Snow Bunnies

 Well, we have had quite the weather around here! 10 days after Hurricane Sandy came through we had a Nor'easter hit us. Prior to when it hit they had just forecast rain and wind for our area.....we ended up with 8 inches of snow! It was crazy and so fun for my boys. I'm so glad they got to play in the snow. This wet, heavy New England snow is perfect for snow balls, sledding, and snow men! I remember last year being a little disappointed in Boise because the snow was so light and fluffy that you couldn't really even make a snowball. My boys loved throwing it at each other and Mom! It was one of my favorite days we've had in a while!

 Cold noses:

 They aren't having fun, are they?!

 Parker's version of a snow angel:

 Brody got the idea!

 We made their very first snow man. It was a small one because they were getting cold, but I still thought it was pretty cute. If only I had had a carrot.... Parker is mid-bite of snow. They both discovered that eating it was pretty tasty!

 Sledding was by far the biggest hit of the day! Behind our neighbors' house there is a little hill that was perfect for my age of boys. We did this for about an hour before I had to take Brody to school. I have a couple other great action shots, but you'll have to wait for your Christmas Cards for those! Preview:

Parker's wipeout: (may have something to do with his fist full of snow he didn't eat before trying to hold on to a sled!)

A compilation video of the boys sledding. Sorry it's a little shaky at the beginning, but you get the idea of the fun that was had! I'm actually really, really dreaming of a white Christmas. It may be the last one I can ever hope for! (I'm pretty sure it doesn't snow in Texas on Christmas) I would settle for at least one more snow storm. Come on mother nature.... (excuse the shortness of breathe from the photographer. We'd been out here for quite a while and guess who got to run the sled to the top of the hill every time? I got some extra exercise that's for sure!)

Just for recording purposes: Brody has been so funny with his requests for when we move. Recently he asked if he could have his own dresser so he didn't have to go into Parker's room to get his underwear. Today he asked that when we move to Texas we get a house with it's own mailbox that stands by itself. I love the things he notices that I would never think twice about. Hopefully we can make all his mailbox dreams come true! Oh, to be 5 again. :)

Parker is 3!

Parker man turned 3 year old this week. I can't believe it's been 3 years already, but at the same time he seems so much older than just 3. He makes us laugh constantly and really is just such a delightful (and mischievous) child. I hope I can give you a little glimpse into Parker at 3. :) This picture pretty much sums up little Parker lately:

 Rascal. I don't know if I've mentioned it here yet, but we've deemed 8p.m. on as "The Parker After Dark Show". You just never know what you're going to find! He takes a long time to unwind at night, so he just entertains himself a lot in his room. He goes to bed at the same time as Brody, but it isn't uncommon for him to play for a couple of hours before going to bed. On this particular occasion, he decided he didn't like his pajamas, took them off, and found something else to put on. At least he kept his pull-up on this time! Sometimes that comes off to! We find him asleep on the floor, behind the door, in the rocking chair, in the closet, etc. He also just really likes to talk at night. "Mom, I just want someone to talk to me." He then usually proceeds to say, "I just have one/two/five more questions." Tonight's questions were: "Isn't it funny that there are holes in both sides of my bed?", "Do you see the basketballs and footballs on my blanket?", "My froggy loves me, right Mom?", etc. on and on and on until I just have to tell him I have things I need to do and he needs to go to sleep. Then I walk away and smile to myself because I really do find him to be so funny.

The morning of Parker's birthday just so happened to be the first day that the trains were back up and running from being out from the storm. As a result, our whole family was up by 5:30 a.m. again. The boys came downstairs and Parker was so excited to open his presents that we let him open a couple. That way Jared got to be a part of it also! In the morning he just opened a little board game and some pretend Dr. tools that we played with the rest of the morning.

 After a while they decided they wanted to go to the park. We went but only lasted about 20 minutes because it was 30 or so degrees outside with a very cold wind. We were the only ones there and for good reason. It was way too cold to be outside for long. My chilly little boys still enjoyed it, though!

At about 10:30 we went to Costco and probably bought their first pizza of the day. When you wake up at 5:30, 10:30 seems like lunch time anyway! We all love Costco pizza, and Spiderman Parker was happy as a clam to be there. Parker loves to pretend, so it is also not uncommon to see him with some sort of mask, cape, etc. on pretending to be a superhero or a bad guy. There's another reason we were at Costco, but I'll get to that in a minute!

