Derek's Birthday and Another Snow Storm

Before I get to Derek's Birthday and the Snow Storm (what is it with these storms...I live in VIRGINIA?!), I thought I'd share a couple of random happenings from the week.

Last week I mentioned that I was going to a system where Kevin could earn points to use his DS. I put together chore charts for everyone in the family. The kids get points for each of their chores. (Different chores earn different points). They can also earn bonus points for being
extra helpful or whatever we decide (ah, the power). They also have things like homework that they don't get points for, but they have to do anyway. I laminated, and put magnets on, everything (well, I actually ran out of magnets before I finished, but I did all the important things). I spent almost all day yesterday doing this (we were snowed in, so I had plenty of time on my hands). Today Jared managed to lose the magnet with his name on it. Grrr... I guess I will be printing a new one. :) Some of the chores are daily, some are once a week, and some are rotating. Now I just have to figure out where to put the charts. :)

This is what the charts look like with just the chores. Everything is removable (it's all magnetic) Eventually I will add the points for each chore (when I get more magnets).

Jared's


Kevin's


Jenna's


Mine and Derek's are on the side of the fridge.


For anyone in need of ideas for containing a child, I have come up with the perfect solution.



Before you call DCFS on me, he did this himself, and could get out at anytime. :)

I had set the laundry basket in front of the dryer so that I could use it to carry the clean clothes. He found it, and thought it would make a great house. I thought it was hilarious when I found him, and I had to get a picture. :)

Now onto Derek's birthday. Derek turned 32 (or 2⁵ in nerd speak) on Wednesday. He was pretty excited about it being a power of 2 birthday (that is very significant for computer nerds). He worked during the day, but came home a little early. We had steak, salad, scalloped potatoes, and homemade rolls for dinner. I made him an ice cream cake for dessert. We don't have a Dairy Queen close by, and I can make the cake cheaper than I can buy it. I am still learning how to do an ice cream cake. It tasted good, but I have trouble decorating them. I just have not quite figured out how they make their frosting. My other problem is that my favorite part of a DQ ice cream cake is the crunchy cookie center. My cookie center went soft. I have no idea how they keep the cookies crunchy. I guess I'll be doing more research before I make the next one.

Derek's Birthday Dinner. Don't the children look like angels?:


The ice cream cake. That says 2⁵, not 25.


Because Derek is so old, and needs so many candles, he needed lots of help to blow them out. ;) Amazingly, they got them all out on the first try.


On Saturday we got hit with another snow storm. We got about 12" of snow this time. Church was canceled for today, and school has already been canceled for tomorrow. The roads are just not clear enough to drive a bus on them.

Yesterday the kids had a great time playing in the snow, until they got so cold they started crying, and came inside. They actually stayed outside a lot longer than I expected, considering it was only about 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Derek took the kids sledding again, while I stayed home and worked on chore charts (Believe me, I was perfectly happy to stay in my nice warm house...I hate the bitter cold). By the time they got home, it was pretty late. The kids had earned enough points to watch a movie (and we had said they could have a few extra points since it was a cold, snowy day...yes, we are very nice parents) ;), so we had dinner (left overs), hot chocolate, and popcorn while we watched Curious George. Jenna had chosen that movie from Netflix (she got a three month subscription back in May for her birthday, but we just barely activated it). It was a great way to end the night.

Here are some pictures of Jared in the snow.



Derek was trying to get Jared to look up at him in these two pictures. He squinted both times. Derek realized later that Jared was looking up into falling snow. No wonder he was squinting.




Derek took the kids back to the same road to sled on as last time. It is a great hill. There were other people sledding there too. Kind of funny to sled on the road, but it works well. This time I remembered that we have tube sleds. The kids loved them.

Here are the kids on their way to go sledding.


Jenna crashed into the snow bank on the side of the road. Apparently that was a common occurrence for all three of the kids.


Jenna had a lot of fun, and didn't complain about being too cold. (Earlier in the day she said said she would never go outside in the snow again because it was too cold).


Kevin had a great time.




Jared hated it. Jared loved it. He went down with Derek most of the time and by himself a couple of times. He cried every time, but then would do it again. He would even get to the end, turn to walk up the hill, and say with a huge smile, "I cried the whole way down." What a nut! I am still not sure what the final verdict was.

Here is Jared going by himself. He is about to crash into the snow bank.


This morning Derek and I decided to head out and shovel our driveway (for the third time). I thought I might be going out later in the day to visit someone, so I wanted to clear the driveway. Several neighbors were out also shoveling their driveways. We had a good time talking to them, and meeting some new ones. We found out about a couple of neighbors in need, so Derek and several of the neighbors left to go shovel their driveways. I took the kids on a walk while he did that.

