A weekend with the cousins

The Kids had a cousin weekend. On Friday night we kept Isaiah and Alyssa and then Kristi and Billy kept our two on Sunday night. It was a weekend of fun for everyone! Alyssa was too young to play on the fallen tree so Breck is going with her to play on the swingset!

How Precious are they!!

They thought they'd heard the ice cream truck in the neighborhood so they sat waiting for him on the edge of the driveway but he never came. So Billy went to town to buy them their own ice cream and they had a picnic under the "old oak tree". Not sure that Isaiah wants Breck to feed him his ice cream!

Kisses Anyone??

It all began with Kristi trying to give Alyssa a Kiss and I'm not sure she wanted one..

but she successfully gave her brother a kiss!Those of you that know Breck know he cannot refuse the opportunity to pass along his kisses which became quite hysterical on this particular day!

I'm not sure he was ever successful but he tried really hard!

xoxoxoxo

All in a matter of days

All in a matter of days... as I compare the pictures from the last blog entry when it was so cold and frozen and then these pictures of blue skies it amazes me in such a short time our world can change so quickly! Last week we were cuddled inside around the fireplace staying warm and this week we played outside and enjoyed the spring like weather. Yesterday Jeff's basketball girls came over to help clean up after the ice storm.. what a blessing (and I didn't take any pictures) but they did great work in a just a couple hours!

Last Friday some of my family came to town during the ice storm, which as I mentioned in the previous post that it was a sweet blessing in the midst of our weariness from surviving the elements! They were only here for a quick 3 1/2 days but we enjoyed every minute of it. I sure didn't take very many pictures though to capture it all but here are a few!

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY TO THE LITTLE PRICESS

We had a fun family celebration in honor of Alyssa, in the picture below Breck had made her a special crown for her big day!

We all loved having Josh back in town for a few days. We miss him! It was fun to get to meet Morgan and have her and Joah be a part of the family happenings as well.
Papa George and boys racing their motorcycles

After church on Sunday Grammy and Papa helped begin the cleaning up process! Thanks for your help.. and this picture even makes it look like we got the branches to burn but don't let us fool you.. we even dumped fire starter on it and it wouldn't burn.. too wet and too new of wood.
Kacey and Grammy are stacking the wood that's been cut up! We have a whole new supply of wood that will last us for years to come!

We did discover that we had some roof damage and Kacey crawled up on the roof with me to help assess the damage! My child who is afraid of dogs and cats is not afraid of roof tops!

Suriviving a National Disaster with gratitude!

Here are a few pictures for our friends and family who live far away and did not get the privilege of seeing this in person!! We found ourselves very grateful despite enduring crashing noises all around us every 30 seconds and no electricity for five days. We did have a couple big branches that hit our roof and did some damage but it was very minimal and is already repaired. Otherwise the best way I can describe it is that it looks like a tornado swirled around our house and took out whole trees, tops of trees and many large branches. The kids' trampoline was ruined in the storm which was so sad for both of them and Kacey lost a little dogwood tree she has been nurturing for the past four years when a huge oak tree fell on it. Despite it all we stopped to count our blessings and amongst them were dear friends and family who checked on me daily while Jeff was away, uno, a small battery operated radio, Kai who restocked my wood supply, the Hydes who offered us lunch and a shower, having my parents and brother come to visit.. What a great distraction that was! getting to have a slumber party in the living room for five nights, a night out at Kristi's, laughter, and ultimately Gods protection!

Jeffrey worked diligently on Wednesday morning before leaving for his Texas trip to cut down all the trees and branches in our way so that we could get out of the neighborhood.

Daddy's little helper

We were so grateful for our woodburning stove to not only heat the house but to help feed our tummy's. This night we roasted hotdogs and marshmellows and got to eat them in our beds! We also used our pie makers to make scrambled eggs and sausage one morning for breakfast.

The Kids made Icicle Soup for fun one day
Kacey was often up at midnight! But on this particular night she needed a midnight snack by the heat of the stove!