Week ending 1-30-22 Walks and forts in the woods, mission papers are in!

 This was a normal week of school and rehearsals a few evenings. The afternoons were between 40-60 so we played outside and came in at 5 when the lights come on for dinner. 

Last Sunday: Going for a walk after zoom church to get out of the house. It's been a week since storm Izzy and we still had a thin layer of snow and ice in the woods.

I love walking with Tilly. We held hands and walked around our yard and through the garden, talking about what we can plant in the spring. Then we walked through the woods and talked about how we walked through them last week when it was starting to snow and how magical they seemed. She loves chatting and loves asking for her picture to be taken.

This is my hiking trail I hike several times a week.

Talea's favorite tree she likes to climb up/stand on.

We came out of the woods and looked at the garden and fruit trees some more. It's amazing how different winter is from summer. Hard to imagine how overgrown it gets when nothing is growing now except some herbs and garlic.

Thomas playing Snap 'N Style dolls with Makenna and Talea.

Alexis's pretty hair as she heads off for a girls' camp meeting.

I loved listening to these 4 do activities in the friend for a whole hour.

Monday: Andy and Talea washing their dishes.

Coloring before bedtime.

Hooray for a warm day! I sent this to Lori and told her to come over! It was 1 degree in Iowa and she was happy it was above zero.

Carving wands.

Tilly hanging out with me while I cut wood.

Makenna showing me her fort.

Showing me inside. Sam is showing where he sleeps.

Looking to see how tall the trees are.

Wednesday: Goofing off instead of doing school.

I walked outside to bring wood in and saw two kids "sleeping" in the yard.

They said they were going camping.

Thursday: Having a little tea party. Tilly always asking for her picture to be taken. :)

Makenna cut herself and it wouldn't stop bleeding for a long time.

After we got it slowed down she went to the playroom and showed me where it happened.

She was cutting this box with her pocketknife scissors to make a box for her wands.

Such a tiny cut for bleeding for 15 minutes. She's a good bleeder. She'll be able to donate blood fast one day.

Madalyn's mission papers are in!!! When she told me I dogpiled her and couldn't stop hugging her. Then I told everyone else to come hug her. She submitted them last January and ran into delays which turned into a full year as she got busy with school and work and changing student wards. So I told her to move home at Christmas and we'd get right on it and get them submitted quickly. She had to redo the doctor, dentist, and bishop/stake president interviews since they were all a year old, and she ran into several obstacles but we persevered and they are back in to mission headquarters!

Talea's pictures she's drawn me lately and hung on my bedroom wall. They are always of me and her. She's quite the artist (always drawing) and super sweet.

Friday: Tilly and I taking a walk to the mailbox. This is the last of the snow on our driveway from 2 weeks ago and we expected more that night but only got an inch.

A worker at the Mill Creek Store took this of Talea holding some raw chocolate milk. I hadn't combed her hair in a few days so I wasn't going to take one, but oh well. I was taking the kids to rehearsal and she decided at the last minute to come with me or else I would have combed it.

Saturday: Playing school cafeteria. Kaitlyn made them quesadillas and had assembly line of toppings and sides.

They get backpacks and lunch bags and pretend to go to school and eat in a cafeteria.

Week ending 1-23-22 Snowed in

Sunday we got hit by winter storm Izzy. Church was canceled so we stayed home and watched it. Then school/seminary/bookmobile/rehearsal/church again was canceled for the whole week. Our driveway is steep and I was scared to try getting out, not wanting to get stuck or slide our new van into a ditch so soon after crashing our old van, so we were pretty much snowed in. We had a great week doing school extra thoroughly, hanging out together, and playing in the snow and watching Facing the Giants for our Friday movie party. We cleaned most of Saturday and had a fun work party.

Watching the snow come down.

Makenna soaking wet from the sleet and freezing rain that fell in between snowfalls.

They tried making a big snowman but never could lift one snowball onto the other.

Talea and Kaitlyn playing out there.

Alexis and I walked up to the road to see how it was faring. Looks like they plow it but it was awfully icy in a lot of places and getting down to the 20's every night made it unsafe for buses so they canceled schools all week. This is looking down Willis Gap from our mailbox across the street.

Looking up (left) from our mailbox.

Our driveway from our mailbox across the street. Covered with snow and some slick, icy spots.