While we were out shoveling our driveway, a neighbor yelled out that he had lost power. Another neighbor said he had too. We came to find out, so had we, and everyone else around us. Our neighbors called the electric company. Turns out that a transformer had exploded resulting in thousands of people without power. No one had any idea how long until power would be restored. I felt very blessed that we have a gas fireplace that is placed in such a way that it easily heats our whole house (our house isn't that big), so we were able to stay warm. We had left overs and sandwiches for lunch.

We went for another walk in the late afternoon. As we walked Derek and I tried to figure out what we were going to have for dinner. We had decided a long time ago that if the power ever went out, we would still have the grill to cook on (it has a side burner). Thankfully, it worked. We made a stir fry with canned chicken, frozen veggies, rice, and some pantry ingredients for the sauce. It worked great, and tasted great too.

When it was done cooking, we tried to light the candles on our table, so we wouldn't have to use our flashlights during dinner. It took forever because the wicks were covered in wax. After lots of work to get them out, we finally got the last one lit right as the power came back on. :) The power was out for a total of 7 1/2 hours. It was a good exercise to learn what supplies I need to be prepared for a sustained power outage. We were very fortunate to have everything we needed this time.

Here's what I learned:

1.Canned and boxed foods are best (well anything that can stay in the pantry), because we don't have to open the fridge to get them.
2. Make sure the fireplace has plenty of propane.
3. Make sure to always have an extra propane tank for the grill (since that is our method of cooking) (we will be investing in one of these shortly).
4. Headlamps are awesome. Jenna and I each have one. Kevin used to, but his broke. We were both easily able to move around and do things with both of our hands. I think the Easter Bunny may be bringing three more headlamps for Easter.
5. Keep extra batteries on hand for the flashlights (thankfully we had plenty of these).
6. Have lots of matches handy for lighting candles (or an extra lighter - ours ran out of fluid today, but we had matches)
7. An LED camping lantern would be awesome. I think we may be investing in one of these soon too.
8. Eventually everything in our fridge would have gone bad. Obviously a generator is ideal, but currently out of our price range. We had talked about using the snow to keep things in there cold. That won't work in a summer power outage.

Jared kept himself busy today by coloring. It was pretty dark by the time I took this picture.


It was dark when I took this picture, but the flash makes it look light. Jenna was keeping herself warm by sitting in front of the fire (with her trusty headlamp)


Kevin and Derek outside cooking dinner on the grill. Like father, like son. These two are crazy. It was freezing outside, but neither one is wearing a coat. :)


I am happy to have power again! I wish the kids had school tomorrow, because I have to run some errands, and I hate taking all three of them with me. Oh well, such is life. Maybe I can bribe them to be good by offering bonus points for their chore charts. Hey, I am not too good to bribe my children. Who doesn't like a reward? :)

A Great Surprise

For this past Christmas (2009), the only thing Kevin would tell Santa he wanted was a DSi or a PSP. He gave us a list of other presents that he was very excited about (especially money to play baseball - which he is now officially signed up for - Thank you everyone!!!), but Santa was only ever told the DSi or PSP. Unfortunately that wasn't going to happen. I wasn't too worried about it until I found out that his cousins (whom we were having Christmas with) were getting DSi's. I knew Kevin would be heartbroken, but there was nothing I could do about it. I know it is a good to learn that you can't have everything you want, but it is still hard to watch that happen.

On Christmas morning he was excited about his gifts. However, when his cousins opened their DSi's he was very sad. He tried to be a good sport, but I knew he was hurt. His cousins were awesome, and let him play their's several times over the next few days until we went home. I think that helped a lot.

One day, a couple weeks after we got home, he said "Mom, I think I must have been put on Santa's naughty list." I asked why (already knowing the answer). He said "Because Jenna and Jared got what they wanted, but I didn't get the only thing I asked him for." He had really only asked Santa for one thing, and he didn't get it. In his mind, the only way to understand that was to assume that he had ended up on the naughty list. That broke my heart. Kevin and I have our disagreements, but overall, he is a great kid. I would not put him on the naughty list, and I am probably the person that comes down the hardest on him. He is so helpful most of the time. He is very well behaved at church and school. He plays well with Jenna and Jared most of the time. He tries hard to do what is right. He is six, so he is not perfect, but he is very good. I didn't know how to explain why he didn't get what he asked for.

Well, this week, Kevin got a very special package. It turns out that when all the Christmas cleanup was done, two wrapped presents for Kevin were found. We got them in the mail this week. They came in a big box. When Kevin saw it, he thought it might be something for baseball, or maybe some clothes. He was excited to open it, but as is the rule at our house, no one opens boxes unless everyone is home. That meant that he had to wait until dad got home. I distracted him with a movie and some popcorn while we waited. It was a good thing he didn't know what was in the box.

Here he is opening the box.


He's reading the note explaining how the gift was found.


