Advent Calendar

I just finished planning out our advent calendar for December, and just in the nick of time!

Here's what we're doing this year:

1. Eddie the Elf is here…can you find him?
2. Decorate the tree

3. Make a paper countdown chain

4. Address and Mail Christmas Cards

5. Dutch Christmas Eve Dec. 5

6. Watch The Grinch

7. Hot Chocolate and whipped cream

8. Grandma and Grandpa read a Christmas story to us

9. Make sugar cookies

10. Mail a package to someone

11. Make paper snowflakes

12. Homemade fondant

13. Watch Shrek the Halls

14. Wear something red or green

15. Ward Christmas party

16. Drive around to see lights

17. Wrap exchange gifts

18. Watch Rudolph

19. Homemade marshmallows

20. Read the Christmas story from Bible

21. Polar Express night

22. Have reindeer pancakes

23. Do something nice for a family member

24. Christmas Eve party!

25. Merry Christmas!!!

House

They've started framing and should be done around the end of the week!

Snow storm??

The weather forecast says 1-2 inches in our area. 

So every school in the area had an early dismissal and the kids came home between 12-1. 

What?!?

I don't get it.

We have maybe an inch on the ground of slushy snow, and it's all melted on the roads.

Christmas Tree

We went to the Geer Tree Farm again this year to get our Christmas tree.  This was our third and final year here.  We were sad we won't be coming here again next year.  It was a great place to go tree hunting.

Josh loved his free range roaming.

As soon as we got out of the car the kids were off and running through the acres of trees like they have every year. They pretend to be deer and run from the hunter, dodging and hiding between trees.

I made them stop for a picture and luckily Josh happened to pop through the row of trees and right into my picture.

The weather was perfect for our outing!

Goodbye Geer Tree Farm.

books

Just finished a trilogy by Ally Condie (a Utah gal).  It's a love triangle + dystopian society book.  I enjoyed reading them (even when book 3 dragged on  trying to get to the point).  Good entertainment though.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great day. 

McKinley was all over the decorations and table setting.  She also signed up to be in charge of the turkey and rolls (with mom's help), and ended up making the pies too.

Sawyer was in charge of the cranberry relish.

Hayden was in charge of the slush (family traditional drink).

They went on a turkey hunt outside (looking for 5 little paper turkeys with their initials on them).

Dressed up for my Thanksgiving picture.

Ate a yummy dinner!

Played some turkey bowling.

Ate our chocolate pudding pies.

House

Our house is well underway now.  We just need the weather to cooperate so the basement cement can be filled in and then the framing can get started.

Nov 13
backfill



Nov 15
footings



Nov 16
and perhaps one of our last views of the temple before our neighbor gets built.



Nov 17
foundation

Rockaway, NY

Today church was canceled and buses were chartered so that we could go down to the hardest hit areas on Long Island: Rockaway, NY.

Kent's shoulder is broken and I wanted to go, so he stayed home with the kids while I got to go.

We met at the church in our work clothes at 8:30 am, got on our yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" jerseys, then had a short and sweet sacrament meeting.  Then we boarded the buses and were divided into teams.

They dropped us off at a school parking lot in the Rockaways and our team leader got our assignment and supplies and we headed off to work.  They give us a list of people who need help and we show up and do whatever they need done.

It's been a few weeks since the hurrican but there is still sand everywhere.  This is one dumpster that was filled with sand.  Part of our group had to carry out about 3 feet of sand from someone's basement bucket by bucket.

The dumpster was also filled with so much treasure too!  It had piles of vintage magazines, some dating back to 1912!  Sad.

We were a couple blocks from Rockaway beachfront so we walked down to take a look.  This is/was someone's home.



Look, it's me in a picture!  Gasp!

It was astonishing to see in person.

 

 

 

Here I am using a crowbar to rip down some ceiling.  It was awesome!

When we were all done with the work at our houses we walked through the streets to see if anyone else needed help and sign anyone up for the work order list the church has going to organize the work.

Looking this way to the ocean it looks so peaceful and beautiful.  

Part of our group.  That poor house.

It was awesome looking down the roads and seeing yellow jerseys everywhere.  They helped the people in the neighborhoods know who we were and that we were there to help...for free.  Some residents were asking in earlier weeks how much we were charging.

