Sometimes, A Cry Really is the Best Thing

Last night - Sunday night - I was at my wit's ends with the boys.

Well, to begin with, I was at my wit's end with the kitchen.

Well, before that I was at my wit's end with all the snow and ice and slush I was driving through.

And before that, I was at my wit's end with the boys. Because they just kept fighting and bickering and screaming "I'm gonna tell!" and then they would whimper "Moma? ______did this to me...."

Mostly it was S3 and S4, admittedly. But I'd come around a corner and S2 would be there silently crying because one of his little brothers did something to him.

S1 just hid out in his bedroom, reading another book for the weekend.

I know we all have spring fever. I tossed, uh, URGED, the boys outside and after a bit they came back in - soaked. The snow is melting, which is a good thing, but there is so much of it they can't do much of anything but get soaked.

After telling them to get ready for bed and then hearing them bemoaning that they had not eaten in over two hours, I made chips and cheese while they bathed in shifts.

Except S3 and S4 took a bath and filled it to an inch of the top of the tub.

Where it sloshed out.

And then they knocked over the newly filled dog water. All over the bathroom floor. On accident, of course.

Then S2 took a 20 minute shower, S1 took a quick shower, and all of them sloooooooooowly ate chips to stay awake longer.

All the hot water being used meant I wasn't getting a shower - at all - and all the dishes I had cleaned at one point in the day and were now stacked all over my kitchen wherever you looked were not getting washed.

After the timer threat on the boys, they filed upstairs, where I soon seen the chandelier in the dining room swaying back and forth because they were doing I don't know what.

Feeling totally pitiful and needing a good cry, I curled up on my soft bed and happened to glance down as my head was about to hit the pillow and spied the women's Cabela's catalog (they are on to us now).

I decided to flip through it.

Because there, on it's pages, were THE pair of boots I have dreamed of owning! Beautiful supple brown leather! Perfect for every springtime and fall dress I love to wear! Someone had created them Just. For. Me!

I searched the price. And realized I would have been much further ahead to have just buried my head in my pillow and cried over the boys because now I had boys and boots to cry over.

Hubby walked in from his church meeting, found me all forlorn and laughed at me.

Yup, it was a good day for a cry.

If you want to see them, here they are......BOOTS.

on a happy note

20 days till spring!

Our Morning Talk About The Verve Pipe - Wake Up

This morning, I awoke to my husband's alarm clock going off.

Since we haven't woken up at the same time in - well - a week, it'd been a long time since I had heard the "click".

Then I brace myself for the startling loud singing of our two oldest boys singing "Wake up, wake up, wake up, it's early in the morning". It's a recording they giggled through for their Daddy.

THEN, the radio blares and my husband hits snooze.

Today he hit it about ten times.

But I didn't care cuz then we could cuddle a little bit longer.

The song the boys sang to their daddy and recorded on the alarm clock is a song that they play at our school

Every

Single

Morning.

I should know it by heart but I don't because I am always rushing to make sure the boys aren't marked "tardy".

We may *gulp* have more than 2 or 3 or 5 tardies marked on our behalf. (TECHNICALLY, we ARE in the school, we just have FOUR classrooms to visit and people to chat good morning to and it takes us a little longer than the average family to get to class.)

This week, as the song was playing and S4 and I were making the trek from one end of the school to the farthest part of the school where his preschool is located, he asked me a stunning question.

"Why do we have to hear this song every morning?"

"Cuz it's happy," I replied, happy to be holding his little hand in mine as we walked past his older brothers class artwork on the walls.

"But WHO is happy to get up early in the morning? I'm not!"

That sorta stumped me.

Cuz I'm not either.

But it doesn't take away from the song, from a band who is, actually, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, which makes it even cooler.

Even if waking up is not cool.

Just ask my preschooler.

PS

Our principal just told me that she does

not

play this song EVERY day.

I was sure I heard it every day.

We figure it must just be because it is our favorite.

