blowing and really, it looks just like a blizzard...

By the time we got home, we did have a nice little accumulation.  It didn't last at all, but it sure got the kids excited!  The "perks" of living on the side of a mountain?

Goodbye October!

Other October happenings:

I made play-doh for Hailee and Jace one afternoon and when the big boys got home, it entertained them for 2 solid hours, who knew?!?

Shock and awe at this:

It's an American Girls catalog and she poured over it for so long *grin*

Building a dog house:

I've named it the dogs-mahal.

Carving pumpkins at cub scouts:

Froyo with the fam:

Halloween

Life is not without its drama.  Nor is my little Hailee.  For Halloween this year, she wanted to be a "guard".  So I asked her to show me what a guard would wear... this is what she came up with:

{Note the cowboy boots and plastic knife she has in her hand}

Now, I'm all for her being creative and whatnot, but I do have to face the other parents at her kindergarten Halloween party!  I suggested she maybe be Captain America (HA!), a princess (as IF, but it was worth a shot), I really was hoping for pretty much anything that is an actual costume.  But she was pretty stuck on being a guard.... to the point that she wore her get-up to bed more than once...

And wrastled orangutans in it:

So the morning of her school Halloween party, (and after asking advice of family, THANKS LAURA!!) I just decided to go with it and 'polish' it up a little.... Tin foil to the rescue!  I showed her a picture online of a Roman 'Guard' and how they wore skirts...

She went for it and eagerly put on a skirt and the rest of her newly 'polished' costume:

Taking her guard-self very seriously:

Jace came with me to her Halloween party and was superman for a few hours:

The boys Halloween parties were the Friday before Halloween (Hailee didn't have school that day)- I went in to help with their parties and I ended up being the lucky winner of the car with the flat tire!  I was just about completely flabbergasted, but Eli's teacher and two other dads just stepped in and changed the tire- they didn't ask if I needed help, they just did it.  It was amazing!

I missed most of the parties, but did get to help a little with this game:

The kids had to try to wiggle the spider cookie down their face into their mouths *grin*

I volunteered to make some "mini mummy-dogs" for both Dallin's and Eli's classes....

Never again.  Waaaaaay too labor intensive.  

Sadly, the best pictures I got of the crew:

Bryson was a "ranger" from one of his favorite series, The Rangers Apprentice, Dallin was Harry Potter (with very crooked glasses), Hailee was a guard with a torn up chest protector, Eli was an orangutan and Jace was a firefighter.