Ice Storm

Well, this snow storm has not quite melted as quickly as snow has in the past. In fact, it has not melted at all. It has become an ice storm. This is something new to me. Ice storm? What does it do? Rain ice? That is called a hail storm. I never did understand an ice storm. Until now.

An ice storm is when you have snow and then rain on top of the snow and then a quick drop in temperature, creating ice. Over everything. We went for an ice storm exploration hike in the woods by our house. Here are some of the resulting pictures:

Here, you can see the ice on a bush nearby. I couldn't get good pictures of it, but I saw branches with .5" of ice around them!


We discovered that you could peel the leaves right off the ice and get a sort of "leaf fossil!" Beautiful. We now have a bunch of prize ice fossils in our freezer. Here's our best picture of one:



Those ice fossils are really fragile. It took a lot of concentration getting them off with mittens on without breaking them!




We even were able to pull them off waist high grass, but they kept breaking before we could get a picture of them. Here's a remnant of one of them.



Gone are the days of sledding and snowball fights. There is a 1" layer of ice over everything now. It brings its own beauty, but some of the allure, I admit, is gone. Tomorrow is our 6th day in our house without leaving it. 200,000 people are without power and everything is closed. We've had a really great time. We've spent a lot of fun time together as a family; however, I can see how the situation here could be really serious if you were not prepared. (Don't worry, we've got plenty of food and get water from our own well and have a generator that can run our entire house if our power goes out. We're set!) Living in the rural Northwest is seriously so much fun. Stay tuned for the posts about the promised coming floods!

Fun in the Snow!

Today we woke up to a phone call from wonderful Lovena Jenkins informing us that due to snow, church has been cancelled. We looked outside, and this is what we saw:

It was so gorgeous! A foot of snow and snowflakes the size of silver dollars. My kids immediately set out for some fun. By 8:00 am my kids were all out looking for the best sledding hill in the neighborhood. They found a great one and built a ramp and a jump to boot. We had such a fun day!






Sammi really got into the snow:



I love snow days around here because since there is no snow removal, everything stops. The only thing there is to do is to go out in the snow as families. You play and play and play and really get the most out of the snow. Then, in a few days, it melts. It stay just long enough for you to enjoy it. Once the joy is gone, it also is gone. It is quite a nice arrangement. We've had such a great family day today. I love snow days.

Everett

Today Everett just cracked me up all day long. This morning, I was in his bedroom which we had cleaned together earlier and Everett was working hard building something at his tool bench, standing up, his back to me. I looked down and saw a pair of underpants on the floor--suspicious. I asked him if he was wearing any. He simply bent over, pulled down his pants, revealing a full moon, pulled them back up and went back to work. No flinching, no words, no looks, no acknowledgement. Too funny.

Later on, he told me that he is really hungry, but that I shouldn't worry. If he gets hungry, he'll just eat his buggers. He can be tough about that.

None of my other kids have been as excited about potty talk as Everett. I am correcting him all day long on potty talk and he is constantly trying to figure out where I draw the line. I told him that it is ok to say poop or pee pee or underpants or any of those words if he is really talking about them. If he is just trying to be funny, they are potty talk. Now, he always starts his potty talk with "I'm not joking around mom." And then proceeds with serious potty talk: "Cooper poopy pants eats underwear on his bottom!" Then he laughs and laughs.

Today he asked me about all kinds of words: "Is 'Wa' potty talk?"

"No."

"What about kleenex?"

"No."

"Toilet Paper?"

"Probably."

"Bottom?"

"Yes, unless you need to use the word, not just joke around about it."

"What about bottom for breakfast?"

"Yes, that is potty talk."

"Oh man!"

Tonight in his prayers, Everett thanked Heavenly Father that "our salad was so delightful tonight and that we could have so much broccoli to eat. Also, thank you for our bones and lots of sugar!"

He is growing up so fast. Just enjoying the fun of having a 3 year old while I've still got one! They are the best.

A few stories to share

My kids all just ran upstairs and are playing superheroes nicely, so I thought I'd take advantage of the time to share some recent stories. We'll see how long I get here.

Everett's favorite thing in the world this summer is our vegetable garden. He goes out several times a day to check out how things have grown. He always comes running in the house yelling that there is a tomato on the bush! or there are flowers on our beans! or there are weeds in the corn! I love watching him watch the growing of the garden. There is something so symbolic about it, because I feel like I am watching him grow with the same excitement, enjoying the thrill of realizing he can buckle his own car seat! or he can read the word "sit"! or he is almost ready to ride a bike without training wheels! I love watching all my children grow and learn--especially to watch them learn to help each other.

