Its looking like Spring!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!!!! Finally!!! This weekend we had a lot of rain and what did it bring? Popcorn on the trees around here!!!!!! I am so excited!
My daffodils are blooming!!! Spring really is coming!! Today, although it was chilly, it was warmer than yesterday and that meant time to play outside!!!!!!
Here is Aaron "watering" my flowers with his new squirt gun that Weston got for him with the money he earned getting the neighbors paper and mail while they were away!! And look.....the grass is greening up too! :)

Amber enjoying the outdoors! She was having an oatmeal cookie- that is what is on her face!

Weston with the big bubble wand. I took one of Brian too, but it didn't really come out very good, so I will just have to post one of him tomorrow!!

While the boys were playing with the bubbles and riding bikes, Amber decided to drive her little car around.

Weston and Brian had quite a fun time this afternoon with the big bubble wand. One of them would wave the wand to make the bubbles (that would be Brian in this picture), and the other one would use the squirt gun to try to pop as many bubbles as he could before they floated away. They played this game for about an hour!!! I am glad that the weather is turning warmer. We love to spend lots of time out doors!!! :)

The things kids say.....

There have been a few cute things said at my house the last few days. :)

The other night when I went and got my hair cut, it was after the kids were in bed and Barth was home. When I came back home, Aaron was making some noise up in bed, so I went up to investigate. On my way past Weston and Brian's room, Weston called out to me, "Hey Mommy, did you get your hair cut?" I went in to his room, said yes, and then asked if he liked it. His response, "Yes, but you don't look like the Mommy I used to know!"

Tonight during our scripture time, Barth's cell phone rang. It was his boss at work. He answered the phone, "Hey Thomas." (his boss' name) and walked into the other room. At this point Aaron's eyes got as big as saucers and he exclaimed, "Daddy's talking to Thomas S Monson!!!!!"

My new hair-do

Yesterday evening, I decided that I was tired of always having my hair in a pony tail, and so I went and got it all cut off. They cut off about 7 or so inches. I usually like to cut it just before Summer time, but not this year!! Barth was home last night and wasn't needed for YM/YW, so I took full opportunity of him being home and went out for my haircut. I like it. It is not as short as I have had it in years past, but I like it just the same. It is so much faster to wash, dry and style!! And, if I want, it wears as it's natural "kind of curly" better than it does at other lengths. :) I have to say a big thank you to my excellent photographer Brian as well for doing a great job taking the picture for me!

What do you think?

I saw this picture of my great Grandpa on my mom's blog and thought that it looked sort of like Amber! So I tried to take some pictures of her this morning to compare. She wasn't really in the mood, but I did get a couple. Compare it with the picture below of her not smiling either.
Amber has been sick all week long. She threw up for 4 days in a row and wouldn't leave my lap until Thursday night. She is still clingy and not back to her regular self, but it getting better every day!

As for me, I don't really appreciate how happy and easy going my kids are until they are sick and wiped totally off their feet. Aaron and Brian have both run a fever, but thank goodness they have not been nearly as sick as Amber was!

Amber was grumping at me while taking the pictures so Aaron told me that he would smile for me. Isn't he a cutie? I love the Gatorade smile that he is sporting!!!

Let me tell you, I am glad that Barth is coming home today! It has been a long week! Thankfully everyone is feeling better slowly but surely! :)

Half way there tomorrow!!

A while ago I posted about our nightly scripture study that we had started. Our bishop handed these out at church and they are a flip chart to help us read the entire Book of Mormon in 100 days! When we decided to read it as a family, Barth gave us 5 "repentance" days. So far we have only had one (the night of the talent show) and that means that tomorrow night we will be at the half way mark!!!! The kids want to have a party tomorrow since we will be half way there. If Amber gets better, I think that I may just have to make some cake or cupcakes to celebrate.

Count your many blessings.......

This morning on the way to take the boys to school, Amber threw up. Twice! Inside I sighed. It seems to me that we have had someone sick with the throwing up bug nearly every week since mid-January. Aaron and Weston have been sick 3 times, Amber and Brian have been sick twice. Anyway, today as I sat folding the laundry on the couch after I put the kids down for their naps, I thought to myself, "Why?!! Shesh! Why do the kids have to be sick again? I mean, I ate my black eyed peas and everything!!!! I should be having good luck!!!" (and yes, I really did think those things to myself!)