But I looooooooove our school principal and wanted to make sure she

was quoted in this post. :)

23 Days till Spring

Cabela's Recap

Cabela's for a girl....

Was a ton of fun.

My husband informed me that was because I am not a girly girl. I wanted to argue with him, but I was just to heads over heels in love with the fact that we were on vacation that I didn't.

My hubby was a blast all weekend. When I found this nasty, can't believe they made that, stuffed opossum toy in the kids part of the store, I had to have him take my picture with it.

Because I hate and detest and loathe and can't stand opossums. Here are two stories about my life dealing with the nasty things (click HERE, one is one of the very first blog posts I ever wrote. And next Praise and Coffee the Magazine, you are gonna hear a whole long out saga about one.)

After we had returned to our totally boy themed hotel (it even had deer painted tiles in the shower), my husband went back to Cabela's and bought me the opossum.

It is sitting beside me as I type this and makes me smile and my tummy do little flip flops of love for him. Because it makes me laugh whenever I get over jumping in fear over the sight of it sitting on my desk and that he did that was so unlike him that I love him all the more for it.

He also got himself some fudge. My brother got me some roasted nuts that had smelled so good while we were looking around all day.

Jake loooooooooooooooooooooves fudge. He loves me more, but just barely.

This is adorable Jr. He picked a hat out so he looked like Woody from Toy Story, his ultimate favorite movie, and my brother than got him a gun. Because Jr needed to defend himself against S1 and S3 (or my brother needed to battle with them). They are just plain fun. Because they are loud. Really loud. And with all three of them going off, not a one of us wondered where our room was. We could just hear it.
The hotel was nice. The sheets were soft, the blankets were warm (they had a price list in the bathroom and all weekend Jake and I would tease "These sheets are soooo nice." "Are they 75 dollars nice?" Or, "I think they mighta overpriced this 15 dollar alarm clock, I think I can get one at Family Dollar for five dollars.")

We ordred pizza at the recommendation of the girl working the evening shift at the hotel. I for one could probably live on pizza and I will have happy dreams of River's Edge Pizza for a very very very long time.

The Holiday Inn Express had a tiny pool (but will soon have a water park) that the boys took full advantage of and Hubs had great fun playing chicken with the boys and tossing them in the air and all sorts of pool fun. Jr cheered when he was in the pool and cried when he left. The boys looked like prunes at the end of both nights.

It was just good to lay around being lazy and talking and catching up with my brother and sister in law and hearing Jr urge us to "come on!" so he could climb steps and see what cool things we had hidden upstairs in the hotel (nothing).

A truly perfect weekend.

CABELA'S

We arrived at Cabela's on Saturday morning at two minutes past nine am. Because we thought they opened at nine. They open at eight. Had we known that, the boys would have had us there at eight.

It is just absolutely amazing to see all there is to see. There is so much you miss because there is sooooo much. And it's all placed so well, as though you are truly watching these wildlife scenes play out.

They are so realistic, Abraham pulled the dramatic "I'm so frightened" card while the others were loving every moment. And I forgot to get a picture later when he was begging to just go look at the polar bear just one more time.

I think they were happy to finally really be there.

In Cabela's.

There are huge live fish in this pool. You can feed them and check out the mountain. I was snapping photos and praying they didn't fall in. Because I know my boys. They have some of my traits...they could have fallen in easily.

This mountain is just so impressive.

It was nearly impossible to see the fish. Andrew, taking after his father as he is the first born, suggested we should start picking up all the fish food people had dropped to get more food for our money.
The fish didn't care. They were happy to eat up everything. We have their happiness on video.

Okay, you have to admit, this is cool.

I found this to be the perfect place to pose for a photo. (My shirt says My Husband Rocks, you can find them here. Jake thought it was brilliant I wore pink, I was easy to spot wherever I wandered off to. I was happy to wear it, I was soooooooooo thrilled Jake was with us on vacation!)
All the aquariums were a blast. S4 met up with one of the family members of the rubber back turtle he met earlier this summer. The pictures were hard to take in that light...but we took video!

