First Big Snow!

We had no idea we were going to get any accumulation of snow- but we had an unexpected day of snowy fun!  The boys had soooo much fun playing in the snow- sledding, frolicking and throwing snow!  The only downside was coming inside to warm up...  we had tears everytime...  If it weren't so cold I would have let them stay out longer- but it was sooo cold and they had some seriously rosy cheeks!  Anywho, here are a few pictures from our snowy Sunday!

Halloween!

Okay, finally here are the Halloween Photos!  We had a great time- had friends over for dinner then trick or treating fun!  The kids all did great!

Evan wanted a 'scary' pumpkin- this was my attempt.

Cooper as a Donkey.

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Evan as a Dinosaur.

Most of the group- they were a bit difficult to contain and get their attention.  I'm impressed we got them all in one spot, generally.

Big Announcement #2

Okay, so I'm been remiss in posting (old story, right...).  But I have a good reason this time....I've been feeling somewhat awful and exhausted for the past 10 weeks...and I've also been trying not to spill the beans too soon....  So yep, there it is...most of you have likely already guessed...  The next lil' bean is on the way!  Actually this little one should be about the size of a lemon now!  I'm 14 weeks along, due late April!  

Crazy timing with everything else going on, but we are just going with the flow, taking the challenges one day at a time.  Brett's new work situation is actually going okay, especially now that I think and hope morning (read: all day) sickness is starting to get better.  I still get waves of ick, but now they don't make me think I'm going to lose my last meal anymore.  Another bonus, I'm starting to get my energy and motivation back.  Earlier, let's just say I had zero motivation to do much of anything and wanted to sleep, which of course was not an option with my tots until after their bedtime - and yes, I went to sleep after they did most nights...  so very tired.

Last week was my first week of my energy and motivation return- I got the attic painted, thanks to my awesome friend Erinn coming over with her boys to keep my boys entertained all morning!  I also painted the front entrance area during naps and after bedtime!  The weather was perfect, so I was able to keep the doors and windows open, flushing those nasty VOCs out (still smelly despite using low VOC paint...)  And while I'm on the house fixing topic- this weekend Brett fixed the floor in the attic and finished the sanding!  It looks amazing, and we don't even have the finish on them yet!  He did a great job! I'll try to get some pictures soon and post them.  

Big Announcement...

Drum Roll Please....

Get those raincoats and galoshes out!  This team is moving to SEATTLE!   The decision is finally made, it was quite the roller coaster- can you say stress?!?  Ah!  Okay, yeah there's a little excitement in there too, but our plate is full, so I'm trying to bite off one little thing at a time right now!  The good news is that we were able to make arrangements to stay on the East Coast until November/December 2014 ish.  The period from now until then is actually going to be the most difficult for me, because Brett will be working and living in DC during the week and back home with us on the weekends.  We'll survive though!  The head is still spinning more to come.  

For the record, this was an incredibly difficult decision- leaving our friends and family is going to be so difficult and weighs on us a lot.  We are sooo very fortunate to have made such wonderful friends here and we will miss you all so very much!  We love you all!  And that's all I'm going to say, because anymore would bring tears...  Lots of love to everyone!

Happy Baby Shower Cheri and Jared!

Whoo's Having a Baby??  Cheri and Jared, that's who!  And since is post is so overdue...baby Wither's has arrived, an adorable baby girl!  Here are a few pictures from the shower Kari, Jenny and I threw for them.

First the invitations that Kari and I made. 

These are the little owls I made for the baby's mobile, we used it as decoration, since it went along with the theme.

Here's a picture of the cake.  I'm starting to really enjoy decorating cakes.  I learn a little more each time.  For instance when doing a small cake like this, I'd really like to have a smaller cake diameter and make it taller.  One of these days I'll get some 3 in deep pans of various diameters!

And the cupcakes...

And the cookies...

And the pie...of the pie...  (Kari made this scrumptious treat!)  Yeah, we might need to go for a run after all this sugar!

Kari's very impressive ribbon wreath.

Cheri pointing out the adorable pennet, made by Kari.

One of the many beautiful handmade goodies made by some of Cheri's friends.  I think this one is particularly beautiful!

And here's the loot to be moved!  Will is all fit?  It's amazing how much you can have to take care of an itty bitty baby! :-)  My attic is quite the example of this too- and my youngest is only 17 months old!

Congrats Cheri and Jared! 

'Tornado' Part 1

My, slightly dramatic take on our 'tornado' experience....

 

