Goodmorning to me...

Well, I woke up this morning with Kyla screaming my name. You know the whole staying in bed issue we've been having with Gavin, well, we are still working on it. Now add into the mix his new desire to take his clothes off, yes even his diaper. Can you see where I'm going with this? Gavin had woken up, taken of his pjs and his diaper, climbed up on Kyla's loft bed, and proceeded to pee. Needless to say, Kyla was NOT impressed. Of course by the time I got there, being dragged out of bed by a horrible screech, he had crawled down the ladder and then peed on the floor. An hour later, I can laugh and say, "Thank goodness it was only pee.":)

We went up to WA to spend a couple days of the Christmas season with Chad's family. We barely made it up their unplowed driveway and road and then barely made it out to go home. The eight kids played and the eight adults played too:) My niece, Ana, even styled my hair, oh how pretty I looked. The snow is almost gone and I can only rejoice. What a strange and fun Christmas we had this year.

We had a nice quiet day yesterday. We played with our new toys and just enjoyed playing together. I will say that I was very ready for a quiet house after all the company we've had:) I sent out my christmas cards already this morning, a little late:) This was the Christmas for technical difficulties, everything I did online had problems...

Imagine a 20 minute pause right then. Gavin just hopped into the office with a diaper dragging behind one leg! And wouldn't you know it, it wasn't just pee. I've just spent the last 20 minutes cleaning up globs of poop of my carpet and my son's legs. Ahhhgg! Okay, now I'm at a loss. Do I duct tape my son's clothes to his body? Is that what a good mother does??? Put snaps in all of his clothes? Sheesh, better go and get my stack of parenting books out and try to find something that we can try. Wish me luck.

From our family...

Merry Christmas! We pray that everyone had a wonderful celebration yesterday and truly focused on the reason for the season.

Our day was filled with family, food, and joy. The kids enjoyed opening the presents and Chad and I enjoyed their excitement:) My parents stayed the night with us on Christmas Eve and joined us for our church's CE service as well. My heart was full as my family sat with me and praised God. Traditions were a little skewed this year with the crazy weather but our day was truly unforgettable:)

Now we are in the Christmas Spirit Right?

The snow finally tapered off yesterday to leave us with a grand total of 18 inches. My mom made it safely here and my dad's plane landed safely in Portland. It took him many long hours of travel, but he finally made it to their house in the late afternoon to find that they still don't have power. The Lee family headed home yesterday after a fun two day slumber party. We kept busy singing Christmas carols, playing board games, watching movies and eating.


In the afternoon, Mom, Kyla and I went outside to play in the snow. It's so soft and deep, you can jump in it and not get hurt. Mom quickly had to show me that:) I, in turn, jumped on them:) Chad was taking pictures from the window as the boys watched us "frolic" outside:) I even pulled Mom and Kyla around on our toboggan. What a great workout:)


Gavin loves the snow, but we don't have snow clothes for him and in this deep of snow, it's mandatory. We threw snowballs at his window, if you look really hard, you'll see them in mid-air.


After we got all warmed up again, Mom, Chad and the kids made soft pretzels. What fun! They tasted great and kept the kiddos occupied:)


My dad is heading over our way this morning. We aren't sure if they are going to spend the night tonight...wouldn't' that be fun to wake up on Christmas morning with them here:)

Stuck...

This is unbelievable! We lost our 15 inch ruler in the deep snow sometime last night. I made a new ruler out of a piece of wood and stuck it out on the picnic table close to where the other ruler was last seen. As of right now, we are reading over 17 inches of snow.

Yesterday afternoon, we called chad's cousins across town and invited them for a slumber party. Everyone is getting stir crazy and we needed a change of scenery:) We played outside in the snow until they got here and then settled in for a night of homemade pizza, movies and flickering lights. We have plenty of blankets and food so we are just hanging out waiting for the next adventure:)

After our impromptu slumber party, Chad cleared off the car and put the tire chains on and headed out of town with Bryan on a rescue mission. My mom has been without power since yesterday morning and is by herself since my dad is in Indiana helping his mom during an illness. We are praying that they can get to her and back safely. We are ready for some warm weather and normal OR rain:)

Cabin Fever!

The snow has thankfully stopped today but we are getting freezing rain to top it off now:) We've had the lights flicker a couple of times but we haven't lost power as of this morning. The final total is a little over 10.5 inches of snow!

