December Fun!

 Our elf, Glitter, came back with a sweet letter to get the season started.  He's forgotten to move to a new place two different times!  Oops!  

 Briggs is the pickiest eater known to man!  He wanted to try a carrot the other day.  (I've offered them to him many times!) He didn't end up eating it but he said, "I be Cwover."  That translates, "I'll be Clover" which is a bunny on the cartoon Sophia the First.  One of the kids' favorites!  Clover eats blueberries, carrots, all kinds of healthy things!  We'll see if Clover impacts Briggs' eating habits in the future again! 

 This white trash arrangement is something fun I decided to do in our hallway for the kids.  It is kind of fun!

 We had a Christmas luncheon at bible study and our entire table wore these red antlers to be festive and win a prize.  We didn't win but we were festive!  I'm sitting next to my sweet friends, Kate & Robyn.  I'm holding Robyn's baby, Caleb and Robyn is holding Kate's baby, Bennett!

After the luncheon, I helped clean up.  While doing so, Briggs sat down on the floor and let his inner Picasso come out.  Look at that smiley face with eyebrows on the top right hand corner!  He even told me it was a face with eyes and a mouth and eyebrows after he drew it.  I was impressed!

Icemaggedon 2013

On December 5th, I was abruptly awoken at 1 am to Piper screaming because her night light was out.  I just thought the bulb had met it's maker and told her to go back to sleep but I noticed it felt different in our house.  I tried turning on a light and nothing happened!  This was when I realized NO POWER!  When we went to bed at 11:30 that night we had power.  Plus we were excited about waking up to no school, no work, and no schedule because the bad weather had already began. I was dreaming of a day in our pajamas and movies on the couch as mommy tried to catch up on everything!  The house was a mess!  But then the power went out and changed all those dreamy, idealistic plans!  I got back in bed and woke Michael up to call the power company to report our outage!  And, I looked across the street and could see the neighbor's power was working because their Christmas lights were brightly lit!  The rest of the night I did not sleep well.  I kept waking up thinking, "Oh no.  What are we going to do to entertain the kids without electricity!"  I know--such a first world problem!  And, I kept waking up feeling colder and colder without the heat!    

 The kids finally awoke around 7 and all the white stuff you see is ice.  No snow.  Just ice.  The first picture was our neighbors tree that split down the middle!  The picture below is the only damage we had, which was a few limbs.  Nothing major!  Except the no power thing!  Michael lit a fire and then went to check on some of our elderly neighbors.  They were all too stubborn to come join us even though they had no electricity.  Our neighbor next door is a widowed woman in her 80's.  She didn't have a phone that worked either.  So Michael had her call her family on his cell phone.  Her family was without power too so she decided to stay put even though she had no fire or heat!  We continued to check on her and so did some other neighbors.  She ended up going to her family's home at some point!

 We decided fairly soon that staying home wasn't going to be all that great.  The heat coming from the fire didn't feel so warm throughout the house.  I managed to light the stove top with a match and cooked sausage and toast on the skillet!  But then our friends, the Wallace's invited us to their warm house!  So we took them up on it!  We joined them and another family, the Scott's for the entire day!  It was crazy with 9 kids, two of which were babies under 6 months!  But it was fun and we felt like we were in a cabin in the woods with our three families.

 Nora & Piper

 Briggs & Asher, Nora & Piper
It was actually Asher's third birthday on this day so it was fun that he and Briggs got to hang out even if Briggs was clueless about it!  Ha!

 Piper holding cutie pie baby Bennett!

 What we thought would be just a few hours without power, turned out to be 3 days without power!  So we ended up spending the night with Michael's brother's family and visiting friends during the day during this time.  It was fun getting to hang out and socialize because that is right up my alley!  However, I was beginning to feel a little crazy because I was behind on so much stuff and the house was ridiculously messy!  So that was cluttering my thoughts throughout the time.  By day 3, Michael and I were done and ready to be home.  Even Piper wanted to be home!  Thankfully our power was restored at 8 pm on the third day but we'd already put the kids to bed and the house was freezing so we spend one more night away and went home right after we woke up the next morning!

