Rory's Weekend with Ruff...

Rory's class at school has a "class pet" named Ruff. He gets to go home with a different child each weekend and he keeps a journal of all his adventures.

This weekend, he had a good time playing in the snow by the fire, watching Houdini in his cage, and even becoming a pirate!

Here are a few shots of Ruff while he stayed at our house:

 

 

 

And so it begins...

Yet another storm has begun to hit us here in WNC. We are projected to get over a foot of snow tonight, and we are hoping the power is going to hold out for us...

The good news is that Carl is home for this storm, we are prepared, and we know what to expect!

I ate lunch at school with Rory today and decided to bring him home a little early instead of trying to drive in traffic if the storm hit... and it is a good thing! About an hour later the snow started falling and there is no sign of it stopping!

Here is a photo as it began to snow (after about 15 minutes):

 

And here is what it looked like just a little later (about 2 hours after it started): 

 

The boys were excited to play in the snow, so we let Rory take "Ruff", the class dog, out into the snow for a photo...

And then we started hitting him with snowballs:

And then we decided to sit by the fire and enjoy what was left of the day light... 

An ironic fact... we were sitting by a fire that was made from the aftermath of the last snow storm...

Something a little different...

A really nice mom who owns a small company challenged me to a blog posting "contest".

It really isn't so much of a contest as it is a way to show love and gratitude. I did something very similar on November and am happy to do it again!

It is called the 13 Days of Peace and Love

Starting on February first, I will be posting about one "love" of mine each day!  I encourage you all to do it too, and to check out her blog to see what others are posting:  http://paxbaby.com (Oh, and if you are the mom of a little one, check out the carriers! We love the becco and a few others she carries!)

A little clumsy...

I'm not really that clumsy of a person. I am sure footed on wet river rocks, walking in strong currents, and standing on wet rafts... so can someone tell me how that all changes on a little bit of ice?

I was running carpool this morning and when I stopped to get one of the girls, I fell on the sidewalk. I fell HARD. My hips, back, foot, and knee are all sore! I can't believe how ungraceful I was. I did get by without ripping my jeans though.

I think I might be getting a little old. A few years ago, I would have either caught myself, or at least not looked like a flailing elephant when I fell ;)

Here is my foot... I haven't had the nerve to take a look at my back and hip yet.

After the rain...

It has been raining for a few days here in WNC, and really, I have no complaints about it. I love the smell, the sound, and the feeling of the rain, and after a few years of droughts, it is very welcome!

Our home has mountains on all sides, and most of our weather comes from the western mountains. We can see the clouds and rain start long before it gets to our house. After the rain leaves, there is this small window of time that is absolutely perfect to me...

The clouds start to clear, the sun comes out, there is a light mist, and a wonderful smell over everything. I can't explain that smell, but it is one of my favorites, and makes me miss the days of living in a tent on the river, and waking to the fog clearing off the water.

Here is a shot this morning of the western mountains as the rain and clouds cleared, I could not ask for a more beautiful place to live:

Keeping my children safe...

I have seen some horrible misuse of car-seats lately, and I never cease to be amazed... I have seen people try to put 2 year olds in boosters, use expired seats, and forward face infants...

I am a huge advocate of car seat safety, and I wanted to post this because so many people are misinformed. Please remember that car seats DO expire, and it is a safety issue. Keeping a child rear facing as long as possible is the easiest way to keep them safe in a car.

The 20lb and 1 year suggestion is out of date, and the pediatrician recommendations are being changed in the following year or so.

There has never been a documented case of broken legs in a child facing the rear, but internal decapitation happens to children who are forward facing.

Children don't mind sitting with crossed legs, or with their legs up, and studies show it is better then having their legs dangle in front of them forward facing.

It is never too late to start, we flipped Arden backwards again after he was forwards because his weight changed and he had more time in his seat rear facing. He didn't mind at all! It helps him sleep better on trips, allows him to be more comfortable, and he likes to tell me about what is behind us in the car.

Both Arden and Canyon are rear facing, and I am looking into buying Arden a new seat that will be safer longer, the . He is getting close to outgrowing his seat in the current position. This is the seat I am looking at. It will let him be rear facing until about 6 years old.

Here are Arden and Canyon:



Please think about keeping your child rear facing as long as possible, and don't just do the minimum for their safety :)

Slowly Knitting.

