A Winter Wonderland

Yep, winter came. It is with great sorrow that I finally accept that I can't just wish the snow away. It's coming and will continue to come until like April. Everyone around here says that we need to have a winter sport like skiing, or snowshoeing or else we'll go crazy. We've even had offers of ski lessons and going snowmobiling. Maybe this winter won't be so bad after all...I'll let you know how it's coming along mid March.

I guess other than me, everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves. The boys are in heaven. They came home from school and immediately put on their snow gear and went out to enjoy all the white stuff. And I guess I really do have to admit that watching the big flakes falling from the window sure is pretty. (Can you tell I'm trying to be positive?)

My 9 Year Old

Yesterday at 7:47 am, my oldest turned 9 years old. Last night I pulled him up onto my lap, which is getting much harder now, and told him about the day he was born. Where did the time go? It just seemed like yesterday that he was just a tiny little baby. Now he's growing up, making friends, going to school and has his own special personality. But the change has been good. We sure love our Josh!

Josh and Ethan playing his new game. Connect 4 X 4. Or something like that!

This year Josh wanted cupcakes for dessert. So we got 9 cupcakes, shaped them like the number nine and let him make a wish! Over all I think he had a pretty great day. Here are 9 things that I love about Josh:

1. He's always willing to share
2. He's super smart
3. He's got a tender heart
4. He's a great big brother
5. He's doing great in school
6. He still will give me hugs and kisses
7. He's very creative
8. He's helpful
9. He's funny

Our Halloween Activites

This year, our Halloween was sort of hit and miss. We had a great time with the school party. The kids dressed up in the costumes after lunch last Wednesday and paraded through the town. Businesses were handing out candy and then they came back to the school for their class parties. I went over to the school to snag a picture of their parade and only got blurry shots. No good. Bummer. Maybe one day I'll get a great camera that will only produce fabulous pictures?

That night was the ward trunk or treat. It was a carnival set up with face painting, fishing, a cake walk, and many other fun games. The kids had a great time and stocked up on more candy. Here are the kids at the carnival.The pretty princess. Snow White.

The doggie that refused to wear the doggie hood.

Ethan the vampire walking the cake walk.

And Harry Potter

Then came the miss part. Halloween night. We didn't go out at all. I was wondering how we were going to go about trick or treating. We don't live in a typical neighborhood with kids. We're in the forest and houses are far and in between. I didn't even know if people trick or treat around here. So, I offered the boys a deal. Since they already had plenty of candy from the first two activities mentioned above, I thought we could have a Halloween party at home. We played games and I had them trick or treat to our door and I handed them out a few pieces of candy. They went for it, but I still feel a little guilty about not taking them out somewhere. But it worked...And my suspicions were right. We didn't have one trick or treater. (I guess since we don't technically have a front door that might have been a reason for the lack of kids coming to our house that night.) Either way, I think the kids had an enjoyable Halloween season. Oh and guess what? I got to keep all the candy that I bought to hand out. I didn't buy a lot because I didn't figure that anyone would come, but I did buy the good stuff (aka chocolate) so that I could eat the left overs! Yum! I love being in charge of what candy that is bought! Isn't that the greatest part about being an adult?

Pumpkin Carving

It's that time of year again. We love to carve pumpkins. Josh was the one who drew out the design and then all the kids helped (with my supervision) use the knife to cut some of the face out. I've always wanted to buy one of those kits that comes with fancy designs and a tiny little saw...maybe next year?

Ewww. Gross! I can't imagine why the other kids didn't want to stick their hands in...Ethan and Abby used a spoon and refused to get "gross and dirty!"

Gutting the belly of the beast.

A Josh original. Now we just have to get a candle, put it outside and in the words of Ethan, "let it light up the dark."

Oh, what a beautiful morning...

The forecast was for snow overnight. Maybe an inch they said. I was preparing myself mentally. I woke up this morning not to snow, but to a hard frost. No problem. Since we seem to have lost our window scraper for the car (living in Texas will do that to you) I dutifully started the car with the defrost going 10 full minutes before we had to head off to school. (This was after a few hard tugs on the door to get them to open. Frozen shut.)

The time had come. Abby was screaming because she wanted to go. Ethan's zipper was an 1/8 the way up and was stuck. Josh left his backpack upstairs. We left the zipper as is. Abby, kicking and screaming, was handed off to grandma, and Josh had to run back up and get his pack. We finally make it outside, hop in the van and get started. However, we didn't move. We were stuck. I'm cursing in my head (I know, I probably shouldn't have admitted that.) I try going forward, then backwards. Nothing but spinning tires. Mud and balding tires don't go to well together.

Plan B. We get the keys to grandma's car. But unlike my van, which was defrosted, hers was not. Luckily she had a scraper and we got all the windows clear. We were finally able to unstick the doors and after a 6 point turn, was able to get the car facing the road so we could drive straight out (there wasn't a way in heaven that I was going to go out backwards. I could hardly see out the back window to see where our skinny and long driveway was.)

We finally made it to school. Late, but there. We should have all just gotten back into bed. At least the boys ride the bus home. Won't have to worry about the van until tomorrow morning. Ugh. I hate winter. Have I mentioned that before?

Papa's little helper

Abby's always been my biggest helper around the house. This morning, the big boys went and got another load of firewood (to keep me from freezing this winter) and Abby was more than happy to help stack the logs. Thanks Abby!

5 States Later

The morning of September 29th came early. We had packed up the truck the night before but we had just a few odds and ends left to get into the cars before we headed out. We had wanted to hit the road by 8:00 am. This was the goal...but we figured that realistically, if we were gone by 10:00, we'd be happy. 9:58 we piled into the van and headed on our first leg of the 3 day trip. Oh my goodness. You should have seen the set up we had in there. 2 TVs strapped to the front seats for movie watching. A small TV in the back for nintendo playing...cords going every-which way. And can I say there was lots and lots of fishy crackers. EVERYWHERE. Abby ripped the bag and they all went flying. (I still have yet to clean those out. We figure we'll have to pull the seats out to really get the van clean.)

This is us in our Texas finest. Shorts and short sleeve shirts. We definitely had a temperature shock when we got here. We're still trying to adjust. Brrr. It's cold. And we're not even in winter yet. I'm really scared!

This is our new house. We're a few miles outside of town and surrounded by trees. The great thing? I don't have to mow the lawn because hey, there isn't one! The kids had a great few first days exploring and finding great sticks and treasures.

This is the view from the porch. Quite nice. I'm sure that come summer, I'll be out here often. But for now, we stay inside and snuggle up to fire and drink lots of hot chocolate.

We've got the main things unpacked, but we're still living in a mess. I really hate that. My computer is also being dumb, thus the lateness of this post. I've high jacked Ryan's computer. He really hates that. Maybe that will be enough of an incentive to get mine working right! The kids are liking school and have already had some friends over to play. I'm glad that they are adjusting well. Abby loves living with grandma and papa. Kaden still is unsure whether he likes them or not. Shy little bugger!

So things are good. We've made it at last. And I don't want to be doing that again any time soon! But just for the record, the kids were quite good on the trip. But not good enough that I want to pile them in the car for a cross country trip any time soon!