Tragedy #3 Birthday sickness

Today is Cassidy's FIRST BIRTHDAY and she is sick throwing up. Poor little girl. I'm just so sad and bummed especially after a hard week. This was my one glimmer of joy, to see my baby girl dig into her birthday cake. Well, the cake has been postponed till Tuesday. I did get lots of snuggles however from the cute girl. She also opened a couple of presents which was fun to watch her do.

She is such a sweet baby. She cheers me up when I am having a hard day. She makes me laugh when I need to smile. She gives me hugs and snuggles when I need someone to love me. She calms me when I am stressed.

She is getting her top two teeth. She laughs when people put on hats or when I wrap my hair in a towel. She screams when we vacuum. Not a scared scream. Just a loud scream. She will hold a phone up to her ear and pretend to talk to da-da. She lights up when she sees him come home.She knows the sign for drink. She loves to be tickled and to laugh. She dances when we turn on music. Her favorite song to dance to is Avril Lavigne, Girlfriend. She loves it when Ryan does patty cake with her super fast. She claps and waves goodbye. I love her dearly and am so happy she is my cute little daughter.

Tragedy #2 No Power

Already we had 2 snow days. It was fun on Tuesday to have the kids play in the snow. We hadn't had a big snow storm yet so it was fun and exciting. Well, the fun turned into NO FUN AT ALL. The snow was later accompanied by ice. Wednesday morning at 6:30 a.m. just after Ryan left for work the power went out. I had a feeling this was going to happen to us from listening to the news the night before. So I had to get a game plan together to take care of my family. We bundled up in layers of clothes and toughed it out in our house for most of Wednesday. Every hour I made the kids come get in my bed under my down comforter for about 20 minutes so we could warm up.

As I started to realize how cold our house was getting and that the possibilities of our power coming back on before night was slim. I started calling around to see who had power, fire places, generators or heaters. Luckily one friend had a heater and a gas fire place but no power but was willing to take us in.

We showed up to our friend's house with our blankets and head lamps. We ate dinner by candlelight and then watched the kids play charades. I think we all headed to bed about 8:30. My friend had all her kids in her room and I had all mine on the floor in the living room by the fire place. Cassidy didn't fall asleep till almost 10. Just as I was closing my eyes a bunch of lights came on and I heard the bathroom fan turn on. I jumped up and did a happy dance. Okay, not really but I was so happy their power had turned on. The sound of the heater turning on was liking listening to Josh Groban live. It was that sweet of a sound. What a blessing their power turned on. I didn't have to worry about my kids being cold in the night. I just had hoped my power had turned on too.

But no luck. The next day we spent hanging out at my friend's house again. Two other families joined the party. We had 15 kids and 5 adults. Luckily my friend had a big house to accommodate all of us. That was a BIG blessing, that out of all my friends, she was the one who got power back.

I returned home a couple of times that day to get clothes and other supplies. I had put all my fridge food out on the back deck. It was so weird to be back at my house. It was so hard not to be able to be there. Just walking away from my house knowing it couldn't provide me with what it was made for was a very sad feeling. Also, not knowing how long we would be gone was hard.
About 4:30 we found out my other friend's power had come on that lives close to me. I called my home number and my answering machine came on. YAHOO!!!! I jumped in the car and zoomed over to my house to turn up the heat and give my house a big hug. I wanted to run around my house and turn everything on. I was just so happy. We had dinner at my friends and then came home about 7:30. Never did power seem so sweet. I said a million prayers of gratitude. I told Aidan when we got home that he needed to say a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for turning our power back on. He said, "Mom I said a lot of prayers the whole way home."

Ryan returned the next morning never missing a beat. Figures! I learned a lot though. I learned what I was prepared for and what I need to do and buy to be more prepared. I was humbled. I was full of gratitude for good friends, power, and a merciful God. I am so so so grateful that it wasn't worse. We had a total of 36 hours without power and it changed my life.
Outside was really very gorgeous. But you just couldn't enjoy it knowing it was the cause of your frustration. Many trees had broken off and many of the small ones had just leaned over to the ground from all the weight of the ice. Here are some pics.

Tragedy #1

It was a snow day today. We have been trapped in the house most of the day. I finished doing the dishes when I saw something on the floor. It looked like a part of one of my baskets had broken off. When I leaned over to pick it up I realized it was HAIR!!!!! I found little snippits of hair all over the kitchen floor. I thought I was losing my mind. But my dear sweet Lacey had taken scissors to her hair. I thought I could get through motherhood without this happening but today was my day. I was SO angry. I think I yelled, lectured, and cried for 20 minutes straight. I wanted her to understand this should never happen again. I think I threatened to take away everything she ever owned, wanted or even ever looked at. When I asked her why she did it, she said, "My hair was getting in my face."

Luckily she hadn't cut any pieces extremely short so I knew it was somewhat redeemable. However, when I took her in to get it cut she had a conniption fit in the stylist's chair. I was livid. She was making a big scene and I was trying to contain my composure. Eventually we got it done. It is cute but it just doesn't look like Lacey. I hoped she's learned.

Now this is a SNOW day

School was cancelled yesterday. It had snowed just a little bit and they cancelled it. A little disappointing. Well, it snowed a lot more which cancelled school again today. But this time it was a REAL snow day. The kids had fun outside playing and helping Ryan shovel snow.

Snow Buddies

Two quickpages...

Just a couple of quickpages I did recently.

Strange ways my kids have fallen asleep

We have caught our kids asleep in the strangest ways. Lacey tends to be creative in her positioning and Aidan just seems to fall asleep mid bite of his favorite things (Cheetos and popcorn). Notice his hands still in the Cheetos bag and in the popcorn bowl.

Family Home Evening

For Family home evening tonight we took the kids to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Ryan and I had been years ago but we had not taken the kids since we moved here. They were mostly excited to see the big bat. The tour of the factory wasn't very long but it was cool to see how the bats are made and hear the other tid bits of info they shared. The kids paid attention enough. They really don't know any baseball players so nothing really wowed them about the bats for the players that they saw. Lacey was thrilled by the pink bats and Aidan loved the bat they showed us that they had made for Carrie Underwood for singing a song with the word Louisville Slugger in it (Before He Cheats). The best part was at the end when the kids were given small bats. They actually gave one to each of us, even Cassidy. It was a fun little activity.

Gap photo shoot

In Cincinnati there is a Gap Clearance center that can be quite dangerous if you have an hour or two to shop. Well, I went there last week with the kids (which helps lessen your time shopping significantly) and found some cute things for Lacey. She picked the hat and I picked the sweater and boots. She just looked so dang cute we had to take some pics. She loved being a little model and kept asking me to take more. I am so jealous of how cute she looks. Why couldn't they have those boots and sweater in my size?

Happy New Year!

We were without Ryan for New Year's but tried to have somewhat of a party anyway. Somehow the tradition started two years ago that New Year's Eve became Crazy hat day. That's what the kids call it now. Why? Well, two years ago for New Year's we didn't have any of the traditional New Year's hats so I put cowboy hats on the boys and tiaras on the girls. Aidan remembered and thought wearing crazy hats was part of New Years. Well now it is officially a part of the fun to wear crazy hats.

Tonight, we had treats and watched a movie. We were going to countdown to the New Year at 9:00 but Aidan kept falling asleep during the movie so we counted down at 8:39. We had fun throwing streamers, blowing our horns, and twirling sparklers. Ryan called soon after and we counted down again with him.

Happy 2009!