Scripture Power

This past Sunday, our bishop handed out this flip chart kind of a thing with a challenge. The chart outlined what scriptures should be read in order to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days. Each day includes the chapters to be read, a scripture to mark, another scripture of the day, and a quote by one of the prophets. We usually read scripture stories at night for our scriptures, but decided that this would be a good challenge to take for the whole family. The boys are really into it. They set out pillows and blankets for us all to sit on every night. Aaron is excited to have a scripture marking pencil, and it has encouraged Weston and Brian to read on their own once they have gone to bed. (They want to be ahead of us as a family!!) Since I am not sure how much Aaron really gets out of the whole thing, I continue to read him out of the kid scripture stories in the mornings. And while this takes much longer to read than before (between 30 minutes and an hour) the kids love it and as soon as dinner is done each night are grabbing their scriptures to get to our reading. I am amazed at how much Weston and Brian really know and how even Aaron can answer some of the questions about what is happening in the scriptures too. Even though it hasn't been a week yet, we are loving the new routine. We hope to meet the challenge and have the Book of Mormon read in the 100 days allotted.

Feeling blessed

We are still all iced in over here. It hasn't been above 20 this week. The driveway got shoveled and salted yesterday. Our street was salted and plowed yesterday and today, and yet, the ice remains. I feel very blessed though. I have a nice warm home to stay in. Barth can work from home and doesn't have to get out on the bad roads. We are still under a level 2 snow emergency meaning that only if it is absolutely necessary, are you to be out on the roads. They are still too bad in spite of all the plowing and salting. We learned last night that there are over 30 thousand people without power in the area. The energy company said that it will take them until mid-February to restore all the power. That is a long time to be cold!! I count my blessings that we have power, food to eat, and a warm house while we weather the storm.

Some more snow pictures

Anyone up for a round of basketball? The net and backboard are all ice!!! I also love that you can see the glaze of ice on the bricks here on the side of the house.
After I posted this morning, we got about 6 more inches of snow. While everything looks VERY lovely and white, the trees are taking a beating. This tree is in our neighbors yard that is behind us and at an angle. Notice how badly those branches are drooping!!! Our neighbors next door have lost 3 huge limbs on their tree from the ice. Two of the limbs landed on their deck. Our trees are looking mighty bendy themselves. I guess that time will tell. We are not supposed to get above freezing anytime soon. There is more snow in the forecast for Friday. As I type, there is a backhoe clearing our street. All in all, we got a foot of snow and ice in the last 2 days.

This morning, since Barth was working from home and could stay in with Amber, I went out with the boys to sled and have some fun in the snow. I didn't know that Barth had taken these until I came back inside. These were taken through the glass in the front door. We had a lot of fun, but man was it cold!!

Here are the same trees from my post earlier that had the ice on them. Now they are all covered with snow too and bending very low. We didn't let the kids in the back, just only on the deck, for fear that the branches would break and fall and hit them! It is a lovely winter wonderland though.

Barth must have opened the door at this point and Brian decided to wave. The snow was pretty crunchy with the layer of ice in there too. You would step in the snow, hit the ice, and then sink 6 more inches!!!

We have sure had fun playing in the snow the last few days. I will just have to pull up these pictures and remind the boys of how much fun they had in the snow when we are going to school into June for all the cancelled days of school!!!! :) Oh, and the pinewood derby is postponed until next week because of the weather!!! Good thing because I don't really like to drive on ice! :)

The Ice Storm

Yesterday at about 2pm, our snow changed from snow to sleet and freezing rain. It is still ice-ing here this morning. I am sure that this storm has caused power outages here and may still since it is not done, but it does look so beautiful out there that I just had a get a few pictures. To get the full effect, you really need to enlarge the pictures. This one was taken out our family room window, so there is a glare from the kitchen light. Still, I think that it looks so beautiful. The report is that there is at least an inch of ice on top of yesterday's snow.
This is looking straight out the back windows. So many of the branches are sagging. It is still just 20 outside, and my hope is that we don't lose even more branches off of our trees. We lost enough in the remnants of the hurricane that came through 6 months ago!

