Tarts

At the general store, we had bought some pie fillings in nifty bags where you snip the end and squeeze it out. Nana, helped by the kids, mainly Katie and Joseph, made some apple and Boston cream tarts.

More Visiting

On December 27, with a record setting temperature of 64 degrees, we enjoyed time spent with both Grammy and Josh as well as Joe's family who arrived from New Jersey. His dad (Grumpy Pop Pop) and stepmom (Nana) and his grandfather all drove out. We drove down to Amish country and visited the general store there. That evening, Grammy and Josh flew back to Virginia, and the kids opened their Christmas gifts from Joe's family. The gifts included a fleet of Wawa trucks. Very cool.

The Rest of Christmas

Here are a few more shots from Christmas day. I (Becky) took a nap in the morning after all the festivities, and then we had a great ham dinner in the afternoon and visited with some friends for dessert in the evening.

Coal

A few weeks before Christmas, Emma started asking questions about when Santa might bring coal. She decided that if you are kind of good and kind of bad, you might get coal but also some presents. I asked her if she thought that might happen to her, and she said, "Yep, because of my anger issues." Have I mentioned she has a temper? Anyway, on Christmas Eve, as she was going to bed, she asked me to say a prayer with her that Santa wouldn't bring her coal. Nothing like a last ditch effort. Well, Santa did bring her some chocolate shaped like coal in black foil wrapping along with the other gifts in her stocking. She thought it was real. Her reaction was priceless.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we did some Rock Band on the Wii, and then went to see the nativity exhibit in Kirtland. Then we had dinner and watched "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" and read the Christmas story from the Bible. Cookies were set out for Santa, and the kiddos went off to bed. Emma had a really hard time falling asleep. We told the kids they could wake us up at 6:30...

Grammy and the Uncle of Fun

On Tuesday, December 23, Becky's mom (Grammy) and younger brother Josh ("the Uncle of Fun") arrived from Virginia. We knew the snow wasn't going to last, so that night after dinner, Josh and the kids went outside for some sledding. Because of the somewhat icey surface on the snow, they were able to go unbelievably far--well into the next door neighbor's yard, across their driveway. We live on 3 acres, so that is saying alot. We figure it was about 300 yards. Joseph even made it the whole way down "surfing," or standing on the sled. Josh attempted it, but when the sled started to go out from under him, Katie said he looked like he was tap dancing, trying to regain his footing before somersaulting backwards down the hill. Hot chocolate afterwards hit the spot.

O Christmas Tree

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we headed out to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. It was on the warm side, and the melting snow made it rather mucky. But it was fun, and the kids did a great job decorating it.

Kirtland

On the day after Thanksgiving, we went to the Kirtland Historic Sites. We took the tour, guided by Sister Frederickson, who served in our branch for 4 1/2 months. It was great. Then we returned in the evening for the lighting of the Christmas lights and to see the nativity display. It was an amazing collection. Here are some pictures of a couple of my favorites--one made from soda cans, made in Kenya, and one from Central America with a huge Baby Jesus. Apparently, that is how they do it there--the Jesus figure is passed down seperate from the rest of the set. Emma dressed up the kids' room, where they had a number of child friendly nativities.

Happy Turkey Day

Thanksgiving Day was beautiful--sunny and snowy. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in the morning. Joe's mom (Donna) and sister (Allison) have come to visit from North Carolina for Thanksgiving. They arrived on Thursday about 1:00, and enjoyed a little Guitar Hero while waiting for dinner. We ate mid afternoon and then headed over to some friends' house for a rip roaring game of bingo with excellent prizes and dessert. Joe can be seen modeling some of the prizes.

"Mommy, is it winter yet?"

