Snow,Snow and More Snow

Last Friday only the middle school didn't have school for parent/teacher conferences so after Jameson was off to preschool Jenna and I decided to have a little fun of our own.  We went to lunch and went shopping so Jenna could use some gift cards she got for Christmas.

That night Adam took Britton and Korinne up to Beaver Mtn for the Kirk's annual ski night party.  I stayed home with Jameson and Jenna stayed home because she couldn't miss ballroom dance so close to the start of competition season.  Britton took a few friends with him and the weather ended up being perfect for both skiing and the drive through the canyon.

Last Sunday night we had our typical family meeting to go over the schedule for the week and Monday was looking to be a pretty crazy day with a lot going on. The next morning at 6:00 a.m., however, both of our phones started ringing at the same time so I knew immediately it was the school district calling all parents.  They had implemented a 2 hour snow delay so roads could be cleared before buses were dispatched to pick up students.  I got up and looked outside and thought, "Oh great, here we go again." The snow was really coming down and was showing no sign of letting up any time soon. I was able to move Britton's 7 a.m piano lesson to 9 a.m. and then watched as all of our other commitments were slowly canceled throughout the day. School went from a 2 hour snow delay to being canceled all together. Then other texts and e-mails started to come in: Geography club canceled, soccer canceled, ballroom dance canceled.  Adam spent hours snow blowing driveways and sidewalks for neighbors that needed help and then worked from home the rest of the day.  It snowed on and off for the next 3 days and we easily got another 3 feet of snow on top of the 3 feet we got earlier in the month.  I think our snow total since Christmas Eve is about 71". That, my friends, is a LOT of snow.

Jmo and Johnny getting ready to go to preschool.  You can see the snow is over their heads.

Jmo standing next to the wall of snow at the edge of the driveway.

Pictures don't do it justice. There hasn't been this much snow in January since 1983-84. Once school was canceled on Monday the kids all got together with their friends to play.  Britton and his friends were featured in the Herald Journal after making a 13 foot snowman.

Even though it was still snowing Tuesday and Wednesday everyone was back to their full schedules. Korinne joined up with 2 friends to participate in the school science fair this week.

 They won 2nd place in the 5th grade category for their experiment making mega foam with different strengths of hydrogen peroxide. Good job girls!

 Since our school district hasn't had a snow day in 17 years they didn't have any snow days built into the current schedule so now they have to find a way to make up 3 full days of school. They canceled a Teacher development day in February and are having the kids come to school on President's Day, but the 3rd makeup day hasn't been announced yet.  It really has been a crazy winter and we aren't even out of January yet!  Let's hope the rest of our winter is a little more UN-eventful.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

It was a crazy weather week, but the kids did have school all week long. 😊 It's not often we get a good thunderstorm in the middle of winter, but we got one this week and it rained a LOT!  With so much snow already on the ground and nowhere for all of the water to go flooding was a major problem. To try and prevent even more problems the city used backhoes and dump trucks to haul away the snow covering the street drains in our circle.  They probably hauled 10 dump trucks worth of snow from just our cul-de-sac!

The builder we used to build our home 8 years ago has a client dinner ever January and we still get invited.  A lot of our neighbors also get invited so every year we get a nice catered meal, live entertainment and the opportunity to win some really cool stuff with a drawing at the end of the night.  It's not hard to see why most of their business comes from referrals and they are now the biggest builder in the valley.

This year Big Blue was in the house.  Adam left his phone on the table when we went to dish up our food and Big Blue saw it and took about 20 selfies before we returned to the table. What a jokster.

There were hundreds of people at this dinner so the chances of going home with a prize weren't that great, but Adam is a very lucky guy and actually won a Bosch mixer!  Yay!! Bosch's are expensive (the price tag on the box said $269.99) and we've never had one, so I was more than a little excited for his big win.

The kids are finally back into the post holiday/snow day swing of things but for me spring can't come soon enough. Maybe the weather for the rest of winter won't be quite as eventful as the last month.

Happy Birthday Jameson!

My kids really enjoyed having their Pennsylvania cousins for a few more days after all of the other cousins went back home.

Britton, Thomas, Jenna, Jessica, Cameron and Jameson

 They played a lot of games together.

And made up plays and acted them out for the parents/grandparents.

But before they knew it it was back to school for my kids and off to the airport for McKay's kids.  This was their last goodbye.

My kids went back to school on Tuesday.  On Wednesday morning both of our phones started ringing at 5:40 a.m. It was the school district saying that due to the heavy snow/blizzard school was starting 2 hours late.  I had no idea that snow was even in the forecast and in the 8 years we have lived here (and there have been some harsh winters in that time) this was the first time they had ever delayed school by 2 hours for a storm.

