Its Been A Little Cold and Dark Around Here

It has been a crazy couple of days around here. Here is an update on what I can recall :)

**Random: Creighton is 1 year, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day old TODAY! :)

Friday:

Jeff had a long day at work! My mom came to get Jackson for her toddler cooking baking ("bate too-eys wit rends (friends)") extravaganza. They had a blast and Jackson's cookies were very festive! He spent the night with them and they took him to Silver Dollar City in Branson all day on Saturday. Jeff and I had "Elder/Staff Christmas Party" that night and it was fun but long. The food was good this year (because it wasn't "fancy" food, but rather just normal and really good)! I had to leave early to go get Creighton from the church and then we came back and it finally ended at 10:30ish or so. But it was fun and I ended up with movie tickets ($20) and Jeff ended up with Williams Sonoma peppermint bark (which he wasn't happy with, but I LOVE)...so it all works out, because I am sure he'll steal my movie tickets.

Saturday:

I had a volleyball tournament from 9a-4p in Bville to help raise money for the YMCA. It was really fun and my team ended up winning the whole thing! It was funny because it was a co-ed tournament but our team consisted of only women playing on a men's net...but it apparently didn't stop us! I am SOOO sore from this day! That evening Creighton and Jeff and I hung out and had a good time. It is amazing the difference in only having one kid to care for! Man...it was so much easier! Her personality just is so fun (most of the time) and sometimes that gets overshadowed by having both of them...a good reminder to (even now) start spending one-on-one time with them regularly!

Sunday:

Our power began to come on and off throughout the early morning and then went off completely for several hours during the morning through afternoon. Jeff was at church and I was trying to keep Creighton busy and warm. Thankfully we have a gas water heater and a gas stove so I was able to still put some soup on to warm and Creighton and I took a hot shower (but i forgot I wasn't going to be able to dry my hair :( which was maybe not the smartest thing afterall). The power was on and off throughout the afternoon/evening but mostly on I think...its hard to remember. My parents brought Jackson hom that evening which was good to see him. He is so fun right now. He talks constantly and is getting so helpful and big! It was so icey at that point. My dads car (huge heavy Tahoe) slide OUT of the driveway in park with the Emergency break on! That night was quite the crazy night becasue the power kept going on and off and finally we just got both of them in bed with us and that was better because I wasn't worrying about them being cold. But I didn't sleep much at all and I truly thing Creighton nursed for like 9 straight hours...or used me as a pacifier, one. We woke up to crazy crazy ice everywhere...

Here is a picture Jeff took. I love the details that the ice formed around. It was so funny...like every blade of grass has its own ice surrounding it. It was cool looking...except our tree in our backyard fell on our house!Monday:

No school...pretty bummed about that, but then again, Grace closed the offices so Daddy was home with us, so it worked out! Our power was out for a majority of the day though so we made a tent and built a fire to stay warm (in our living room). It worked except the kids didn't want to stay in there for anything...unless of course we wanted to the to do something outside of the tent nad thats all they wanted to do was BE IN the tent...it was a crazy day trying to keep them occupied and warm and me not go totally stir crazy!Brittany, Jeff's associate, didn't have power either and doesn't live very far so she came over for a bit and by the time she got here, we ended up getting our power back on. Then some of our other neighbors came over and that was fun. We played games and stuff till like 1am. They all went home and thankfully had power. We lost power a few more times that evening/night, but after 1am it has been on since! (Praise God!)

Tuesday:

We all slept really well! I think we were all so tired, finally warm, and I wasn't worried for once about them, that we all slept till 9:45! Creighton finally slept through the night for me! Jackson came and got in our bed at 7, but went right back to sleep! IT was fantastic!!!! However, Jeff just assumed the roads would be bad, but they weren't this morning and everyone was at the office and he'd missed his 9am meeting...oh well. He went in for about an hour and then came hom and we've had youth over ever since. Creighton and I went to Walmart--um...seriously...you'd think it was Black Friday or something....there were a million people there and the lines were SO long. If I didn't desperately need bread and diapers, I would have ran out the other door and never turned back, but luckily I remembered a little "trick of the trade" and checked out in the garden area and was out in no time at all (there were only like 3 people in line down there). I am hoping to get out and go to the YMCA tonight to workout and let the kids get some social interaction with other kids (just in case they dont' have school tomorrow). My parents have been without power for since Sunday night and they aren't expecting it to get back on till next week becasue there are so many outages all over Tulsa and the surrounding areas. I am so thankful that ours is on! I pray it remains on throughout the day and night (and forever, I guess !) :)