When he opened the first present, he realized it was a DS lite (we didn't want him to have one with a camera that could take and transmit pictures over the web - I'm just not comfortable with that). He was ecstatic! Look at the smile on his face.


The DS lite.


He also got two games to go along with it.


He called Grandma to tell her. He was so excited to tell her. He also said "Santa didn't forget me!" That melts your heart. :)

We let him stay up late on Friday to play it. He played it for a while on Saturday too. We figured that was OK since it was a new gift. However, he will now only be able to play on Saturdays (and other special non-school days, as determined by us), and he will have to do chores to earn time on it. He is fine with that.

This is how he looked all weekend.


It was a great surprise. He is so excited! Thank you, Santa!

Thawing Out

After almost a month of bitterly cold temperatures, we are finally back to "normal" temperatures for this time of year (40s-50s). It has been so nice. I know that we are only half way through January, so it could easily go back the other way, but I am going to enjoy it while it lasts (and pray really hard that it stays that way). :)

We hung around, and enjoyed the nicer weather this week. I was able to get out on all my runs from Tuesday on, which was great. Unfortunately, it continues to be pretty cold in the mornings, even though it is warmer in the afternoons. The kids played outside several times this week. I think that tomorrow, the kids and I are going to hit up Lowes for some paint. I have been promising to redo their rooms, and I think the time has come. It will take a while, because the walls, ceilings, closets, doors, door frames, and baseboards all need to be painted, but I think it will be worth the time in the end. I always love the look of a freshly painted room.

Also, we were on TV this week. We went to a breakfast fundraiser on Saturday for a girl whose husband died tragically in a caving accident in Nutty Putty Caves in Utah. She has a small child and one on the way. Very sad! Anyway, her husband was a med student at UVA. The fundraiser was a pancake breakfast at Applebees. The local TV station was there, and filmed us eating (it probably helps that we knew the cameraman). Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it because we don't have TV (we didn't watch it enough to justify the expense right now), but a few people at church mentioned that they saw us. I should be flattered, but I don't know that I love the idea of people watching us eat. :)

Here are some pictures from the week:

The kids have been really into puzzles lately. One day Jared decided he wanted to put together a 100 piece puzzle (in other words, I would put most of it together, and he would do the last few pieces and be very excited about it). :) Here we are working on the puzzle.





After we put together the puzzle, Jared decided to be a puzzle distributor. Here he is carrying around his goods.


Derek and I. Derek has been working from home during his break the last few weeks. That all changes this week when school starts on Wednesday. I don't think we will see much of him for the next four months.


After taking some pictures, Derek set our new camera on the coffee table in our living room. The kids were playing around in there a little later. They, not surprisingly, weren't paying attention to what was already on the table, and just started pushing everything back to make room for what they wanted up there. The camera hit the floor. No one realized it until about an hour later. Derek wanted to make sure it worked correctly, so he took these pictures.

Derek


Amanda


I hate having my picture taken. I semi-cooperated for the first picture. In this picture you can tell by my face that I am trying to get him to leave me alone. (Plus, I was trying to make dinner). Very annoying! :)


After bugging me for pictures, Derek decided to try and get a nice picture of himself and Kevin. I couldn't resist sneaking some bunny ears in the background. The best part was that they didn't know until they looked at the picture. Hehe...


Our church puts out a magazine for children called "The Friend." My children love it. Recently our church also started a website to go along with the magazine. It is the perfect Sunday activity for them. Here they are enjoying the website. (We also finally moved our computer out of our bedroom, and into the living room - Hallelujah!).


Here are the updated pictures of Jenna's house.

They colored the inside of the door.


And the inside of the house.


The exterior, plus Jared. I love this picture.

Escaping the Bitter Cold

It has been bitterly cold (especially for Virginia) for the last couple of weeks. Starting today we are slowly moving back to normal temperatures for this time of year. Admittedly, my running has suffered because of the cold. I just cannot drag myself out to run in 15 degrees. It hurts my lungs, and I have absolutely no motivation. I ran this morning (my running partner is back in town - hallelujah!), and it was a toasty 32 degrees. It was great! Hopefully I will be able to get out the rest of the week. 32 degrees is much better than 15!

To escape the cold we mostly hung out inside and played. Jenna started coloring her new house. At first she didn't want anyone to help. After only a couple of minutes she realized that it was boring trying to do it alone, plus it would take forever without help. She has had several friends and her brothers helping her. I meant to take a picture of how it looks now, a lot more has been colored, but I forgot. I'll try to get one for next week.

Jenna coloring the house (or her hand, not really sure which) :)


Jared adding his artistic touches


The house at the end of the first coloring session. It is much more colorful now.