But at that very moment, I realized how very selfish and unfair I was being. I do have good luck. I have been richly blessed. I have several friends that would love to have the trial of getting the throwing up bug rather than the ones that they are having. It was then that I decided that rather than feel sorry for myself, that I really needed to count my blessing. In reality, throwing up isn't all that bad. So, here are a few things that I am thankful for today:

*Barth has a good job to support our family!! (this is a big one in today's economy!)
*A warm and comfy home
*4 wonderful, beautiful, healthy children
*Food to eat, food in the pantry, food in storage- we aren't hungry
*Very good health insurance
*Dental insurance! (Weston is getting a spacer put in today and the insurance covers the entire thing!)
*The gospel of Jesus Christ
*A living Prophet to lead and guide us today
*The scriptures
*modern conveniences- washer, dryer, dishwasher, fridge, toilets, phones, computers!
*clothes and shoes to wear
*friends and family who care about me and my family
*grass, trees, flowers and all the lovely things in this world that we can see
*eyes that see, ears that hear, and everything works as it should in my body!
*my dear husband who loves and cares for me and works hard so that I can stay at home!!
*the atonement and that knowledge that my family can be together forever!
*beautiful sunsets and lovely clouds to look at

I honestly could go on and on and on! I am truly thankful to my Father in Heaven for all my many blessing. I am also thankful for the trials that I have. I can even be thankful when my kids get sick because that means that at least I have children to get sick. Not everyone is that lucky. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father today for helping me to realize that my perspective was off and for the opportunity that I had instead to count my many blessings!

Ketchup

Tonight, since Barth had to go in to work, I decided to fix the kids their favorite dinner of hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and applesauce!! As they sat there at the table, Weston, as usual was reading all the bottles. After informing me that mustard was very healthy because it had no fat in it at all, he wanted to know how mustard was made! I told him that I had no idea how mustard was made and that we would have to look it up. Brian spoke right up at this point and said, "Well I know how ketchup is made!!!!" So I asked him to tell me how they made it.

He said, "First they get lots of tomatoes and squeeze them a bunch. After that, they have to get some other stuff to make it more red. Like, um, like.....Oh!! They add Kool-aide to it!! That is what they do. It makes it more red that way. They add the tomato juice and the kool-aide and then they put it in bottles and send it to the store!!"

And so there we have it folks! I bet you never knew that ketchup was made out of tomatoes and kool-aide!! :)

Signs of Spring

We are finally showing signs of Spring time here. The warmer weather that we had a few days in a row caused my flowers out front to start to pop up!! The boys check every day to see if they have grown any! Here are the first of the flowers to begin to pop up. Further down in the flowerbed we have daffodils. I just love the Spring flowers. Just a few more weeks and I think that it might be looking like Spring around here!!! :)
I realize that we need to mulch our flowerbed and we probably will in the next week or so, but I wanted to show that our lilac bushes are starting to get little buds and green leaves on them too. We have 3 lilac bushes, but this one was the furthest along in looking like it was ready to get some leaves!! I am happy that Spring is on its way!

I am a bum!!

I realize that I haven't posted in so long!! I am a bum and I openly admit it. I am on a medicine that had completely wiped me out for the week!! It makes me very tired, but is almost done with!! Hopefully I will be back in the blogging mood soon!!!!

On a more positive note, all the warmer weather from last week has caused my daffodils and tulips to really sprout up!!!! Even though we are freezing cold again, those little green buds poking up out of the ground remind me that Spring will be here soon!!!!! :)

Beautiful Saturday!

It is nap time right now, but there is no way that I could even think about taking a nap! The neighbors on one side of our house are having a HUGE tree chopped down and they have chain saws and wood chippers going full blast. It is very noisy. The house on the other side is getting a new roof and there is lots of hammering going on too!! I am wondering if my kids will actually get a nap today?! :) Anyway.......we have had some beautiful weather the last few days here. We have been able to play outside quite a few days. Saturday was the warmest day so far at almost 70 degrees. We took full advantage of the warm weather and played outside for most of the day. Barth was gone to the temple with the youth and was gone till the afternoon. We all thoroughly enjoyed being outside. Later, after Barth got back from his temple trip, we all took a walk to the park!! It was a great day. Above is Aaron. He got this bike for his birthday this past summer. Mostly he just likes his tough trike, but decided that he would try to ride the real bike on Saturday. He did a great job and once he got the hang of it, spent hours riding around and around the driveway.
I thought that this was sweet. Amber has a special bond with Weston. She just loves him so much. If she gets hurt she will run to him every time for a love. I think at this point that a ball bounced too near to her and it frightened her, so she ran to Weston for a love. What a sweet boy our Weston is!