Ah...the day was winding down, I was vegging on the couch, trying to stop surfing through Pinterest, which ultimately leads to more projects for myself.  Brett should be on his way home from school.  I noticed the wind picking up a bit outside.  I had put most of the toys inside earlier, but still had the sand and water table umbrella and baby pool outside.  So I went to go grab those real quick, just in case.  I opened the door and the wind picked up even more- those toys could stay outside.  I shut the door quickly and trees started falling, things were flying, my boys started screaming...it was so loud...I ran upstairs, grabbed the boys, one in each arm and ran down to the basement.  Running up the stairs, I thought it was a tornado, I thought the roof was going to be torn off the house, I yelled out to the boys that I was coming, all I wanted was to get my babies someplace safe.  Once they were in my arms, they stopped crying, I kept telling them that everything was okay- though I think I was telling myself that too- my heart was racing, it was terrifying.  I tried calling Brett, his phone was off- so now I was worried about him too.  My neighbors from across the street called to check on us-they could see the trees on the house and were worried they were in the house.  Luckily they were not.  They also let me know the roof was still on the house.  Trying to calm down we hung out in the basement for a while until the storm calmed down.  Out the back window, we could see an orange glowing and feel a pulsing energy- at the time it looked like maybe a transformer was on fire.  The power started pulsing on and off as well and eventually, all the power went out when they came to fix this. After awhile, I could see flashlights outside, many shining in our direction.  I was able to put some music on from my phone for the boys.  They were content, so I ventured outside to let our neighbors know we were okay.  All the neighbors were out with their flashlights looking at all the damage and sharing their experience of what just happened.  Brett made it home while I was outside.  This is his commentary arriving home, "I came back from class and saw flashing police lights just outside my neighborhood - The had closed the road just outside of my neighborhood.  I was able to pull in, and saw a bunch of my neighbors walking around (at 11pm) with no lights on and flashlights.  Much to my amazement, when I got to my house, it looked as though a giant had taken a swipe across my property with a particular malevolence toward the trees."  

 We stayed in the basement with the boys for a bit, while we checked the radar to make sure no more storms were expected.  Then we headed back upstairs, read some books and put the boys back to bed.  They went back down without complaint.  Thank goodness.  Brett was exhausted, so we tried to go to bed, but I kept talking and just couldn't go to sleep.  I felt like I could go run 10 miles (wish I had that feeling during the day!).  Brett, the awesome husband that he is, just turned to me and asked me if I'd like to go downstairs and have some wine.  So that's what we did.  It helped, but I still didn't get to sleep until 3 or so, which is when the hum of chainsaws finally stopped (they had been clearing the trees over the larger road behind our house).  Then as soon as the sun started coming up, I was up!  And this is what we woke up to...

Yep, that's a tree welcoming itself in to the house!

  Here's what was remaining of the one big tree by our house, with branches hung up in it.

See, the branches down the street, those are from our maple tree... and this picture you can't really tell, but our T ball set also landed in our neighbors yard across the street.  It's difficult to describe just using these pictures, but the limbs in the above picture and T ball set are opposite the direction of most of the downed trees.  While, this wasn't determined to be a tornado- there was definitely a swirling pattern to the downed trees, limbs and debris.

Above you can see a bit of where the worst roof damage is.  Two of the big trees hit the house and bounced off- thank you sturdy stone walls.  There are several punctures in the roof and many of the rafters are broken.  Nearly all of the gutters and downspouts are broken.  We lost a few screens, cracked a few windows, knocked the chimney cap off, tore off some trim and flashing, etc.   

 

Yep, the entire backyard was covered with tree debris too!  Amazingly, the swingset was ok, the sand and water table flew 50 ft  to the backyard- but was totally okay.  Our grill and patio set also made it unscathed!  

There's one of the uprooted trees.  And under the tree, is our AC unit, which also came out unharmed!  Yeah!  This all could have been so much worse.  We are soooo very lucky that the damage was not worse and that we are all okay!  Truly grateful!

Corral the Babies..err..Bins, I mean.

Beautiful weather, means time for outdoor projects!

Here's Cooper helping me plant some flowers (or un-plant them). 

Here's Cooper helping daddy build the new garbage corral.  Yeah for projects that only take a couple hours!  It still needs to be painted, but that's minor!

And the nearly final product (still have to paint it):

(You might notice the new landscaping too!  A bit of a time lapse between the pictures...)

Big Wall Project

Several weeks ago, we started a big project- redoing the wall under the porch.  Originally, it consisted of 3 very oversized sliding glass doors with rotting and crumbling trim.  I have grand plans for the inside eventually, but without a garage to store the tools and bikes, it's going to have to remain our 'garage.'

Here's the Demo:

Evan came down and saw the wall gone and so innocently and concerned said, "Daddy, what did you do?!?!"

Here's Gram hanging out with Cooper and Evan so I could help with the work too. Notice Evan's head phones...he's recently become a bit wary of loud noises.

And now the wall's going back up!  We framed the wall with 2x6s so we could put in extra thick insulation!  During demo, we found that one of the main supports for the porch was rotten on the end and doing nothing... we replaced it!

Windows going in...

Siding (we chose to use a cement fiber board siding) going up...

And here's the almost final product!  (Yeah, no project can finish up that easily... I still have to paint it the siding, and we have 2 more windows to install, one on the left side perpendicular to the wall (trickier installation since that wall is brick and we ran out of time.) and one (which we don't have yet) to the left of the new door.

Dance Time!

You know that time in the early evening, when you are so ready to settle down, but the wee ones are going slightly crazy- this happens often at our house when we are waiting for Brett to come home.  In an effort to keep this time positive and hopefully go a little faster (one of my pet peeves is waiting on people) we started having dance parties!  Our dance parties are typically after the dinner clean up and right before wind down time. This also helps burn some of that last little bit of energy before bedtime!  The wee ones love it, we dance and act silly.  Sometimes we have a little jealousy waiting to dance with mama...  Ultimately though it ends up being a time filled with laughs, singing, dancing, tickling and fun!  Here's a little bit I caught of Cooper dancing and singing (make sure your volume is on!) last night!

Relaxing Day at Nana and Grandad's

Nothing big going on right now, the wee ones and I are dog sitting for my parents.  We are taking advantage of the wonderful backyard and played outside the entire afternoon!  Thank goodness for the beautiful weather!