You have to make this one big too so that you can appreciate all of the icicles all over the table, chairs, deck and grill!!

Here is a close up of the branches. Look at those icicles!!!!

A Winter Wonderland

The weather man got it right this time and we woke up this morning to 5 more inches of snow. We had a short break in the snow, but it is snowing again and will continue throughout the day today. We are supposed to get some ice this evening, then it is supposed to change back to snow during the night for a few more inches. I am wondering if we will actually get to have the pinewood derby tomorrow since it is still supposed to be snowing then. Oh well, I am sure that they will reschedule it!!
Until then, we will just go out and enjoy the snow!!! Happy Tuesday everyone.

Snow Day

Yesterday during church, it snowed. The boys came home and immediately went outside and went to sledding. They had most of the snow in the front yard sledded all up by yesterday afternoon. We woke up to a little bit more snow this morning. I thought that they would just delay school since it wasn't that much, but school was cancelled altogether today. By 9 am the kids were outside shoveling the snow in the driveway into a big pile and then sledding down the hill. Amber and I joined in on the fun for about a half hour. Here are some pictures of the fun. The green saucer sled that Weston is holding is actually the one that Aaron got for Christmas. He had outgrown his other sled and it never really worked that well anyway. This new sled really only works with the big boys.....Aaron is just too darn light to get it going!! Weston, Brian and Aaron take turns with the sleds so that everyone has fun!!
Amber had fun walking all around and making footprints in the snow. She had a blast when Weston took her down the hill on his sled. He really is a sweet big brother!!! Brian thought that it would be fun to try going down the hill backward!!

Here is Weston giving Aaron a push down the hill. They are calling for 2 to 5 inches more overnight and then at least another inch tomorrow. We will see. I guess that I just never really have all that much faith in what the weather man has to say!! :) No matter, the kids are having a fun day in this little bit of snow today!!!

Am I really that old?!!

Tonight at dinner, out of the blue, Weston starts talking about trick-or-treating. He asks, "If someone doesn't give us any candy on Halloween, does that mean that we go back to their house later and play a trick on them?"
My reply, "They probably did that in the old days, but we don't do that now. We want to be nice."
Weston then asks as serious and unassuming as can be, "So you used to do that, right?"
At which point Barth begins laughing so hard that he can't even eat!!!
Oh man! I think I just got about 4 gray hairs from that one!!!!! :) To think that I was alive in the old days.......

Getting ready!

Weston's first pinewood derby is this week. He and Barth have been busy working on his car today!!! It is coming along. He is so excited about the race on Wednesday!!!

TV statistics

Weston's math homework today was on units of time. There were some great statistics in it that I just had to share!! I am pretty anti-tv and my kids have very limited television and almost no computer time at all. Yeah, you can call me a mean mom, but I like to protect my kids for as long as I can. Anyway, here are the statistics for you:

*An average American child watches almost 20 hours of television a week.
*The average time per week that children spend talking to their parents is about 40 minutes!!!
*The average American watches more than 4 hours of tv per day!
*Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900
*Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,023

The source stated is Real Vision with the website www.tvturnoff.org.

As for me, I am ready to defy the odds and spend more time talking to my children than they spend in front of the tv!!! I personally found this too interesting not to share!!!! Tomorrow it is supposed to be 46! I think that we will spend the afternoon outside, enjoying the warm weather like we did today!!

We're pretty boring.....

Yep, that pretty well sums us up over here. Not too terribly much going on in our neck of the woods. It continues to be cold and we get a dusting of snow every few days. Not enough to really cover the ground, but it is still pretty. So, here is the list of very non-interesting stuff that is going on over here:

*Weston is still a read-a-holic. He is currently reading the Eragon series. And he loves it.
*Brian is thrilled that he can now read 2nd grade reading level books. He loves to take accelerated reader tests and get points like Weston.
*Aaron loves to be my snuggle bug and can be found where ever I am. He just learned how to do somersaults and now does them all over the house.
*Amber loves to climb. She climbs tables, chairs, the boys bunk bed ladder.....any and everything!
*We have our first pinewood derby coming up next week. Barth and Weston have been busy planning up their car.
*Barth is very busy with work these days and it is not uncommon for him to work a 12 to 15 hour day.
*Weston is playing basketball again and this league runs them quite a bit more. He is really getting a workout!
*Brian can almost always be found with legos in hand, building something!
*Aaron loves to play with his golf clubs and lacrosse set. (Just don't stand too close or you might get whacked!!)
*Amber has an infatuation with bows and having her hair done. Can't say I'm sad about that one. :) She loves to bring me her ponytail holders and bows and then wants me to do her hair! It is so cute.
*I just keep busy with it all. And I love every minute of it!!!! :)

Happy Wednesday!!!

