Winter = COLD

This is a picture taken out my back door this afternoon. It was snowing sideways and coming down so hard- it was crazy. This was a pretty bad snow storm because it rained all night and then the snow came so fast the rain turned to black ice. They closed roads and Brad got to come home early from work because they closed the office. Yeah!!
The winter cold and snow isn't so bad when you can just bunker down at home and not go anywhere.... that is unless you don't have heat. Of all the times for our furnace to stop working it chose last night- a Sunday night in the dead of winter. We came home from dinner with Brad's family and the house felt chilly. I checked out the thermostat and it read 66 degrees. So I turned up the heat and it wouldn't kick on. Brad changed every battery, every filter and read every thing in the owners manuel on the furnace, but it wouldn't work. So we put space heaters in the kids room and Brad and I got some extra blankets and we made in through the night. Surprisingly it didn't get too cold. Brad started calling repair men first thing this morning and then at about 7:30 am the furnace kicked back on and started working fine.... weird. We had it serviced anyway and hopefully we'll not have to go without heat again.

Books...

So I love to read. The only problem is that when I start reading a good book I HAVE to finish it. When I delve into a good book everything else around me gets ignored. This poses a huge problem in our house seeing as how I have a 3 year old and 10 month old to take care of, not to mention making dinner, vacuuming and dusting (which hasn't been done this week) and every other "house wife" thing to do. I have had the last Harry Potter sitting on my nightstand for months now (Mark and Jenn I can finally return it) and I never got into it because I knew once I did I wouldn't do anything else. Well with all the sickness going on (after Tanner started feeling better Ashlyn got sick and then I got sick) I finally decided I could lay around and read a book! My poor kids were ignored for a few days, but I'm happy to report everyone is feeling better, the book is done, and my house is a disaster! I've really got to figure out how to read a book a little bit at a time though.

SICK, SICK, SICK

Sick of being sick, sick of winter, and sick of being home! We are just having one of those weeks. Poor little Tanner has had the worst cold this week so we haven't really left the house for days. This is the first time he's really been sick and it's been hard to see him so miserable. I keep wondering if I should take him to the doctor, but his symptoms are text book cold symptoms so I know there isn't much more the doctor could do- of coarse there is always that chance that it could be an ear infection though. I wish one of my three brother-in-laws that are doctors lived a little closer so they could just look in his ears for me.
I would love it if I got something productive done around the house being home all this time, but if he's awake I have to be holding him the whole time, and when he's asleep Ashlyn is so bored I'm trying to find new ways to entertain her! Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday and Brad will be around to mix things up!


Tanner waiting so patiently for his breakfast- he will only eat pears and bananas this week. Everything else seems to irritate his throat.

The night time visitor!

This is how we found the kids this morning when we woke up. Tanner was very quietly watching his sleeping sister on his floor! Ashlyn must have wandered into his room early this morning instead of wandering into our room. Lately she has been waking Brad up at least once during the night just to have him tuck her back into bed- Brad doesn't especially love getting woken up in the night. So last night he had a big pep talk with her before bed about not waking daddy up in the night. I guess she decided she would pay Tanner a visit instead- Tanner can't put her back in her own bed! Tanner peaking over his bumper pad watching Ashlyn sleep on his floor. (I couldn't get them both in one shot on the camera)
Ashlyn "stink bugging" on Tanner's floor!

Trouble Maker

Because I didn't learn my lesson the first time Tanner got into my purse, he had to show me AGAIN what happens when I leave it out.

I had just finished vacuuming about 2 minutes before these lovely cheerios were dumped all over the carpet. Thanks Tanner for reminding me to put my things away!

SOCKS....

Okay, any of you out there with little boys I'm desperate to know what kind of socks you have found that stay on your little one's feet. If I don't have shoes on Tanner his socks are off within minutes of putting them on (not always by him pulling them off, but just if he's crawling- I meet scooting- around). So if you have any ideas for me, pass them along..... PLEASE!

Kids grow up so fast

I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. Ashlyn had her first day as a Sunbeam in Primary today. She loved it and felt so grown up being with the older kids. I was worried with me being in primary that she wouldn't stay with her class and she would always want to come with me, but she did great. She even sang the songs and partcipated in sharing time.
Ashlyn waiting to get in the car for church, anxious for her first day in primary.

My handsome little dude all dressed for church!

Ashlyn's New Shoes

Friday morning as we were driving to the gym Ashlyn asked me what shoes she would wear when she gets bigger. This was completely random since we hadn't been talking about shoes or "getting bigger." I asked her why she was thinking about that, and if her shoes were hurting her feet. She said a little bit and then left it at that. Then as we were driving home from the gym she asked me, "mom, when we get home can I have some paper and some glue, and can I use my new scissors to make me some new shoes." Apparently she was going to take matters into her own hands and solve her shoe problem! As soon as we got home she went to work, and these are the shoes she made. It's hard to see all the cutting and glueing she did, but she worked hard on her new shoes. I just bought her 3 new pair of shoes in October so I didn't think there was any way they could be too small. We took her to get her feet measured that night and we had to buy her shoes a full size and a half bigger!

Our New Years Tradition

BACON! Yep, that's what we're eating! Every New Years Day we remember how lucky we are to be alive- all because of bacon. Sounds kind of crazy, but Brad and I probably wouldn't be here today if bacon didn't smell so good when it is cooking.

So the story behind the bacon... While we were building our house we stayed with my parents. We were out with friends for New Year's Eve and so when Brad and I slept in New Years morning longer than usual my parents didn't think anything of it (this was New Years 2003- pre children!) My mom was cooking bacon for breakfast and I remember smelling it down in our room in the basement, but I just couldn't get out of bed. I just wanted to keep sleeping, and Brad didn't even smell the bacon, he was still sound asleep. But over the Christmas holiday my mom had cooked bacon one morning and I wasn't there to help eat it! I was so disappointed I didn't get any that as I layed there in bed I kept thinking I'm not going to let them eat it all this time, I had better get up so I get some. I remember rolling out of bed and not being able to walk, but that bacon was calling my name so I literally crawled up the stairs. My dad said I sat down at the table and just looked at them and said, "I don't feel so good." And I slid out of my chair and was unconcious on the floor. My dad yelled for Brad and he came running up the stairs to call 911. I wasn't gaining conciousness, and my dad was getting frustrated because Brad was so out of it he couldn't tell the disbatcher the information she needed. Luckily it only took the emergency crews about 3 minutes to get to my parents house and they immedietly figured out we had carbon monoxide poisoning. Some how my parents furnace had malfunctioned and our room was right there by the furnace so we were affected the most. Obviously this story has a happy ending. I don't remember the only ride I've ever had in a fire truck, but Brad said it was pretty cool. It was a strange feeling because I remember hearing everyone around me and people talking, but I couldn't move or respond to anything they were saying. I remember hearing Brad ask the EMT's if I was going to have brain damage and they just said they weren't sure. This really freaked me out because I couldn't respond to tell them I was okay. Shortly after arriving to the hospital I regained consiousness. They tested Brad and my parents and everyone had dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide so we all spend New Years Day 2003 in the ER (until they kicked us out later that day because they need our beds)!

So every time I smell bacon cooking I think how lucky we are that it smells so good and that it got me out of bed New Years morning. If we had been much longer in that basement, we never would have woken up. Thanks for saving our bacon... bacon!!

Happy New Year!