And it keeps coming!

Snow, snow, snow and more snow. That was life has been like here. On the hill that I live on (about the size of Blackfoot) there are only two roads open for traffic, and chains are required (even if you have snow tires). The snow plows have been exclusively working on those two roads and none of the side roads have even seen a snow plow. Yesterday, my neighbors snow plowed my driveway twice. Each time getting rid of 5 inches of snow. I shoveled my walk and my neighbor's walk to see that 5 hours later you couldn't tell it had been touched. Last night at midnight I witnessed a crazy 4 wheeler-plow attempting to plow a path down the road our culdesac connects with.

This morning I woke up and could not tell where the driveways or sidewalks were. Yet again my neighbor came to my aid and have snow plowed my driveway again. Although I am humbled by their service, I won't be able to even get my car on the road because my car does not have 4 wheel drive and even if it did, it is too low to push through the two feet of snow on the roads. From what I hear from the neighbors, the snow plow is likely not to come through for 2 more days. Everyone in the neighborhood is outside working on the roads. The 4 wheeler-plow from last night is stuck in the middle of the adjacent road and my next door neighbor is outside with his turbo snow blower trying to clear a small path down our culdesac. I wonder when he is going to run out of gas.

I am running out of milk. I am guarding my 1 cup carefully from my kids. Asia is mad because I am not letting her have any milk. I have to go outside and clear the 2 feet of snow off my heat pump so it doesn't die. Maybe I can get my neighbor with four wheel drive and a large truck to pick me up some milk on his way home from work. My kids have snow coats but no snow pants and not the best gloves. I don't have any snow boots or adequate snow gloves. At least we have a snow shovel and a little bit of wood if our heat dies.

Also Tyler is stuck at the hospital. He was on call yesterday when all of this happened and will have to sleep at the hospital today, and maybe tonight again. The hospital is on Code D, which means no one leaves because there is no one that can get there to replace them in this disaster snow storm.

On the news they are saying that this is a record snowfall for a 24 hour period (I am glad I could come in time to see it j/k). The horrible winter last year has been surpassed in one day! And it just keeps coming!!!!!!

My backyard play structure covered with snow
My neighbor snow-blowing the road.

Winter is here

This year I was too late to do formal Christmas pictures so at 7:30pm I made them get all dressed up and bribed them with ice cream to get a decent photo op. I got about 3 good pictures.

2 days ago it finally snowed. My girls have been waiting so long. Every morning they look out the window waiting for the snow. As soon as it snowed, Kara was outside playing. She refused to come in (except for hot chocolate and then out again). I had to force her to come inside as it was getting dark, and I was afraid she would get frost bite. Asia is not as warm blooded as Kara. She will go outside for 5 minutes and then plead to come inside.

That night the temperature dropped to the negative teens! It has been so cold. It reminds me of Seattle when the whole city shut down because of the cold and the snow. Of course no one really insulates their house in Seattle. Here everyone is still going about their day despite the ARTIC WINDS. Even church today was packed!

This fall Asia loved piling up and jumping in the leaves from our Cherry tree.



We went home for thanksgiving this year and had a blast with the whole family. I caught these picture before we left. I am sad that I am not able to go home for Christmas. I hope I will not be too homesick.

Silly kids!

Happy Halloween!

Our pumkins. We got them carved (decorated) just in time for Halloween. I was the only one who wanted to cut and gut the pumpkin. My girly-girls were too disgusted.

Hannah Montana! When we got to school Kara's teacher laughed. She told me that Kara has been drawing herself with blonde hair all week, preparing for Halloween. Kara even acted the part at home, wildly singing into the mic.
Asia wanted to be a giraffe! She spent the day explaining to everyone that giraffes eat leaves.

When it came time for trick or treating the kids were so excited! Both went out, but after about a half an hour Asia came back. She was tired and cold. She spent the rest of the evening handing out candy with me. Whenever someone came to the door with a scary costume she would glare at them and refuse to give them candy.

Tired Asia

After Halloween....

I call these days Seattle Days. Where the sky is dark with thick clouds and only the hint of rain in the air. I welcome the calm. My children have disappeared. I can hear them singing and playing in the corners of the house. So, I find peace in the mundane house work… mopping floors, laundry, organizing closets. Between each task I can curl up with my favorite book and steal a piece of enjoyment. Every hour or so the children resurface and we get a snack, solve an argument, or sing a song together, then they are off again. I try not to think of the mess I will be coaxing them to clean up later. Tyler is on call at the hospital. If the timing is right, later today we can go see him and the kids can eat at the hospital. They love it; even if the only thing they eat is cheetos. Happy Seattle Day!

