Ice Storm

It's always interesting to move to a new part of the country. Weather like this just doesn't happen in Idaho where I grew up. :) Here they call it freezing rain or an ice storm. It is raining but it turns into ice when it hits the ground. We haven't had any snow days, but today is the second time the kids have gotten out of school for freezing rain. The roads really are very dangerous to drive on in weather like this. If you look in some of the pictures, you can see how slick the surfaces look. All the trees look beautiful like this with icicles hanging all over them.

Look at those icicles! These are our outdoor speakers that project onto the deck. We haven't used them yet due to winter. I asked the guy who installed them how I should cover them in the winter, and he said, "They are weather-proof, you don't have to do anything". Maybe I should have followed my instinct and covered them anyway. :) I sure hope he's right.

Icicles all over our back deck! They are along the top and the bottom rails and posts.

This is one of the bushes in front of our house.

Looks like someone forgot to put the soccer ball away. Even the soccer ball has icicles. The icicles on the bottom rail here go all the way to the deck bottom. Here you can also see the surface of the post...how slippery it looks.

Getting around the Kitchen

Jarem has now figured out how to get whatever he needs or wants around the kitchen. Being small in stature does not slow him down and he can even do it himself (which is every toddler's dream). One way he does this is by moving chairs around the kitchen whenever a need arises. He has also learned that the drawer handles work very well as stairs and he can climb them to get cups on one side or bowls on the other side of the kitchen. (I'm a little worried about how long the drawer pulls will hold out with this kind of use or should I say abuse). The fridge is all his for the taking.

Jarem climbing the drawer pulls like a ladder.

Standing on the counter to get his cup

Mission Accomplished...and he's pretty proud of it too.

This Weekend

We had kind of a busy weekend at home catching up on a few things that needed to be done. Here's a few of the things that happened...

There are houses being built all around us, and ours is the only house on our street that is occupied. Because we are in a construction zone, garbage from all the construction has been blow all along the back of our yard. On Saturday, Eric took the kids out and they collected a lot of trash from the back of our yard and the neighboring yards. It looks SO much better. While they were out there, I did our taxes online which I finished.(yeah) It's nice to have both things done. Eric also finished submitting our damages from our move which was also a project needing to be done. Another thing that badly needed done were haircuts for the boys. Jarem loved his haircut until the very end when hairs got in his face. He giggled everytime I used the clippers.

This is Alex just after his haircut. He was begging to be done the whole time. He just can't stand the "itchies". Haircuts are a least favorite thing for him.

This was Jesikah crying about doing dishes on Friday night. I have to throw in these pictures every now and then to remember reality. :) She got dishes as a consequence for acting out. She wasn't happy so Eric got out the camera in hopes of finding a better attitude. (It didn't work as you can see).

Tessa lost ANOTHER tooth! She must be in 2nd grade or something. When her teeth get really loose they bother her a lot. She came into my room about 4am Friday morning and asked me if I would pull her tooth out in the morning. We didn't get it done until after school though. I got the needlenose pliers and it was so loose that I pretty much just lifted it out. It is the hole that you see there next to her bottom middle teeth on the left. There are so many holes that it is hard to know which one.

Porch Repairs...

We were having moisture getting into our storm shelter which is located directly below the front porch, so yesterday the builders set up the necessary repairs to prevent the water from getting in. They had to take off the top 3 bricks all around the porch, then they had to grind the joint, add flashing and caulk and then re-brick. It was an all-day job yesterday. They finished around 4pm yesterday afternoon. There was dust everywhere, so it took me an hour to sweep and clean all the windows and the front door. Then we can to clean out the storm shelter too because a lot of dust and chunks of brick got down there. We're SO glad it's done!

Here's a picture of the porch as the masons are putting the brick back on. It was the perfect day to do it...it was 60 degrees and warm and sunny. It felt like spring.

Here's a close-up picture. The cement from the porch is on top and then just below the cement you can see the green flashing that they added in the joint and the top of the bricks below they had just put back on. We've learned a lot about construction through our building process.

This is how I found Alex and Jarem when I came back in from cleaning the porch. I thought it was pretty cute. I was glad Alex was taking care of Jarem (who had missed his nap), even if he was doing it while playing a computer game. :)
A close-up of Alex and Jarem...they are becoming really good buddies. Pictures like this give me hope and comfort on those bad days when the sibling fighting seems to never end. I love catching them in a moment like this.