The pasture and woods on the right going down our driveway. It had looked pretty when it first snowed but then it was windy and sleeted a while and all the snow fell off the trees.

Stopping mid hill going home and turning around to take a picture going up.

Looking down the driveway.

Alexis is sooo fun to walk with!

The bottom of our driveway.

Alexis wanted these pictures of our woodpile in the snow. The country life I've always dreamed of!!

My phone said we got 7.8" but we didn't measure that. Only 3" in most places and 7 in places where the wind blew it around the trees and in the ditches. But we did get a lot of freezing rain and sleet for several hours and our watering can was completely full so I guess we got 7" of precipitation.

Monday: Kids randomly holding hands and singing at the dinner table. I love my kids!

Sam and Andy trying to break through the crusty snow.

Tuesday: For history we reenacted a tiny part of Valley Forge. We hiked, talked about the log structures they built, ate lunch in the snow, learned military maneuvers from Von Steuben until we were freezing, then hiked home. Sam and Andy didn't wear coats (they have one coat they share and neither decided to wear it), Andy didn't wear gloves, and he wore holey athletic shoes without socks so he got to get a taste of what some of the soldiers went through without shoes or gloves.

I loved seeing animal tracks everywhere!

Most of the snow was so frozen the tracks were all on top of the snow.

Eating a pot of beans I cooked and brought along. I also brought a gauze blanket with hardtack, dried beef, and dried fruit wrapped up in it.

Makenna and Talea.

There was a thick layer of ice under the top inch of snow and in some places the snow was so hard we didn't even break through it, but walked on top of it.

My 5 elementary school kids. I love them!

Maneuvering carefully down the steep hill.

At home we wrote diary entries or letters home to loved ones about our experience in Valley Forge.

Wednesday: Backing our new van out of the barn and seeing if we can drive up our driveway. It took 30 minutes to get from the barn to where we usually park because the wheels kept spinning. Our neighbor came over with his 4 wheel drive hay truck and paved a way for us to get out. I drove behind him at full speed and made it up the slipperiest parts. I was scared I'd get stuck or land our new car in a ditch but I'm glad I didn't! I left the van at the end of the road and the FedEx man left our packages in it as I'd ordered dish soap and paper towels.

Hiking through the snowy woods. It's such a different experience than in summer.

One of our little springs still running.

I can't wait to see the rhododendron and mountain laurel to bloom in spring.

View from the trailhead at the edge of the woods.

Kids building a fort which later turned into a soccer goal.

Still puzzled over how to lift the snowballs to make a snowman, we decided to just make it stairs but never did finish it. It was still fun to play outside with no time constraints and do whatever we felt like.

Thursday: Playing soccer with Thomas. He was so cute with his pink cheeks and blue-gray shirt and the blue mountains behind him. I couldn't get a good picture since we were playing soccer but I made some good memories.

Talea was watching from the playroom so I told her to come out and be my goalie.

Balancing the soccerball on the small snowman after the game.

Walking to the mailbox to check on road conditions. Still icy in some parts when it's in the 20's but most of the day it looked fine. We didn't have anywhere to go though. Church was canceled today too.

Tilly splashing in the puddles.

Samuel and Makenna reading together before bed.

Friday: Alexis got a package from a friend in Utah! So sweet. And it's this friend's birthday too! Before delivering it, the UPS driver, Scott, messaged me to see if my driveway was safe. I love it! Then he hung out and chatted awhile, catching each other up on our families as he hasn't been by since before Christmas. I love rural workers! That reminds me, also our garbage man came by on Friday (he walks to the back of our house to get our trash) and said he misses our slack line/jungle gym we took down for the ice storm and said we should get a zipline. I told him we have one but haven't put it up and he turned off his truck and said he'd help us put it up. I still haven't decided where to put it but he hung out going over options and offered to build a tree house too. 

Annual letters to Todd (D. Todd Christofferson) for his birthday.

This one is Tilly's.

Makenna's

Kaitlyn's

Alexis's

Saturday: We went through all our shoes to see if we had any for Kaitlyn. Her feet are now just a tad bigger than Alexis's. She's growing fast this year!

Kait and Kenna playing and laughing.

Talea wanting her picture in front of our new van after our walk to the mailbox.