So Much Snow

At the beginning of this year, I may have said something like, "I hope this year we get ten feet of snow in one storm so we have to dig our way out of the front door!"

We may not have gotten quite that much snow, but last I heard we were up to 54 inches (total this year), and we're supposed to get some more in the next couple of days.

It's been awesome. For once, the reservoirs are full, and it looks like we'll have plenty of water for the next year. It's also been fun to play in. We've been sledding a few times, but this whole winter, Kevin has been wanting to make a snowman. However, even after all the snow, it wasn't until last week that we were able to do so.

On Saturday, we went out and shoveled and played in the snow for a while. The snow was finally the right consistency.

We built a snowman together. Grig made the base, I made the middle, and Kevin made the head. It turned out pretty cute.

We had rocks for eyes, a carrot nose, and sticks for the mouth and arms. Then, we stuck pieces of evergreen in the snowman for buttons. It's pretty cute and still out there, though it has about a foot more of snow on top of it now.

Then, Grig wanted to make something else, so he rolled a huge snowball. Kevin wanted to roll his own huge snowball too. I think Grig had something in mind, like building a fort, but Kevin insisted he wanted his snowball on top of Grig's. So, they ended up with this:

Meanwhile, I built a snow dog for our snow man. I think the dog turned out pretty cute too.

Not as cute as the real ones, though.

Loki has been staying with us for a little while. His owners have had some problems with their heating, so until their home has heat again, Loki is staying with us. They've been having a great time together. Siff likes having someone around with a longer coat. Loki likes going outside to play more than Arkhon does.

After we finished crafting our snow sculptures, Kevin made himself a snow angel. He really likes doing that. You have to wait for the right kind of snow for snowmen, but almost any kind of snow is good for snow angels.

So, we're staring to get tired of shoveling, but overall, we've still had some good times with the snow. When we can, Kevin, the dogs, and I still go walking. The sidewalks are missing, but the road is pretty decent most days, so we walk on the road.

For those of you who want an update on foster care, I e-mailed them the other day to see how things were progressing. I guess they mailed us a form so they can get our background checks done in Idaho too (since we've lived there within the last 5 years). Other than that, he said that everything is in.

Now, we're just waiting for that piece of mail to arrive while we keep fixing things up around the house in preparation for our home inspection. We're getting pretty close. I attached the bookshelves to the walls today, and we made a baby gate upstairs. I think it turned out pretty awesome.

I love it.

Tubing

Yesterday, for Family Home Evening, we had a ward (congregation) ski night.

I guess it was more of a stake (combined combinations from the area) ski night, but it was pretty awesome, because they also had tubing available for children three and up.

Kevin is three now, and so we paid for use of the tubes and over-dressed ourselves to go tubing.

The first time we went down the 600 foot slope, Grig dragged Kevin behind him, and at the end he got pretty freaked out. However, a couple people suggested to us that we should let him go by himself. They told us that he would travel more slowly with his own weight than being pulled by ours.

Kevin and Grig going together. (We put the camera away afterward because it was getting too dark)

We decided to take their advice. Aren't we glad we did! Kevin loved it!

I went first, and as his small body on his small tube came hurtling around the curve at the end, I shouted, "Hold on, Kevin! Don't let go!"

As he came to a stop, I helped him up and he said, "Mom! I did it by myself!"

He was so excited. I think I had been more freaked out that time than he was. He proceeded to go for a couple more times, and just got more excited every time.

Grig and I also had a great time. The first time, I was tense and I kind of hurt my neck, but after that I relaxed and really enjoyed myself. I would go so fast around the bend that I almost flipped over a couple of snow banks, and when I went tearing around the end curve I rode so high that I nearly hit the fence at the top!

It was great.

After a few runs, we went inside to eat. They had chicken soup and chili available, as well as a lot of desserts. Kevin mostly ate chips and pretzels. We tried to feed him other things, but he was more interested in those.

After eating, we went back out and tubed until 8:45 or so.

They had a little jump at the very end, and most people kind of went up the side of it, but for some reason, I was nearly always going off the top and getting some air. One of the workers told me, "Now you're just showing off. We're going to have to slow it down. You're having too much fun." I laughed and told him he shouldn't slow it down. It was awesome.

We had to go to bed early, so decided we needed to leave. At about 8:30, we were talking about leaving and Kevin held up one finger and said, "No, one more time," in a very bossy and commanding voice.

So, we went one more time.

We're really glad we went. We had a lot of fun.

Family picture taken after the first run. Kevin still wasn't sure how he felt about it at this point. 

Let It Snow

Saturday morning, we woke up to go to the temple to find that it had snowed a TON.