Well, it snowed all .day. long and we got between 24-30 inches of snow in that time.  Adam had to pull out the snowblower 3 different times and it still just kept piling up.  At 9 p.m. that night the phones all started ringing again.  The school district canceled school for the next day due to continuing snow and extreme temperatures.

Wow. Our first snow day.  The forecast ended up being wrong, it didn't snow, and it really wasn't that cold (around 0 degrees), but the kids had an absolute blast playing in their winter wonderland.

The cul-de-sac pile was nice and big for the kids to play.

Then the temperatures started to drop.  On Friday morning I got up to help the kids get ready for school and while I was helping Jenna with her hair she said, "Gracie just texted "Yay, no school!" What!?  Turns out school was canceled for another day because it was -22 degrees outside and was causing problems with transportation.  I had turned my ringer off the night before and the call came in after Adam had left for basketball so we had missed it.  This was getting crazy. Another day without school!?  Definitely unprecedented.

Yes, it was very cold.  None of the kids in the neighborhood went out to play.  It also just happened to be Jameson's 5th birthday!!  He really loved that his siblings got to stay home on his birthday and play with him.  

Jmo and Dad before leaving for his birthday breakfast.

Jameson's friend birthday party was that afternoon at an indoor inflatable playground. It was the absolutely perfect place for five 4/5 year olds to run around to their hearts content on a VERY cold day. Every one of them had a big smile the entire time we were there.

We scheduled one of their birthday party areas for 1 hr and had cupcakes and opened presents.

I love a simple birthday party and this venue was the perfect fit for these boys.

That night it was back to the house for pizza and more presents. For Jmo the party went from dawn to dusk and he couldn't have been happier about it.

When the older kids turned 5 years old I made them a video montage of their first 5 years of life. Jameson has watched each of their videos too many times to count.  Well, this time he got to watch his own video montage!  "Jameson's First Five" is now his new favorite show and I must say he was a really cute baby.😀

This has been a crazy weather week and the forecast is predicting more will come. Yesterday it was still in the -20's and today it is snowing and tomorrow it is supposed to get up into the 40's and start raining.  This, of course, has the potential to cause a lot of flooding.  The plows did not come to our circle like they usually do with these storms and we were stuck for a few days. Even big 4 wheel drive vehicles were having a hard time getting out of our circle!  At last about 24 hours after the last of the snow fell we finally had someone show up to clear our circle. We are fortunate in that we can borrow my parents truck in situations such as these and were able to get where we needed to be.

Welcome 2017!

On Wednesday we decided to do something we haven't ever done before and rode the train from Ogden to downtown SLC to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square.  Jameson was more than a little excited to ride the train.

"Mom, What IS this??" Yeah, that would be a pay telephone.  My kids had never seen one before.

You put money in it and you can make a phone call.  I know, ancient history, right?  I grew up making collect calls from pay phones to get rides home from high school after practice.

We got there before it was dark so we headed to Kneaders for some warm soup in a bread bowl.

We saw the lights just after they turned on for the night and then spent some time in the Church History Museum.  Then it was back to the train station to go home.

As luck would have it Korinne ran into a friend from her school class on the way home so they sat together and played card games on the way back.

The other kids spent their time playing games of strength and skill.

The competition was fierce and a good time was had by all.

The next day more cousins arrived in town so the games began.

Tenzi anyone?

It was Mckay's 42nd birthday on Friday so we all gathered for Reuben sandwiches to celebrate. Traditionally we have Reubens on Christmas Eve, but this year we all waited so we could be together. They are SO yummy!

Reubens are an acquired taste so usually it takes the kids a few years to really catch on.  My older kids love Reuben sandwiches now but this wasn't always the case. It was the same for me when I was growing up.  I didn't like them and then all of the sudden one year they were delicious. I've been hooked every since.

My brother and his wife Tricia in town from Pennsylvania.

My brother Taylor and his wife Jen in town from Shanghai, China.

Happy Birthday Mckay!

Then it was a football game for the boys, and games/puzzles for the girls.

It has been a long time since we have had so many members of my family together for Christmas and New Years.  The kids loved spending time with their cousins.  In fact, 15 of the 19 cousins on my side of the family were all together for a few days, a rare thing, indeed.

New Years day was on a Sunday this year and our ward just happened to be the ward moving into the 9 a.m. time slot so it was a little painful to be up and at 'em so bright and early after a night of new years celebrations, but we made it.  Going from the 1 p.m. to the 9 a.m schedule is always a big adjustment anyway.

Happy New Year!!