Rain and a Little Bit of Shine

It has rained and rained for about 3 days here, so not only do we have a lot of extra water in out parts, but we also have some very housebound crazy kids. We have a had 6 inches in 2 days, so as Chris and I were driving around today, we found a lot of obstacles in our way, such as this bridge that was covered in water. This was one of 3 we saw, and the others in the area had only a few more feet to rise before they we covered as well. It has now stopped raining, so we are thinking the worst is behind us. Most of the flooded lawns are now just soggy, so I hope we are done! This was on Thursday after it rained in the morning. The kids went outside in the afternoon and were playing. Olivia decided she wanted to eat the "mud soup" Grace and Jed had made.

Friday we were stuck inside so I broke out a magical toy. Grace and Jed both received their first box of 64 count crayons with a sharpener. It was magic. Jed had gotten a baseball on Thursday, so all day Friday was spent begging to go outside and play ball. He settled for just coloring with it.

Grace of course was overjoyed with her color choices and went right to work.

Pleased as punch to have new crayons!

Update!!!

Thanks to some amazing friends, Chris raised enough money to enter the St. George Ironman! It only took 48 hours, and we are both more impressed with peoples' willingness to give than that he raised the money. It just goes to show that good friends will always support you, even from 3000 miles away!

Ironman St. George

So, earlier this week there was an announcement that the Ironman series will hold a race in St. George, Utah. Chris found this really exciting and wanted to do the race. I said I would love for him to do the race, but since it is a little pricey, it most likely wouldn't happen for 2010. Chris, who is on Facebook, wrote on his wall that he thought I would kill him if he spent the money for the entry fee. A few of his friends told him to do it, so I told Chris he could certainly do it, if his friends paid his entry fee. So he jokingly wrote on Facebook that he needed donations to enter the race, and he got some. So, now he decided he really will take donations, and I offered him 100 of our own money for the race. He now is up to 180, so only 340 more to go! I guess we will see how far he gets. I will keep you posted!

Happenings

Poor Chris doesn't even get his own post devoted to him for his birthday. He will survive. Here he is blowing out his candle. Grace took this picture. Happy 31st Chris!!! Olivia has discovered how to work the sit'nspin. She also likes to lay and spin. Whatever keeps her busy. I bought that toy 2 years ago at Goodwill for 2 dollars. It was the best 2 dollars ever spent!

Jed has officially received the summer haircut, a buzz! Sad to say that I have to do it in March, but not very sad. We are enjoying the warm weather before the humidity and real heat kick in.

Grace making funny faces for the camera. We are both ready for her to go to school again.

Kids Thoughts

Today we were reading a book before bed, and it was "Franklin Says I Love You" (apparently there are no underlines in blogworld, so quotes will have to do!) In the book, it says that Franklin has the best mom. To this, Chris was really sweet and says Franklin was wrong, and our kids have the best mom. Grace says "No, Franklin does. He gets TWO stories before bed time." And this whole time I thought I was doing a pretty good job. I need to up my game.

Soccer

The kids have been really into soccer since Christmas. We have been out practicing a bunch, but have not found a league for them to play in. I guess for now Chris and my limited soccer knowledge will have to do. We did hear about a micro-soccer league for them, but we are too late for the spring season. Anyway, here are a few shot of them playing. Jed loves to play. He also loves to coach. He will put on his bling bling from the Sugar Bowl, and his Utah hat and stand on the sideline and kick it out into the field for me to run after. I will have to get a picture of that next time.

And how could we go a day with out some sort of bat in the house. She brought the costume to me and was pretty happy to get her chance.

We're Home!!

So, I have to say up front that I have amazing brothers. The day after I broke the van, my brother Aaron found my part, and even better, for less than a quarter of the cost! The next day I picked it up and took it to my brother Rob, who fixed it and had the van back to me that night before bed. I am blessed and grateful for my family and all their hard work and help. Below is a picture of the part that broke. It is hard to tell, but the corner that is gone was attached to a huge piece that went under my whole van. It held all the steering and suspension and such together, very important. While we were there, we did finally get to go to the JellyBelly factory. The kids cousins took off from school, so we all had a good day together. Here is Grace with her older cousin Hannah, who she LOVES!

Olivia was enjoying a bowl of brownies and ice cream. I guess she like it enough to even feed herself! My parents dog loved Olivia and of course Olivia loved her. I think the dog's love came from all the snacks Olivia gave her.

Jed just being happy for me. He had the same cold I did while we were there. Poor kid!

A VERY Bad Monday

Still no pictures, sorry, now I can't find my cord to connect to the computer! No, that is not why it was a very bad Monday. My sister, mom, the kids and I decided we were going to go to the JellyBelly factory yesterday. It is about an hours drive south, but was not a big deal. Once we were about half way there it started to snow, and I was driving! I haven't driven in snow for a few years, so I was already freaked as it was. Then came the whopper. Out of nowhere I hit a huge thing in the road and it became stuck under my car. I got off at the next exit(which was of course miles away) and tried to dislodge the thing. It was a huge metal bumper, and I was grateful my tires hadn't popped. I couldn't get it out, so we recruited some young guys to dislodge it. They worked on it for about 20 minutes and it was still stuck. So I called my trusty brother Rob to come save me!!! Then I tried turning on the var, as it was getting cold in there, and it wouldn't start. Luckily it was just my battery, and Rob had to jack up the van, remove my tire, and cut off the metal bumper. It turns out that it hit my suspension stuff and broke a piece off and now I have to have a major job done on the van in order to drive home. Not only is it super expensive, the part is on national back order, so we have to find one when there is not one to find!! My brothers say I had a better chance of winning the lottery that breaking this item on my car. I guess I should have stayed home a bought a ticket.

I guess it could have been worse and we all could have been hurt had the metal bumper I hit broken any other thing on my car. I an thankful we are all well and uninjured and all I have to worry about is getting a car back.

It was still a very bad Monday!