Sleepy Little Town

Today we are enjoying a sleepy little town. Everything has closed down due to a big snow storm. It's the second big one this year ina town that rarely has snow that sticks. The restaurants and stores are closed and we enjoyed a full day indoors together. We played Star wars Monopoly, cleaned the house, watched a few movies and ate some homemade food. It felt like we were having FHE all day long. Jack was in heaven. Even though we kind of snicker that everything closes down so easily sompared to Utah snowstorms, it actually is really nice to get prepared (fill up our tanks, get some milk and bread) and enjoy a day without the outside world. The snow makes everything quiet, no cars drive by and life just feels simple. Church is cancelled tomorrow and we are looking foreward to spending another day of quality time together.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family tree software - Family tree research

Going private...

Privitizing - is that a word??

Dear friends, family, readers, and anyone else who finds some interest in my randomness:

I've decided, for several reasons, to change my blog to a PRIVATE one...

*For me, that basically means a few changes to my set-up and then I can know my audience.
*For you, that means you just have to be added to a "list" by me and then you sign in with your google account before being able to view. (you can create a simple google account with just a password even if you don't do the blogging thing)

Please let me know who you are (and leave me your email--just in case I don't have it). If I get a comment and email address from you, I'll assume you want to continue checking in on me and my family and our goings on! We are constantly learning and growing and changing. I'd love to include all of you--the comments and support of friends make this whole thing fun -- REALLY!

I hope to get this PRIVATE thing set up by the beginning of next week, I'll give you a few days to let me know WHO YOU ARE!!!

Thanks!!

Journaling

I used to always try and come up with a clever theme for posts but then I decided that I would make a book of my posts, so it became more of a journal/ photobook. I decided I'm going to wait until I have enough pages to make it really worthwhile and then use Blurb. I heart Blurb for making photobooks, they are less expensive and high quality.

Today I wanted to write but couldn't think of anything really impressive to say, but wanted to write anyway.

On Sunday, I taught my second or third lesson on The Fall of Adam and Eve. I got a great idea from the seminary book and took two baskets of fruit, one plain apples and one "exotic" (well, it really had a mango, coconut, and 3 kiwis, but that was as exotic as I could find :) The choice was given that a person could stay on the apple side and eat as many apples as they want but once they cross the line to the exotic fruit, they couldn't go back. And if the person took an exotic fruit back to their seat, everyone would be rewarded. We compared it to the choice given to Adam and Eve and I thought it was really fun. It's still pretty intimidating to teach sunday school and especially the Old Testament, but it definately is a great way to learn.

Adam started school and is taking two Engineering classes and online philosophy. He actually is taking the second half classes and in the fall he will have to take the beginning classes-he's kind of backward for starting late. I think he is enjoying getting out a bit and speaking with adults. he says his Engineering class is like playtime since he loves tinkering with electronics.

Jackson is in preschool and he loves it. He has started liking letters now, thanks to a good tip by Stacy to watch the leap frog movies. His current obsession is Star Wars because we left Star trek in Utah. He loves pretend fighting and being a snuggle bug. Sometimes he comes in our room and says, "Here comes your snuggle bug!"

Sometimes Charlie gets in the way of the pretend fighting and ends up with battle wounds. He currently has a big scape on his face from falling down the stairs. He is trying to say lots of words like Mok- milk, mama, dada, ja ja- jack, one- phone, dat- that, mote- remote, noo noos- noodles (top raman... lunch of champions), and aeen- amen. He is a sweetheart and Mommy loves on him as much as she can get.