Yesterday was fun… but lets start the night before the day before Halloween. I admire my mother and because of that, I try to do a lot of things the way she would do them. My mother made all of our Halloween costumes. I must follow in the same tradition. It is a lot harder than thought. I gave up and bought Asia’s costume, but I was determined this year with Kara. She wanted to be Hannah Montana. She had never seen the show until a week ago. While watching it, she kept yelling at me that the show was not coming on. She did not understand that Miley and Hannah Montana are the same person. Even at the end when “Hannah Montana” showed up she wanted to know why she wasn’t singing. I tried to talk her out of the costume, thinking that every girl her age would be wearing it, but there was no point. Every store we went to had huge posters, backpacks, shirts, purses, belts, hats…etc of Hannah Montana. And with every store Kara was more convinced that this was her every dream!

So I started early. I bought the fabric 3 weeks before Halloween. I bought the wig and the microphone early as well. I quickly made the shirt and thought this is too easy. I waited a week to start the pants. Unfortunately I had the wrong fabric and the pants were so tight Asia couldn’t even wear them. Then I decided to modify a pajama pant pattern. Instead of Hannah Montana pants I got pants from the Jetsons. Grudingly I let Kara try it on. I could tell by the look on her face that she was very disappointed. “Mom, but where is the jacket. Hannah Montana always wears a jacket.” This was the night before the day before Halloween. I went to bed and did not sleep. I toss and turned trying to figure an easy way to get a jacket to go with the bright purple fabric.

The next day, as soon as Kara was at school I ran to the fabric store and picked out some purple denim. The whole day was spent furiously deciphering a pattern for a Hannah Montana jacket. I only got up to feed the kids and check on them every hour or so. Tyler came home, seeing the house a wreck, bless his heart even though he was not in the best of moods, feed the kids dinner and got them to bed. At 9pm I finished the jacket. Then I again remembered my mother and the many times that she stayed up most of the night to work on my costume or prom dress. I think I appreciate her much more now. Needless to say, I did not dress up. But Halloween was lots of fun and Kara and Asia had a blast in their costumes!

Birthday Month

This month is birthday month for our family. I got to plan and carry out 2 birthday parties. Asia's was first. She got one present from mom and dad, but it was a good one: Magna Tiles. I will have to show you a picture in a later blog, but she loved them. She had friends from the ward and neighborhood over. Although mom planned a few games (animal charades, bubbles, etc). The kids just wanted to roll around in the grass.

Kara was next. Kara wanted a cheetah cake for her birthday (Don't ask me why). This was the best I could do. When I asked Kara: "How do you like it?" She said: "Mom, it doesn't have black on it." Well you can't please everyone. Her friends thought it was cool. Kara's birthday was a little more stressful because Tyler was on-call that day and I had to manage 8 six year olds solo. Everyone had fun and the games were a little more successful (tightrope walking, beanbag throwing, dress up, etc.) Kara's only request for her party was a treasure hunt. It was a huge success here are the clues if you would like to read them:

Kara’s 5^th Birthday Treasure Hunt

I am the monsterous fire breathing dragon and I have hidden your treasure. To find it you are going to have follow my trail and find my hidden clues. Arrgggg! Are you smart enough to find all the clues and get to the treasure? If you think you are, here is the first clue:

I love to hear beautiful music. But to hear this beautiful music you have to go to the black instrument and use the white keys. (Piano)

You have unlocked my music. Ha ha ha ha, but now I have captured a princess and put her to sleep in a bed at the end of the hall of many doors. (Princess on the bed)

So you have rescued my sleeping princess, now you must catch Nemo before he escapes my castle by flushing himself down a drain to the ocean. All drains lead to the ocean you know. (Nemo by the Toilet)

Oh fire boogers, I thought Nemo would escape, but it seems you have caught him. To find my next clue you must go where I can safely burn the fire I breathe. (Fireplace)

Hope you didn’t get burned by my fire. But alas you are all in trouble for there is an earthquake coming and if you do not find shelter under a wooden cave with wooden legs you will all be buried in castle rocks!!! Run! (Under the table)

So you have survived my earthquake and fire. You are smarter than I thought. So to prove you are really worth my treasure you must solve a riddle for me.