I changed my mind!!

It was just about 2 weeks ago that I thought Brian was so funny for thinking that 40 was warm. I have officially changed my mind!!! This past week we were mostly in the single digits and set lots of record lows in the negatives. After days of highs of 9 and 10 degrees, yesterday it got all the way up to 36!!!! And yes, I thought that it was warm!!! :O Last night we had a dusting of snow and it has been in the 20's today, but even that feels warm compared with last week!!! Indeed, 40 is warm!!!! :D

Farewell

This first picture is a little blurry, I know, but is the only half decent picture that I got of Melissa and I! It was taken right before we went out for our pancake dinner. This morning, in the bitter -5 degree cold, I took my sweet sister to the airport to send her back home. The kids were all sad to see her go. We have had such a great time visiting with our Auntie M. Melissa and I had fun watching movies, exchanging secrets and all of that fun sisterly stuff!!! :D It was a great visit. The kids were spoiled rotten and Amber simply refuses to crawl up or down stairs now. She thinks that she should be carried like a princess as she was when her Auntie M was here. Sadly, it is back to boring old mommy here at our house!!! We will miss you Melissa!!! Thank you for coming. We all had a wonderful time and can't wait till you can come back and visit again. We love you!!!
We have had a guest on our porch most of the day today. She came just before lunch time and the kids (especially Aaron and Amber) just love looking at her. (or I guess that it could be a him!) The kids have been calling this cute little kitty Bell Bell since they say she looks so much like Grandma's cat. I feel very sorry for this poor little thing and wish that she would go home. It was a little warmer here today than it was yesterday (a high of 14) and I so wish that I could just let her come in the house. Since we have allergic type people though and don't really know this cute little cat, I guess that I will just have to keep praying that she will just go home and get warm!!!!

Pile on the layers!

Well, we never did get all the snow that they predicted. We will see if the prediction of tomorrow's high of 12 will be correct!!! It was 17 when I took the kids to school this morning. Man, it is COLD out there!!!!!! Good thing I have Melissa here to keep me company and indoors!! :) The kids will be sad when she leaves on Friday!! Especially Aaron and Amber who get carried all over the house like kings and queens!!!! The time is flying past too fast. Before I know it, my fun and help will be gone and it will be back to same old thing!!!!! We will sure miss Auntie M!

More fun!

Now that everyone is well, we had a fun afternoon of playing in the playroom. I thought that I would snap some photos of everyone enjoying themselves. We haven't done too many exciting things since Auntie M has been here, but we have had a lot of fun with her and I have had so much great help! She is an awesome sister and I am glad that she got to come and visit. Tonight we are going out for pancakes together!!! Yum, yum!!!!!!! :) We were going to go tomorrow, but they are calling for snow from now all the way until Saturday. (They just keep extending it!!) I thought that we would take the chance to go out while we could!!!!
Here are some random and fun pictures of the kids this afternoon.

Aaron said, "Take a picture of me, I am smiling!"

There are only a few pictures of Melissa and I together. Brian took this one after nap time today! Thank you Brian!

Had to get a picture of all the kids with Auntie M in her room downstairs!!

After nap time this afternoon, Aaron came down and snuggled with his Auntie M. He doesn't often get time with her all to himself, but Amber was still asleep and so he took full advantage of his snuggling opportunities!

Amber playing downstairs at the little table. I love having a playroom. It can get messy and it doesn't even show!!!!!!! :D

This one is kid of a funky one of Weston, but he is mid jump with his rope and I thought that his hair looked cool all out like that.

