Snow, Snow, Snow!!!

We have lived in a lot of snowy places: Idaho, Utah, and Pennsylvania to name a few. It did snow a few times in Washington, but I haven't decided if the snow we got there really deserves to be put in the same category. In the one winter we were there, we probably got 3 inches of snow. Total. But, I guess, snow is snow. Come to find out that in Illinois, snow is here too and LOTS of it! We got dumped on the last day and a half with over 10 inches of snow and although that means lots of shoveling, unless you have a handy snow blower or a husband who isn't lazy, and a lot of fun for a couple of kids to play in. We are just glad that it finally warmed up from the frigid temperatures we were having so it could snow!

I took Caleb out this morning to give him the wonderful experience of snow. He wasn't quite sure of how he felt about it. I sat him down in it and he just sat there. I'm sure it's hard to move around in a huge snow suit anyway, but he just didn't know what else to do. When he fell over and laid down, he didn't like that at all. That was the only thing he was absolutely sure of.

Brandon, on the other hand, can't get enough of the white stuff! All suited up, he charged on out to see just how deep the snow really was. He was amazed to find that it was knee-deep (to him, it came up to my calves) and that he had to push his way through it. He helped me shovel for a little while, deciding that the grass, trees, and bushes also needed to be cleared off. He finally decided that jumping off the "mountains" of snow we made could be a lot more fun and rolling around was even better.

Kelsie had pajama day at school, so she trudged off into the winter wonderland with Wally this morning in her pj's and boots (no, we didn't forget the coat, hat, and gloves). She appeared to have been fine when we picked her up from school this afternoon in the same get-up and walked through the unplowed streets to get home. What a trooper!

Wally, unfortunately, was unable to bike into work today and since our car was covered with snow, ended up walking. He has yet to come home, but since he has such a special person in his life (who is NOT lazy I might add) shovel the sidewalk, at least he will have an easy walk once he gets close to home.

I really don't mind the snow. I love it when it snows a lot and it just seems peaceful outside. It really is a beautiful thing. The best part after a cold day out in the elements is coming inside to a nice warm cup of hot chocolate that really hits the spot.



Unless you don't have any.





And you can't go anywhere because there is 10 inches of snow outside.

In Sweet Memory

President Gordon B. Hinckley, Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away last night at home. President Hinckley is a remarkable person and when I think about all he has accomplished in his life, it amazes me. My faith and testimony have been strengthened by his teachings. You can read about his life here and the great service that he gave to the church and the people throughout the world.

I look forward with faith for our next prophet, but until then, I am reminded of this special man and all he did with his life. Thank you, President Hinckley, for your unselfish service and example for all of us to follow.

Baby, it's COLD outside!

We have now lived in Evanston for just about 3 weeks and have been hit with some very harsh weather. Last Saturday, we had a hi temperature of 7 degrees, but with the factored-in wind chill, it really felt like -18 degrees! It was so cold that when we woke up in the morning, ice had formed on the INSIDE of the window, not just the outside. Wally showed the kids how to breath on the ice to melt it and then watch it refreeze in less than 1 minute! Kelsie and Brandon thought it was so fun and exciting to melt the ice and watch it freeze again. Wally was so excited and happy to watch their interest in this new phenomenon! We took a short video to share the excitement with all of you.

With such frigid temperatures over the weekend, we decided to make Saturday a family day where we each picked the one thing we wanted to do the most! Brandon, of coarse, chose to watch the rest of Star Wars, Episode 1, The Phantom Menace from the night before. Happy that the Republic regained Naboo and peace was once again restored in the galaxy (at least for now), we moved on to a riveting game of telephone, Kelsie's choice. Remember that game from elementary school? We sat in a circle and the "operator" whispered a message to the person on their right until the message got to the end where it was announced to the group. It was lots of fun to hear how the message came out at the end! After telephone, we played Wally's game of choice, Scrabble, Jr. When our game was finished, Wally braved the elements and ran out to the grocery store and then came home and made homemade pizza for dinner.

The rest of the weekend didn't warm up too much. We discovered just how cold it was outside on Sunday morning when Wally went to turn on the shower before church and nothing came out! Our pipes froze overnight and we weren't able to de-thaw them before church. Needless to say, we went to church stinky and smelly. We were able to hide it pretty well, I think, since people sat next to us and were still interested in getting to know us!

A close-up view of the ice formations on our window.