I roar and tumble and blow hot air. When I am done you have clothes to wear.
(Drying Machine)

All of Kara's friends loved the treasure hunt and at the end the treasure were the goodie-bags. There were a few of the girls that were scared that at the end a real dragon was going to pop out (Which made it all the more hilarious for me!)

Also starting last month was soccer for Kara. At first I was yelling hard from the sidelines because Kara would simply stand at the back of the "swarm" and twirl her hair. "Run, Kara!" Kick the ball, Kara!" Stop twirling your hair, Kara!" When Tyler heard, he called me a soccer mom and told me I just needed to let her have fun. The next game, I told her if she scored a goal, I would buy her a candy bar. It worked! She started to play very well! I didn't get any of her 5-6 goals on camera, but here is a little clip of her playing soccer:



I think she has her father's kick! At practice, they play a game to see who can kick the soccer ball the farthest and she always wins. Of coarse it helps that Tyler is always practicing with her. Unfortunately with his call lately he has not been able to make it to any of her games.

Today is the first day of Kindergarten. I have not cried yet, but I did cry at the Kindergarten orientation a week ago. Kara wanted to take the bus today. I wasn't too worried about it because lots of kids that she knows in the neighborhood take the same bus. So we sat out on the curb waiting for the bus this morning. One by one everyone from the neighborhood hops in their cars and drives to school. I started to get worried that Kara would be the only one on the bus. She was still determined to ride the bus to school. When the bus did come, I waved goodbye and she climbed on the bus. That's it, she is no longer a little girl under the complete control of her mom. Then I started to have horrible visions of her getting beat up on the bus, or crying that she didn't know how to get to kindergarten class (even though we went to the school and practiced it.) Now I can't wait till she gets home and we can talk about how her first day went.

Tyler is now fully into his call schedule. The nice thing is that, when there is nothing to do at the hospital, he gets to come home for a little while. It is so nice to see him for just an hour here or an hour there. I am glad we came to this residency.

Summer is almost over. I am already wearing jackets and slippers in the house. To end the summer, I must tell you of the fun I had in Idaho. Everyone was there! It was so much fun to catch up with my brothers and sisters. I love that we all joke around and are as close as when we lived together. The girls had a blast. When driving home, Asia was trying to convince me that we needed to turn around and go back to grandma's house. Here are some of the pictures of the fun time.

We've moved!

So they say that if you have 3 major changes with in a month that you are at risk for a major breakdown. Tyler's arm surgery, moving, changing jobs, buying a house. I have had FOUR! But I finally feel like I am staying above water.

We took the plunge and bought a house. With in the first month of moving in the fridge burned up, the dishwasher stopped working, the built in microwave died, the sprinkler system was discovered broken and the dryer stopped drying the clothes. (There is much more, but those are the major things). Talk about "when it rains it pours". These things were in addition to the repairs we already knew the house needed.

Tyler took this picture of me cleaning the dryer vent (notice my stupidity of no mask)

After screaming, yelling, and crying we got to work. We had a repair man fix the fridge. Tyler fixed the sprinkler system (thanks to AMI grounds keeping experience), and I researched and found a way to fix (or extend the pathetic life of) our dishwasher. Then Tyler and I sacrificed our lungs and cleaned out what we thought was all of the dryer vent. We pulled out a full garbage can of lint! Come to find out it was only about 1/4 of the length of the dryer vent which snakes all the way through the house to the back, under the deck! BAD DESIGN. So the dryer is working but taking twice as long to dry the clothes. Thank goodness we already had a spare microwave.

So the house is in constant repair but many people tell me this is part of being a homeowner. (oh to go back to the simple life of renting). On the up side, I love the neighborhood. I live in a culdesac and it is wonderful for my kids! They have played outside every moment possible. It has only rained 2 days since we have been here and the sun is so beautiful.

Kara has taught herself to ride her bike without training wheels. The day she learned, she had to show everyone in the neighborhood. They were all outside cheering for her. She was so happy. She loves praise. Asia has inherited a flinstone car (Little Tikes) that she has been riding all around the neighborhood, making deliveries (chalk writing on the side walk).

Speaking of inheriting, all the moms in the neighborhood have been doing spring cleaning, so almost every week Kara and Asia are getting hand-me-down toys from the neighbors. It is like Christmas! Kara's favorite is a barbie that sings. (We are all sick of hearing the two 30 sec songs over and over and over and over and over!!!!)

