Extra Curricular Activity

I think my friend Britt, who moved here last summer with her family, put it best when she said, "We finally figured out that school here is an extra-curricular activity." After no snow in December I thought we were going to get away with an easy winter. However, this being our fourth snow day in 3 weeks, I must admit I was wrong. When you move here you just think to yourself, "Snow happens all over the world and people deal with it, what's the deal with New England?" Everything comes to a stand still. We woke up to 3 inches on Tuesday (still had school), no big deal right? WRONG! What is normally a 25-30 minute commute took Adam 90 minutes!! School buses were late picking up children and everything was a disaster. I don't know what it is, but I do know it's how it is and there is nothing I can do to change it. So think of us New Englanders in the lovely month of June when your children are enjoying the summer months. At this point, school will extend to June 21.

Here is our predicted 3-5 inches of snow. I often wonder what would happen if doctors were as precise as weathermen.

Adam and the boys spent an hour shoveling this morning. Sam was pretty smart and opted to wait until the shoveling was done and then headed outside to play. I'm sure if the other boys knew that was an option they would have chosen (however, it wasn't for them). Adam said the boys asked if the baby was going to have to help shovel and then were utterly dismayed to figure out that by the time she's old enough to help, Joshua and Jacob probably won't even be at home.

These are the piles on the side of our ever shrinking driveway.

The picture below is from Monday. On Monday the high was 4 degrees. That's right, 4 degrees. When I put Joshua and Jacob on the bus at 8:45 it was still -8. When I dropped Andrew off at 12:30 we had just hit zero. The picture below is of Andrew's beach day at school, which was on Monday. I hope you are all catching the irony here. All the kids wore their beach clothing, brought beach toys, goggles, etc. The preschool cranked up the heat and brought in a bunch of sand (can you imagine the clean - up? - just one of the reasons I LOVE this preschool), and let the kids have fun in the sun, or at least the heat.

Great neighbors!

Uh, DeAnn, can I borrow your snow blower? Adam is another state and we have somewhere around 15 inches of snow and it's still snowing. There's been a lot of blowing so it's difficult to tell for sure, but when I walked outside it was up to my knees.

Fortunately, we have great neighbors. They have a snow blower that initially wasn't working. So their teenage son and a friend came over with shovels and told me to go back inside (for which I was SOO grateful. Normally I don't mind shoveling. However, it was causing pain in places I shouldn't push through). In the end the snow blower came back to life and for now we have a relatively clear driveway. I'm so thankful for great neighbors!!

8 Kids, 4 hound dogs and the piggy we stole from the shed...

So, maybe it's not really Grandma's feather bed, but I

imagine they won't get much sleep, but they'll have a

LOT of fun.

This was our first Veteran's Day sleepover. The boys love to get altogether in one bed and read books and tell each other stories. Since there is no school tomorrow (and since Sam fell asleep on the way home from karate, which means he's going to be awake for a LONG time anyway) we decided tonight would be the perfect night for a sleepover in our bed. We will of course move them, I not that nice of a mom. However, they are currently having a GREAT time. They may have to move to their own beds in an hour or so.

A girl?!!

Well, I'm officially announcing that we are having another baby and according to today's ultrasound we are having a girl. When we told the boys last weekend about the impending arrival they took the whole thing in stride. Jacob asked, "What if it's a girl?" and after a few minutes decided it was okay because at least he'd be older than her. Joshua was ecstatic to be the oldest of 5 and Andrew looked at me wide-eyed and said, "There's gonna be 5 babies?!" In the end Joshua determined either gender would be fine because it'll either be a boy or a Tom-boy. His glass is always half full. Oh, my due date is March 1, 2011.

Boys

They are in so much pain I feel bad laughing, but the cause is really quite funny. I was talking to my sister this afternoon when I hear a whimpering coming from outside. Joshua and Jacob both walk in and Joshua very calmly states, "I think this is an emergency." In a search for adventure Joshua and Jacob hopped on Andrew's big wheel at the same time and headed off down the hill that is our street. I guess at some point they figured out they were in trouble because Joshua tried to bail but his foot got stuck. Anyway, to avoid a bush they somehow crashed the big wheel and both met the pavement with extreme force. Jacob's main complaint is his face (although there are many other wounds). I was most concerned about him initially because Joshua just looked to have a skinned knee. However, when Adam got home and we took a closer look at Joshua we realized that it was a very deep cut. He and Adam ended up in the ER and 2 stitches later (and only 90 minutes :-)!) they were back home. We are going to have some very sore boys tomorrow. I wonder if they'll think twice about riding a big wheel uncontrollably down a steep hill again. By the way, they would both want me to mention that there were no tears. Joshua only screamed once at the ER and that was when they numbed him up. Jacob had a hard time eating (which, if you know Jacob is a true hardship) and was whimpering all evening, except when he was at the computer :-).

Lake Tenkiller

At the beginning of July we met my family in Oklahoma and headed to a place called Lake Tenkiller. We stayed in a great little resort and while the decor and gift shop haven't changed since Alicia was a child (it's exactly as she always remembered it) it was a great place to stay. We had fun being on the water and playing together. At first it seemed the weather wouldn't cooperate but it turned out to be perfect.

WAKE SURFING

This was our new experience. You literally surf behind the boat. Even though the surfer is seen holding a rope, you aren't actually being towed. It was really fun. Ben was a great teacher - so good that even the littlest kids were able to try it out.

On the boat - Samuel actually liked the boat a lot, he especially loved all the time he got to be with Daddy.

This guy just melts my heart! He was so proud of this seat. It's above the regular seats so he had to hold on tight :-)

We actually flew into Dallas and then drove to Tulsa. Joshua was in his glory with a great collection of Geotrax and Uncle Brian has the perfect hallway to build in.

He's eating!!

I know it's weird to document the first time your child eats a PBJ sandwich. However, those of you who know Sam know this is a BIG deal. This is the boy who lives on pretzels, Danimals, and chips with some random fruit thrown in. This one day he decided to eat a sandwich after helping Adam make it. Now I know most of you are thinking, "Ah! If he makes it he'll eat it." I was hoping that was true, however, in the following days a repeat of this performance was no where to be seen. Sam will gladly help anyone make a PBJ sandwich day or night, just don't ask him to eat it.