Well, I'd better go. I've been interrupted about 22 times while I tried to write that last story, and now Everett is standing by me naked and crying, telling me the story of why he is crying (which I am not listening to yet), and Cooper is standing on the other side of me holding a superhero mask that he wants me to wear so I can be the bad guy for their game. Actually, while I was typing that, Cooper came over and asked Everett if he was crying because someone kicked him in the butt, which threw Everett into hysterical laughter because using the word butt because we don't say those words at our house due to a strict rule about potty talk. I thought I might be able to type a little more, but now Everett is back to me asking me to find his mask for him, and Cooper is standing here saying over and over, "When are you going to play with me mom? When are you going to play with me?" and shoving my superhero mask in my face. He has a pouty look. Looks like the mom is being called to duty again!

Our exciting arrival!

On Sunday, in the middle of the night a 9 week old black lab puppy arrived at our house. She is the cutest thing in the world. Her name is Lucy and she is very loved by my children! The first day she was here, she went to bed for the night at 2:00 in the afternoon! My kids just wore her out! I cannot tear Sammi from her side. Even when she sleeps Sammi is there laying by her. No disasters so far...

You'll notice that there are not any pictures of Sammi with the dog. That is because Sammi is always the one taking pictures of the dog. She thinks that every little thing she does is worthy of a picture, so she is often grabbing my phone to take her picture or take a video of whatever adorable thing she is doing. A dog was never so loved!

Scotti's Schedules

Lately I have been feeling really pushed around by my kids' schedules. Not their actual ones, which, admittedly, are packed jam full. No, I am feeling beat by my kids' pretend schedules. Especially Scotti's. Each morning he wakes up in the morning and plans out his day: soccer practice in the morning, save the world from an erupting volcano mid-morning, race with his cars at lunch, soccer game in the afternoon, bike riding after the game, and exploring after dinner. He jam packs every day and tells me his schedule during breakfast. I love this about him. He is never bored, and is always thrilled to just stay at home for the day, playing. However, what I don't love about this is that usually this is not the same agenda I have for him. He doesn't just get mad that he can't do these activities, but he feels that they are real and that I am actually making him miss it. For example, when I tell him that today he'll have to play his soccer game after school instead of in the morning, he says that the game is in the morning and he can't miss it, because he's the best on the team! I'm not going to make him let down the whole team, am I? Then, after school, he reports to me that his team lost and that if he had been there, they would have won. Now the whole championship is lost.

Today I gave my kids some options of fun things to do: swimming, bowling, children's museum, go to a movie, have a friend over, and a few other fun things. Scotti wanted to do none of them, because he would miss his basketball game. Bedtime always seems to be a scheduling conflict. There seriously is always a race or something that starts at 7:30 pm.

This wouldn't be that big of a deal, except that Scotti acts like I am really making him miss these events. He has a very strong imagination and sometimes, I think he doesn't know that the event is actually imaginary. That means that he really thinks I am making him miss these things and he is literally always upset with me. How can these imaginary events be causing me so much grief?

Sammi in the Choir

We have a Stake Women's Choir going on. We perform 2 songs this Sunday and today I thought "Why not bring Sammi?" She has been memorizing the entire soundtrack to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (ever since her two cousins were in the play and we saw it). She sings every day and has put on numerous musicals for us all. She is the narrator, Scotti is Joseph, Cooper is the Pharoah (the Elvis guy), Ev and I are brothers (which Ev really gets into), and Grant is a sheep. Sammi is constantly trying to get Grant to be a better sheep. She's helping him "baa" and tells him he needs to crawl around and maybe try to be funny or something. (Later I found out that today, while Sammi was giving him a lecture about this, that Scotti came and whispered in his ear that maybe he should just not worry about being a sheep anymore. That he might make a really great goat!)

Anyway, I decided that Sammi would love choir. She did. She walked in there and picked up her own music and then stood there and sang the words, following me for the tune. She just picked it right up! I couldn't believe it. I was so proud of her. She sang out strongly and really tried to learn about the song. She asked me about parts she wasn't getting. She focused for two hours of choir practice. She worked out where she should stand so she could be seen and what she should wear so we could all match. I was just so proud of her. She was so cute. I think ultimately that I love music and sharing something I love with her was so fun. It brought me a lot of joy that she was getting the same joy out of the music that I was. You always hope that your kids will see the same greatness in your hobbies that you do, and when they show interest, it is just so fun. Teaching Sammi how to sing in a choir today was one of the most fun times I've had. I love my Sammi.