4th snow day, finally

So we started our forth snow day last week with a black out for 3 hours. It went dark at 7:00 in the morning. The kids were in a panic. It was quite comical. They were feeling there way all over the house for all the candles and battery one they could find. We have these lanterns from Ikea that they even got to use to help ease the nerves. You don't realize what you are missing until you cant have it. Hmmmm. Here we are eating breakfast but it wasn't really this bright. 

This is more like it. Kind of fun though. It did get lighter inside the house as the morning went on. Not sure why we lost power but it finally came on around 10:00 am. Not to bad.

Here they are once again. Mia was feeling better today and the all wanted to go sledding. We still didn't have heat though so I made sure they realized that before they went out. It did not stop them. 

It was a bit wetter this day. Still good for sledding and standing in it but Lily didn't last long until she was wet.

The boys trying to save some snow for water, cause we are on a well. They were worried that we would lose our water soon if the lights didn't turn back on. 

Still good for sledding. Good thing since she missed out on Tuesday. 

But a little bit colder and wetter.

Dave plowed the driveway on Tuesday but we got more so it took a few tries to get up over the bank of snow around his car. He made it down the hill by creeping though. Not to bad when you have a lot of good packing snow. That helps. 

Just some of our friends still enjoying the bird food. 

Gingerbread making

Here is another post I'm trying to get up. It was last months baking but the kids loved it. 

the finished product. I haven't made gingerbread cookies for a long time but these ones were so good and moist. Hmmmm! 

Snow Day #3

SO here we are. Day number 3 and we are still getting snow. This is amazing for the Portland Metro area. We woke up to 5 inches of snow. At least that's what was on our deck. Dave did not make it into work today. He was about to head out but then decided that it just wasn't worth the risk of getting down the mountain. We live up at about 500 feet. Just down at the bottom of the mountain and going into town probably wouldn't be that hard but getting down there was the problem. So we had another snow day here. Mia, though sadly, woke up with a stomach bug and has spent her day on the couch or in bed sleeping. But the boys, including Dave at times were out side playing, sledding and moving snow with the tractor or being pulled behind it on the sled. The afternoon was mostly raining or snow mix so it is very slowly melting away but there is another storm coming tonight possibly bringing more snow. I guess we will just wait and see in the morning if Dave gets another day here or has to make the trip into town.

it is the best kind of snow too. Great for packing down.

Dave plowing the drive way some

the boys made a sled jump which they were having a blast with yesterday and today. Dave said that they were getting pretty far down the hill too. 

Our honey bees. I sure hope they are staying warm. 

Christmas Day

Happy Birthday Jesus!!! Yes we did say that on Christmas day, not just almost a month later. Here is our morning on Christmas day. 

Glorious isn't it? To GOD be all the praise, honor, and glory, AMEN

After breakfast and stockings we went to church. What a wonderful way to celebrate Jesus's birthday. The kids were in a small kids choir at our new church. They sang Happy Birthday Jesus. There were only 7 of them this year cause a few families were out of town and some were sick. 

Afterwards, we hosted our family get together. Not a normal Christmas meal. But some really good Baked beans and cornbread and salad.

Fun memories with cousins.

Our Christmas tree hunt

O.K. so better late then never. I'm trying to catch up here. The older kids are out playing in the snow and the tiny tot is finally sleeping so I have a few minutes to get some things done. 

The last 2 years we have gone to a Christmas tree farm just about 5 minutes from us down the hill. They advertised $10 any tree. 2 years ago they had so many beautiful $10 nobles. We love nobles. 

This year it was a little bit harder to find a nice looking one that wouldn't take over our house. But we found one and we loved it. 

The tree was on a bit of a hill. Here is Ev trying to keep it upright. 

The annual hauling out the tree.

More pictures of today's snow fun

More sledding and snow eating. This is about 2 hours after the snow started. 

the kids built a snow bank/fort

our driveway

more of our driveway

Ev eating snow

building a snowman

getting cold after 3 hours in this

the finished product (Mia's comment after one of them said that it wasn't going to have any hair was, "let's call him daddy then!!!!") 

just a pretty picture

Our winter storm

Well it finally hit. The winter storm of 2012. The kids have been praying for this since December; every day. They were almost singing the Hallelujah chorus yesterday when we woke up to everything white. Here are just some fun pictures of the kids. I don't seem to have much of Ev and Mia. They wouldn't seem to hold still long enough. Lily is slow moving in the snow all bundled up so she can't get away from me. Plus she did not last long outside at all. Neither did I. We were so cold with a continuous wind coming at us from the east. 

First steps in the snow.

The ladies did not know what to do. At first they would touch that weird white stuff. But they are used to it now. Although they tend to hide out under our deck or just stay inside most of the time right now. I don't blame them. 

Hmmmmm . . . this is weird!

Ethan sledding. Yes there was enough to sled some. Especially when there were two bodies on a sled. 

Lily's first time. Wasn't to sure about it afterwards. Wouldn't go near those things again.

Warming up after a long time playing outside. Homemade hot cocoa! All of these pictures were taken yesterday. 

 These are from today. Around noon it started to snow heavily again and started to really stick around 12:45. These are pictures taken at 1:00. They are trying to catch snow flakes on their tongues. It hasn't stopped and everything is completely covered once again an hour later. It is even more the yesterday. We are praying that daddy will come home soon. 

Lily of course has to be outside with them and does not like coming inside even though her hands are ice and her cheeks are red as tomatoes. I'm sure more pictures will be coming. Once the snow started again we decided to skip afternoon school. The kids threw up a cheer and was out the door with no time to spare.