Oh, What a Mess

A couple weeks ago, I returned home (from a funeral no less) to find this mess waiting for me.

I believe this was responsible for said mess (he seemed very spooked to be in the kitchen for a couple days, it was mildly humorous).With the possible help of this.

Paper Chains

Growing up, every year for our countdown to Christmas we would make paperchains as a family. My Mom took the Christmas cards we received each year and saved the picture part for us to attatch our paperchains to. This was a fun project that we did sometime around the first of December. So this week I helped the boys create two paperchains - The long one is a countdown until Daddy comes home for Christmas and the short one is for the days remaining until Christmas after Daddy gets home. Since I did not save Christmas cards last year (and really we mainly get the family photo kind anyway), I printed the words "Santa Claus is coming tonight" for Christmas and "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" for the other and let the boys color the pages. And for those that may be wondering...Greg will be home 17 days from today.

Snow Day!

Here in the Boise/Meridian/Nampa, Idaho area we do not get snow like this very often...in fact I can't remember the last time schools were closed because of snow. The news was saying to expect 3-4 inches...those of us that live in reality expected 1-2 inches...we got somewhere around 8-10 inches depending on where you live. It has snowed of and on for a couple weeks, but never enough to really enjoy it...So Wesley was super happy this morning to hear we had plenty of snow for him and Max to go play in. After breakfast we bundled up (I could not find our winter coats...my brother came by a little while ago and found them for me but trust me they are wearing plenty of layers to stay warm though not necessarily dry). Oh, and this post is heavy on pictures but this way Greg can see them without me having to print them off and mail them to him.

Max loved being out in the snow, even though it was up past his knees and he had a hard time walking around - he fell down a lot but it did not slow him down, he would get up and keep going...sometimes he had to back out of the snow on to the sidewalk where it had been shoveled to right himself and then he was off again.

Wesley being a typical boy loved digging in the snow and pulling out and throwing the chunks. It was hard to convince him to come back inside.

Flower and Mushu love the snow, they play in it each year but it is not usually this deep. Both struggled to move without jumping but they too loved it and were hard to convince to come in.Raja being a baby and never having experienced snow decided not to venture out very far...in fact under the car watching was good enough for him - No amount of coaxing could get him to come play.

The front yard before it was shoveled and the boys attacked it.

The back yard, where you can see Mushu's early morning run.

Greg's grill, not using that anytime soon.

Chunks of snow kept falling out of the boys clothes as I undressed them...I threw all the wet stuff directly in the dryer.

My garbage can that is in no way getting back behind the fence anytime soon...My HOA can kiss my pregnant tush if they think I can make it happen. Lucky for them my brother also helped me get it into the garage while he was here...hopefully there will be no hate mail on this subject.

Wordless Wednesday

A Pile O'Cats

Max turned 2

It should be noted that Maxwell turned 2 on November 13th. We had a small celebration at Wendy's...because he loves the chicken nuggets. And he picked out a new toy from Target to play with. When Greg returns in a couple weeks for Christmas, we will celebrate both boys birthdays together...I will post official birthday party pictures then.

Confession

I have no interest in eating tonight...though I know I need to. Which also means I have no desire to cook a meal for my kids, who are always hungry (two boys...go figure). So, I may or may not have fed my boys instant oatmeal complete with canned pears that I ground into pear sauce. And I may now be headed to add toast to compete the meal...

Faith

Today is the kind of day where I 100% have to rely on my faith to get me through. I am grateful for that faith and for a loving Heavenly Father who's plan for us I know is perfect - even when the events of life make things hard and test our understanding.


My sister wrote a wonderful post on the events of that past couple days. You can read it here - Please pray for my cousin Parker and his wife Kelly (and their other five children) as they face the many difficult days ahead of them.