Happy 43rd Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my amazing parents!  43 years is quite an accomplishment especially with everything they have gone through together!
 While going through paperwork a few months back my dad stumbled on these amazing pictures!  I couldn't love them more.  This was right before they left London to move back to the States. 

And today, on their actual 43rd anniversary, Dad was able to spend 1 hour in Moms room with her.  

We're all thankful they were able to be together but who would have EVER envisioned that this would be how they spent #43.  Life has thrown them a lot of curve balls these last years.  

Our FIRST Cousin Sleepover!

After a long hard week over at the Brown's, we offered to watch Liam for the night.  We were all so excited to have him and even Grandad didn't want to miss out on he fun.  He made us laugh and smile so big the whole time he was here. We loved every minute of it. 

Snowpacolypse

What a whirl wind of a week! I’ve lost track of what day it is but I think it’s almost over! 

Who would have thought that a voluntary candle light, indoor picnic on Valentine’s night would be exactly what we HAD to do just 24 hours later!? 

Monday morning we woke up to a beautiful dusting of powdery snow. Well, more than a dusting. We had a couple inches. While the snow rolled in, our power rolled out and starting about 5 am Monday morning, we were powerless.  The kids made the most of the day. We made snow ice cream, had a snowball fight, jumped on the trampoline, tried to get bubbles to freeze (they didn’t) and played outside. Chase was obsessed with shoveling the driveway. Through out the day, we came in to the unheated house to “warm up”. As the day passed and we didn’t get power, it was stressful, but we made do.  Zak made coffee on the gas stove with a pour over, we wore layers of clothes, we warmed up in the car and charged our devices, and I made grilled cheese as the sun went down on the gas stove. Poor Chase was in a panick over the dark and a nervous wreck! He cried all through dinner and was worried until we all laid down.  I hated to see him like that but he did ok. We pulled the mattresses out to the living room and had a family sleepover in layers of clothes, under layers of blankets and sleeping bags. The temps hit record lows. Between 12-15° with a feels like of about 3°. 

Around 2:30 am the power finally came on! I jumped up and checked the food in the fridge/freezers then jumped in bed and tried to sleep a little since I had two little boys sleeping on top of me all night. 

Tuesday morning, when we finally started to stir, the power was still on. I made the boys cinnamon rolls. We have never been so thankful for power. Through the day the power was on and off. But we got some good stretches of power. I was happy to have the news as much as anything. I love watching a good weather event on tv! 

The kids tried to play outside but also spent a good amount of time on their devices through the day. Our next door neighbor had pipes burst in the morning. Then around 2pm, we heard panic banging on our front door. Our dear friends across the street had a pipe burst in their garage. We rushed over to help (I was no help!!) to see water pouring through the ceiling. Within a 2-3 hour period, houses all around us had burst pipes. Numerous numerous houses! 

We were so fortunate but I was a worried mess for the rest of the day. We kept our water running the whole time. Not even dripping, running.

The power started flickering going on and off Tuesday night and around 9pm it went off for the night. Wednesday morning it went on and off.  But, I’d say it was off more than on on Wednesday. 

Wednesday, was spent trying to stay warm. The boys were getting so frustrated that the power wouldn’t stay on. They wouldn’t stop complaining or fighting. We were all going a bit stir crazy. For days, I had been keeping an eye on all of our food. I checked fridges and freezers and even put some stuff outside in coolers. But mid afternoon, I realized some stuff was starting to thaw because the power was never on long enough to keep things solid. We got power in the late afternoon, so I decided to cook up everything that was defrosting. It was a lot of junk food but we were able to share some with the neighbors so at least it didn’t go to waste! The power stayed on for the most part but did go off a couple times through the night. Thankfully, not for very long. 

Thursday was spent cleaning, doing laundry, showering and just being thankful. Around 11am we even saw a few snow flurries. No one was happy about it.  I was suppose to go see my mom at her home for an indoor visit but they had pipes burst so they had to cancel visits.  I was pretty bummed but so thankful she’s been safe and well taken care of. And, they never lost power!! Not true for many facilities in the area.

 It’s been a very very very long week but we have been extremely fortunate. 

Cold but fortunate! 

Having a gas stove saved our bellies (and our coffee addiction!).  

Layers and layers of clothes warmed us up. 

We’ve had water the whole time. 

And, we had to throw away minimal food. 

I know more people than not who have had pipes burst in their home causing tons of damage!

We have family and friends who have had their power and water out for days. 

We’re very lucky! 

But we’re very over it all. 

We’re tired of living through historic event after historic event! 

Have to make it through tonight’s hard freeze (fingers crossed!!!) and hopefully everyone here will be able to get back to complaining about our normal hot temps! 

UPDATE: We made it through Thursdays hard freeze.