Is It Almost Spring, Yet?

Yesterday, there was a family party scheduled at my Grandparent's house in Blackfoot. The plan was for me to take the kiddies in the early afternoon and then Weston would meet us there after work. Before we headed out, I shoveled off all of our walks and driveway and as soon as I finished it started snowing a bit. I shrugged it off knowing you can't prevent more snowfall and the kids and I trudged down to Blackfoot (white-knuckled all the way, I might add. The roads were difficult at best).

After the party, and after Weston finally made it, I decided that because the roads were so bad, we would leave one car in Blackfoot (along with Brooklyn and Roman with Grandma and Grandpa) and I would drive back with Weston. Well, the driving conditions on the freeway were the worst I've seen in a long time. The wind was blowing which made visibility almost non-existant, not to mention the snow and ice already on the road. We passed 6 or 7 slide-offs along the way so you can imagine how grateful we were to finally make it to Rigby.

As we approached our subdivision we wondered if we would even make it inside with all the snow drifts we were seeing. To our extreme luck we were able to squeeze by the many drifts that were fingering the road and it seemed like we had actually made it home!

Well, we turned into our culdesac and immediately stopped in front of our driveway for the huge snowdrift that spanned our driveway. It was as if a huge tree had fallen directly across the way blocking any access into our driveway, except this was snow. I could not believe it because the driveway had been cleaned only hours earlier. The drift had been created from all the wind from that day. So, Weston and I got out and started shoveling. It took us an hour before we could even pull into the garage. In short, we finally made it home from Blackfoot after 2/12 hours!

One piece of good fortune for Weston: he has been trying to persuade me of the neccessity of us getting a snowblower for quite some time. Well, when I saw that huge snowdrift on our driveway, I gladly conceded.

It 's a little difficult to see, but that huge pile of snow is only a small remainder of the drift that was there last night.

You can kind of see where we shoveled through the drift to pull through.

Beep!

Today I was sitting on the couch resting for a moment when Brooklyn and Roman approached me with their arms filled with toys. They set them down on the coffee table in front of me and then Brooklyn grabbed a toy, put in my hand and said, "Say beep." I said it, thinking nothing of it, because actually my mind was on other things. She then grabbed the toy out of my hand, set it down, picked up another toy, placed that in my hand and commanded me again to "beep." It was about the eleventh mandatory "beep" that I finally asked her why I had to do this and she said very matter-of-factly, "Because we are buying these things."

I guess when I take time out from being a housekeeper I automatically transistion into becoming a cash register with built-in scanner. The things I learn.

Who needs decorations?

I think that we have set a new record!

On Sunday, Weston, the children and I set up all the Christmas decorations, put up the tree, and we even put three presents under the tree.

Well...

When I woke up this morning, I discovered half of the tree's decorations missing and all the presents unwrapped with a not-so-innocent-looking little boy sitting in the middle of a pile of torn wrapping paper.

Wow. Three days. Maybe next year we can make it a week, eh?

You Goal-Girl!

I am a goal-oriented person. I like goals. I like being able to check them off my goal list. I also like making new goals for the new year and because I like this so much that this year I started early and made my New Year's Resolutions in October.

Here's just a few:

1. Hike Mt. Borah (has anyone done this? and would you please share any experiences?)
2.

Okay, that's all I've come up with, but I'm super excited about this one!

finely uzin my kollege echukashun

I always knew that a college education was important. The reason you go to college is to receive an education so that you can get a great job. But that's not why I went to college. I earned a degree in Horticulture, because I knew I wanted a sweet garden.

But I never knew just how much I would use the things I learned in college until I was a mother.

I was enlightened by this idea while I was playing "raptors and plant-eaters" with Brooklyn and Roman. It was then that I realized that I learned my raptor skills from a dear college roommate who had the best raptor impression I have ever seen a human being do. I laughed like crazy back then and I am still laughing now when I hunt down my two year old who keeps egging me on.

Also, when I am cleaning, I can't help but wiping down all of the baseboards and door frames just in case I get a "white glove" clean check that day.

I mean, sure, there are other things that you learn in college that are useful in the after life, such as eating on a budget and juggling a busy schedule--and actually those english classes are finally showing their worth as now I can write a decent blog entry.

But I just have to say, as I am about to tear into my two year old, that I am grateful that my college experience was more than just books.

And I am also grateful that I can use my college education in more than just earning a salary.

New Pictures

We just had our family pictures taken professionally for the first time and boy was that a job!
I didn't realize how much effort and energy it takes to make a family of five still still for only five seconds at a time!