Despite our freezing weekend, we are still adjusting to our new home and area that we live in. For the most part, things are going well. We are all feeling better from being sick when we moved in. Kelsie is enjoying her new school and is making some new friends. Brandon has enjoyed his new Primary class and has a new friend at church too. Caleb is oblivious to our change and has adjusted well to his new surroundings. I thought I'd leave you with a short, quick video of Caleb's new funny face that he makes. It just makes us smile and thought you would too.

Tag-A-Long

I was tagged by a good friend and now I guess it is my turn to tell 6 facts about myself. I will try to make this as interesting as possible.

First, though, here are the RULES:

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog....

1. I'm not bossy, I just have great ideas. We'll just leave it at that.

2. I love to travel and am (usually, if not always) up for a new adventure. It wasn't until we lived on the East Coast that I realized how much I like to travel around and explore new places. I am someday hoping to travel overseas to Europe and Australia. In addition to traveling, I love to find and do fun adventures with our family. I am pretty good at finding local things to participate in (Family Bike Race, Turkey Trot 1-Mile Fun Run).

3. I love getting sucked into a good book, the kind that is hard to put down until you're done with it. That's how I read the Harry Potter series.

4. I love to learn new things. My latest interest is with photography. It has always been something I have been interested in and, this last year, started to read books and apply the things that I have learned. I have dreams of being a great photographer someday.

5. I always have an opinion and am not afraid to speak my mind (in most circumstances). I am pretty quiet and reserved when you first meet me, but once you get to know me, it's hard to keep me quiet. No reservations after that, baby.

6. I have dreams of someday completing a marathon and triathlon. I haven't had much luck the last couple of years when I broke my left ankle, had a stress fracture in my right leg, and then was pregnant with Caleb. I am now getting to the point where I can really focus and concentrate again and hope that all will go well this time! I really love to stay healthy and feel great when I am in a good routine.

7. (Lucky you, you get one more!) I love to have fun! Who doesn't?

Well, there you go. Hopefully there was something new about me that you didn't already know! That was fun, wasn't it?


I am going to tag Shayne, Melissa, Courtney, Maria, Wally, and Katy.

Life Moves On: Pictures

Our good friends, the Nichol's

This is Wally outside our hotel room in Evanston, WY making sure everything was good on the car for the night. Look at all that snow!


While Wally was outside braving the elements, we were inside watching Night at the Museum with Grandpa, at least we thought Grandpa was watching!


This is the nice tow truck man who helped get our truck started again in 10-degree weather. He's our new superhero.


This is the blowing snow across Wyoming that made me fee like we were driving through the clouds.


Mom and Brandon having fun passing the time while waiting for the tow truck.

We stopped at the World's Largest Truckstop in Iowa on I-80. Go figure.

Kelsie and Brandon waiting in the car during a pit stop.

Wally tried to grow a beard in honor of our friends in Wyoming. It's pretty good for a week, don't you think?

Life Moves On: Part 2

OUR MOVE

The night we packed our 26' Penske truck (which we were sure that we wouldn't come close to filling it, but we were proven completely wrong) was cold and rainy. A friend from Wally's work came to help along with some people from our ward. We finally got most everything into the truck with some in the cab. Then the cleaning began. Given the condition of our place when we moved in last year, we figured we didn't have a whole lot of cleaning to do, but we did a good job anyway and were very grateful for the friends that came the next morning to help us finish. We left our old home in better condition than when we moved into it. Lucky(?) for us, the day that we drove out of Richland, we were just behind a storm and right in front of another one. When we checked the road conditions that morning, the interstate was closed so we ended up waiting for a few hours for the roads to open up. We left around 1 pm hoping to make it to Boise, ID for the night (about 5 hours away). We didn't quite make it to Boise and since it started to snow, we stayed the night in Ontario, OR.

The next morning, we started again on our way and were hoping to make it to Utah that night. Our good friends, the Nichol's, were visiting family in Boise when we drove through so we decided to stop and see them for a little bit. It is always lots of fun to see them when we do and it was well worth the stop. We were able to make it to Utah that night but not without a little excitement. Driving through the pass from Idaho to Utah, we ran into some bad weather and ice on the roads and then there was snow, snow, snow the rest of the way. We stayed the night with Wally's brother, Christian, and his family that night and picked up his Dad who drove the rest of the way with us.

