Youth Snow Outing!

I am recovering from a really fun outing we has with some of our youth in our ward. We spent the night at the Church Ensign Ranch in the snow. As we arrived it was snowing the they had to plow our roads for us to get in.We had two cabins for the night. One for the boys and one for the girls. These cabin are very bare minimum. They did have a wood stove in them to help keep warm. But the walls were so thin it got cold really fast. Joni was busy all night keeping the fire going. Out memorable time was at 6am and the fire had gone out and we had to find matches. Then the joy of using the Out house in the middle of the snow. That will really wake you up.

The girls had a great time playing games and talking all night. All night. They had just settled down at 3am and then we had an idea to scare the girls. Well they were in the loft so Joni and Kelly snuck up the stairs and then I shared my scary movie scream! My family will know what kind of scream this is. No one was prepared for it and the girls were scared silly. It was hilarious- they jumped into each others arms and it took a good hour to get them settled down again. I just could not resist the chance to get a full on scream out. It is hard to find the appropriate time to let this out with out having some one call 911 on you.

We had snow ball fights and home made stew and fun hanging out with the boys in a safe environment. I hear the boys cabin did not get any sleep either. Needless to say the adults were very tired the next day.

After breakfast we headed to Hyak for sledding on the hill. Bro Rice had a great covered set up for us to have chili hot dogs and hot chocolate and snacks. More kids joined us for the day there. Every one had a great time sliding and running into each other. This outing has become a tradition for a couple of our wards and the kids really look forward to it. I am sure I will join them again next year. The sleep deprivation will have worn off my then.

This is Kelly's first time sledding in the snow! That is what happens when you grow up in Arizona. She did get the hang of it after a while. This first time her arm got stuck underthe tube. It did not take long for her to be a pro with all the other kids! Love her!

The Big Melt

The snow is melting! Yeah. Usually I would be sad that the snow is melting. But it was starting to put a cramp in my life. I could not get around and do stuff that I wanted! My car is still broken and waiting for parts. Who know when it will be ready.

Yesterday I talked Gary into going to the movies. I usually regret it when I do this. I am not sure why I thought it would be better this time. I really need to remember not to bring him next time. I just like doing things with him. I can help it. So we went as a family to the Lincoln Center for a 1:30 show. The traffic to down town Bellevue was heavy. This should have been a sign to me. But no- I think it is for the Mall. So we finally get to the parking 30 minutes later that should have taken 10. We walk up the stairs in the parking lot from the bottom floor because there was a huge line for the elevator. 5 floors later we make it up to the escalators. We get to the top and there are so many people! I think everyone was tired of being cooped up from all the snow. We all wanted out and thought how about a movie! Well we missed the show we were hoping for. We thought about leaving then we talked to some friends we met and then the line was gone. So we decided to get tickets to "Bed time Stories".

I got us good seats. But it filled up fast and Gary had this Huge big muscle guy sit next to him. Well he had a bunch of little kids next to him and they talked alot and then they started eating something that was smelly. Gary would have said some thing to him, but he was really Huge. did I say he was big?

So I should learn my lesson. Don't take Gary with us next time. But I enjoyed the movie and so did the kids. Gary saw on the news today that some one got shot in a movie theater because the person next to them was too noisy. I have a feeling it will be a while before he goes again. Bummers. But I don't think I will push it again. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to All! I hope everyone is doing great! I miss seeing you all! We are having a nice lazy day at home. We will be going to our friends soon, Carmen and Ovidio and Cassandra! I am sure Carmen will stuff us to the gills. Yum- Yum! We are worried about the hill up to their house on Cougar Mountain. I am sure we will be fine

Andrew wanted to make sure I put a few more photos of the snow up. And to be sure to get a photo of his snow penguin. It is "pretty spectacular" in his words. We have been having fun. We are in the beginning of having the snow melt. But we keep getting snow flurries in the mean time. It was coming down pretty good this morning. I am glad it is melting slow. I do not want to get flooded with water in the basement!

Here is photo of what we had for breakfast. A lowfat meal with sausage and eggs and alittle bacon with cheese. A friend sent it to me as a joke but i decided to make it. It was good- I ate too much!

No school! Again!

Ok no school again. I had a feeling this would happen.

Gary went to work today in the Van. We had the chains on and he got to work OK. Then on the way home the chains broke and got stuck in the car underneath and affected the breaks. He made it off the freeway to get the chains un stuck and then made it carefully to the Ford dealer ship to get fixed. He walked half way home and then I found a nice neighbor to go and pick him up and bring him home. Thanks Dominic! He cut his finger but no broken bones. I saw on the news a man stopped and took off his chains and got hit by a car and broke both his legs. I know Gary was being watched and protected! Thank you!