I am knitting this pair of fingerless mittens for Carl... they definitely have some errors, but I really like the look! I have never done cables before, or made openings (for thumbs), it is definitely a learning curve. I have been working on them for a while, but I can't seem to get the time to sit down and actually work on them.

Feeling a little better...

CanMan is feeling a bit better. His fever is gone, and his cough is changing.

He was feeling so much better today, that we took him and his brothers out to ride their new scooters and bikes for a few minutes while there was a break in the weather. They had a blast.

GAR!

Canyon has pneumonia.

We just got back from the ER. His fever wasn't going away and the pediatrician's office suggested if it peaked again to go to the ER. Well it did tonight, and it turns out it is pneumonia! We were in the pediatrician's office on Tuesday and he was fine then :o(

Sorry...

Sorry for the lack of posting! The kiddos and I have taken turns being sick AGAIN.

On a more positive note, Canyon is discharged from the Pediatric Specialists he was seeing and is now under the regular pediatrician's care again! WHOO HOO! He is still skinny and has a special diet, but is doing great and no longer in need of specialized care!

Rory is getting so big. He is officially a reader. Over the last few months, Rory has been reading a few words here and there, and then last night he did it, he read an entire book to me! I had to help with a few large words, but he did it!

Arden is a riot! He is getting good at telling jokes, has GREAT timing, and is quite the fearless little adventurer. He will climb just about anything! The child has nerves of steel and thrives on the thrill (wonder where he gets that, lol). I feared it, and some friends recently confirmed it recently when they told us, we have a lot of BMXing in our future.

The boys are growing up so fast that it blows my mind! It was just yesterday that these little boys were little babies... How in the world does this happen? I'm truly enjoying it, being home with my children has been the best choice I have made for our lives, and I will never regret it.

It is back!!

I was checking the well and water hourly and we are back in business! WHOO WHOO!

While the water was out, I decided to use some bananas that I accidentally left in the car (and surprise surprise, they froze). The boys and I made some yummy from scratch banana bread!


I am soooooooo thankful that the well is working again, unplanned water outages are never much fun, and never well timed!

Still cold.

It is STILL freaking cold here, and while that isn't too much of an issue, it became one today...

The pipes froze, and of course Carl left early for a road trip and didn't know... and the boys used the 2 flushes before we knew.

GARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Warm up please!

Who is in my house?!?!

I arrive home today and find a box in the kitchen... Rory quickly runs from the room and this person appears... should I be afraid??

It is COLD outside...

It is cold here in WNC right now... really cold (wind chills are 15-20+ below at times). I even let all 3 of the outdoor dogs into the house a few days ago.

I have to say I am surprised at how cold it is. I haven't been in cold like this since living in the Cleveland area. Even in WV, when it got cold, it wasn't bitter like this.

I find it very interesting... mostly because the homes and people here are completely unprepared (us included) for the most part! The heating systems here are mostly "heat pumps" and once it is below freezing outside, they begin to work less and less, until there is a constant stream of 58-63 degree air being pumped into the home... While that isn't a horrid temperature in a home, it is chilly!

Other then that, the boys are recovering from another cold/flu virus, I think Can-Man may have an ear infection, and the dogs keep reminding me why they live OUTSIDE.

I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying themselves! We are!

Morning Surprise...

So, I knew it was going to be cold, but I didn't expect the snow! It is still falling!

Here is the frost on my window...


And a little of the dusting...

A New Year means new photos...

There wasn't much light out today, and these photos didn't come out as clear as I would have liked, but hey, they are cute none-the-less.

I wanted to grab a few photos of Rory now that he is 6:



While I was doing that, the other boys decided to jump in and get a few taken... So I made them all out on their new shirts from Dena and Tom, and here is what we got:

The End of the Year

Yup, tonight is the end of the year, and while it is a special night for everyone, it is very special for me...

Rory turned SIX today. SIX!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?! It doesn't seem possible that it has been so long since I held the little babe in my arms and toasted the new year with my husband in the hospital.

I am tearing up as I write this.

Rory is becoming such a little man. A really good one at that. He is polite, nice to others, fair, and just an easy going person.

He is growing up so fast.

We celebrated his birthday at The Hop, had a great crowd show up, and of course it was all pirate themed.


I am so blessed to have had the chance to spend the last 6 years at home with him. He is really a blessing.

I love you baby boy. I can't believe it takes 2 hands to count how old you are now, it just doesn't seem possible.