It's obviously an elephant and a fight in a tree.

I don't know what else to say.

Those two things were next to the Gun Library. Filled with Guns. Abraham (S4) did not get it. How do you have a library with just guns? He is still confused by this.

Andrew hopes to shoot a buck like this. Next fall. Or sometime soon.

Or anytime.

Here is a happy S4. All he wanted was a stuffed animal and he chose this Elk. And then he had to have him pose by his family. Elk has not left his side since he was placed in the cart.
These photos I love. Let me explain. We don't have video games here at home, no wii, no knex, nothing. So they were thrilled to try to play about every game we came across. S4 wanted to play this shooting game in the worst way and since he wasn't doing well - AT ALL - S1 bent down and helped him steady the gun.
All the boys were enthralled and it made my heart melt that they just all cheered for S4 in his "first hunt".

When they moved on to car races, I have made the decision they will never ever get their licenses. It totally cracked me up to see their different body languages behind the wheel.
It was a brilliantly wonderful fun filled day. We took the boys to Applebees for lunch where they had no idea how they could c0ok us all different foods and then they wanted to know what happened if they needed more food?

My boys, you can tell we eat home every night.

I did not take nearly enough photos of all the beauty of Cabela's. Because it truly was beautiful.

We let all the boys choose a gift to take home. Jake got a sweatshirt, I found a pair of shoes I had been drooling over in the bargain cave (score!), Andrew got a huge target for his bow and forked over his own money to buy a pop gun (and since that moment, all I have heard is pop guns.), Isaac bought a rubber band gun and we bought him an under armor turtleneck he hasn't taken off in over 48 hours now, Eli also found a pop gun - gleeful he has the one item he truly wanted - and, as you seen, Abraham got his stuffed Elk.

It

Was

Wonderful.

As we wandered Jake and I realized, in thirteen years of marriage, we have never ever been on vacation together with all our boys. We have never ever told them they could choose one gift.

It was precious.

We Are On Our Way To Cabela's!!!!

After dropping off Sadie into Dave's most capable hands, we were off on our road trip.

Which meant after we made that video (you can see it here) we were literally in the suburban within five or ten minutes. And gone...on our way to not return until the fun was done. This meant that I left behind my dirty dishes, mud colored floor, piles of laundry, and kids toys all over the floor.

I have never hoped a cleaning fairy would arrive at the house more or that our friends taking care of Josie dog would be totally blind upon entering our home, unable to recall the mess it was.

But we were GONE!!!

We were ON VACATION!!!!

TOGETHER!!!!

Halfway through our trip, we stopped at McDonald's. The boys were THRILLED. If one of the boys is with me or one of the boys is with Daddy, there may be a swing by McD's...but all of us? Never. So this was a huge deal.

Ever wonder what it takes to feed us?

We ordered 50 chicken McNuggets with BBQ sauce, three dollar double cheeseburgers, two large fries, one oatmeal.

(guess who ate the oatmeal? It's new and it is VERY good!)

He thought this McNugget looked like the state of Michigan.

I was THRILLED to see they had Shamrock shakes....soooooo very happy! I love me some shamrock shake and yes, it went great with oatmeal. (And I love this pose of S4. I have no idea what Abraham was trying to explain.) The boys were in shock that we were eating at McDonald's.

They ate every last crumb (except the oatmeal, which my husband just shook his head in complete "girls, sheesh" manner), shared the shake and two large drinks amongst us and then we were headed out. We all did the pee run and scarfed our food to get going as fast as we could. We had that late start and were not to keen on driving in the dark.

But it was dark fast.

And it was soooooooooo scary to drive down the highway next to concrete barrier walls. A country girl, I am. Cornfields and dense forest don't worry me. Highways do.

But the conversations flowed. S4 asked his oldest brother if he could talk deer.

I mighta snickered. But I quit right away when S1 answered with, "Sure I can, Abraham. You just .........." and then he made these weird sounds.

Andrew was totally serious.