Auntie M giving Amber some of her kisses! We are going to miss her when Friday comes and she has to go home! (That is, if she doesn't get snowed it!!! Hee, hee!!) Hope you enjoyed our afternoon of fun!

A Better Understanding

This weekend we, once again, walked the precarious line with Brian and his ketotic hypoglycemia. Friday night, as he caught the nasty throwing up virus that Weston had had a few days prior, my mind started to reel and churn wondering how things would turn out this time. As noon time approached and Brian was still vomiting, I put him and the others down for a nap and laid down for a rest myself. I lay there waiting for sleep to come and into my mind popped a scripture so familiar to most of us. It was Mosiah 3:19:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he…becometh as a little child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

As I lay there and thought about this scripture, I could totally understand what this scripture meant as it relates to our trials. It was just like everything that was happening and has happened to Brian in the past. I had an actual understanding of how the Lord was with us in our trials. All morning long I had been pushing Gatorade and Popsicles on Brian. I had poked him about a million times to check his blood sugar, making sure that it wasn’t too low. All the while, Brian was okay to let me do these things. Even though every time he ate, he threw up, he still did it. He didn’t like it. It was his trial. He essentially had no clue why I wanted him to eat sugary things. He just knew that I said that it would keep him okay, so he did it. I knew better than he did because I had experience. I knew that he MUST eat and drink those things so as to keep his blood sugars from becoming too low. If he didn’t do as I said, it would mean that he would have to be hospitalized so as not to go into a coma or worse. It is the same as us in our trials. Sometimes the Lord gives us things that “inflict upon” us. We don’t know why they happen. They are so hard to deal with and bear. We can’t see, as the Lord can, that the things that He is putting us through are for our good. We, just as a child, don’t have the experience and knowledge that He has. We can’t see the end results like the Father.

There have been times, that, even after all I have done, I must allow Brian to be subjected to more things. He must go to a hospital. He must receive the medical attention there that I cannot give him. I must allow things to happen to him there so that he will become a better and whole person again. Our Heavenly Father lets things happen to us at times so that we can become a whole and better person. I have to allow Brian to be poked and prodded. And while that gives me great pain and agony to have to watch, I know that he will not be better unless I allow him to go through it himself. As much as I would like to be the one taking the IV, or throwing up, or being poked, it is Brian who must go though it in order to be well. I am sure that when we are having our difficult trials, that the Lord feels just as sad and worried. However, in order for us to grow, He must let us endure the trial.

We are never alone though. Just as I would never leave Brian’s side, (whether it be in an Emergency room, an ambulance transport, or a hospital room, hours of poking for an IV, etc.) the Lord does not leave our sides when we are having our trials. Even though I cannot have Brian’s IV for him, I can comfort him. I can hold him and love him. I can give the doctors the knowledge that I have from our previous hospitalizations. The Lord does the same. He comforts us. He speaks peace to our souls. He gives others the knowledge to help us. He is always there.

I am so thankful that this time Brian was able to get well without the trip to the hospital. The Lord was watching over him and us. More than that though, I am thankful for my new found understanding of the Lord. I feel as though I have a small but real understanding of how our Father in Heaven feels for us and some of the reasons why we have the trials that we do. He is a parent, just as I am. He loves me, His child, just as I love my own child. He wants what is best for me. Sometimes I may not quite understand why things must be the way that they are, but hopefully, the next time, I will be able to remember back on this experience and trust in the Lord without question during my trials. I will remember that He is always near me. That He will never leave me. That He knows what is best. All in all, I am thankful that Brian has had the trial that he has had. It has taught me so much and has increased my understanding. It has taught me to trust in the Lord and know that He is in control.

Pictures from the last few days

I thought that I would post a few more pictures from Melissa's visit out here. This was taken on our snow day. Brian made this big snowball and really wanted to save it. The boys had so much fun playing with their Auntie M in the snow. They built a small fort, pegged her with snowballs and had a great time sledding.
This one was taken before bedtime last night I think. Barth was working late and the kids were having a great time getting piggy back rides! Since the nasty virus that Weston came down with first is working it's way through the family, I think that Auntie M will probably be the next one to come down with it!! I certainly hope not though. Aaron and Brian got sick within 30 minutes of each other last night. Hopefully they are well soon!