My awesome sister called and offered to trade babysitting for the weekend. She said they would come up here (they live about three hours away), and Derek and I could go out overnight for our anniversary (our anniversary date was snowed out in December), and then we could watch her kids on Saturday while they went rock climbing (indoor). That sounded like a great plan to us.

On Friday Derek and I headed to Richmond to the Olive Garden for dinner (we had a gift card). Afterwards we did a little shopping, and then stayed in a hotel we booked through Priceline. We got a good deal on it. You can bid on hotels there, which is great if you want to get away for a lot less money (it only works for 1-2 people/room though). The next morning we got to sleep late! Then we headed to Einstein Bros. Bagels for breakfast - yum! Then we headed home and watched Levi and Janie while David and Rachel went out. We had a great time. I think we may do more trading in the future, though probably not overnight. Even though we got a good deal, it is still too expensive for us to do that more than once a year. Thanks again David and Rachel!

We have dessert on Sundays and Mondays. We rotate who gets to pick the dessert for the weekend. This weekend it was my turn. For Christmas, my mother-in-law got me a great cookbook. Most of the recipes have pictures (I love that), and all of the recipes have 5 ingredients or less. I am a huge fan of caramel and toffee. I found a layered toffee cake recipe. The cake is angel food cake. It's frosted with real whipped cream, mixed with caramel, and then sprinkled heavily with cut up Skor or Heath Bar candy bars. The cake itself is cut into three sections, with that same topping in between each layer. Heaven! It was so good. The pictures don't do it justice.

Yummy Layered Toffee Cake


My favorite part about this picture is the Jenna and Kevin in the background anxiously waiting for the cake. They weren't very excited that I wanted to take pictures before we ate it. :)


I am happy to be thawing out around here. I know winter is far from over, but hopefully the temperatures will be a little more reasonable.

More Christmas and the End of 2009

When we travel for Christmas our children end up having several days of gift opening. That is mostly because we don't want to transport too many gifts just to turn around and bring them back home. We also usually stop at Diana and Michael's (Derek's sister and brother-in-law) on our way to and/or from my parents' house. That meant they got to open gifts while visiting them, and again once we got home. Lucky kids!

Here are the kids opening gifts at Diana and Michael's


Kevin with his gift (money towards his sports fund so that he can play sports this year - he is very excited)


Jared with his new Lightning McQueen slippers. He wears these all the time!


We had a great time visiting Diana, Michael and Tanner (their baby). They were house-sitting in a great house. The owners (Michael's brother and his wife) have three children (two boys and a girl) close to the same ages as our kids. They have a finished basement with tons of cool toys. It was heaven on earth for our kids. Thanks for letting us visit. We had a blast!

Kevin with his cousin, Tanner


Kevin, Tanner, Jared and Jenna (she didn't want her picture taken)


Michael's brother has a dog named Blue. At first the kids were afraid of him, but they warmed up after a little while.

Jenna and Blue


They also have a Santa Claus that you can do karaoke with. The kids thought he was awesome.

Jared singing


Kevin singing


Jenna singing


Jared playing with one of the many cool toys in the basement


Kevin holding Uncle Mike hostage. Not sure the details on the situation, but no one was injured, and it was resolved peacefully.


Michael, Tanner and Diana with Kevin, Jenna and Jared


Here is the final Christmas of 2009. We had a few presents to open once we got home from our trip.


Derek, Jenna, Jared, and Kevin opening gifts


Jared showing off his new finger puppets


Kevin with his new snake (fake, of course)


For New Year's Eve this year we decided to have chocolate fondu and sparkling cider with the kids. We did this at about 7p. There was no way I was going to let my 6,4, and2 year olds stay up until midnight. They would have been so cranky! Anyway, they loved the fondu. We ended up doing it again on New Year's Day because we had left overs. Even though we didn't let them stay up until midnight, we did promise to wake them up to see the ball drop. I think that Kevin was the only one coherent enough that night to really know what was going on. He was, however, a bit disappointed in the "ball." I think he was expecting a fast moving ball dropping to the ground. A slow moving "chandelier" just didn't do it for him. :)

Amanda with Kevin and Jared on New Year's Eve


Amanda and the kids at our fondu party on New Year's Eve


Derek and the kids at our fondu party on New Year's Eve


Jared enjoying the fondu


Kevin and Jenna enjoying the fondu




I think this face says it all...the night was a success. :)


Jenna has been learning how to read. She is still in the very early stages. She got a few easy readers for Christmas. Derek sat down with her the other day and helped her read one. She was so excited that she "read" a book. She does a really good job sounding out words. I am very impressed with her progress. Every night we read the scriptures as a family. She always wants to read a verse. We help her with the big words, but she sounds out the small words. That is how Kevin started learning to read too.

Here she is reading the scriptures with her dad.


We hope you all have a great year! Here's to a happy, healthy, and productive 2010... Cheers!