Stepping on Cracks and Pictures of Utah

We love swimming together!!
Grandma Mushy's new addition-
Jack got to drive a real scoop in the backyard with Uncle Keith- it was the highlight of his trip and possibly his life :)
Alissa made us a key lime pie that was raw- It had no eggs or flour or anything. It was made with coconut and avocado and macademia nut crust- it was delicious!!! I have the recipe now if anyone want's to try it.
grandma julie came down and we went to Singin in the Rain
Prime Rib dinner- Thanks Grandma B.!!
Sledding with Grandpa
Getting Bundled up- Alison lent us snow clothes and Charlie looked just like the little boy from A Christmas Story. He was walking down the street and Bodhi the dog tipped him over and he just lay in the street unable to get up. He wasn't crying or anything- he just lay there.
Robby Alissa and Bodhi
making snow angels and a snow dog
Family Portrait with all our Grandparents
Jack in a Scoop
Charlie developing his hand eye coordination
Cute Alissa and Charlie
Grandma Smith made all her Great Grandkids cute blankets. Jacks is a red pirate blanket and Charlie's is a green bear blanket- they love them!!

One of the themes of this trip is a song that Jack has been singing everywhere,

"Don't step on a crack or you'll fall and break your back."

He chanted it while we walked the dog, when we went to the swimming pool, walking up to sledding, and all through our horendous trips in and out of airports. After our 24 hour trip home, when we were finally walking across the street to our car, the train of suitcases that Adam was wheeling tipped over and scattered milk and sandwiches in the road. Jack turned around, saw the mess and said, "THATS why you don't step on a crack!" We laughed so hard! What a great trip and some great memories- thanks everybody!!

Airplane Drama

Who said airplanes were the fastest way to fly?

Our transportation adventure began when our flight was an hour late leaving Raleigh Durham on our way home for our second Christmas trip. They said that it was weather related but they also said they had a computer glich and problems not getting in the formation for takeoff. We arrived in Memphis and of course had missed our connecting flight. They said we could stay in the airport all day and wait and Adam told them, “Not with two little ones we can’t” so they rerouted us to Houston. We had 15 minutes to get at least a mile maybe two. We had already ran from our gate to the ticket office so Jack was tired and sat in the stroller. I carried Charlie as far as I could and then made Jack get out and run some more. He was such a good sport we ran and ran and made it just in time. We ran out of diapers because our airplane was too small and we had to gate check our bag that had diapers and spare clothes. Charlie had 2 blow outs and had to just be astinky baby. Instead of arriving in Salt Lake at 4:00, we arrived at 9:30 – a 13 hour trip. Our bag we had checked didn’t make it but they delivered it to my parents house in the middle of the night which was quite nice. That was the first leg.

On our trip home, we hoped it would be much less adventurous. I was going to be prepared so I packed 2 changes of clothes for Charlie and a pair for Jack, diaper, wipes and lots of snacks and toys to entertain on our short layover. The mean man at the ticket counter made us check that bag and pay $45 to check them. We expected to get back to Raleigh at 9:45 and then drive our 2-hour trip home so Adam could get some sleep before his first day of school. (He already missed the real first day which was Tuesday and so was going to have to register late and get permission from all his instructors. Our flight left and we landed in Memphis with no problems. Charlie decided not to sleep and was getting a little grouchy. Our plane took off and we were excited because we talked the person next to us into switching seats so Charlie could sit in his car seat. Charlie fell asleep and we were on the home stretch. Then after about 30 minutes of circling the airport, the pilot announced that there was a problem with the landing gear and we would have to return. When we landed the firetrucks were lined up and ready for us- that makes a person a little nervous. We had to de board and of course Charlie woke up. They found us a new plane which we boarded and they told us it would be midnight before we got to Raleigh. We took off again and wouldn’t ya know, we had the exact same problem- the doors on the landing gear wouldn’t close and we had to return to Memphis again. The firetrucks chased us down the runway again. This time, Jack had fallen asleep and we had to wake him up as we deboarded yet again. By now it was 11:00 p.m. and our boys and one other baby were the only children on the flight. We had to wait in the back of the line for 1 ½ hours so that they could tell us we were going to spend the night and could take a flight out in the morning. By now we had burned through the diapers from my purse and had zero diapers left since we had checked the bag with spare clothes and diapers. They said we could get our checked bags but we would have to wait another hour and fill out more forms, so we just went to the hotel. Adam took a midnight taxi to Wallgreens to buy some diapers and milk. The next morning we woke the boys up early and met up with our “friends” from our original plane ride and flew down to Atlanta. We had some minor problems with not finding the right gate and taxiing around the airport for 40 minutes but at least we were out of Memphis. We our now on our final leg home, Charlie fell asleep and was doing really well when he started coughing and threw up all over himself right before takeoff. We quickly grabbed his slightly less dirty onsie and I mopped up Charlie while Adam mopped up his carseat and the floor. We are hoping to get back to our car drive as fast as we can to Adams school so he can make it to the last few minutes of his last class and apologize profusely to all his teachers so they will still let him in their classes. That will make this leg a 26 hour tip! Needless to say, we have little desire to fly again anytime soon.