Just when we thought we would forever be lost in a maze of lights and concrete, we rounded a corner and seen

The Moon.

It was brilliant bright orange. We all ooohhhhheeeeddd and ahhhhhhed over it and tried to take pictures of it.
The boys and I are still talking about the moon.

And just shortly after that, we see it.....

........Cabela's.

Andrew began giggling and jumping and telling me that this was just one of the best days ever and he just couldn't believe it was real and it was great.

Abraham informed me I was a good moma after all.

Eli asked for a gun.

It was a beautiful moment.

We hadn't even entered the store yet.

4 Boys Reaction to "Surprise, we are going to Cabela's!"

Quite some time ago my brother asked me "Hey, you want to go to Cabela's in February with the boys?"

"Sure...if it all works out", was my reply, I believe.

So he got to work finding out when our mid winter break was, what hotel we should stay at and perfectly arranged the details of our weekend away.

He's good like that. Excellent, really. I would have had the best of intentions and never gotten to it.

And then, as the time came closer, we realized with glee that my husband had the time free to go with us. That we could, in fact, go on our first EVER vacation as a family together.

Of course, there is camping - but there he meets us and leaves us - this we would all be together for the whole weekend for the first time in a hotel.

Jake and I made the fun decision to not tell the boys. My brother and his wife worked diligently to keep it a secret. We schemed and planned it all out, we could not wait to surprise the boys with the news.

If you have followed the blog at all, you know fully that Cabela's is about the most wonderful place our boys could imagine being. Hello? Hunting? Camping? Camo? They have studied the Cabela's catalog for hours of their young lives, carefully marking dream items and becoming well versed on what page certain hunting items were to be found.

Years ago, my brother took our two oldest boys there for an afternoon and they talk of that day as one of the highlights of their lives. But the rest of us had never been there before.

The day we were to leave arrived, sunny and fifty but very windy. I kept finding excuses to get the boys outside (honestly, it wasn't too difficult, they were off of school for the day and it was warm enough to play football outside) and every time they would go outside I would pack something.

I folded laundry and pulled aside outfits for the boys to wear.

I snuck suitcases into our bedroom.

I dug through dressers for their carefully guarded cash so they could purchase new treasures of their own.

I even brought along their A.R. books the two oldest were engrossed in.

All my episodes of 24 were working in my favor as I would dash through the rooms for favorite stuffed animals and pack them away with no one catching on to Moma's strange acting behavior.

And I pulled it off, amazingly enough.

As we tried to get our times coordinated, I would hide in my soundproof (thanks to the packed racks of clothes) closet to work out the wrinkles. Jake wasn't home, but he was meeting us at home where we would all drive down together. My brother and sister in law were at an ultrasound to see if they should start picking girl or boy names for Jr's new sibling and I was in charge of getting us all on the road together. At the same time.

We had one dog staying home with our great neighbors to care for it and keep an eye on the stove for us (it heats our house and water and is our one and only source of heat) but our other dog, Sadie, was headed to Jake's buddy's house (one day I'll introduce you to him, he is a true dog whisper...I am not even slightly exaggerating. Sadie was at a literal doggie spa and school when she stayed with him and his wife.). And as it would happen, we had a bit of a glitch with the dog drop off so my brother headed off without us.

I waited for Jake to arrive home, we dropped the news on the boys.

This is how they took the news.......

Think they were excited?

So within five minutes of this, the packed suitcases were thrown in the suburban, we were headed in the complete opposite direction to drop of our Sadie girl, my brother ended up getting an hour head start ahead of us and we drove into the night to begin our Cabela's Adventure...........

At Dinner Last Night....

...we heard this story from S4, who is five, in preschool and going to one day take over the world.

"A boy stole Anica's gum today."

I gave him the appropriate gasp of horror I knew he needed.

"Yes, we were standing in line waiting to go outside and Anica pointed to him and told me that he had just stolen her gum and he was chewing it. His name was Andrew."

We all looked to S1. "It wasn't me!" he cried defensively.