What a fun Aunt!! Really, I know that I certainly wouldn't be carrying around my little moose of a boy around on my back. It has been wonderful having Melissa here. She helps me with the kids. She thinks that I do everything wonderful. She even thought that my pancakes from a box were better than Cracker Barrel!!!! :) What a sweet girl! I am so lucky to have her as my sister.

Fun in the snow

Yesterday we had snow most of the day. Not big snow, bust just light, steady snow all day long. After school, the kids were dying to go out and try to sled down the hill. There wasn't really enough snow out there for it, but that didn't stop them!!! I think that Auntie M had just as much fun as the boys! It continued to snow last night and so today we have our first snow day. How nice that the school decided to give the boys a day off when their most fun Aunt was here visiting!!!! :) These pictures were all from yesterday.
Aaron got to try out his new sled from Christmas. He wanted Auntie M to go down the hill over and over with him!

Amber went out, but not for too long since it was windy and she has been having trouble with her ears. Last night she caught what Weston had. At least I know that it is just a 24 hour bug!!

Here is Aaron and Auntie M sledding down the hill out front!

Today we will have more fun in the snow!! Happy Thursday everyone!

She's here!!

Auntie M made it safely to our house this morning!! Preference for parents has been cast to the way side and the children are happily enjoying playing with Melissa. I was worried that Amber would have some warming up time to her, but as soon as she saw Auntie M, that was all she wanted! Weston is absent from the picture because he is getting some much needed rest from the throwing up virus that kept him up half of the night! Hopefully he is on the mend soon and able to play too! We are so excited to have Melissa here!

Acclimated to the cold

This morning as we were driving to school, I was telling the boys that Auntie M was going to be cold when she got here because it had been so warm there in Texas. Brian then said, "She won't be cold tomorrow Mommy. The high is going to be 40 and that is warm!" I just had to laugh. I think that we must be getting used to the cooler temperatures here if my kids think that 40 is warm!!!!

The Sunbeam and Cinderella

Today was Aaron's first day of Primary as a Sunbeam! He loved it. He was so excited to go just like his big brothers. He had to have his scriptures when he went. It was so cute to see. He is getting to be quite the big little boy these days!!
One of the dresses that Amber got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa had a tag that said "Cinderella" on it. This was the beautiful dress!! She did, indeed, look like a princess walking around in it today at church. It has been hard to get a good picture of her lately. She is just too on the go. She doesn't want to be still to take a cute picture for me!!

Just now, after church, Amber was walking around with a baby in each arm. It was so sweet. She is all girl for sure. These last few weeks that Barth has been home, she has been in heaven!! She prefers Daddy to everyone else.

I can't believe that she is getting to be so big. One of my favorite things that she does right now is to climb everything and then say, "Ta Da!!!" She can also say Mommy, Daddy, bubba for her brothers, Aaron, drink (for both food and water), dis (for this), bea pease (for bread please), uh-oh, ball, and many more things. She is really starting to talk and can repeat back just about anything I say. What a fun age!!

It is hard to believe that she will be16 months old on Tuesday!! My little baby is growing up so fast!!!

I'm so excited!!!

I am so excited!!! Melissa, my sister, is coming to visit me in just a few days!!! It was her Christmas present this year. I think that in reality, it was mine too!!! I am so excited to see her and show her our home. I know that the kids will love having her around and so will I!! The countdown has begun and Tuesday will be here before I know it!!!!!!!!!! :)

Happy New Year!!

*My black eyed peas are soaking.....gotta have some good luck for this new year!

*All of the Christmas decorations are coming down today...gotta get things back to normal!

*I think that my favorite present this season has to be having Barth home the entire time!!!!

*The kids thought that it was totally awesome that they got to stay up until "midnight" to ring in the new year last night. We won't mention that we turned the clocks forward!! :) Amber didn't get to stay up though, she has a double ear infection and needs her sleep!

*Here is hoping that everyone has a wonderful New Year!!!!!