 After lunch, we went to a friend's house to play for a while as both the boys love their house. After our play date we went to the mall to go on a carousel ride. The mall nearby has a great 2-story carousel that they love! They always choose this spinning circle and gets going so fast. Thankfully none of us get motion sickness because I can imagine a lot of people would. It's a lot of fun!

 Now back to the reason we went to Costco in the first place (aside from lunch). Several months ago Parker saw a flower cake in the display case at Costco where you put in your order form. He wanted to eat the cake and I told him, "No Parker you don't have cake until it's your birthday." Well, he latched on to that idea and never forgot it. Every time I'd ask him what he wanted for his birthday, the only thing he gave me was, "a flower cake from Costco." I tried to talk him into lots of other kinds of desserts, but he was insistent that that was all he wanted for his birthday. So, I decided he could go ahead and have a Costco cake for his birthday, and he went with a dinosaur instead of flowers. Maybe he's discovered early his mom's lack of talent in the cake decorating department. :) Anyway, the problem with Costco cakes is that they are made to serve 48 people, not 4. We had a TON of extra cake, but thanks to the missionaries and a couple friends we got to give some of it away. It was really yummy, though! Even Jared who doesn't really care for cake liked it! Parker was a happy camper as you'll see from some of the pictures below. I bet you can't guess who's little finger that is trying to taste his long-awaited cake:

 Dad was taking too long getting changed after work and Parker was losing his patience. :)

 This is how he does "3" on his fingers:

 Finally!!!! I get my cake!!!!! (I LOVE this picture) haha!

 Since Mr. Parker likes to pretend so much lately we added tools and a Dr. kit to our toy collection.

 Also, a worker man vest and a lab coat with extra tools:

 Parker has historically not loved going to the Dr. (something to do with having a ton of ear infections as a baby until the magic that is ear tubes) so this little outfit had a two-fold purpose. I took him to his well-check this week and instead of running away when they called his name (as he's been known to do) he went right in with his lab coat on and tool bag in hand. The Dr. and nurse were both really tickled and were really sweet letting him "check" them out while the checked him out. It was really cute! Parker was really lucky because he got some really fun things from his Grandma's and Grandpa's and has been on Cloud 9 with this birthday stuff. Thank you so much!

 Listening to Dad

 Parker's other favorite thing to be: a worker man!

 Both the boys "working" on Dad. Parker was taking the saw to Jared's arm saying, "This doesn't hurt, right?" with a little smirk on his face. They've had so much fun!

 Dr. Brody :) 

Parker's other favorite things lately: anything chocolate, whatever Brody is playing with, football, basketball, soccer, nursery, building towers, running all day every day, pizza, ice cream, telling stories, and his Dad. He's a very sweet little soul and is the first to comfort anyone that is upset. We love him very much and wish you all got to know him like we do! 

A couple Brody notes while I'm writing them down: We watched "Arthur Christmas" tonight for a family movie night and at one point Brody got choked up and said, "This makes me want to cry!" It was a first for Brody to get teary at a movie and I thought it was really sweet. He is a very caring little boy. On that note, I forgot to write that on Halloween as soon as Brody got any chocolate from the Trunk or Treat he would tell Jared that that candy was for him to share with Mom. (He and Jared love all things fruity while Parker and I love all things chocolate) He has also decided that he wants to become a policeman---because they live at police stations. He's very big into "his job" around the house of keeping everyone in line. It's really cute and I appreciate his good example for his little bit crazy little brother. :) 

Just because they make me smile:

Happy Birthday Parker! We sure love you buddy!

Pledge of Allegiance Parker Style

I know I put this on my Facebook the other day, but I have a couple family members without Facebook who wanted to see Mr. Parker (aka Captain America) in all his patriotic glory. He is such a funny little guy. Yesterday he told me I was "insufferable" (when being checked out by my pretend Dr.) and that something our neighbor did was "really impressive!" We have a book called "A Visitor for Bear" that uses all of those words and it's just funny to hear him recite them in different contexts. This little boy REALLY likes to talk! It's hilarious and I love hearing what goes on in his little brain. He woke up in the middle of the night this week and told me he was having a dream in which he was wearing goggles, riding in a helicopter, and saving Brody from a knight! He then went right back to sleep. I wish I could just freeze him in time right now because he's so funny. We love you little guy!