Tennessee Snow

Since it's our first winter here in Tennessee, we haven't really known what to expect weather-wise. People from around here say it usually snows a couple of times each winter. That's about what people told us when we moved to Western Washington too so we thought it would be similar. When it snowed in WA, it was usually big flakes and would accumulate at least a couple of inches--enough to make a snow man. So far, according to the people around here, it has snowed 3 times (the first 2 being for about 10 minutes and by the time you figured out the white dust was actually snow it was over).

Well this morning, it snowed enough that I would actually call it snow, so I got some pictures. I told the kids to go play in it while it lasted and they laughed at me! :) Good thing I got the pictures when I did because an hour later it was all gone. So here's proof that it does snow in Tennessee... I have to say that I hesitated to post these since they seem pretty lame compared to the snow that other places have received this year, but it's all we've got! :)

But it has hugging...

I just had to mention something funny Jarem said this morning. He was watching an educational show on TV. When it was finished, the channel went into it's afternoon programming, thus a soap opera came on. I immediately heard the change, and told him we should probably turn it off because that wasn't a good show for him to watch. He said, "But it doesn't have shooting, Mom". I said, "I know, there are some shows that you shouldn't watch that don't have shooting. " He quickly responded, "But... it has hugging in it?" He just didn't understand how a show with hugging could be bad... :)

Ready to Go!

Monday morning, I told Jarem to get dressed because we were going to the store. He came downstairs and this was what he was wearing. He was SO proud of the way he dressed himself. It was so cute, so I had to get a picture. He likes his new tie so much that he wants to wear it everyday. :) It was hard to convince him that we should save it for Sundays.

Notice Jarem's fat lip? Alex was playing one of his signature "wild games" Sunday night when someone got hurt (it's a novel idea, I know). I would call the game "diving airplane". He was running around the house holding Jarem horizontally like an airplane when something went wrong and he dropped Jarem flat on his face on the hardwood floor. His bottom and top teeth went through his lip and he also split his gums. Poor Jarem...

Belated Wedding Ensemble

Since we weren't sure who would be attending the wedding at the time the outfits were being purchased, my parents generously went ahead and bought our kids all outfits for Joel's wedding. I felt really bad about the expense after they weren't able to come though. The plane tickets were just too much money during the Christmas holidays. Anyway, the kids got their outfits to keep, and they were in need of new church clothes, so thanks so much Mom and Dad. I brought their clothes back with me from Idaho, and they all wore them to church today. Eric and I both agreed that these pictures turned out better than our Christmas card pictures so I wanted to post them. They are such pretty dresses and nice ties that I wanted especially Mom and Dad to see the kids in these. So here's our belated wedding ensemble/Sunday pictures.

Sitting so reverently...if only they'd been like this at church. :)

Jarem's always our little clown.

The Boys

The Girls (Eric's experimenting with angles)

I love this one with them holding hands.


Don't they look like they love each other? :)

The kids wanted to take some pictures of us...so get ready for the mushy stuff. Just Joking!

Eric even had a new tie that matched.


Hmmm....

Of course, we took plenty of pictures to get some good ones. I just wanted to end with this funny one of Jarem...he is the king of funny faces. Then we've got Tessa distracted and Alex is giving us his typical "odd" look.

On the Ranch

While I was in Idaho, Eric and the kids took off to Missouri to spend a few days at his Dad's ranch. They met Eric's brother, Kyle and his wife, Jessica there too. The kids and everyone had a good time. I only wish I could have joined in the fun too.

Everyone with Grandpa

Kids out with the cows

Feeding the cows

Jesikah's driving the Ranger...rumor is she was a better driver than Alex.

A long day on the ranch...(wish this one would have turned out better...it's so sweet).

All tuckered out

Wedding Day

Joel & Cindy's Wedding

My youngest brother, Joel, got married on January 2nd. I flew out to Idaho January 1-4 to be there for the wedding. It was so much fun for all 7 of us siblings to be together again. We are so spread out over so many states. It was a beautiful wedding, and they are a very cute couple. I'm excited for Cindy to be part of our family, and so glad that Joel found her. Here's some pictures that I took while I was there. Unfortunately it was too expensive to take the whole family so far, so Eric and the kids didn't get to come. I was sad they didn't get to be in the pictures. Joel and Cindy with my brothers, James (left) and Michael (right)
Joel with all his sisters(left to right) Candace, Melanie, me, and Brenda
Same girls with Cindy.
Joel and Cindy with my parents and our whole family.
The happy couple!