Valentine's Festivities

Our Valentine's Day was spread out over a couple days. Our huge snow storm messed with many things one of which was Valentine's. Tade was supposed to have his class party, but with school being cancelled it was postponed until the following week. Valentine's Day was sunday. After church when most of the house was napping Tade made cards for everyone. He had the best time making them.

While Tade got crafty I make heart cupcakes for a V-day treat. They didn't turn out perfect, but once the were iced and sprinkled they were pretty tasty.

Tade's class party was rescheduled for the wednesday after Valentine's. I was the room mom in charge of this party. Fortunately I had purchased everything for it well before the snow hit us. We had a mini carnival with crafts mixed in. Tade and his classmates had a wonderful time. Each kid had a necklace with a card hanging on it. ON the card were the stations they needed to make it to. After they completed each station they got a sticker. This worked great. The kids stayed under control because they really wanted to fill up their cards.

This is where the kids knocked stacked cups down with balls.

The bean bag toss decorated for Valentine's.

Fishing for heart shaped fish.

One on the crafts. They made head bands with heart antenna.

They decorated heart cookies for the treat.

The kids also decorated valentine's bag I made for them. I figured the bag would last longer and be better used than the standard shoebox mailbox. They turned our so cute. Thanks Carrie for letting me copy your idea. A few kids at a time went to the back to pass out their Valentine's.

This was Tade's valentine that he passed out. It's a candy plane. They were pretty easy to make and just darling. Thanks once again to the Family Fun Magazine for such a cute idea. Everyone loved them. Tade of course had to make one for himself.

My little Valentine all decked out. He's holding the stickers we used to put on the kids cards when they completed an activity. Tade took it on himself at the end to make sure everyone had completed their card.

More Snowmageddon

My last post showed off the first day of our incredible snow, but my favorite pictures came that day after when the sky was blue and there was more contrast. This snow is still all here. It just looks really bad now. It has that on the side of the road brown polluted look. Those are the snow pictures I don't want to remember so I haven't taken any current pictures. So enjoy this winter wonderland that trapped us in for about a week.

Snowmageddon

I know this title has been used many times now, but it is just perfect so I'm using it too. Last friday it began to snow. They predicted a huge storm was coming. The schools released early friday so the kids, teachers, and buses could get home safely before it started to stick to badly. By the time we went to bed friday the snow was definitely accumulating. When we woke up saturday morning the world was white and we were without power.

We watched from indoors as the snow fell during the day. As the day went on the house got colder and colder as our heat began to leave. Preparing food became tricky. We had purchased so much food to weather the storm, but most of it required an oven. We did break out the Coleman camping stove to boil water for hot chocolate and make some eggs.

The warmest part of the day was when we all bundled up and went out side to play and do the first round of shoveling.

We threw the boys in the snow. You can't tell how deep it is because they weren't heavy enough to sink all the way down, but it was fun watching them trying to get out. They were laughing too.

This was snow mountain. It was quite the entertaining mound of snow. Tade was determined to get to the top, but it was very slippery.

After several attempts and making holes for footing...

...he made it to the top.

Seth decided to venture off on his own and got stuck next to the car. He also face planted as he ventured.

Shauna came to the rescue so mom could continue to take pictures.

When we went out the yard stick read 23 inches.

An hour and a half later we had 4 more inches. By the end of the first storm we had at least 30 inches.

After we came in we noticed how cold it was getting and began to bundle up. The boys were wearing several layers of jammies.

I put layers on too, but just couldn't seem to warm up. Being pregnant didn't help at all. I've never been one of those pregnant ladies who is always hot. As the afternoon went on we began to be concerned for the coming night without power. Thousands in the area were without power and there was no projected time of when we might have it back. The boys were loving it though. They walked around with flashlights all day and when the sun went down we lit candles. Seth was fascinated by the candles. I was worried mostly about Seth sleeping at night because he doesn't stay under his blankets. We discussed a family camp out, but the room the tent fits in is the coldest one in the house. Then we talked about stuffing everyone into our room, but that meant the kids would be up until we went to bedand none of us would sleep very well. Seth is still in a crib and there was no way he'd sleep until we were holding him down with us. So as the afternoon went on we contemplated all these things. Then we found out that our neighbors from our ward who were out of town had a generator. We just happened to have their house key and they said we could borrow the generator. So Jake, Sean, and Shauna ventured down the street to retrieve the generator. It weighed quite a bit so they used the kids sleds to bring it back. Our plan was to hook it up to the furnace so we could have some heat. Then we would hook it up to the fridge and freezer to save our food. Well when they got back with the generator we found our new furnace had a switch not a plug like we needed. So there went our hopes of heat. We were able to get the fridge and freezer on though. After all this we decided it was dinner time and grilled some chicken. Luckily we have a screened in deck and the grill was on that part of the deck. For dinner I asked Tade to say the prayer. I figured a prayer coming from a cold kid would mean more. So Tade prayed for the lights to come back on and for the heat so we wouldn't be cold. While we were eating Jake looked up and said the best words ever, "is the power back on?" Then he flipped the light switch and yes we had power. All of us screamed and jumped up and down. It was 8:30pm by this time and we ready to put the kids to bed. Now we knew we would all get a good nights sleep each in our own beds in a warm house.

Pre Snowmageddon

The final weekend in January we had our third snow of the season. Then three days later on a tuesday night we were hit with our fourth snow of the season. This snowfall led to the schools being closed wednesday. Both of these storms were just slowly getting us ready for the major storm that was about to hit us. As I was looking back at these pictures I just laugh at them in comparison to the ones I have taken of our current storm.

Seth's new favorite thing to do is eating the snow.

The boys came in with bright red cheeks, runny noses, and no energy left. They were very happy to have hot chocolate waiting for them. We leave it cool enough for them to drink through a straw. That makes for a lot less hot chocolate on their shirts in the end.

January Odds and Ends

Here are the end of the month pictures for January.

Tade

No explanation. One day Tade just thought he'd sit in the washing machine.

My mom broke out boxes of my brother's old Lego's. Tade had so much fun creating all sorts of ships with them. I had purposely not introduced Tade to Lego's before this because of all the little pieces. Just look at the mess on the floor. Thanks mom.

Seth

Contemplation, "will I fit?"


"Oh who cares. The babies won't mind." Remind me not to leave Seth alone with the baby when it comes.

A Walk In the Woods

Last week we had a perfect day for January. It was in the 60s and mostly sunny. Carrie and I decided was needed to take advantage of this day. The boys were off school for a teacher prep day. We didn't want to be cooped up in the house when we knew these types of days didn't come along very often in January. So we put on grungy clothes and headed outdoors for a nature walk. With five boys between the two of us we didn't need toys and things like that to entertain. All we needed was woods with lots of sticks, rocks, and puddles. Our boys were in seventh heaven.

Puddles...

...And sticks.

I know it looks like he's doing a ninja pose or something, but I just said freeze and this is how he froze.

We took a break from our walk to play by the creek. Rocks and water can be so much fun. Seth's hand were a bit cold in the end though.

Seth had as much fun pushing Isaac as he did jumping in puddles.

I'm not sure how Isaac felt about his chauffeur. By the look on his face I think he was questioning Seth's ability to steer the car.

Tade calls this the Where's Waldo picture.