Weston wanted to ride the wiggle car that morning instead of his bike or green machine. He said that he wanted to ride this so that he could ride next to Aaron on his bike! :) His sweatshirt only lasted about 30 minutes. After that, he was too hot!

Brian is a regular pro at his bike these days! And he only has 1 speed- FAST!!!! He loves riding his bike!

Aaron was so proud of himself for learning to do the big bike like his big brothers!! He kept saying over and over to me, "I am so big! Just like my brothers!! I am really growing Mommy!" What a sweet boy!

It amazes me how big Amber is getting these days! She is becoming quite the little person instead of a baby!!! She had fun walking around and chasing her brothers' basketballs. She also likes to ride in the little cozy coupe car. The funny thing about that is that she can only figure out how to make it go backwards!!!! If she wants to go forward, she calls and calls for Weston until he comes and pushes her fast all around the driveway! We are trying to enjoy all the warm weather we can for the next few days before it snows again at the end of the week!!! :) And with all the wind, I think some kite flying might be on the agenda too!!!

Talent show video

Talent Show Pictures

Tonight was Weston's talent show! He had to be there at 6:25 for the show to start at 7. We got there at about 6:20 and found our seats in the gym for the show. It was a packed house!!! We got pretty good seats since we got there early, but it was a long night for the little ones. They had some fun music going before the show. Here I am trying to keep Amber from pitching a fit by doing the YMCA with her arms. They thought that this was a lot of fun.
Weston sat not too far in front of us on the floor. He had so much fun dancing away and shaking his pom pom to the music. I think that in a lot of ways it helped him to not be nervous tonight. They had 2 small stages set up on either side of the main stage. It made things run faster that way.

Brian thought that doing the YMCA was about the best thing that he had ever done. Sitting right behind us was the family of a girl in Brian's class. She sang Bibbity Bopitty Boo. It was really cute!

More of Weston dancing before hand.

Here is Weston right as they were announcing his name. I got a video too that I will upload later. Weston did a great job. He was one of the only ones that had his piece memorized. I was proud of what a great job he did. He kind of gets stage fright, but you would have never known it seeing him up there tonight. :) Weston was act 16 out of 70. We thought that we would try to stay for the whole thing, but when intermission came, Amber had been crying for at least an hour, Aaron was falling asleep sitting up, and it was already 8:30. At that point I just didn't think that they would make it all the way to 9:30. (actually it would have probably have been more like 10!) As we were leaving, there were more people streaming in for the seats that were being vacated!! All in all, it was a great night!!! Way to go Weston!

Alright!!

It is 55 outside right now!!! We are heading to the park right after we pick up Brian for a fun afternoon in the warm weather with some friends!!!! After high temps in the 20's and 30's earlier this week, this is a welcome change!!!!!! I am so excited about the warm weather!!!!! :)

Pudding

This afternoon for snack we had some yummy pudding!! Amber looked too cute with it all smeared on her face, so I just had to take a picture!!! :)

Don't come near us!!!!

I think that we need to be quarantined or something!!! It is now Weston's turn to be sick. Just one more kid to go before they have all had it. Wondering why I haven't been blogging lately? Maybe it is because as soon as one kid gets well, another one gets it!! There simply hasn't been much beside illness here at our house lately!! :)

As long as Weston is well by Friday, he will be playing the piano in the school talent show. Look for pictures of that this weekend. And......if you like to sew and want a good deal on patterns, head on over to Hobby Lobby this week!! All of their McCall patterns are just $0.99!!! That is an awesome deal!!!!!

Hooray!

Last week I posted about Weston's basketball game. Oh course I didn't take my camera this week. Sheesh! It was the most exciting game yet. (and the last) The best news of all......they actually won their game! The team seemed pretty excited about their victory.