Here are some cute photos of Gary and I. Snow Snow Snow!

Vincent moved down stairs last night! He is a big boy now. It has taken a while to get him to sleep on his own down stairs. Andrew is so excited to be able to sleep on the top bunk and to not have Vincent in the room to bug him. I am sure they will miss each other!

Early visit from Santa!

We let the kids do Christmas early today. 1- Javier was leaving for Spain on Sunday so we wanted to share the day with him. 2- We were planning on going to Utah this weekend but then the weather made us change our mind. The kids were all ready for it to be early and had written letters to Santa asking him to come early to our house. Gary and I were ready so we said OK, why not.

So early this morning Santa left stockings on the beds. Andrew got up early and came up in the living room by him self. I could hear him from my room singing to him self. He was singing his favorite song "Silent Night" He got out the Christmas book that has stories and songs and he was singing from that. I sat there and thought how can life be sweeter. He was so adorable. He is so sensitive. He really loves Jesus and knows that Christmas is about him.

The other day he was helping me set up the Nativity Puppets and we had just watched the church production of the Nativity. He took one of the Kings and set him far away from the others. I asked him why he did this and he thought that he was a bad Kind- King Harod. The King who wanted to kill the baby Jesus. I was happy that he was paying attention to the production. But I helped him out and told him that this was one of the 3 good Kings to bring presents and wanted to meet Jesus.

We had a good time today. The boys were excited to open presents. The got spoiled again.

We got help with one of the other host families to drive Javier to a hotel close to the airport. We were all worried that he would not be able to get to the airport from our house because of the snow storm expected. And it was a good thing, because it is snowing up a gale right now. The most snow that I have seen here for a long long time. I hope he can get on his flight for Spain tomorrow. He will be very disappointed if he cant go. We will see........

Church has already been canceled for tomorrow because of the snow. I just worry when it all melts will we have a major flood in our basement.

Friday no school again! Day 3

Day 3 of no school. Ok I am trying not to stress. The kids have been pretty good.

I needed to go to FedEx today to send a package and I did not want to drive. Then I saw the neighbor kid come up the road in his cool jeep. So I paid him 5 bucks to drive my package to factoria to drop off my package. Yes...........score! That made my day.

The kids had fun going down the front hill. Vincent even slid down the stairs by BCC. They are hoping for more snow so it will be more padded. I think they will get their with tomorrow.

Crazy Snow in Bellevue!

The news stations had us ready for a Big Artic Snow Storm on wednesday. But it missed Bellevue and Seattle. It was crazy how the news talked about it and made a big deal out of it. The school even canceled school because of the impending storm. So I had to take care of the kids and try and work. We were all very disappointed that we missed out on the snow. Everyone around us had snow but us.

The weather man scored today. They said snow and i did not believe them. But they came thru. It even snowed alot more than they said. I kept expecting it to stop snowing at any minute. So I hurried and took a few pictures thinking it was going to go away soon. It kept coming and coming. It did not stop till about 4pm. Steady! It was crazy. We measured about 8 inches on the car at 3pm. The news said Bellevue got about 12 inches.

Kids had a great time in the snow of course. I always forget how much work it is when it snows. Wet gloves, wet socks and coats and boots. Vincent and his friends would come in and warm up and I would throw all their stuff in the dryer and hang it up so dry, then they would go out and then Andrew and his friends would come in and I would do the same for them. Then Andrew and the neighbor kids went in the hot tub. They had a great time running in and out of the snow. I was happy to help them all. But I did not get much work done. Whoops.......I need to catch up tomorrow. They have already canceled school tomorrow. It is not suppose to snow more, but it is cold and the roads are all icy.

Another storm is due on Sunday. Poor Javier is suppose to go home to Spain for Christmas. I hope we can get him to the airport. He is stressing every time they show the news forecast for the next snow storm. We will put the chains on the Van and leave very early to get him home. His Mom misses him alot. I said Hello to her today on Skype? The computer web cam thing. They seem like a great family. I will try and visit them one day.
Wish me luck for getting some work done Friday. I will have to be diciplined with my time.

Snow and Gingerbread Houses

Last night we had snow! The kids were excited and got to play for alittle while. But then it got warm and it was slush. It snowed alittle more durring the night. So I let the kids play in the morning in the snow. You never know how long it will last around here. They had a great time playing around.

Then our good friend Kandi invited us over to decorate Gingerbread houses. There was so much candy. The kids were in heaven! Javier came with us and the other Amity Interns from Columbia also joined us. Not sure what they thought of this crazy Christmas custom. Vincent was very creative with his house. I was very impressed. Andrew was testing all the candy out and even got some on his house.