Snow Days

Growing up in Utah, I always dreamed of getting a snow day.  It never happened.  They are so rare in Utah. It can snow a foot and they won't close the schools in Utah, but in Iowa it only takes an inch or two to cancel school. So as a result, not only did we get our first official snow day-- we got 10 of them!  That's right, TEN!  They were lots of fun at first, but then  eventually they became annoying.   I wasn't looking forward to  making them up at the end of the year.  So, instead of wishing for snow days, I wished for two hour delay days.  Those are dreamy.  You get to sleep in, go to school late, and you're not required to make those babies up!  Perfect!  We got a few of those and then we still got ten snow days.  All of that translates into plenty of snow pictures at least!

Late Night Sledding/walk  with Dad!

Sledding in the back yard.

Nadya built an Igloo!

You don't shovel your driveway in the country.

The boys loved the igloo. Garfield too!

The boys spent one snow day outside with their cousins and the neighbors.  

I had to drag them inside after spending nearly the entire day outside.

October Part 2

I was a little publish happy on my last post.  I forgot to look thru my iphone pics for October and I forgot I had a separate folder for my "October Skies" photos that I have been taking.

So, here is the rest of October.  

Carter actually lost TWO teeth in October.  

And in school they had a writing prompt of "What I want to be for Halloween."  

"I want to be a toilet for Halloween because you can put candy in the lid!"

 (And he later told me you could flush the candy down the toilet)  A toilet? So funny!

Aunt Misty sent the kids a huge bag of candy because she couldn't trick or treat with them.

I told her I'd be sending her the dental bill.

Nadya played basketball.  She's a great player!  Sadly, I only got this one picture as I didn't take my camera to any of the earlier games and  she ended up breaking her finger and had to sit out the rest of the season.

We had some amazing sunsets

October Skies

October

I'm so behind...... So, so behind...... Sorry, but I am just going to take it one month at a time.

We live in the country and country living means country critters and country critters mean country solutions. So, we got Kitties...... Four of them! They live outside and sleep in the shed at night.  They are so cute and so playful and are already doing a great job catching Mice.

Meet (from left to right) Snow, Garfield, Tiger, and Sparkles.

They've been a great addition to our family and they get along with everyone except our dog, Angel.  

In fact, when they see Angel this is what happens.

Which sometimes leads to this-

The beauty of being so behind on my blog is that I can happily report that the kitties are much better at tolerating Angel.  They still hiss and their hair stands up, but they don't resort to climbing trees and running from her any longer. The kitties have been a lot of fun, except for when the sit and "meow" at the windows begging and pleading to become inside cats.  

We Celebrated Doug's Birthday!

We were lucky to have Aunt Georgia, Gramdpa Roger and Cousin Adam join us.

(Nice face Hallie)

We had lots of leaves this Fall.

You don't bag up your leaves in the country, you burn them.

Carter can officially ask for his two front teeth for Christmas as he lost another tooth.

The boys had a harvest party with their Boy Scouts Troop.

They each bobbed for Apples and Alex won the best costume award.

Carter had recently lost his two front teeth so he came up with his own strategy all on his own.  I had no clue of his plan but he immediately plunged his head straight down into the caldron causing the water to rise and the apples to fall out.  He came up completely soaked, but grinning from ear to ear because his plan worked.  

The boys had parties at school as well.  They were required to dress up as a character from a children's book  so Carter was Jack from Jack and the Bean Stalk and Alex was Harry Potter.

We went Trunk or Treating at the church as well as Trick or Treating in town.

(The girls did not dress up this year but the boys did.)

Alex was a vampire and Carter was  Spyro from Skylanders.

Grandpa took Carter to the Symphony.   Grandpa said he was well behaved and Carter said it was good.

We really enjoyed our porch this Fall and our time with Grandpa!

Iowa

The  day before we left for Iowa was a whirlwind. We really didn't have time to stop and process everything; we were too busy preparing for our departure.  We were both doing okay until we hit Iowa.  Well, actually Alex had a hard time the night before in the hotel where he cried himself to sleep.  I wasn't quite sure why he was crying.  Whether he was upset over losing his grandma, or the fact that this trip was not his idea of a vacation or if he just didn't like our hotel. Or maybe it was a combination of all three.  He never said.  He just started crying at bedtime so I snuggled in next to him and stayed that way all night.  That night we stayed in a hotel that was new to us.  It reminded me and Doug of being in Russia.  It was an older hotel, pretty good in size with very few guests.   It was a little bit creepy to the girls,  but really the accommodations were adequate and we dined alone the following morning for breakfast.  (Always a plus with kids.)  It was your typical continental breakfast with bagels, cereal, biscuits and gravy.

The next day as we continued our drive to Iowa, we found that the closer  we got to Iowa, the harder it was. Usually it is the opposite. The closer we get, the happier we get, but not this time.  I think in some ways, the drive was where we started our grieving process.  Even though my mother in law was sick with cancer, her passing was sudden and caught all of us off-guard and we certainly didn't have time to grieve prior to leaving. So as we inched closer to the farm and the sights were becoming more familiar, reality set it.  We were beginning to realize that life at the farm wasn't going to be the same without Grandma being there. (Which it wasn't.) But we did find comfort in what was there.....  Most importantly, our family.  The farm house was full of family, just how Grandma liked it.

  We all enjoyed cuddling the little ones and we waited patiently for our turn with the newest addition.

  Oh baby Elliott how adorable you are.

And there was comfort in the usual farm activities.  

Feeding the cows is a favorite for my kids. 

 Although there is nothing usual about feeding  fries  to the cows,

 it just happened to be what the littler cousins had left over from lunch.

This was the first time I had ever traveled to Iowa in the winter.  I lucked out.  I've heard the horror stories of Iowa winters, but the weather was about as good as you can get for January.

There was some snow, just enough for a small snowball fight with most of the family.  I didn't get any pictures of that though. It was too fun to watch! But it was definitely a highlight. 

 (Gwen, can you send me a few pics?)

And we even had a couple of great sunsets.

There is something so peaceful and beautiful about those Iowa sunsets on the farm.  

It was a short trip for us.  Once again we found ourselves not wanting to say goodbye, and  at the last minute we decided that I would drive back alone with the kids so Doug could stay back another week to help finalize a few things.  The kids were absolutely amazing in the car.  The drive (all 1150 miles) was quiet and peaceful as the kids stayed pretty plugged into the television.  I broke the drive up into two nights and we made such good time on day one that we arrived in Cheyenne early enough for a nice dinner and swimming. Swimming was another highlight on our trip.  Well, it was a highlight for all of us except for Hallie.  Unfortunately, she had to watch as she forgot to pack her swimsuit.  :(   She had a great attitude about it though.