Picture of Asia with her some of her inherited polly pocket dolls.

Work is going well. I really miss all my friends at my old job. No more Tuesday Subway's with Kim. No more chating with Lucia, Nancy, Cyndi, Liealoha.... I get my own office, but I just sit and read magazines insteading of socializing with friends. At first I was very depressed about all the differences between the jobs. Now I am realizing that although there are many differences each have their strengths and I will learn to love this job like I did the last job.

My new calling is Primary Pianist. Wow! I was so excited for an easy calling. I practiced all week. Then Saturday I got a call that the Bishop wanted to talk to me again. Oh no... I definitely am not so lucky. Another calling was issued on top of being Primary Pianist. AND TYLER DOESN"T EVEN HAVE A CALLING! How does he do it?

Well that's all for now. I know I don't update this near enough, but I am not sure how many people read it. So if you are bored enough to read my blog let me know and I will write more often.

Spring!

Asia and Kara's Easter dresses. As soon as they put them on, they were twirling and dancing around the house. They wore them all day. Here is a picture of Asia twirling...

Tyler has been the stay at home mom lately. I have been studying for my board exam, which I took today. I won't find out how I did for 2 weeks. Anyway, I usually take the kids on their preschool field trips, but this time Tyler took them. They went to the farm. They got to see all the baby animals. They even got to feed a calf, which was the highlight of Asia's day.

Potty Training: DONE. I cannot take any credit for potty training Asia. Unless you count taking everyone’s advice and waiting until she did it on her own. I can’t say I didn’t try to help her along. 4 months ago, I bought her pretty panties. She wanted to wear them but did not want to go potty in the toilet. So I told her she couldn’t wear them until she would go potty in the toilet. She seemed okay to let them sit in her drawer. Then 2 months ago, I bought her “soft panties”. This time she would go potty in the toilet once and then have an accident immediately later. I told her that she couldn’t wear her “soft panties” until she wanted to go potty in the toilet all the time. Again, she was content to let them sit in her drawers.
Then amazingly enough 1 week ago, she woke up and told me she wanted to wear her panties. She only has had 2 accidents the whole week. She has gone to daycare with panties, church with panties, and naps with panties. Of course, Kara is helping her a lot. She always keeps Asia company when she is sitting on the toilet, waiting to poop. And Asia does the same for Kara. (Infact, one of the accidents Asia had was while patiently waiting for Kara to finish pooping. – Asia was devastated and it look 10 minutes to calm her down.) She is so proud of her panties! I am so happy it has been so smooth. No potty charts, poopy underwear, or anal tantrums.

Here is Asia showing off her "soft panties".

Asia: “Bye, bye poo-poo. Bye, bye.” (as she is waving to the toilet, watching the poop twirl down the drain. Then, when it disappeared…) “Dad, where did the poo-poo go?”

Tyler: “It went in the toilet, down the drain.”

Asia squats down, looking at the base of the toilet, “The toilet is getting fat!”

Asia is getting a little, tiny bit better at sleeping in her own bed, but only if she is as exhausted as she is in these pictures....

But, when we do leave her to fall asleep, Asia finds ways to entertain herself while waiting to get tired...

Here is a "library" Asia made for us. I think she wanted us to check out books, but she fell asleep before we came back to check on her.

But this is the funniest story... Kara got a new scripture bag with a Book of Mormon from her primary teacher. Kara was so excited, she carried the bag everywhere for a week. One night I went into her room and she had the scriptures on her lap, open to Alma and she was fast asleep. She is taking her duty seriously, to read the scriptures every night! Even if she can't read yet.

Dad: "Kara, do you know why it is important to learn to read?"

Kara: "So when you grow up you can tell stories to your kids."

Dad: "Also you can read about things and learn a lot. Like about animals and snowflakes."

Kara: "And you can learn a lot from reading the scriptures too, Dad."

Dad: "Kara, do you ever doubt that you have your mother's genes."

(That is for anyone who knew me as a kid.)

Kara's arm

Today Tyler called me at work. Kara’s daycare had called him and asked him to come and pick up Kara, because she may have broken her arm. I was worried, but also knew how hard Kara could cry over a simple bump on the head. Tyler got to the daycare before me and called to say that he thought her arm was only dislocated and not broken. This, of course, brought back many memories of my childhood. I dislocated my arm many many times. Mom finally had the doctor teach her to reduce it herself, so she didn’t have to keep bringing me to the ER.

