Ice storms, Valentine's Day, Scouts

I have a huge amount of photos to post this time around.  

Let me say, I've been making blog books for family history purposes and as I go through the previous years I am reminded once again that I am not funny anymore.  I used to be witty and had funny things to say regularly but that seems to have left my writing and I can't ever seem to find anything funny to say anymore.  It's kind of sad.  So, all my posts are rather mundane and boring now--lists of what we do on a weekly basis.  One day I might rediscover some humor in myself but for now, I'll just continue to give pictures and an update.  

Mike and I went on our first date in ages on Friday.  We have canceled every date night leading up to this one because someone has ended up being sick, and not just sick, but contagious.  Finally, we seemed to be getting past it all so we got a babysitter and had a lovely evening together.  We came home to discover that Eli had thrown up while we were away.  Sigh.  Mike wasn't feeling great either so he and Eli stayed home from church on Sunday.  Sunday night Will complained about a sore throat and he had been terribly stuffy for days and complained off and on about his ear so I woke up Monday morning and set up a doctor's appointment for him.  We were supposed to get a nice ice storm starting early Monday so I scheduled the earliest appointment possible.  It was a holiday and I was surprised that the doctor's office was even open but they were able to get us in before they closed early for the day.  We drove to the doctor's office with ice pellets coming down steadily and by the time we got done at the doctor we had to re-scrape the windows.  Will ended up having a sinus infection and a double ear infection with a good amount of puss in his ears.  Poor kid.  He hasn't been able to hear us for days.  This is a pretty common thing for Will.  He gets super stuffy and then for weeks he appears to be ignoring us when we talk to him but he literally cannot hear us.  The doctor has come up with a plan to help us figure out how to help Will.

Monday it rained ice pellets all day long.  We got a fair amount of ice covering the roads--perhaps a half an inch.  Will was determined to make an ice slide so he spent hours shoveling all the ice.  He finally came in a begged for help so I paused making dinner and Mike paused doing homework and we went to help him.  That night it snowed a little but not a lot.  The next morning Will went right outside to finish his slide.  His first run down he broke his sled and came him just so disappointed, trying not to cry.  I tried to find some metal bowls and pans for him to use but he went down on his knees and totally biffed it, scraping and bruising his face and getting a swollen lip.  He came inside crying, saying that his four hours spent on the slide was a complete waste.  I don't think he went back outside the rest of the day.  It was pretty sad.  Eli also biffed it and got a bloody nose and lip and scratched face.  Ice slides just are not the same as snow slides....

  

The ice storm made the world beautiful and I had to get some pictures.  

My pictures did not upload in order so I'll go back to our icy week later...

In other news, the boys have been working hard to complete their Wolf and Bear requirements.  Will is turning ten next month so he needs to get his Bear at the coming pack meeting.  We've worked hard and he should be getting a basketball belt loop, Good manners belt loop, his religious square knot, his Bear, and FIVE (yes, five) arrow points.  

Isaac only became a Wolf in August and we haven't been feeling rushed to complete things.  He's made amazing progress and only has a couple of requirements to complete and then should get at least one arrow point, if not two soon.  He also has his religious square knot completed and his basketball belt loop completed.  His leaders are really pushing to have him finish his Wolf by the Blue and Gold Banquet, which is coming up in March.  It has been somewhat frustrating for me because I feel like he has plenty of time to finish and I don't like the idea of passing things off just to get them done quickly.  I guess I just don't see the necessity of him finishing six months early.  

 We have been trying to be better at Sunday activities, having the boys write in their journals, play games together, having piano lessons from Mike, etc.  Mike has fond memories of baking with his sister on Sundays so he told the boys they should start baking.  It was fun for me to find the boys all in the kitchen making cookies together.

 Piper is the cutest little girl.  Seriously.  I can't get over how cute she is.  She has this big Minnie Mouse that she loves and she loves bubbles as well.  She asked me to blow bubbles for her and then set her Minnie right next to her and she would lean over and ask, "You like the bubbles, Minnie?  Get them!"  It was so cute.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not but Piper doesn't like clothes.  She doesn't like to wear socks or shoes either.  She prefers to run around with only a diaper but if she must wear clothes she wants it to be a tutu or pajamas.  She is pretty particular about her pajamas too.  You can see in the next couple of pictures that she prefers her pink pajama dress.  I've taken these pictures on different days and she is always wearing these pajamas.  I try every day to convince her to wear clothes and I usually just end up letting her wear pajamas unless we have to go somewhere.  And when her pink pajama dress has been worn for days at a time, I have to hide them from her so she won't throw a fit and insist on wearing it again, at which point she moves onto her purple pajama dress.  Oh, and almost every single nap time she insists on taking off whatever clothes I have convinced her to wear and put pajamas on.  I can sometimes bargain with her and let her change into pajamas if she will let me put her clothes back on after her nap.  Doesn't her legs get cold?!  It's winter time for heavens sake.  Sheesh.  Crazy girl.

 And she has awesome hair.

 Our icy days have resulted in school being cancelled all week long.  The boys have played too much computer and so I decided to try and get them doing something else today.  We had left over straws and q-tips from Valentine's Day so Mike came up with the idea of cutting holes out of paper plates in various sizes and then having the boys shout the q-tips through.  They loved it.

 Valentine's Day was a good day.  Mike and Piper bought me flowers, which was very sweet.  We had both sets of missionaries over that night so I spent a lot of the day cooking a special Valentine's meal.

 We had pink salad dressing (delicious!),

 a salad with craisens, apples, almonds, avocado, cheese, and bacon bits.

 Love Potion was our beverage

 Heart-shaped garlic bread as a side,

 and lasagna for the main dish, followed by raspberry brownies (Isaac's favorite).

We challenged the Elders to a game of Cupid's Arrow--everyone had to shoot q-tips out of straws and see who could get the most q-tips on a plate.  The game eventually just became a q-tip shooting fight.

 And finally, some more pictures of the kids playing outside.

 Our backyard is becoming filled with large stick forts.  The boys can't even carry the logs by themselves.  They sneak through the broken slats in the fence to the woods on the other side and carry out huge logs which they then build forts with.  I'm sure the neighbors all think we are crazy, white-trash folks but all the neighbor kids are so happy to be in our yard building these crazy structures.

And that's it folks.  If you made it this far you are awesome!