And in other good news.....tomorrow Amber gets to go to nursery!!!!!!! Yeah and hooray!! It is just an exciting weekend around here. :)

On our way up

I hope! Brian seems to be feeling quite a bit better this morning. It was tough go of things for just a bit this morning, but it seems (for the moment) that his fever is gone and that perhaps he is on the mend. I will never say for sure that a fever is gone until later on that evening. I have had one too many times that it seems to be gone and all better, only to get worse again as the evening wears on. In all honesty, I was fully expecting to go to the hospital this morning with Brian. He was very dehydrated and not doing well. He lost over 3 lbs. I didn't think that he was going to make it through this one without some IV fluids. I am SOOO happy to be wrong. As of right now, his numbers are back in the 80's and 90's which is right where he is supposed to be at!! Even if it is just a reprieve before the next wave hits, I am thankful to have it! Early this morning when I took Brian's blood sugar and it was 51, I told him he had to have a popsicle and Gatorade so that his blood sugar would go up. I said that if those numbers didn't stay up, he would need to go in to the dr and possibly the hospital. (50 is the very lowest that I am supposed to go to at home without a trip to the dr or ER) A few minutes later, Brian whispered down to me, as I was laying next to his bed, that everything would be okay. He told me that he had prayed that his temperature would go up so that he wouldn't have to go to the hospital. :) It seems as if Heavenly Father knew what he was talking about, even though the terminology was wrong. His blood sugar has continued to go up and he has once again dodged the hospital!!! Thank goodness. Oh, the faith of a child!!!

Doing a little better

Brian is doing a little better. He is still running a fever. He has not thrown up since 8 last night though. That is a good thing. His blood sugars were in the 50's this morning which is right at the cut off for going to the hospital, but with a few popsicles and more Gatorade, they are back up to acceptable levels. We will just continue to watch and wait.

Brian is sick

Brian got last night what Aaron had. We always worry the longer he throws up. So far, he is still running a temp of over 100. He is still throwing up. He has barely moved from off the couch. His blood sugar has not dropped below 70 yet so far. If you have a moment, please say a small prayer that he can recover from his illness quickly without a trip to the hospital.

Hungry for Spring!

Even though it is still very cold here, we have had a few nice days scattered here and there. My daffodils and tulips are beginning to poke up and it is making me hungry for Spring time!!! As I was thinking about Spring yesterday, I decided to make Amber a Spring time dress. I was able to do most of it during nap time. After the kids went to bed last night, I did the bottom and the appliques. However, when I tried the dress on her this morning, it touched her toes. So, I undid the bottom, cut off 3+ inches and re-sewed it up. I then finished up the buttons. I think that it turned out rather nicely. It has a little jacket that can go with it. I got some white material for the jacket, so if I am feeling ambitious in the next few days, I think that I will give it a shot!!!

The Lilies of the Field

It was Barth's idea for this picture and blog title!! For Valentine's day this year, he went out early in the morning to get me a yummy breakfast and then get me some beautiful flowers. The bouquet was gorgeous and are still so pretty. There were a dozen red roses and the beautiful lilies. The lilies have been looking so beautiful lately, that Barth wanted to get a picture of the children and I with a few of the prettiest flowers. It only took about a dozen pictures to get one that everyone was looking at the camera and cooperating for!! :) I thought that it turned out cute, so I decided to post it while he was gone to his youth fireside tonight. Happy Sunday to all!!!

Basketball game

Basketball season is almost over here. Just one game left to play. I have taken my camera to several of Weston's game this season (he is playing with Upwards basketball again, but with a different church than he was before) but every time they come out dark. I am not sure what exactly the problem is, but anyway........here are some pictures of today's game. Weston always has a great time and gets a good workout. He doesn't always make a basket, but he has had a great time and I am happy to have him getting some good exercise!!
This was the only shot that I got that wasn't dark. Weston's back is to the camera. This was actually our closest game so far this season. They have been beat every single game!!! The last time they played this team, the other team crushed them and this time they lost by just a point. They have really improved. :)

Here he is lining up for his next period. He played 4 today. There are 6 periods each game, and each player plays at least 3 each time.