I loved this sign.

 While we were cleaning one of the yards we kept finding seashells all over the lawn.  They were spread everywhere from the ocean.  I kept one as a momento.

While a few of us were finishing up at one house the rest of our group had moved on.  As they were walking down the street they came upon a woman at her house and asked if she needed help.  She told them that this morning she was feeling very overwelmed and didn't know how they were going to get things done.  They hadn't had any helpers.  So she said a prayer and had the idea that she should go out and look for help, that was when she came upon our group members.  It was a blessing to us to be able to be an answer to someone's prayers.  God lives and He hears our prayers.  All of us.

Poof

How do you make a cute baby even cuter?  Stick him in a poofy snowsuit!

I just want to squoosh him!

Feeling blue

We drew names for our Christmas exchange on Monday for our little family.  Kent teased them all that it was the only present they would get this year because we're getting a house.

McKinley is apparently not too happy about that.  I found this on her white board today.

I wonder when he'll tell her the truth.

Check

Two weeks after his 1 year appointment we had to take Josh back for his 2nd flu shot and a recheck of his blood to test his iron levels.

He passed!

Holes

The hole is dug on our house.  My favorite thing is the view of those mountains.  Boy we've missed the mountains.

Veteran's Day Concert

McKinley decided to try out for the Veteran's Day Concert and she made it!  Today she is playing America the Beautiful (along with others who tried out) on her viola.  I'm so glad she tried.  Her teacher has told her she is one of the best students he's ever had.  Take that with a grain of salt, but still, she does good, and we're proud of her. 

Snow!

We got about 7 1/4 inches with the Nor'Easter.  We are soooo glad that the power never went out.  The kids schools had a "delayed start".  That means I got to sleep in another 2 hours :)

And with the first snow of the year we are figuring out who needs new snow gear and who had to go to school in snowpants that are a few inches too small (sorry Hayden).

Nor'Easter

The Nor'Easter is here.  So far it is really lovely.

I hope it stays that way, and no power is lost....and no school is canceled, please!

Book

What do you do when your power is out for a week?

Finally finish a book.

Last week on our post-storm trip to the library I just grabbed something off the display shelf that looked good-ish.  I was happily surprised that it actually was good.  You never can tell if a Pride and Prejudice follow up will be silly and cheesy.  Luckily the setting was Pemberley, but there was actually a decent storyline, just filled with familiar characters.  It's a murder mystery.  I enjoyed it, but I am also a Jane Austen fanatic, so I'm not sure if that influenced me.

Today after Josh's nap we are headed out to stock up on more groceries and another trip to the library to stock up on more books.  The Noreaster should be here on Wednesday afternoon.  What are the chances we won't lose power? 

Not good.

Power's back!

As of 7:30 pm.  Hurray!

Day 7

Last night while running our generator, the cable came back on!  Yippee!  We promptly watched some tv and it was heavenly.

We still don't have power but we do have our cable and internet.  So now I can post some of the pictures I took of our neighborhood.

We were incredibly blessed to have come out once again with not ONE tree down on our property.

Day 6

Other people in town are getting their power back. Other people. The transformer up the street is still sitting on the ground so we are not hopeful yet.
We spent the morning at McKinley's field hockey Jamboree. They played Ridgefield and Redding this time. It was chilly out there at 41 degrees, but McKinley did great and even scored 3 goals!

In the evening we went back out into the cold for Sawyer's "last" flag football game (that's what they said the last game and the last game before that). This time we bundled up better.  Sawyer loves his football!

Sawyer is the kid in orange with the beanie hat on whose face is toward the camera `

Day 5

I took the older kids to a movie in Danbury today. We saw "Wreck it Ralph" along with everyone else in Connecticut with no power and kids home ALL WEEK LONG! It was packed, and we ended up sitting three rows back and craning our necks. But it was a good diversion and it filled my need for media. I miss my tv :(

Day 4

To break up the madness we went to the library today (which has power). It was packed full of people! I tried to connect my computer to the Internet, but all the networks were too full. Then I took the three older kids to the park while Josh took a nap since Kent was home.
How is it that these kids can be more "energetic" during the course of four measly days than they were for the whole summer?!
Oh, and school is of course canceled tomorrow.