That is the question Emma keeps asking me, given the weather this week. The kids were really hoping for a snow day today, and the chances seemed good, with about 10 inches falling overnight and high winds. But they're hard core here, and so school went on as scheduled. We got more during the day. The bus was running really, really late, and so the kids and I were all about frozen after standing out there for 20 minutes this morning. The lake effect storm seems to have moved through now....we are learning why they call this area "the snow belt." The Cleveland stations love to do their broadcasts from the Chardon town square when it is snowing. We are the highest elevation coming off the lake, so while downtown Cleveland (25 miles to the west) doesn't have any snow on the ground, we could be in a white out. We have been busy serving up hot chocolate and drying all the snow gear. I love snow!

14 years of service...

I sure wish I had some pictures to go along with this post, but I had to share it anyway. On Friday night, Joe and the boys camped out at the Church for the monthly boy scout campout. It was quite cold, but not cold enough to snow, and heavy rain was forcast all night. But, being Boy Scouts, they camped out anyway in the tent that Joe and I bought 14 years ago. It was August of 1994, and we were newlyweds, about to drive out to BYU, carrying all our earthly possessions in a trailer hauled behind our 1989 Ford Tempo. We couldn't afford hotels, and our stuff could have been stolen anyway, so we were going to camp. We went to Sears to buy a tent that was on sale. To our delight, that one was sold out, so they gave us the next biggest one for $59.99. It officially slept 5. Really, the two of us plus our stuff. The first memorable moment with the tent came in Kansas as we struggled to pitch camp late at night (that means in the dark.) I don't remember the details, but suffice it to say that Joe ended up sleeping under the stars that night :-). We got the hang of setting it up, and we used that tent to camp at Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Zion, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks while at BYU. Upon our return to the East Coast, we went to Shenendoah National Park several times, all while staying in the tent. Then when Jacob and Katie were born, camping was out of the question for a while, so the tent moved unused to Texas, California, Maryland, and then Michigan. While in Maryland, we upsized to a tent that could actually fit our whole family. It is mammoth. And our communication skills have improved as well--set up was a breeze, even the first time. Anyhoo, back to this weekend. The boys woke up to the fact that Joseph was sleeping in the middle of a rather large puddle. I guess he was on the downhill side of the tent. Jacob's set up was wet, but only a little. So Joe gave Joseph his dry sleeping bag and headed for the car to finish out the night. So, apparently the tent leaks. Sadly, it was thrown in the dumpster before they came home. I'd say we got our money's worth out of it. The site of them hauling all their wet gear inside was a riot. I had a sleepover with the girls in the family room, and hadn't slept very well on the couch, but I wasn't complaining after hearing their story. It took all of Saturday to wash and dry all the sleeping bags and clothes...I asked Jacob why they didn't go inside to sleep, and his sarcastic response was, "Because it's not the 'Boy Scout Way!'"

Not a Pet

Well, back at the Great Geauga County Fair in September, they hold an animal auction...it's a pretty big deal, and many kids in the area work hard to raise various animals (pigs, ducks, cows, etc.) to be sold at the auction. As we were watching the auction, Emma asked if all the animals were going to be killed and turned into meat. I told her they were. She looked so traumatized that I quickly followed with, "Or, people can take them home and keep them as pets." She was visibly relieved, and said, "Oh good. That's what I would do." Joe's company always buys a pig. We named him Porkchop." He came to us via Mr. T's Smokehouse. Joe brought home some sausage, bacon, and this ham, along with a shoulder steak. We just ate the ham this week. Tasty!

We saw Joe the Plumber...and McCain too

Yesterday afternoon I took the kids to a rally for John McCain close by. I hope that no matter which candidate you support, you agree that it is a good thing to get the kids involved in the process as much as possible. The younger kids got out of school a bit early, and we picked up Joseph at the middle school and headed over to Mentor High School. Traffic was heavy as we approached just after 3:00, and as we pulled into the parking lot, we were handed a sheet of paper by a volunteer saying that the parking lot was full, and we would need to drive to the mall and be bussed over. That was going to take quite a while--the mall was several miles away. As I looped through the parking lot, lo and behold, there was an open space! I guess some kids were still leaving school for the day. We stood outside in line for a while, and made it inside, to the upper level bleachers. Then we sat and waited for a long time...then some local candidates came out about 5:00 and spoke, followed by country singer Sammy Kershaw, then we waited again. About 6:20, John and Cindy McCain, Lindsey Graham (senator-SC), Joe the Plumber, and one of the McCain's daughters came out. Cindy spoke first, and then Graham introduced McCain. Once McCain started, he turned the mike over to Joe the Plumber who spoke briefly, and then McCain spoke for about 15 minutes. It was an exciting event. The girls were having a really hard time with the heat--it was really hot with all those people packed in the gym, especially up higher where we were. It was still fun though. In the picture of the speakers, Joe the Plumber is in a camel colored sweater behind the McCains.