The kids are climbing up the walls at this point and are having a hard time playing together. I'm feeling the exact same way:) This is what happens when we are stuck in the house too long:)

Record Setting!

We've had so much snow it's unbelievable. This is the most snow that I've seen other than in the mountains! It snowed all day yesterday and gave us an amazing 10 inches of snow!

Friday morning, Chad and the kids went outside and played. Kyla and Chad made a gigantic snow man using her snowman kit from preschool (last year).

After a couple of hours, the snow man began to list so Chad and Kyla made a snow family to support him:) Gavin is on the slide, Kyla is standing beside me and Chad is leaning towards me:)

Saturday evening, Chad and Kyla went out to play and visited their snow family.

Here is our final reading for Saturday. This is on the picnic table out back:)

Blessed...

We are getting more snow this evening. My family sat on the couch and just watched the snow fall. It was such a calming evening. You couldn't help but smile as the world settled into place and the true meaning of the Christmas season sunk in. The white world, the christmas music, the tree all light up, my family around me...

We are truly blessed. Today when I needed help, my sister-in-law tromped through the slush and snow across town with her girls and saved the day. I was having an exceptionally difficult time with Gavin and Kyla was bouncing off the walls. Beth has such a calming presence, life just settled back to normal soon after she got here. Her hubby came over later and we had dinner and then turned down all the lights and turned up the christmas music and just enjoyed being together. Gavin and Bryan have this incredible bond, it makes me so thankful every time I get a glimpse of it. After I cleaned up the dinner table I looked out into the living room and there was Gavin, wrapped in a blanket on Uncle Bryan's lap listening to Uncle Bryan sing carols to him. I'm not sure if they saw me, but my heart was touched. I will keep that picture in my head for all time. Gavin had his hand on Bryan's face and they were both just happy being together. I'm teary eyed just thinking about it. After Gavin went to bed, the girls came and cuddled on the couch with Beth and I. Our babies, growing up...

We just got the news that our good friends are having their fourth child. I can just imagine the joy that they are feeling. I can't wait to share the experience with them as they bring another baby into the world. We got another exciting bit a news just yesterday from the kid's Godfather. He and his wife are expecting their first child and they just found out it's a boy! I think back to all the excitement when we were expecting Kyla and pray that they enjoy every aspect of this baby's life. All this new life as we celebrate the birth of Christ. How appropriate and how very amazing life is.

I challenge you to sit still and quiet and think of all that you have been blessed with. Today I did just that and am amazed by the abundance that fills my life.

More and More Snow...

Well, we had another day to play in the snow. Having horrible cabin fever, we piled on all our warm clothes and headed off to Jolina's house across town. Kyla and Eva had a grand time and Gavin just watched mostly from the porch. We had a nice warm lunch and then walked home. Half way home I stopped and had Kyla start walking, she makes the stroller pretty heavy now:) Gavin started saying "Oh O." I checked and he had lost his boot! After backtracking two blocks, we luckily found it and headed back home.

I'm ready for the snow to melt and the temp to get above 30. We aren't prepared for this kind of crazy weather, especially around Christmas time:)

Still Snowing...

Well, us Oregonians are just scratching our heads. What are we supposed to do with all this snow and ice? Chad has been working from home this week and the kids and I finally had to get out of the house yesterday. We walked over to my sister-in-laws and ended up having dinner with them. Today it is snowing and Kyla has no school AGAIN. I'm thinking that we'll walk over to another friends today.

This weekend, I talked Chad into helping me get my studio ready to take some pics of the kids for our christmas cards. Kyla enjoyed it while Gavin tried to run into the house more times than I can count:) Here are a couple of my favorites...

Snow Day!

Well, the weather man was on target this time:) We have a couple of inches of snow outside and the temperature is in the low 20s. BRRRR! As soon as the kids saw that we had snow last evening, they dragged Chad out and stayed out for about 30 minutes. They came in with frozen fingers but big smiles on their faces:) School is canceled today and Chad is working from home so it's a pretty slow day here. The kids and I ventured outside to play in the beautiful snow this morning.

Chad's dad made us a beautiful wooden tobaggon a couple of christmases ago and we haven't had the chance to use it (we do live in Oregon:) ) Well today we had enough snow. I pulled the kids around the yard as they threw snow at me, what a family bonding time:)

After about 45 minutes, fingers and nose were getting cold and we came back in. After some hot chocolate and cuddling in blankets, they are back to playing and I'm looking out the windows at the beautiful day:)