Luckily we had a good photographer who turned our mayhem into magical memories. Here's Leah's website for those interested.

www.leahstallings.com

Here are just a few pictures that were taken:

Book of the Year

I am just finishing this book and it is definitely a must-read. It's about Carolyn Jessop who escaped from the FLDS. Especially in this season of thanks, this book will make you grateful for everything you have: your family, your country, your religion and your freedom to choose for yourself what your beliefs are.

I am interested to know who else has read this book. Please share any comments that you have about it.

Our Little Hallo-Weenies

Halloween proved to be very fruitful (minus the fruit) as the kids dressed and got candy four times over the holiday.

Brooklyn was, of course, a pretty princess (three years running). I didn't mind so much because I didn't need to get a costume for her. She just wore what she wears everyday. To her, Halloween was a good excuse to wear her daily attire out in public.

Roman was a bat, though I think he was in denial because if you asked him what he was he would always state, "a dinosaur". I think it was wishful thinking.

Greggory borrowed his sister's dance leotard and red tights and turned it into a super hero costume complete with cape and mask. He was a very cute super hero.

The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. I learned that if you want a really frightening jack-o-lantern, then let the kids draw the faces. Boy, were they scary.

Stare down between boy and pumpkin:

Livin' on the Edge

This is what we Davis' like to do on a good weeknight:

Note: The following video may not be appropriate for young children or people with heart conditions due to intense scenes and some strong language.

See what happens when you don't have t.v. for entertainment...

Slice of Insanity, Anyone?

So what do

12 4-year olds,
4 babies,
lots of balloons
and a castle birthday cake have in common?

If anyone said a democratic campaign party, well...almost.

Brooklyn celebrated her 5th birthday this year as Cinderella--along with the aforementioned 12 young ladies.

It was hit, as evidenced by the many bags of garbage we took out filled with wrapping paper, construction paper crowns and paper plates with leftover cake and ice cream on them.

As for Roman and Greggory, I don't think they minded being in a house full of girls being so "mice" an' all. hahahah



Roman and Greggory as Jaq and Gus; Annie as Fairy Godmother

Fairy Godmother makes her appearance granting all the working cinderellas (in rags) crowns to decorate and dresses to put on the for the royal ball.

Castle cake. Basically diabetes on a cookie sheet.

Baby's Burden

So lately Greggory has decided to assign himself the the duty of "mess-making machine". It is a burden he takes very seriously.

I mean overnight he changed from sweet little baby to baby on a mission. He wakes up and thinks, "Got to see what's behind the cupboard, got to see what's behind the cupboard!" although he should already know what's behind the cupboard because he empties it every single day!!

He always starts with station number one, the cupboard in the kitchen, checks it to see if the canola oil is still there, and sure enough it is. When he's satisfied with that, he moves on to two particular drawers, station number two, next to the canola oil cupboard (by the way, the only reason I keep the canola oil in that cupboard is because that's the only place in the kitchen it will fit. I keep a very tight lid on it for obvious reasons.) When he has emptied out these drawers, one measuring cup at a time, always, by the way, throwing them on the floor to see exactly how high they will bounce this time compared with, say, yesterday's bounce, he will then move on to station number three: houseplant center.

He dumps pudgy littly fistfuls of dirt onto the wood floor, stuffs a fews wads into his mouth and about this time I either catch him in the act or he will hear movement near the bathroom, hence station number four.

He will drop everything he's doing, leaving a dirt trail in his wake while crawling at baby warp speed towards his favorite place in the house: the toilet. Now he can only enter this room that hold this magical "toy" when the door is open and that is why he is always listening for opportunities to enter his domain. He will splash in the toilet always hoping to find some treasure in there, I'm sure, until I catch up to him. The only way he can become convinced to leave the bathroom is if I pry him out. At this point the cycle starts again and he is off to the kitchen...

Where did my snuggly, cuddly little baby boy go with the cute dimples and long eyelashes and teeth that jut out when he's pouting? Okay, maybe he's still there, only certain brain cells have now formed and they probably won't operate normally again until after he is a teenager.


Good thing he's so cute.

The Family Blog

I've decided to create a new blog to keep my family and gardens seperate. They are both important to me and they each deserve independent attention. So this blog will primarily be about my day to day blah with a mixture of exciting kid and husband stuff thrown in while my other blog will be mostly posts of cool bug pics and updates on my garden.

It's best this way. Aaah. I feel so much better now. It's really been bugging me, actually.