It took much figuring and guessing but we got it figured out who the mean gum stealer was.

A seventh grader.

"What did you do?" I asked, assuming they told the teacher.

"I stared him and did not stop looking at him so he knew I knew he took Anica's gum. Me and Elizabeth and Anica, we gave him that mean look so he knows to be scared."

Can you imagine the sight?

Three preschoolers staring down a seventh grader?

How I would have loved to have seen that!

I have a funny feeling that tomorrow,

when we go back to school,

that seventh grader is gonna get pointed out.

Serves him right!

Isaac's Essay

Our eight year old wrote an essay. This is the rough draft. I made him rewrite a bit of it and take a part out.....guess what part we left out.

Here it is, in all it's eight year old glory.....

Hi.

My name is Isaac Dykstra.

I am 8 and in 3rd grade. I live in Shellbel MI.

I am 8 and in 3rd grade. I live in S-, Michigan.

My fravit sujet is gym and hockey.

My favorite subject is gym and hockey.

I help pepel by seling tmateois, squosh, corn, pickels, and flowers.

I help people by selling tomatoes, squash, corn, pickles and flowers.

I am a litte verhin of my Dad. He sell's most of the things that I do.

I am a little version of my Dad. He sell's most of the things I do.

We go snowploing, farm marcits and woodcuting togeter a lot. We sell most of are prtigs at are stand in the front of are house.

We go snowplowing, farm markets and wood cutting together a lot. We sell most of the produce at our stand in the front of our house.

They are 6 people in are house. 4 boys and 2 parints and 2 dogs + 1 cat. I am the secint oldist boy of my brothers.

There are 6 people in our house. 4 boys and 2 parents and 2 dogs + 1 cat. I am the second oldest of my brothers.

I am glad we have no sisters if you had any grils I fell bad for you. Ispeshle if you had to sleep with her. My mom wants a gril very badle not me. I don't think my brothers want one to.

I am glad we have no sisters if you had any girls I feel bad for you. Especially if you had to sleep with her. My mom wants a girl very badly, not me. I don't think my brothers want one too.

Just tell us how you feel there, Isaac.

(love the part about his Daddy though "I'm a little version of my Dad")

Been cracking up over this for awhile

and wanted to share it all with you!

32 days till spring

Valentine's Day

As a whole, I do not much care for Valentine's Day.

There, I said it.

This is why....

If you need to show how much you love someone on just one day of the year

you have serious problems.

I did not realize just how passionately people either hate or love Valentine's Day till I was browsing Twitter and Facebook today. Wow.

But don't get me wrong, I may not be overly crazy about Valentine's Day but far be it from me to neglect a day set aside just to remind everyone in my family that I love them dearly! I made - okay, I attempted to make - heart shaped pancakes for the boys this morning. Completely loaded in chocolate chips.

Isaac informed me that they were good but not great but he liked them because he knew I made them with joy in my heart. Seriously, that is what he said.

And all the boys in my family get a little heart filled with chocolates because they get such a thrill over that.

That's it.

The day has a special feel to it, I won't deny it, but it's not my favorite day of the year. And I always feel bad for my husband if he tries to stress over it at all. Cuz he should know by now, he is my gift

every

single

day.

Along with all my boys' hugs and kisses and cuddles.

A friend of mine, who has known me since before I was even a thought and has been married longer than I have been alive, wrote this today...

Since today is Valentine's Day, what is your best marriage advice? here's mine~ just be friends, Quit worrying about the roles, rules, and expectations and work on friendship.

I find that perfectly said. (thanks Nancy Hopkins!)

I was talking to Jake last night and told him when I think of Valentine's Day there are two memories that make me love the holiday....

One is my mom. Every year (I guarantee if I show up at my parents house today, it will be there for me) my mom bakes these huge valentine cookies for us. She frosts them in white frosting and writes our names in cursive in red.

The cursive always made them more special. Because before I knew how to write in cursive, I knew that it was fancy writing on a fancy cookie that was just for me.

And that said love to me.