We left Bountiful, UT early Sunday morning not quite sure of the weather, but figured it was better to get on the road than wait around for another storm to hit. We drove to Evanston, WY through some pretty bad weather. There was packed snow and ice on the roads and we couldn't drive faster than 35 m.p.h. most of the way over the mountains. By the time we got to Evanston, I-80 was closed and everyone had to exit. We spent some time in the McDonald's playland for the kids and then got a hotel room and spent the rest of the day and night there. It was so cold and windy there that the temperatures fell well below zero and when we got up the next day to leave, our good old Penske wouldn't start. Thanks to the tow truck drivers and a little additive to the fuel tank (and an hour and a half later) we were on our way. As we drove through Wyoming and into Colorado, there was a lot of blowing snow and ice on the roads, but at least the skies were clear and we didn't run into any more problems, with the weather anyway. About an hour away from Grandma and Grandpa Paxton's house the engine light in our car came one. Our hopes of getting up and leaving early the next day were not exactly going to pan out as planned.

We got to Broomfield and Grandma Paxton had a nice warm pot of stew waiting for us with some hot chocolate. We tried to stay up to ring in the new year with everyone, but exhaustion overtook us and we wished everyone a "Happy New Year and Goodnight" at 10 p.m. The next morning, Wally took the car in to be checked (bless Advance Auto Parts for being open at 7:30 am! on New Year's Day) and the problem had to do with the oxygen sensor (not the fuel injector like I thought and told everyone else) so we didn't really have to do anything, but Wally did put an additive in the tank to help clean out the fuel injector (I guess I was right about something). We were on our way again by noon. We stopped in North Platte, NE for a nice little dinner at KFC, compliments of Grandpa Paxton and then to the Roadway Inn in Grand Island, NE. Here's all I'm going to say about Nebraska: it was freezing cold, it is one long state, and the Roadway Inn is NOT my first choice of lodging from here on out. Fortunately for us, we didn't run into any bad weather after Denver, it was just COLD! We drove to Iowa the next day and stayed with Wally's brother, Richard, and his family in Ames. We were there the day before the Iowa Caucus' so it was an exciting time to be there. We could have gone to a rally for Mitt Romney or any of the other campaigns if we wanted to, but we just didn't have the energy. Kelsie and Brandon really enjoyed playing with their cousins and trying out their new Wii System.

After a great night sleep (thanks to some Tylenol PM) and the last few hours of our journey, we made it to the great state of Illinois and our new home in Evanston. We did make a brief stop so Wally's dad could visit with some old friends from Argentina that he hadn't seen in a long time. With our stomach's full and happy to finally be here, we met our landlord and unloaded our giant truck and started unpacking. And that pretty much brings us up to date, we're still unpacking and getting used to our new place and city.

Life Moves On: Part 1

We finally made it to Chicago and have started unpacking and getting our lives back in order. I have a lot to catch up on so I'll have to rewind back to Christmas.

Our highlights from Christmas:

Brandon woke up just before 6 a.m. to ask if it was time to see what Santa brought. In an effort to keep him from waking everyone else up, we told him it wasn't time to get up yet and that he had to wait until 7. So, he climbed into bed with Wally and watched the clock and announced the time, "Dad it's 6:01...dad, it's 6:02....dad, it's 6:03....". This went on for about 5 minutes and then I'm not sure what happened since I went back to sleep after that.

The kids all had a good time opening presents and were, for the most part, pleasantly surprised. Kelsie loves her new Hannah Montana microphone and scrapbooking kit. Brandon had tons of fun setting up his new hot wheels track and playing star wars with Dad's new lightsaber (a red one, which Santa brought to go along with Brandon's blue one). Caleb wasn't so sure about anything and quite frankly wanted to go back to sleep after all the commotion. We think he likes his new walker and balls that he got, but I guess only time will tell.

Wally and I had a nice Christmas too, until 12 p.m. when we took everything down and packed up the rest of our house. Unfortunately for us, it didn't feel too much like Christmas after that, but I insisted keeping the tree up for one more day just to hopefully feel like it was still Christmas (by the way, it didn't last very long and was gone the next day).

We were invited to some friends house for Christmas dinner that night which was a whole lot better than what we were going to eat (top ramen and leftover food in the fridge). We had a fun time visiting and playing a new game with them.

We had a really good Christmas and enjoyed as much of the season as we could, considering our big move. We thank all our friends and family for helping make our Christmas so special!