I included this one because you can see that with just over 3 minutes left in the game, his team was up by 3 points. Brian kept saying that they were finally going to win a game. Not this time, but it was close. Today, just Brian and I went to the game. It was right during nap time and Aaron has been sick with the stomach bug yet again. So Barth stayed home with him and Amber. Hopefully Aaron will be the only one to get sick this time around!!!! :)

Darn you snow!!!

This morning I was supposed to be going with Weston on a field trip to the museum and the IMAX show. We woke up to a light dusting of snow. As it got closer to time to leave for school, the snow picked up. Right before we were ready to head out the door, the school called to say that there was a 2 hour delay and that the 3rd grade field trip had been cancelled due to the weather. Darn it! Weston was disappointed to say the least!! Brian doesn't have school today since his Kindergarten is just a half day anyway. I am sure that they will reschedule the field trip. I told him that when they do, I will go then. Oh well, I guess we will just have to make the most of things the way they are and go outside and play in the snow!!!

New Shoes!!

We are all very excited over here!! Today Aaron got some new shoes!! Don't you like them? New shoes for Aaron are quite the big deal because he really isn't growing much, as you know. This last week, he was complaining that his shoes were hurting him, and while they still fit fine, I decided that we should get him some new ones instead. I mean, he had been wearing them since before Amber was born. I figure, after 18 months in the same shoes, he could get some new ones. :) They actually look more brown than they do in this picture, but you get the idea. Aaron liked these as soon as he saw them. He just had to have them!!! He is my first child that is really particular about the things that he likes and doesn't like. The best thing of all.....they were on clearance!!! Hooray!!!

Just my size

Last week, at some point, Aaron was sitting at the stairs for time out. When I went over to talk to him before I let him up, I found him like this. The length of the stair is just his exact size!! Since he made that discovery, it has become one of his favorite spots in the house. He just loves to come over and lay right here!! There are some advantages to being small. :) He has a fun, cozy spot that no one else can fit in!!!
Since I had the camera out just now to take a picture of Aaron in his favorite spot, I decided that I would snap a few of everyone else too. The boys had a great day at school with their Valentine parties.
Amber is saying cheese for me here. She comes up to the computer all the time and points to the camera and says cheese. I guess she is trying to tell me that she wants her picture taken!! Just a few more weeks till nursery!!! :) I can't believe that time is flying so fast.
I think that Amber would have been happy to sit or stand and have her picture taken for hours!! What a fun little girl she it. Oh, and I have to mention that you can see her shoes here. She loves these black shoes!!! She brings them to me first thing in the morning and wants them on. If I take them off for nap time, she cries and then gets them when as soon as she wakes up!! :) She has recently figured out how to undo all her snaps and zippers!!!!! :O Last night she was up 3 times because she had unsnapped her entire pajamas and must have been cold!!!! What is a mom to do? :D

We got vegetables!!!!!!!!

This morning I went grocery shopping. When we passed by the lunch meat section, Aaron saw the lunchables that he had just tried for the first time about a month ago. (we never get them!) He asked if he could get some for lunch today, and me, being the super nice mom that I am, said yes! :) When it came time to pick up Brian from school, Aaron went running up to him as soon as he saw him and started yelling very excitedly, "We got VEGETABLES, Brian!! We got VEGETABLES!!!!!" What he really meant, of course, was that we got lunchables. It was hilarious! Brian, who was not very excited about the thought of vegetables kept saying, "Okay Aaron. That's nice." At this point Brian's teacher turned to me and said, "Gee, I wish that I could get my kids that excited about vegetables." When I explained that he wasn't really excited about vegetables, but lunchables, everyone had a pretty good laugh! I just love the things kids say. :)

Pictures from today

We were supposed to have thunderstorms all day today. Well, we have had rain, but I wouldn't exactly call it thunderstorms. It has only thundered like twice. I don't think that I have lived in a more siren happy place. They sounded them this afternoon to let us know that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. And then again a little later for the same thing!!! :) Crazy people!!! Anyway, just a little bit ago as I was finishing up Weston's piano lessons, we finally had a rumble of thunder followed by a brief heavy rain and some pea sized hail. Afterwords there was a beautiful rainbow. As I grabbed my camera, Amber froze in her spot and began saying, "Cheese!" over and over again. I guess that was my clue that she wanted her picture taken!! So here she is!! She is getting so big and cute. She is talking up a storm and her favorite words to say are, "Uh-oh!" and "Ta-da!" It is hard to believe that she will be big enough for nursery in a few short weeks.
Here is the rainbow that I wanted to take a picture of. It was actually a full one and was so very pretty.
I had to take a picture of the cool and funky clouds that were passing by and spinning over head too!!! I would love a few more rumbles of thunder. I really miss the good old thunderstorms from TX and FL!!!