When I got home I took one look at Kara and knew it was simply a dislocation. I had reduced many dislocations in the Urgent Care center, where I used to work. Kara screamed as I held her arm, but within seconds it was done. Once Tyler her the clunk of it going into place he smiled. One more ER visit avoided. After a few more seconds of crying, Kara was moving her arm all around and pain free. Last night we had a family home evening about missionaries. For an activity Kara wrote a letter and drew a picture for Brett. When I saw the picture, I laughed my head off. Lets start with Kara. Notice how her hair is long and thick and “beautiful”. Then her shoes (which are high heeled shoes). She wanted to make Tyler “a funny person”. So she made a bow for his hair. I am not exactly sure why he is the only one in the picture who is naked. Me and Tyler have only one nostril, while everyone else has two, not sure what that means either. Of course the dresses have “puffed sleeves” They do look suspicious for something else though. And clouds in the sky… tells you about the weather here. So enjoy the picture.

I tried to get Asia to draw Brett a picture, but she was too distracted. She knows that after family home evening we have treats so she was anxious for the treats.

Right now my children are in the bathroom. No, Asia is not potty trained yet, but whenever Kara has to go to the bathroom, she invites Asia in and they “go potty together”. I guess it starts young. Asia plays in the bath tub while Kara works on “getting [her] poop out”. The funniest is when I go into see if she is done and she says: “There is one more and it is hard to come out” Oh, kids have no shame.

Speaking of funny things kids say, here is a conversation I had with Kara.

Kara: “Mommy, are giants real?”
Mom: “No Kara, giants are not real.”
Kara: “Mommy, are little people real.”
Mom: “Well there are some little people, but they are still about your size.”
Kara: “How about fairies? Are they real?”
Mom: “No Kara, fairies are not real.”
Kara: “Except for the tooth fairy, she is real huh?”
(This is when I realize that I should have seen this coming)
Mom: “Oh yes, the tooth fairy. I forgot about the tooth fairy. But I have never seen the tooth fairy. (Trying to cover up my mistake). Because she only comes when I am asleep.”
Kara: “How does she know when we are asleep”
Mom: “She just knows, like Santa Claus knows.”
Kara: “I think she knows when we are asleep because Heavenly Father tells her, and he knows everything.”

So the last few months have been spent deciding what to do for residency. Do we move closer to family? Stay put so I have a good job? Move so Tyler can go to a better program? Etc....... Everyone tells us not to worry so much. It is only three years... You'll get good training wherever you go... We have learned that no matter where we go, despite the fact that we both will have a paying job, we will still not be able to buy a house. Crazy huh!


Kara wants us to move because she has it in her head that after we move she can have a new baby in the family. I don't think she is right. Also she wants to be closer to grandma's. We have to make a decision this week. Match day is coming up.

This week has been beautiful here. The sun has been out and the days have been warm. Today we went to the beach and threw rocks in the ocean. Asia was so determined to throw every rock she could find into the ocean that we had a hard time pulling her away from the beach. Then she kept asking why her shoes were all wet. Go figure!

Kara has been obsessed lately with making snowflakes. Once I showed her how to fold the paper and cut to make a snowflake, she was hooked. She made all of these snowflakes, except for two. Can you guess which ones I made? (I am pretty proud of myself).

Why can't Asia sleep in her own bed? At first it was cute that she climbed into our bed in the middle of the night. Then it became annoying. First of all she sleeps between us. And she kicks us all night long. And she does not like the covers on and kicks them off all night, while I freeze! So she was kicked out.......

So, when she comes into our room in the middle of the night, she has an option. She can go back to her own bed or she can sleep on the floor in our room. You can she that she most often chooses to sleep on our floor.





You will notice the beautiful blanket that I finished quilting and tying. It is a quilt top given to me by Grandma McBride and quilted on my new quilt frame from christmas!



Often times Asia is at a loss. She wants to sleep in our room but we are not in there yet. We are still watching TV in the living room. It is at these times that we look down the hall and find Asia asleep on the floor at the end of the hall. She is such a social being!













Then there are times that we all just want to play. This day we all made a bed in the hall and cuddled up for naps. We never got around to sleeping though.

Then there are times that the mom is busy and the kids are left to there own devices. I call this "just veggin"