It wasn't 36 inches, but it was about over a foot, and it was still coming down.

We had extra kids at our house, and had planned on dropping them off before going to the temple, so I ended up shoving the driveway while Grig and the kids got ready. The snow was heavy and wet, and it was a lot of work.

We got out of our house at the right time (at about 8:15), but the roads were so bad that it took us nearly 45 minutes to get somewhere that usually would have taken 20. By the time we got to my grandma's house to drop Kevin off, we were over an hour late.

Regardless, we trekked on. It really was beautiful, and though occasionally icy, for the most part, it was a pretty enjoyable ride. We played a game called "Who Has a Garage?" and were able to easily point out which cars had been parked in the garage and which ones hadn't.

There were quite a few cars buried up to their lights in the snow, and we were very grateful that we had a garage ourselves.

We stopped and picked up my Great Aunt on the way, and by the time we got to the temple, it was about 9:50 a.m.. We had been planning on getting there at 9:10. We made it to the 10:30 a.m. session.

We had a great time, and enjoyed participating with my great aunt. It was fun to spend time with her. I also really love the Spirit at the temple. You walk inside, and it's like everything outside is muted. It's quiet and calming. It is wonderful because it's a good chance to feel peace away from the cares of the world and receive needed answers from our Heavenly Father.

By the time we got out around 1:00 p.m., it had stopped snowing. We were a little disappointed, but the roads were a lot better.

We had been planning on going on a badly-needed date afterward, but since it was so much later than we had originally planned, we accepted Grandma's invitation to eat with her and enjoyed talking to my grandparents and aunt instead.

Then, we went home.

After we got home, it started snowing REALLY hard for a while, but cut off a lot sooner than we wanted. For some reason, both Grig and I enjoy heavy snow storms. I don't really like old, dirty snow that stays around for months, but I do enjoy large amounts of fresh stuff.

Kevin and Arkhon really enjoyed it too. Kevin helped his Great-grandma shovel their sidewalks and driveways with a little kid shovel they had, and when we came home, they let us take it with us.

As soon as we got home, Kevin began to shovel our driveway (which was once again full of snow). We're going to go out and shovel today after he wakes up, I think.

Our yard still needs it.

This picture was taken during the snowstorm. All of the stuff on the railing is new.

Winter Adventures

Kevin sure loves to play with his uncles. We really enjoy having them around. He prays for them constantly, and gets super excited when they come home. When they're gone, he always asks me where they are. They get along really well with their nephew.

Arkhon was playing ball with us, and Grig started laughing. This is the face he showed me:

He's such a funny dog.

Last Saturday turned into quite the adventure.We had been planning for a few weeks to go see the temple lights with one of my mission companions and her family. However, the day before, we found out that one of Grig's friends had passed away. Her funeral was earlier Saturday morning, and so we decided to go down earlier and attend the funeral.

We were a little late, but we made it. They ended up feeding us lunch afterward, and it was really good to meet some of Grig's friends, even though it was for a sad reason.

Afterwards, we had a couple free hours, and we went shopping for a few more Christmas things. We had a pretty good time. We found a fun kid store and we had so much fun that we were a bit late meeting our friends.

Eventually, we managed to find them, and we had a great time. Here are some pictures from the Salt Lake Temple grounds.

Our family and the lights

I love this picture!

We were really impressed at the sheer number of lights. It would have taken forever to place them all!

This is a picture of the nativity and the temple. I really liked how this one turned out.

Afterward, we went up to the top of the Conference Center and saw the lights from above. Grig had never been on the roof of the Conference Center before, so it was really neat to look at the temple form that angle.

Monday, it snowed! Grig's brother helped us shovel, and then he played with Kevin in the snow for a bit. We have a bit of an incline in our front yard, and it makes a pretty good sledding hill for Kevin.

It was a lot of fun to finally have enough snow to play in.

Arkhon loves the snow! He likes to catch snowballs in his mouth and rip them apart. He had a great time playing outside with us too!

We are really blessed. I am so grateful for our home and our family. The picture below was taken last night. It reminded me of the dog poker painting.

Arkhon's a good sport.

Game time!

Happy New Year!

I haven't written any goals yet. That's tomorrow's goal, I think.

He loves his dog. Happy New Year!

I am pretty ashamed of myself though. I only blogged 6 times in December. I can try to make excuses for that, but honestly, I could have done better.

*Raises a glass of Martinelli's* Here's to a better blogging year (and videos)!

I am going to have some exciting goals this year. The most immediate one, is to buy a home.

Yes, we have found our home. Following the inspection next week, and barring any serious problems, we will be settling in this home February 13ish. That's almost my birthday, and it may be the only present I'm getting!

