Hunkering down

We missed the "Blizzard to 2009", so we had no idea what this much snow looks like. HOLY COW! It's beautifully amazing (yes, I made that up in my own little mind) to see a blizzard happen. I don't remember ever seeing that much snow. Keith will never forget shoveling 80 yards of 2 1/2 feet of snow. He's been working on it for over 4 hours and he's only about 2/3 the way finished.

Surprisingly the kids aren't driving us crazy yet, but I don't see us leaving our house any time soon. So until then homemade soup, warm cookies, floor puzzles, board games, and movies will be on the agenda.

We seem to be surviving the Blizzard of 2010, aka Snowpacalypse, quite well.

(Knock on wood. I pray we don't lose power.)

Bracing for a storm

All week they have been talking about a big storm that would be coming in on Friday, but I didn't realize that it was going to cause hysteria at the stores.

Thursday morning I went to Target to pick up diapers and grab a few groceries for the weekend, and I thought, "Wow, this place is crowded for a weekday."

But then when we heard on the news how big the storm was going to be, we decided to go to Costco for pizza and to pick up a few groceries. We couldn't even find a parking place, so I ran in to grab the goods.

CRAZINESS!

There was maybe 20 packages of meat in the entire meat department. In the fruit and veggie section I had to lean down to pick out food. Apparently they were not restocking the shelves, because there were empty crate everywhere. It was like a free-for-all. Then when I realized that the line to checkout was all the way back to the freezer section. A fifteen minute wait just to check out. They had the guys from the tire department helping out at the registers. I decided to bail on waiting in that line and try my luck at Shoppers so that the kids and Keith didn't have to wait in the car.

Shoppers was no better, if fact maybe worse. I thought about what I always tell my kids,

"You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit!"

Christmas Vacation, phase II

For the week before Christmas, we stayed with my sister Vonda and her family. Garrett thinks that Aunt Vonda's house is the funnest place next to Disneyland. Whether it is summer or winter, Aunt Vonda's backyard is Garrett's favorite backyard. Garrett also loves that Aunt Vonda's house is a perpetual party. There is always kids or teenagers playing in that house, and Garrett is all about the fun. But I think his favorite part about Aunt Vonda's is that everyone always feels at home in their house. It's comfortable and relaxed. I don't know how they do that, but it's great. Also Garrett loves to be roughed up by Uncle Bill.

I felt really bad because while we were staying with Vonda and Bill, we all got the stomach flu, which we gave to poor McKenna. Sorry! As luck would have it, we got the stomach flu on the same day as family pictures with Keith's family. You'll notice that Garrett is not smiling in one. and Taryn is flat out crying in most. Nice!

I love baby Alina's big eyes!

So we couldn't get Taryn to smile until Keith brought out the big doggie, we borrowed from Aunt Vonda to pacify her. I do love the crying picture too.

Kendall the poser, and Garrett the quick smiler.

Sadly these are the best that we could get with the kids sick and so little time because we showed up late. O-well! I hope my kids appreciate that I tried to take family pictures, even when I just had a baby two months ago.

I love these pictures of Gordon and Ruth's family and Collette and Justine's family. It was nice to get to know our new cousins and our cousins that we don't get to see much.

Christmas Vacation, phase I

We flew into Alb. to stay with my parents and help my little sister Kristal & her family move into their new home on "J Hill" I love that my sister lives on "J Hill" or at least the side of "J Hill". They have a beautiful home and great kids. My kids would have been happy just to stay in Jo City and play with their Jo City cousins the whole vacation. We had a great time going to the park, harassing Grandpa, eating Grandma's food and going to the "Candy Store" It also was one of the only times during the vacation that I slept.

We also attend the Jo City Christmas pageant, were our two cousins were the stars of the show. Due to jet lag, Garrett slept through much of the performance but Kendall found it amazing. Only in Jo City could you reenact the manger scene, complete with all the scripture verse at the public school performance. I love Jo City! Thanks heavens for small town USA

My sweet Kendall

These pictures of Kendall and I are some of my favorite. She was just the right size the fit under my big old belly.

Once again I LOVE these pictures

Taryn as usual did not want to have anything to do with smiling for the camera. I love my children but they stink at smiling for a camera or even holding still.

I love these in sepia

These picture almost make me want to get pregnant again.....almost.