I make those same cookies for my boys now. I let them frost them and decorate them. But I do not ever write their names in cursive on them. I save that for my mom, it's her special gift to all of us.

My other most prominent, brings me to tears every single time I recall it, memory of Valentine's Day involves my Dad.

I am the firstborn, the guinea pig (I know, S1 is OUR guinea pig!) of the family. My Dad, in a regular stroke of genius, seen the writing on the wall and realized I was growing up way to fast and stepped in to fully make me feel special before some man came along and stole his daughter away for forever.

Highschool was not pleasant for me. I transported there from a teeny tiny Christian school and never did I feel I belonged. I hated Sweetest Day and Valentine's Day where everyone bought carnations for their special someone and had them delivered during class. I think it's why I still hate carnations - though I should get over that now.

They would wheel the squeaky cart into the class and call out names of all these popular girls and guys who would get oodles of carnations. And I never got one.

Not that I thought I would, but I would still listen just in case.

And my sophomore year, my name was called on Valentine's Day. And it wasn't any awful carnations. It was roses.

Real, live, beautiful, intoxicating roses.

The card read "From the guy who loved you".

This, of course, stumped me. Someone loved me and didn't? Someone loved me and I messed that up? Who would love me?

I called my mom on the pay phone in the hallway at school and rattled the story off, still drinking in the scent of the roses, the pure beauty of them in the dark, cold brick hallway. She was stumped too.

My Dad hadn't told her that he had sent them to me.

And when I got home from school, he told me that the card was supposed to read "From the guy who loved you FIRST".

That I would have gotten.

To this day, I cannot recall this story without tears forming in my eyes. My Dad made me feel like the most precious girl in that whole school - heck, in the whole county.

I adore my Dad. It's my mom I talk to all the time and see for coffee and text back and forth too. It's my Dad I hardly ever get a chance to talk to...but I love him. And I am reminded how much he loves me every single Valentine's Day when I think back to this story.

And I thought I'd just share it all with you.

Because it's the little things - the little EVERY DAY things - that show someone you love them. Every day you can find something to make the day special...365 days of love.

It's what made these moments so special to me.

Try it on your family, rain love on them. It makes every day Valentine's Day......

The Song I am Singing Today...

Ever since this song was released, I have loved it.

I love the lyrics, the video, the song...pretty much everything.

I sing this to Jake regularly. Because he DOES make me fall in love with him over and over and over and over and over and over again.

It's wonderful.

I can have days when I am furious (I act very grown up then and stomp my foot. Really). I have bad days and bad mom days and wife fail days. But Jake can come in, make me giggle, hug me close, sing me a silly song and make me fall in love with him all over again.

We aren't perfect. (I am nearly perfect in every way, nearly...I like to remind him of that :) ) But there is honestly no one else that I want to watch the rest of life with than with him at my side.

He still gives me butterflies.

Really.

And that is such a grand feeling.

I wrote a whole blog post about him and I on our anniversary. I wish it were warm enough for me to be barefoot on our porch eating ice cream like it was when I wrote that post, but it's good to read again and recall that day...

And KNOW I don't feel that way anymore about him.

I feel it even more now.

I love you handsome hubby!

From my head to the tip of my barefoot toes.

Daddy coming home from Blizzard 2-2-11

Because so many people have told me they love this video....

Because I really do think my husband is a super hero and this video proves that the boys do too..

Because it's Valentine's Day tomorrow and you can hear the love in this...

I give you (again).....

35 Days till Spring

There is a Rooster in my Bathtub

Those of you who have followed the blog for a good long time - like back forever ago when it was nice and sunshiny out - know that we love our chickens around here.

A lot.

So when we got home from school one Friday afternoon and noticed that S1's dear beloved rooster, Broadhead, was not himself, there was no question what we would do.

We brought him in the house.

And put him where all sick chickens go....

In the bathtub.

He apparently was tired of winter (aren't we all), had given up on ever seeing green grass and eating bugs again (I have about too - the green grass part, not the eating bugs part).