Someday you will become a man who will surprise us all. I can't wait to see who that man is. (Well, I can wait, lol, and wish it took longer.)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is here, my children are snug in their beds, but I doubt it is sugar plumbs dancing in their heads...

Santa has already made his way here, and I would guess the boys are dreaming of what he might have brought... want a sneak peak?

What a Holiday adventure!

We have had quite the adventure, and a GREAT reason for not posting a blog entry over the last week...

On Friday, it snowed some, and a bunch was called for. I let the boys play in the snow, and they had a great time! Here are a few shots:






Carl was out of town, and we needed groceries. So I packed the boys up, headed out into the storm for a bit to get a few groceries and to get a nice hot lunch... We got home, drove over to the neighbors for a few minutes to say hi... and there we find out that the power was out.

Ok, no biggie, people around here have never driven in snow and have a really hard time with it, and hit poles all the time in the winter. So I pack the kids back into the car and with quite a bit of difficulty, drive it to our house... but I didn't make it far into the driveway before... well, in an hour or two, we went from 2 inches to this:


No big deal, I was out of the road and in the driveway, and hey, the power had come back on and we had no where to go! It was set to be a night of cuddling and enjoying hot cocoa as the snow fell.

Oh how the snow fell, it was a hard, wet snow. One of those snows where you get wet and can't just brush it off.

Over the next few hours, the cable and internet went out, and then the electric began to blink on and off, over and over. I decided to send the boys to bed, thinking that if the electric did go out, it would be easier if the boys were in bed and they didn't have to be trying to find things in the dark... I filled the bath tubs with water (because we are on a well and no electric means no potty flushing unless you have water), I filled bottles, found candles and a light, and added extra quilts to the beds.

Well preparing slightly turned out to be a good decision... because about 30 minutes later, the lights went out, along with the heat, the water, and everything else. I did take a few photos to show how much snow we were getting at about 7pm:

Then 9:


And by 10:30, the ruler was gone and the snow was about 16 inches deep.

Saturday morning we wake up a little chilly, the temperature in the house was about 58. Not awful, just enough to throw on an extra shirt and we were good to go. As the day wore on, and the snow kept falling, we realized the power might be off for a while and found out why there was no electric... That WET snow I mentioned... yeah, our power lines were in the road, along with the cable and phones.




67,000 people in 2 counties were without power!!

Here were a few other shots I was able to grab (we didn't want to be wet or colder, or open the doors to let the little heat we did have out...)



And in this one, note how much deeper the snow was!



So, to pass the time we took a few photos and knitted... and I remembered to grab one of Canyon's noggin... (Now some of these were before we lost power...)









Well, it began to get cold, so after a cold lunch, I thought to bury my frozen turkey in a cooler in the snow to keep it from defrosting too soon for Christmas... and then I made the kids stay in my bedroom, with our candles lit, and was able to get the temperature up to 50degrees or so. Canyon and Arden began jumping from the one chair in my room to the toddler bed I set up for Arden to sleep in, and low and behold, Canyon jumps into the window sill and blackens his eye, dents his eyebrow, and gets a wicked cut. That put an end to the play time and around 6:30 we went to bed.

Sunday morning we woke up and were able to see our breath in the room. It was cold... the only thing that was no longer cold was the fridge... all of our food had begun to spoil. At this point I remembered that we had a dinner party we were supposed to attend and I texted our friends that we had gotten snowed in and wouldn't be able to make it...

As the day went on, the temperature didn't go up at all, and the kids weren't getting warm. I decided to allow myself to depend on the generosity of friends and we spent the next night with them.

Monday was operation hamster extraction... when we left, we took only what we needed, and left Houdini the hamster, and the dogs at home... but as the day wore on I began to worry about the hamster. I knew the dogs were fine, but Houdini I wasn't so sure. I was able to get him out, and home to our friends AND I had the van now!

On Tuesday night, the electric was back on, I was home and in my bed and Carl finally made it home. I helped a car that was stuck in the snow/mud get out, and got muddy and wet... but also got to sled ride with the boys some. We even went out to see Santa.


Today, we went and got Houdini, helped stuck motorists out of the neighborhood, and cleaned the mess that we made while being snowed in.

Our internet came on a few hours ago, and not a moment too soon!

I hope everyone had a great week and a wonderful Solstice! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas too!