Happy birthday to me!

A couple of other things I've learned about buying a home. Earnest money has to be submitted usually within four days of accepting the offer or counteroffer. Once that happens, things move fairly quickly, though if you are getting a loan, you have to wait for approval.

It is an awesome home, and we are very excited about it.

Also, inspections and appraisals are not the same thing. Inspections are paid for by the buyer, while appraisals can be negotiated to be paid by the seller. If the appraisal finds something wrong, it has to be fixed before the  loan will accept the home. However, if the inspection finds something wrong, it is up to you how you deal with it. Hopefully neither will find anything seriously wrong.

Soon, this boy will be sleeping in his new bedroom. (And yes, they are both asleep in this picture).

Our puppy is growing up. Arkhon is almost six months old now, and as tall as Dakota. She's twice as heavy as him still, especially with her fur grown in, but his stilt-like legs move him faster than light.

We had some pretty awesome snowstorms around Christmas, and the dogs loved it. Kevin hasn't been enjoying the cold as much, but hopefully it will snow enough here so that we can go sledding sometime.

Ah, my snow dogs.

I'd like that.

I've also finally figured out where the first book in my series is going to end! This was the book I worked on for Nanowrimo, but the problem was that the plot is super-long. So, I was trying to figure out where to end the first book so that it would have a conclusion, but still be exciting. I think I figured it out, and it's really not very far away from where I'm writing. That means my first draft is about done! Whoohoo. I'm motivated to start writing again. Sometimes not knowing when you're ending is as bad as not knowing where you're going. I knew where my book was heading, but I just didn't know where it was ending.

 A lot of exciting things are happening, and hopefully by the end of next month we'll be in our new home.

Here's the goal of writing every day, Monday through Friday, again. I'm going to do it!

Hooray for a new year with new opportunities. When I tell you my new goals, I will also make an accounting of my goals from last year.

We're Making an Offer

So, as of today, we are officially making an offer on a home.

We went to look at one of the homes again last night. It was the home we felt the best about, and as we were looking in the backyard, snow was finally falling from the sky and a hawk landed in the tree next door. That was pretty cool. It was our first really good snow storm this year. Hopefully it doesn't all melt.

The hawk is in the center of the picture

We feel pretty good about this home we're looking into, and if they accept our offer, we will get an inspection done. We don't really want to pay for an inspection if they won't consider our offer.

If the inspection tells us things we don't like about the house, we can keep looking. This is our favorite home so far. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms. It has a large garage and two storage sheds. Part of the backyard is completely fenced in, which is great, and means we can take our time saving up to fence in the rest of the yard.

The house does have a few problems, but it's nothing too serious or that would need to be fixed immediately. It's in pretty good shape.

We're pretty excited about it, and we've been praying a lot. We feel like we could afford the mortgage payments, and with a USDA loan, we wouldn't need to pay a down-payment.

With any luck, but this time next month we'll be in a new home. That would be awesome anyway.

Thank you for your prayers. We know we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, and I know part of that is because of prayers on our behalf.

We'll keep you informed.

What to Do When Trapped in the House?

Snow can be a wonderful thing.  People love to ski, sled, and play in it.  Having grown up in the west my whole life, snow was a common sight.  From the months of September through April, we usually had snow on the ground.

I love snow for Christmas, and I really like the first few snowfalls.  I love really, really deep snow.  However, after five or six months, I usually start getting a little tired of it.  By that point, it usually gets black, hard, and disgusting.  The February through April snow if often too stubborn to melt, but not good enough to do anything else with.  It basically becomes frozen mud-ice.

I am pretty excited today, because it is snowing right now.  I'm excited for Kevin to learn to play in the snow.  I'm excited to take him sledding and to build snowmen with him.  

The snow has come pretty late this year.  Usually by Halloween, there is already snow on the ground and we are already half-way through November.  The snow might be around to stay.

Which brings up a new difficulty.  Usually, when Kevin and I get bored, we head outside.  We go on walks or go play on the playground.

Kevin is too young to enjoy some indoor activities, but too old to keep his attention on things for long.  Some days I am struggling to find age-appropriate things for us to do together.  Especially when I'm trying to get things done.

I would love to hear some ideas that other people have had to activities to do with an eleven-month-old who can walk.

We play soccer and we play with toys a bit, but I'm running out of ideas. He likes to help clean and do dishes, but often 'helping' turns into 'getting hurt' or 'not helping'.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions that have worked for you.  Otherwise, it's going to be a long winter.

First Snow...(Kind of)

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Kevin has a great time with the first snowfall that he can remember.