To be honest, I really did not think he was going to make it. I tried to prepare S1 for this.

S1 shut himself away in the bathroom (have I mentioned we only have ONE bathroom?) and held his little loved rooster and spoke words of encouragement to him.

That little rooster took his words to heart, soaked in the warmth of his body, and seemed to get stronger.

It helped that S1 brought him a bowl of the most delicious kitchen scraps and fresh water.

Oh the picture? Yes, you did see that, didn't you? Well, the boys thought that perhaps if Broadhead could see the sunshine, he might think it WAS the sunshine and it would speed his recovery. Which apparently worked, because Broadhead is still struttin'.

Of course, there was no way we could toss the finally warm rooster out into the cold, I knew that S1's heart would break if we did. And honestly, I wasn't totally sure if he would make it still. As I told my husband, Broadhead just wasn't acting very chickeney.

And my husband, used to my unusual love of chickies, never batted an eye that I knew if a chicken was sick or that it was, indeed, living in the tub and spending the night in the house.

S1's brothers, however, were THRILLED that Broadhead was living in the tub because the longer he stayed in the house, the longer they could go without a bath.

That night we put Broadhead on the enclosed porch of our house that is cold - granted - but a relative heat wave compared to the outside. We agreed he would stay in the house overnight, the weekend at the very most.

That was, as I said before, two weeks ago.

Broadhead is still living in the kennel on the porch. There was the blizzard, of course, and the cold temps that we have right now, so here he stays. (although Hubs has been watching the 15 day forecast, Broadhead may be out in the coop for a Valentine's Day gift). The funny thing is, he has gotten rather fond of us now.

When we all pile in the door, he crows a greeting of hello. When we flick on the lights in the morning, he crows a merry good morning to us. When we make too much noise (like all the time around here) he crows to let us know he can hear us.

And while it is totally silly, I really like having Broadhead rooster in the house. He makes me happy....

While making us total hillbillies.

I mean, what other family has a ROOSTER living in their HOUSE????

Um, us.

Here is a youtube for you, it's Broadhead saying hello. He crowed right in the beginning but after that he stayed mum so once you hear him crow, all else you'll hear is me pleading with him but nothing ever happens. Sorry, I didn't know how to shorten it.

If you all want to swing by sometime between now and Valentine's Day, we'll bring Broadhead out for you to meet. He's skyped a few times with a few of our friends, he' really fond of conversation I think.

the Blizzard in Photos, Part One

For whatever reason,
my photos would not load properly.
So please deal with me as I publish six posts at once.
So you get all the photos.
I will publish them numbered.
Sorry :(

On February 1st, they forcasted a full out blizzard for us. That doesn't happen around here too often. We had snow the day before and Hubs had been out plowing that one. He had watched the forcast and predicted it would for sure hit us.

I loaded up like a pioneer. Flour, sugar, milk, eggs, hamburger helper (the boys love it) and enough creamer for my coffee to last me a week.

There was a peanut butter twix bar hidden away in case of emergency as well.

Because my husband plows snow and all his lots are a good half hour away, he finished the little snow bit we got, came home to sleep....and couldn't. We both had a bad feeling about this storm. So after a super early dinner, he got in his truck, and he headed off to him Mom's to sleep. The snow was just beginning.

I packed my hubby a bag full of love - candy, apples, water, bananas, tums, coffee mix....) I knew we wouldn't be seeing him for a good long time.

The wind blew feriousciously. Everyone's biggest fear was that the electricity would go out. I kept texting my friend next door and keeping in contact with Sue, who follows weather even more than Jake and I do. The wind blew so hard it blew in our doors, it blew in our windows...but our electric stayed on.

We even got thunder snow, where it thunder and lightenings. That hit in the middle of the night and the boys never heard a bit of it, they just kept on sleeping through it all. And since our school has yet to have a snow day, they were good boys and did their homework. And went to bed early. That part I loved to see!

When we woke up, this is the snow we seen at the kitchen door....