Brian playing the Piano

Brian has been taking piano lessons for the last few weeks and is really enjoying it. I thought that I would post a video of his playing. Brian is so anxious to practice and sometimes plays his songs 2 or 3 different times during the day. I am thankful that my children like music!! Hearing them play just makes my day!

The Pinewood Derby

The pinewood derby was this past Wednesday for scouts. You may recall that it was supposed to be last week, but due to the snow, it was postponed. Being the wonderfully with-it mom that I am, we got half way to the church before I realized that I had forgotten my camera. We couldn't turn back though, the church is a half hour away and then we would have been late. Luckily for me, Jaren's and Devon's moms were with it and took some cute pictures of Weston and sent them along to me!! We carpool every week with Jaren and Devon and the boys have fun together. Above is a picture of Jaren and Weston before the race began!
These next 2 uploaded in the wrong order, but here they are getting ready to start the race. This was Weston's very first race of the night. He was so excited!
His car is the blue one that Brother Collette is holding and getting ready to put on the track. Weston's car was blue with orange flames that he wanted to paint on himself!

And they're off......

It was such a fun night. Each boy got to race 8 times before the night was over. They mentioned how much the pack has grown this year over last year. Last year there were 10 boys in the pack racing. This year there were 17. Each boy got an award, certificate and candy. Weston got an award for good sportsmanship.

You can't tell here in this picture, but Weston ended up calling his car the "Silver Morgan." The reason was that even after the drilling and putting the weights in, his car was still light, so Daddy taped a big silver Morgan dollar to the top of his car and brought it up to 4.9 oz! Overall, I think that Weston did fairly well on his first ever pinewood derby. He won one race, came in last on one race and all the others he came in 2nd or 3rd. Not too bad. He was pleased and even got to celebrate his victory afterwards with ice cream from McDonald's!

Promptings

I am always in awe of the Holy Ghost and how we can get promptings for things. I have had lots of promptings in my life. I have had very strong ones when I have known exactly what I needed to do and say. I have had other ones when it has just been a thought to give someone a call that ended up needing help. I have gone to see someone at the exact moment that they needed someone to be there, and I just thought that I was going to take some cookies!! I love how the Holy Ghost works.

Last night, I was lucky enough to have another prompting. I was sitting on the couch with Barth, relaxing. As I sat there, I decided to go to the basement to get something out of Brian's baby book that I was thinking about. It was something that could have easily been done the next day, or the day after, but I got up and did it then. As I walked to the unfinished portion of the basement, I got the thing that I was looking for, and just happened to glance over towards the hot water heater. We have an extra tank above the heater (none of our other houses had this thing, so I am not even sure what it is called) that is there to take care of making sure that the water heater doesn't have too much pressure and explode, or something like that. Well, I noticed that it was leaking. All over the place. The top of our humongous hot water heater was covered with water. Water was going down the heater onto the floor. The water was coming out in a steady stream. I called up for Barth right away. After a call to my dad, he shut off the hot water all together and the leaking slowed. Thankfully, this morning we were able to get it fixed.

I know that the thought to go down to get the particular thing about Brian at that very moment was a prompting. It was not anything more than a thought. But I know that had I not gone down there, things would have been much different. We caught the problem when it was just happening. There are warnings all over the small tank that say that if there is too much pressure, it can explode. If that had not happened, I am quite sure that the release vavle on the actual hot water heater would have tripped and at least a good portion of the unfinished basement would have been covered in 80 gallons of water. That is where we store everything. It would have been a huge mess to clean up.

I am so thankful that the Lord was watching out for us. He really does know what is going on in our everyday lives. Even the little things like our hot water heaters. I am so thankful to have the gospel and the Holy Ghost as my companion. I am thankful for experiences such as these that help to build my testimony.

