My Sweet Fam

When the Johnson family visited us last October, sweet Molly took some family photos for us.  (Thank you!!!)   She is so talented.  Considering how grumpy the boys were at the end, little rascals... I was super happy to see that the pictures from the beginning were really fun.  Some of these went on our Christmas card, so you may have already seen them.

My sweet boys.  How on earth did I get so lucky?

8pm

It's 8:00pm and my kids are in bed.  IN BED PEOPLE!  BEFORE 8:00!  This does not happen very often in this household so I am pretty excited for it.  It reminds me that I should really do more freezer meals that Steve can pop into the oven, so we can eat when I get home at 6:00 instead of at 7:30.  So now the house is quiet... and I need to go upstairs and work on some sewing projects, but I thought I'd rather blog instead.

Lately we've been trying to teach Olaf to ski.  It's a slow process, and one that requires much patience, but I think it is going to pay off!  He is really getting it now!  I am really excited to see it.

Forest runs up to him every time "OWAF OWAF OWAF OWAF!  You goin' SKIING?  Wif DADDY?  Does youw SKIS?"

Olaf and Chira.  I am campaigning for this to go in their wedding slideshow.

Booty skiing.

Maya and Shannon.  We were all up at the lodge watching the daddies with the bigger kiddos.

Also I finally took a day for myself, played hooky from work (well, I did tell my boss I wasn't coming in ahead of time, and used leave for it...), and went skiing at Stevens!  It was SO. MUCH. FUN on a bluebird day.  I forgot how much I love skiing when it is NOT a powder day.  Because on non-powder days, people actually have time for you and aren't annoyed that they have to wait for you!  It's way more laid back and I loved it.  Could also be all the vitamin D pouring all over me :)

Me, Ethan, Jenny.  Two of my favorites.

Chandra.   Awesome view.  Awesome gal.

Shannon.  Love ya lady!

I'll leave you with this progression of photos of my other babe.  We went sledding with my friend Angie and her son Jedediah, and we must have WORN OUT FOREST.  He was asleep in the car between Mountain Springs and River Road (60 second drive?) and didn't wake up until 3 hours later...  Apparently he is channeling his father, who can always sleep through anything, or perhaps his Auntie Jenny, who apparently used to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere when she was little :)

Asleep in the car.

Carried into the house, and now asleep on the hardwood floor.

Boots off, coat off, bibs half off... still sleeping.

And... time to be carried up to bed :)

centered on Sundays

As much as I sometimes don't want to leave my cozy house on Sunday mornings for Church, I am always glad I do.  It's so nice to hear a good sermon and get re-centered.  Re-order my heart to where it ought to be...  It's always needed and it happens every single time. 

There is peace in my heart today, and for that I am thankful. 

That post that I meant to write in December

Ah yes, this post was meant to be written in December, but what can I say, time slipped away.

I find that I really don't like posting much unless things are going well.  One, because I have fun photos if things are going well.  And two, because when things are going well I feel justified in taking a few minutes of time away from things to sit down and actually pound one of these posts out.  Also I really  just hate the tone of it to ever sound whiny.  Which is probably why I didn't post in the second half of December because I would have felt whiny or like I was complaining about circumstances.  In light of other tragedies happening in the world last month... suffice it to say I was dealing with comparative peanuts... so I didn't post :)

But as a recap...  things were nutty.

Steve was gone for almost two weeks in NJ for work.  It's hard when he's over on the east coast to communicate -- the time different sort of sucks for boys being able to talk with their dad.  (But it is really great for when he comes home and easily rolls out of bed at 5am...)  When Steve did come home, a few days early even, he came home to... Snomaggon :)  No power.  A crazy winter storm.  Trees down everywhere.  A wife who was about to lose it, having already dealt with it on her own with the children and working overtime the past few days.  And he went straight into work mode.  Blowing snow, helping folks, cutting trees.  Responding to some pretty devastating tree vs. car aid calls with the fire department due to said storm... Pretty much missing his 34th birthday... It was nutty.

That storm was crazy.  People who don't live here (and even my coworkers in Wenatchee.  Not you Charlotte...) didn't quite understand the intensity of the snow, and the fear one had while driving down the road with trees literally leaning over the road ready to break.  I even pulled someone out of the ditch and moved a tree off the road with the tractor... at midnight... after calling Steve in Jersey for a tractor driving refresher...  I'd come into work covered in snow and exhausted and they'd joke about it, how they were also dealing with snow, and could I please clean up after myself and not track mud in on my boots?  I kept thinking YOU BUNCH OF BUMS.  STOP PRETENDING THAT WHAT I AM DOING IS EASY.  They gave me crap for not bringing something to the work potluck, though I had no power to cook with.  No offers of help save one -- my awesome boss went to Walmart for me and bought me a bunch of water jugs to take home, and he made sure I knew that he would drive up the 35 minutes to help out if I needed it before Steve arrived home.  It may have been because they literally didn't know what to say, but regardless, sometimes working with all dudes is just annoying and makes you want to cry.   Or because I have been doing so long maybe I make it look easy.  I am going to go with that one.  I hate thinking they are really that insensitive :)

It was also super isolating in Plain.  Due to previously mentioned fear of driving.... we didn't go anywhere.  Didn't see much of the folks we would have loved to see, including one of my BFF"s home from Wisconsin.  Couldn't go skiing due to the highway being closed.   Read a lot of books and played with the kids and went to bed early.  It just ran us ragged, physically and emotionally.   Well, ran me ragged. I think Steve is fine :)

It was nutty.  People on the Chelan County Maintenance crews with 35 years of experience said they had never seen anything like it.  

Some of the carnage on River Road -- for your viewing pleasure...

Photo of my friend Anne's

Another Anne photo

Steve's photo... note all the leaning trees yet to fall?  We had 15 new across the road over the coarse of each day, easily.

Photo from Steve's friend Sheldon.

Another from Sheldon.

In the midst, Christmas was good.  We stayed warm and well fed during the power outage.  We sledded with the boys.  I had many snuggles and played many adventures with toys.  I learned to run a generator, the tractor, shoveled mountains of snow and how to be more of a mountain woman.  I watched my husband power through manual labor like it was a walk in the park (hubba hubba, there's nothing like a man in Filson, smelling like 2-stroke).  I got to see my dear friend Ariyl, though not as much as I'd like - I got to see her!  The power came back on Christmas Eve thanks to men and women skipping their own Christmas celebrations to help our community out which I am so thankful for.  We seriously had some great County, PUD, and contractors from the west side over here busting tail to get power back on.  (It took a week) We spent time with my folks and my little sis.  We made an impromptu trip over the mountains to see Steve's mom and stepdad, his dad, my bro-in-law and niece and nephews...  it was good.  And I am thankful.

Then we got home from the west side and I got the flu.  Ack!  But I am feeling better and am headed to work tomorrow with a positive outlook for 2013.  Parts of 2012 sucked so I am hoping and praying for more joy than sorrow in the new year :)  I already foresee many reasons for joy, so here we go!

Play time the Saturday prior to the big storm cycle.

Cutie pie.

Boot lineup.

Good helpers!