The weather here has been crazy this month. We have had more snow days than I can remember. Just in the last 4 days we've had 3 heavy days of snow, with an accumulation of over 2 feet of snow. The snow drifts are pretty insane! I will send some pictures of the huge mounds of snow. My back is feeling the strain of all the shoveling! The snow plows haven't been able to keep up with it, either. We're still driving around on 1-lane roads, waiting for them to finish clearing them up. The kids have also dug through the huge mountain and have entrances at both ends now. One cool thing that happened, that I've never witnessed before, was a thundersnow. All the sudden there was lightning and thunder- while it was snowing! Seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen and heard. And the lightning seemed even brighter, as it reflected off the enormous amount of snow outside. Very cool.
Anna has had some fun things going on. She still doesn't say many words. Her first official word, which she said only last week, was "mom". Awwww... so sweet, right? It comes out more like, "Mummm". She was standing in front of Steve and me the other day trying to get my attention to be picked up. Steve reached out and said, "come here, Anna." She squealed, gave him a dirty look, and continued to fuss at me with her arms outstretched. Then Steve said, "you want to go to Mommy?" She immediately put on a smile and reached out to be held. I think I'm the favorite around here. :) Anna nods her head yes and no, can say "all done" (more like, aaaa-dah, with her arms in the air) and jabbers all day long. She LOVES getting dressed, especially for going outside. She is extremely adept at putting arms and legs where they belong, which is really impressive for her age. She absolutely loves the snow and eating it is her favorite part. She did have a mishap the other night. Steve and I were out on a date and we got a text from Ellie telling us Anna had just fallen out of bad and had a cut on her eye. Apparently she decided going to bed was lame, so she attempting climbing out on her own. Unfortunately there was a toy on the floor, which she smacked with her cheek and eye. Thankfully it was just bruised and nothing more serious. She's a tough cookie, though.
Tommy and Anna fight constantly over the real estate known as Mom. It's actually quite amusing to watch them fight, push, and yell at each other. Lots of time Anna gets her way, just because she can yell the loudest. Tommy is still super snuggly, so it's definitely a good fight still. We are still working on potty training him. He is doing much better, but I'm still convinced he'll still be in diapers in college. Okay, not really.
Ryan is funny as ever. The other day he had gotten in trouble for something and was sulking a bit. Steve was at the table and started whistling a tune. Ryan looked over at him, and with a scowl stated, "I am not going to dance to your song." Um... okay. He's such a rebel. For his birthday he got some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle weapons and we've seen lots of action with the sais and swords. We were at a birthday party yesterday and at the end there was face painting. Ryan had a lion painted on his face, and I sent him to look at himself in the mirror once it was done. Next thing I know, I hear an enormous "ROAR" coming from the bathroom. He ran around the house for the next 15 minutes roaring at everyone he came in contact with. Seriously hilarious. Of course, it might have had something to do with the two huge servings of cotton candy he had just consumed...
Sarah is doing great. She has a friend that lives behind us that she plays with every day. We've decided the two of them get along so well because Sarah can be a bit bossy and her little friend will go along with anything Sarah wants to do. But on the same token, Sarah is extremely generous and empathetic and does her best to make her friend happy. We will miss them when we move from here.
Katie is still my little rebel. She just likes to push buttons whenever possible. She adores Anna and really tries to be helpful, but in the end Anna just gets annoyed and starts yelling. Katie is my interior decorator and looks forward to each holiday so she can pull out those decorations and make the house beautiful. She made all sorts of great little Valentine crafts this year that were quite impressive. She definitely has that creative bug.
Ellie and Katie are both doing great in gymnastics. Ellie puts a little bit more effort into it, so she is improving a bit faster, but the two of them have made huge strides this year. It's fun to watch them do the cool tricks on the bars and trampoline. Both girls are proud of the fact that they can climb the rope all the way to the top- an impressive feat. Ellie has made friends with a new girl that moved in whose dad is a cadet chaplain. They're a perfect match and it's a friendship that again will be hard to let go.
Speaking of moving on... we have our unofficial orders. We found out that we're headed to Daegue, Korea next. I was a bit shocked at first, but now we're getting really excited about this new adventure. We've heard amazing things about this post and are looking forward to cool experiences. My only regret is that we won't be stateside when everyone returns home. I had really hoped to have the chance to come see everyone after missions. I suppose it will just be postponed for a year.
I mentioned last week about Tyler's baptism. He is now your year-group, so you may get the chance to get to know him pretty well! It has been really cool watching him learn and grow in the gospel. His baptism was great, with just a couple hick-ups (we accidentally left Steve's change of clothes at home, so he had to borrow Brother Mitchell's fleece jacket afterwards.) I assume you can picture just how large that jacket was on Steve... But Tyler's parents drove down to support him, even though they weren't super excited about him being baptized. It was just neat to see how many people were there to help welcome him in to the fold.
I taught in Young Women's today about the plan of salvation and used a lot of the info from "Preach My Gospel." It was a great reminder of our real purpose here on Earth and that even though some days seem mundane, there is a beautiful goal at the end that we are striving towards.
pictures to come...
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