The Calm Before the Frankenstorm....and then the Frankenstorm

To say we've had an interesting couple weeks is an understatement. I'll start off with what happened before Hurricane Sandy, aka Frankenstorm. I'll start with a wonderful Stake Conference that we had Oct. 21st. We had the privilege of having Elder D. Todd Christofferson come to our Stake and speak. It was a wonderful Conference and he spoke a lot about doing the little things that we're told to do and how it will help us to draw closer to the Lord. He mentioned that is seems like people don't do daily scripture study, prayer, FHE, etc. sometimes because they think that's too easy of an answer. He assured us that as we continue to do those things that we will have a clearer and better communication line with God. It was wonderfully uplifting and it was such a blessing to be able to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. Afterwards he got up and said that he saw a lot of children/young men/young women in the congregation and that he would love to shake their hands. We went and stood in line and we all got to shake his hand. It was the first time for all of us to meet an Apostle and I'm so grateful to have had that experience. I'm happy the boys got to also! I hope at least Brody will remember it. He is such a nice man and one of my favorite speakers!

  A few days later my sister Shannon and nephew Brendan came to visit. We had such a lovely time. We didn't do a lot entertainment wise, but we did have a great time just hanging out, talking, watching Downton Abbey, driving around, laughing at our kids, Halloween activities, etc. The boys all played together really well and I'm so glad they got a chance to spend time with their cousin. I loved having my sister come visit. There's really nothing like the comfort that comes when you're with your big sister! We took a couple pictures of the fall leaves and while I didn't know it at the time, it would be the last ones of the year (we didn't know about Frankenstorm yet!)

Taken outside the school Brody goes to a couple days a week:

Cute cousins playing in the leaves:

My little rascal:

Brody's school that used to be the high school. Wouldn't this be a fun high school?!

Picture from Shannon's phone:

Silly boys

Such a beautiful school, right? He loves going to "the big red school".

We took a drive out to the beach. This is Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk. I drove back by a couple days ago and it's no longer open, but this park is still there! I was a little worried it'd be gone.

One of the beautiful roads I get to drive on all the time. Unfortunately it now looks so sad because all the leaves were blown off and a huge amount of trees fell down.

I'm sure going to miss the fall next year, but I'm so grateful to have been able to experience so much of it this year.

We also got to go to our ward "Trunk or Treat". We didn't know it at the time, but this would be the extent of our Halloween celebration since Trick or Treating was cancelled on the actual Halloween because there were still so many downed power lines on the road and people without power. 

Parker was a very cute little Captain America:

Mr. Brendan was Green Lantern

Parker, Brendan, Brody, and their friend Chandler. It's tough to get 4 boys to look in the same direction and smile!

So we decided muscles were more fun!

Brody as Thor

Captain America climbed up on these chairs and was doing push-ups---to impress this little girl in our ward. It was hilarious! I had no idea this sort of thing started so early.

Donut eating contest:

I told Jared I thought Brody looked a lot like him in this picture (when his hair's grown out) and he quickly said, "It's the muscles, huh?" haha!!! 

Thor and Green Lantern

Now as we watched this Hurricane coming and seeing that it was going to be bad news for our area, Shannon left a day early to get out of town before she got stuck here for a while. It was a really good decision! We were told about all of the preparations that we needed to make and thankfully we made all of them early while the stores still had supplies, gas stations had gas, etc. Our weekend was actually pretty low key. I taught the last sharing time I'll teach while we live here, and we mostly just relaxed and got ready to be hunkered down for a few days. We were told to prepare for 7-10 days without power. A daunting task considering I don't think I've ever gone 24 hours without power, but we were ready just in case. Sunday night the winds started picking up some, but they weren't terrible. Monday came around and was pretty calm for the most part. Since we were on the north east side of the storm we ended up with less rain but the highest wind gusts. Mid-afternoon on Monday the wind really picked up. We could hear branches falling outside, but nothing terrible yet. Monday night was when things were the worst for us. The wind was absolutely howling outside our windows. It sounded like a train and our lights flickered for hours. We just knew we were going to lose our power any minute and the boys were so excited to get to use their glow sticks Mimi had sent them and eat the special snacks I bought for them for when our power went out. There is a very large tree right behind our place that had very large portions break off about 8 o'clock. It was actually really scary because you could hear this huge tree crack, crack, cracking and since it was pitch black outside you didn't know where it was going to fall. If it fell in the right way it would've landed right on top of us. We were so blessed. I can't even tell you how blessed we were. Out of my entire ward, only us and 2 other families that I know of kept their power. Everyone else lost theirs.