S4 wanted to know when hotness would return. He was not in love with the snow. At all. He informed me his feet were cold and he wanted to be "foot naked" (barefoot) in the grass.

Don't we all?

But the boys were impressed just the same!

the Blizzard in Photos, Part Two

The day before the blizzard hit, I got message from Fox 17 asking if they could talk to the Morning Mom and her boys on the snow day.

Are you kidding me? I love my Fox 17 and was thrilled they asked! The boys were sooooo excited to say hello to everyone!

The morning was insanely busy with weather reports. All our roads were closed, all our schools were closed, businesses were closed.....we went on at the end of the seven am hour. They had us up on Skype so we were all prepared to see our friends...

...but we were facing a wall....

and while we could hear their voices, we couldn't see them and Abraham cried in dejected sadness no one was there to see his Camo apron on. He wailed in sadness.

On live tv.

Andrew came in to save the day talking about his tractor.

We didn't see that one coming!!!! But we were happy to have a moment to chat with them...and so grateful they called and wanted to talk to us for that traumatic moment! :)

Afterwards, the boys set up a tent city in true snowed in mode.

And we only have our dogs read the best books on snowed in days......

I spent a good portion of the day making these oh so yummy smell wonderful make you drool cinnamon rolls from the Pioneer Woman. Oh. So. Good. The boys and I could have lived on these and cocoa (well, coffee for moma). We pretty much did.

We ventured outside and climbed a snow bank. It was truly lovely how as soon as the blowing and snowing was done, the sunshine came out and it was breathtaking.

I am sure you can sense their excitement. This was a snow bank that Hubs had begun before, now just huger.....

Ah, I love my boys.

And snow days.

the Blizzard Pictures, Part Three

I had tromped outside with the boys in all the snow...forgetting the snow ruler. In some places there was no snow....just much ice. Other places were well above my knees. It was amazing. There were literally waves of snow everywhere.

Since I was outside and the dogs wouldn't leave me alone, I had S1 snap this photo. It took five tries and this one the dogs are sorta kinda looking at the camera...but more at me to see who could get the most loving.

Sadie is the black one. She was hit by a car earlier this year and has a bit of a hip problem she is overcoming. She curled up and found a warm place in my heart when I was doctoring her up.

Josie is our old dog who is on full alert all the time. She loves snow. But the snowmobilers going through the main Michigan trail behind our house, not so much. She must bark and warn them all she is on patrol.

And here are my little boys.

And here are my big boys.

Just a note, this was NOT the year to say "When spring comes I'll get myself some snow pants on clearance. Because having two pairs of pants on was not enough. I was FREEZING. But see S1? Those were my carharts.

And they fit him.

How. Did. He. Get. So. Big?????

Here is the house......see the rusty plow thing? This sits on top of a rock garden. It's pretty dang tall. That was impressive to me to see that much snow that you can't really see the rocks.

the Blizzard in Photos, Part Four

So, here is some Blizzard perspective.

This is what our house looked like when the snow stopped.

Here is when, JOY, hubby made it home nearly a FULL 24 HOURS later and plowed the driveway on his way in. And here is a YouTube of that moment HERE.

And here are those happy boys you just heard in the video, with one exhausted Daddy.

Remember how there was a little covering of snow when he left? Here is what we had now....

the Blizzard in Photos, Part Five

On snow day number two, the boys spent most of the day outside. S4 thought that it really should be spring, I guess, and used his powers of persuasion to get someone to help haul his trike out. Then he spent a good long time peddling around where Daddy has plowed.

Outside the window, where my computer is, this is the sight I see. That's a lot of snow. Hard to believe that little spot under the tree is where my crocuses come up. (notice the lawn chairs? that's the penalty seat during hockey)

S4 also used his power of persuasion to have a picnic. Soooooooo, we had an ice cream picnic. Because it's a snow day and we could.

After this they watched a Red Green marathon thanks to NetFlix - cuz it was a snow day and they could.

I'd have to say it was a sweet snow day.

And it was sad to see it all come to an end.