Halloween Fun

Even though Halloween isn't quite here yet, we have been enjoying the holiday already. We carved our pumpkins (in the storage room b/c it is so darned cold right now), and we went to the Trunk or Treat at church last night. Joe got in on the costume parade with the kids LOL. The funny thing is that everyone loved his "costume," which just consisted of his work clothes. It was pretty funny. The kids picked their own jack-o-lantern designs...clockwise from top left, they are--Jacob's (headless horseman), Joseph's (of course-U of M), Katie's (template titled "Der," a sort of Frankensteinish guy), and Emma's (BYU--that's my girl!). We are going trick or treating with some friends "in town" tomorrow evening, where the houses are closer together. Now to get all the candy out of the house....

Michigan

We visited Michigan at the end of September. It was so much fun seeing so many friends...the weekend was just too short! Here are a just few pictures from the visit.

And they're 10!

Jacob and Katie turned to on Sept. 24. Hard to believe! They went out to breakfast with Joe before school.

Grammy's visit

Becky's mom visited over Labor Day weekend. It was a huge boost for everyone, especially the kids who had just finished their first week at new schools. We went to the "Great Geauga County Fair" where we had many new experiences, including the Demolition Derby, and witnessed the beginning of a cow delivering a calf. Emma noticed first, and had the quotable quote of the day: "Look Mommy, two hooves are coming out of that cow's butt!"

On Labor Day itself, we went on an outing to a neat store called "End of the Commons," a general store that has been operating in the heart of Amish country since 1840. It is only about 25 minutes from our house. It sold a little bit of everything, and it was interesting to watch the Amish customers coming and going. Out front is the largest horse and buggy.

Aren't they pretty?

This past week brought us a new experience...the remnants of Hurricane Ike made it all the way up here to Ohio, and the very high winds knocked out our power on Sunday evening. We hadn't had the T.V. on all day, so we were blissfully unaware that the storm was as strong as it was even all the way up here. Sooooo....we found ourselves without power for the first time in many, many years, and the first time ever while on well water. Those of you who have wells know that if the power goes out, the well pump goes with it. So, we were left scrambling. Thanks to the generosity of friends, we were able to scrounge up water and even go take showers, and a co-worker of Joe's who still had power kindly brought a generator over so that we could at least save the food in the refrigerators along with Katie's insulin (about $1500 worth). Our power came on Tuesday morning to our great relief.

Needless to say, this experience was a real learning experience as far as our preparedness. Mostly what we still need to get in order. These beautiful 55 gallon water barrels were sitting empty in our garage, waiting to get put in the right place and filled. Pretty though they are, you can imagine how much good they did empty. Even if you are on city water, that can go out without warning as well. So friends, learn from our experience, and take inventory of your emergency preparedness. When the next storm comes, we will be ready.

Getting started

Hi all,

I set up this blog to keep friends and family up to date on the latest with our family and to share pictures, which I am really bad at doing. Today, the big event was that Joseph got braces. He said it didn't hurt getting them on, but I know he will be sore tonight and tomorrow. He gets to pick the colors that go on the brackets, and they can change each month. This time, he went with blue and orange, in honor of the Detroit Tigers. Next Friday (9/19), Joe is taking the boys to an Indians/Tigers game, and their seats are right behind the Tigers dugout. Joseph made an elaborate poster. The game is on ESPN, so if you watch, you may just see them.