"Try not to act like a country bug"

We took the youth to Washington DC for the annual temple trip. The DC temple is our assigned temple even though it is about 6 hours away. We had a great time. We went down early to explore a little. We saw the Smithsonian: The Air and Space, The Museum of Natural History and the White House. It was bitter cold- we all had to buy some extra snow hats and gloves in order to be able to walk around. We told the kids to wear their warm gear so, being from the country, they brought their camoflauged waders and huntin' gear. We took the metro down to the city and as we were traveling along, our group started taking about how fast they thought the train was going, and how big the tunnles were. Adam leaned over to me and quoted Bugs Life, "Try not to act like a country bug," we were all feeling a little overwelmed by the big city. It was great... the youth did baptisms and then the next day the youth, and the Moxlies, watched all the leaders kids while we did a session where Ben took out his endowments. That was the best part because I don't know how else we would have gotten that opportunity to go to the Temple, since it would be kind of immpossible to get a babysitter for 18 hours if we tried to go up by ourselves.

After we saw the Museum, we had to buy the Night at The Museum II movie. Jack loved it! He kept recognizing the places that we had visited. Next time, he'll expect them to come back to life.

my favorite picture of Charlie

I was so excited to see The White House. We didn't get to on our last trip and Im just so intrigued by all the goings -on and how the workers interact with the First Family.

Christmas Morning!

We had a great time at Christmas and we were all very spoiled. For the first time, I had everything wrapped before Christmas Eve, we had noone we had to go visit and we were able to do a little Christmas Eve story, put the boys to bed early and cuddle up together by 8:00.

The only thing jack wanted this year was two swords- one for him and one for us to fight him with. :)

Charlie got his first 4-wheeler!!

Attempting to go down the stairs in order youngest to oldest.

The Biggest Snow in 10 Years!!

The night before Adam’s birthday, his dad, Grandma and Nick flew in. When they had asked a week or so before what they should bring we told them, “Bring a light jacket but don’t worry about a real coat or gloves or anything and don’t worry about having to drive in the snow because they don’t get snow here.” Which is what we had been told, but the night they flew in, we had the biggest snowstorm that anyone had seen in about 10 years! They arrived safely but said the past a bunch of accidents on the highway. We wanted to take them to our favorite restauraunt for prime rib, but the town had closed down. Most of the businesses had shut down early and sent their employees home at noon. We were snowed in all day Saturday and although it was only about 10 inches at the most, it shut everything down. We ended up cancelling our Branch party so we didn’t get to use my cute costumes and sing our Mary and Joseph song and they actually cancelled church as well. Although we had wanted to take Adams family to the beach and show them some sights, it was kind of nice to stay warm and cozy and play “our new wii game/”(which is Jack’s favorite new phrase- “Can we play our new wii game please oh please?”). Like true Utahns should, we busted out Jack’s play shovel and the boys shoveled us out of our driveway, donned our snow chains and we were able to do some exploring. We went up to the Lake and showed them the church. They couldn’t get over how dead the city was for the whole weekend and how ill prepared we are for snow. The people I've talked to said that along time ago it used to snow like this but as the climate has changed they’ve had more and more mild winters so they just weren't prepared with snow removal.