 At the Henke's house.  Briggs and Weston playing Angry Birds.

 Coleman, Piper, & Campbell being silly in the 'secret' hideout under their stairs.

Snuggling with Uncle Matt!  We were SO very thankful to each family that fed us, entertained us, and kept us warm!  What a crazy weekend! 

Random November Photos

 Briggs is really becoming a big kid!  He knows how to make someone laugh!  He is beginning to have interests and makes them known and we can understand what he is telling us too!!!!  His speech is improving more and more!  He loves to play in the water and 'do the dishes!'

 He and I spent three days together while Michael and Piper went camping!  We had a fun time.

 One nice afternoon we took the long way through the neighborhood to pick up Piper from school.  Isn't this bridge area so pretty in the fall!  Briggs enjoyed the beauty with his eyes closed!  He woke up before 6 am on this particular day!

 On a rainy day we drove to a rug store near the Highland Park area so we decided to stop off and show the kids where Daddy asked Mommy to marry him.  It was at that park bench pictured above where Piper is standing overlooking Turtle Creek.  Piper was so giddy about it all and wanted us to demonstrate what happened that night!  It was cute!  On our way out she was looking at all the mansions surrounding us and said, "I want to live in a huge house like this someday!"  And I said (without really thinking), "Ok but you've got to be rich to live in a house like this."  So then as we approached the car, a man, who appeared to live nearby, was walking by and Piper says rather loudly, "Are the people, who live in that house, rich?"  I whispered, "Be quiet Piper."  So she says it again just as loud.  I whisper, "Shhhh."  And she says it a third time just as loud!  Moral of the story...think about what you say to a five year old!!  And answer her question the first time even if it is embarrassing because she'll keep asking!  Oh her curios mind!  I love it!  Later, Michael did explain to her that a person does not have to have a lot of money to be rich.  They need Jesus to really be rich.  And, he also mentioned having a family that loves them, a house to live in, etc.  A few days after that she tells one of our family members, "Hey did you know we are rich!"  Haha!  We'll get around to the humility lesson soon!  (Wink, Wink!)

 Briggs in this picture above just makes me smile!

 Briggs and his best buddy, Asher!  Asher came over to play one day and these are some pics I took of the two of them!

 And a few days before Thanksgiving, the tummy bug hit Briggsey bear!  He was miserable but at the same time, a sweet little patient!  No one else got sick!  This makes it his third tummy bug this year!

Thanksgiving 2013

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Clinton at Papa John's and Grammy's house.  I tried so hard to get a Christmas card worthy picture of the kids.  And a certain little guy is not in the mood for posing these days!

 The day after Thanksgiving, we went to Grandma Judy's and Papa Roger's house.  Piper really used her imagination playing there.  Below is her nighttime sleeping mask, which is really some strap on ankle weights!

 Piper and Briggs wanted to be helpful to Papa and feed him a cookie while he rested in bed.  Piper has been in a 'very helpful' stage these days!

 Uncle Allen took us to the farm to run in the field and see the cows!

 Usually the kids take a really long time to warm up to my dad in his wheelchair but they wanted to sit with him and take rides this time.  Dad appreciated that I know!

 Grandma tried to teach Piper how to knit.  Piper really liked it and wants to learn how.  I just need to find a teacher!!

 On Saturday morning, we took the kids to the train tracks to watch for trains.  Two went by while we were there.  Don't judge me letting my child waller (sp?) in the dirt!

 On the way home we stopped by my sister's house to see everyone.  The kids loved every minute of playing together!  

School Feast

 This is Piper at her Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast!

 Piper and her friend, Ruby

 Both classes lined up to eat.  Mrs. Hastings' class wore pilgrims hats and Mrs. Patton's class wore the Indian hats.

Piper with some of her classmates!

 Piper and Mrs. Patton.  She really loves her teacher!

 The kindergarten classes had projects to complete during November to learn more about the Pilgrims.  One of those projects included a diorama.  I did not have happy thoughts about constructing a diorama in kindergarten but we survived and it turned out well!  Piper was proud of it!