Forget summer vacation.....

....we will be going to school until July I think!! There will be no school tomorrow. It snowed another 3 or 4 inches today and is still snowing outside. Not all of the other stuff has melted either. With all these cancellations, it is looking like school will be going into June for sure. And to think that we were supposed to get out on May 18th (or something like that) this year. Nope. It just isn't going to happen. At least all the snow is fun!!! I am sure that my boys will enjoy more sledding tomorrow. :) And lots of cups of hot chocolate.

Other than snow, we are pretty boring over here. Not too much to report. The kids are all great. I am fine. Barth is good. We are supposed to have the pinewood derby tomorrow. Don't know now if we will or not anymore!! I'll post a picture of the car tomorrow for you all to see. :) And um, I don't know about anywhere else, but the groundhog saw his shadow here yesterday FOR SURE. It was nice and sunny. It looks like there will be 6 more weeks of winter for us. :D

Oh, and tomorrow we finish 1 Nephi in our scripture reading!!!! We are all VERY excited about that!! I think that we may have to have a party or something!!!!!

My Knight in Shining Armour

Okay, well, it was a suit really, but let me start at the beginning......

First let me start by saying that I feel I am a pretty self-sufficient kind of gal most of the time. I can fix lots of things. I paint. I shovel snow. I can assemble lots of things....in short, I am my father's daughter, and so I am not one to usually ask for help. That being said, Barth loves to help me and do things for me. And I love to be helped by him. He takes prodigious care of me when I am sick. When I am having a bad day, he is the first to suggest that I get out on my own or take a nice hot bath. But today, he was my knight in shining armour. This Sunday morning started out like any other. Barth left early to get to his bishopric meeting and I hung around to get everyone else ready. (By the way, I LOVE the new time of 11:30!! It makes it much easier to get everyone ready and out the door on time!) At 10 minutes till 11, we headed out the door to church. Our building is a half hour away. As you know, it has been snowy here lately. All the roads are pretty well clear. They were all clear on the way to church except for the church parking lot. The bad thing about here is that it is hilly. Hilly and snow/ice don't really go together. Especially when you have a van with not that great of traction to begin with. Our parking lot has a V sort of strange entrance. You are supposed to go up one side, and when you exit, you are supposed to go down the other side. Anyway, as I turned to go up (and I mean up as in a hill, up) into the parking lot, someone from the other ward decided that they wanted to come down the "up way" since the other side was all snowy. They just kept coming toward me and there was no place for me to go except to try to pull as far to the right as I could to let them pass. I couldn't back up, there were cars on the road that I had just turned off of, speeding past. That was when in happened. My van got stuck. Good and stuck. After the other car passed, I tried to go. My tires just spun and spun. So I tried to back up, same thing.....more spinning. It seems that as I pulled to the side, I actually got my right tires into the foot deep snow. So, with 10 minutes to go before church, and all the other cars just whipping right past me into the parking lot, I called upon my knight to rescue me. I called him twice (our emergency signal to each other), knowing that he was still in meeting, but that he would call back in just a moment as soon as he stepped out. He called back and I asked him to come outside to figure out my stuck car. I must tell you that I have never been so happy to see my sweet hubby slipping and sliding in his church shoes and suit, walking toward my car. In no time at all, he had somehow managed to back the van up and get us up the parking lot. He parked us and then helped us safely inside. I was rescued and so thankful!!!

Perhaps this may not seem like much to some, but to me, it was like my knight in shining armour had come to rescue me. More than the fact that he saved me from this awful snow drift, it reminded me that Barth is always there to help me. He is always willing and happy to help me through whatever trial I have. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful and loving husband. The Lord has truly blessed me!

We're slowly thawing

The ice is melting here slowly but surely. Today with all the sunshine, the trees looked like they had diamonds on them! It was so beautiful. Just thought that I would share a few pictures. I loved how the trees looked with the sun coming through them this morning.
When we went out on the way to Weston's game this afternoon, we snapped a few pictures of the beautiful trees.

Here are some up close pictures of the tree branches. This is after a few days of sun and thawing. There was actually more ice than this on the limbs. Make the pictures bigger to really appreciate what they look like.

The good old weather men have decided that we are not to get as much snow this next week as they thought!! :) Hopefully we will have school this week.