We slept in our warm beds and truthfully I felt (and still feel) guilty that all of these people around us were suffering and we were just fine. Extremely grateful, but yes guilty. Most people out here are on well water which means when their power goes out, they lose their water also. We were able to have several people come in and use our hot shower over the week and I was really grateful to be able to help out. I just wish I could do more. I drove down to the coast last Thursday to take the boys to the Children's Museum and the further south I went, the devastation got worse. SO many trees just completely broken or toppled on their side. I saw a house that had 4 trees that had fallen on it. Many roads were blocked because of downed trees and power lines everywhere. This is the road Jared takes to get to work:

Needless to say, he had to find an alternative route. On roads in every direction, this was a very common sight:

The tree that broke off right behind us. It's hard to tell from these pictures, but the branches were almost as large in diameter as the trunk of the tree. 

Our neighbors' front yard:

So many downed trees.

 This picture is interesting to me because that belongs on a power line somewhere, yet there are no power lines connected to it and I have no idea where that came from. It's really no wonder that some of the towns around us were 100% without power for days. 

 The pictures from the beginning of this post on the road were taken right here. The pictures were taken less than a week apart. Sandy definitely took the beautiful fall with it.

Our Bishop told us today that everyday this week he and all the other Bishops in the Stake have had a Conference call every day  with the Stake Presidency to discuss families with needs. He said that when they first talked, President Checketts asked if any of them had power. None of the Bishops or any member of the Stake Presidency had any. I just appreciate these men and their worry for all of us that they would put aside the needs of their own families to put relief efforts in place for the members of our Stake. I'm so grateful to be a part of a church organization that does so much to serve others as well as take care of its members. Today at church we only had Sacrament meeting since a lot of our members are still without power. It's been almost a week and the temperatures are freezing at night now. Thankfully I think most everyone we know now has access to a generator or are staying with others with power. I feel so bad for those people in NY and NJ that aren't too far from us and that are suffering. I wish I could drive them all up here to my house. Maybe I'll see what Jared says :) Anyway, it has definitely been a humbling experience. I know we need to be more prepared for emergencies and I fully plan on doing a better job so I can take care of my family as well as help those around me.

On a positive note for us, Jared got two days off of work and we got to spend a lot of quality family time together. We also have all been sleeping much better without the Metro North trains running by our house all night long. I believe they start back up again tomorrow, so we'll see if the boys still sleep. If anything it gave us hope for when we move. Just for documentation purposes, the only damage we had was actually to the interior of our car. It must have some sort of electrical glitch, because during the storm the windows rolled themselves down. Jared had noticed when he went out earlier in the day that they were rolled down, but he thought the kids had just been messing with the clicker or something (if you hold down our unlock, it rolls down the windows). He rolled them back up and came inside. Well, at 10:30 p.m. after the wind/rain had been blowing all day we looked outside to see what damage had been done in our parking lot. Jared then noticed that our car windows were down again! He went out, turned the car on, rolled them back up, then turned the car back off. As soon as he took the key out of the ignition, they rolled themselves out again. Now, we have a garage, but we had our boxes stacked up enough to give our other car space in the garage, but this car was about 6 inches longer. It took us about an hour to rearrange and bring in many boxes in order to fit the car in the garage while the wind gusts were blowing into our garage. It's more comical than anything as it's now dried out and of all days for the car to have an electrical glitch, it picked a doozy! I just bet we were quite the sight in our hoodies, etc. moving boxes in the middle of a hurricane. The windows are still unrolling themselves at night so it's a good thing we have the car in the garage. Crazy car with a mind of its own. 

Because that was all just so depressing, one last picture for this post. This cute cute boy had his last weekend as a 2 year old. It's going to be a fun week! :) 

It looks like we're about to get a nor'easter this week, so please say some extra prayers for those people without power!