Monday, October 29, 2012

Oh Sandy!

We haven't been hit as hard as expected by Hurricane Sandy (or Frankenstorm as it has been referred to), but it has made life a little more exciting none the less. We went to fill up the car on Saturday and our usual 7-11 was out of gas. The stores were selling out of things like milk and batteries. Reed said that one check-out worker commented to him that if this hurricane doesn't end up hitting us very hard, people will have all the batteries they need for Christmas. Well, it looks like Suffolk is going to be set.
Here is the gang all ready to set off. Today, before lunch we headed out into the rain to see how much the water has come up since it started raining Saturday afternoon (and to get out some pent up energy)
It was puddle heaven out there.

The boys enjoyed taking turns splashing around...

...all the boys

Here is Kason with his flashlight that he insisted on having (even though it's the middle of the day) in case the hurricane makes it dark. Might as well be prepared right?

And Ella was pretty much thinking, "Why in the world are we out here guys!?" But she endured it like a champ.

Down at the boat dock we found the Grand Daddy of all puddles!

The boys out is knee deep water where there is usually just gravel. On a normal day the water is clear back where that boat is, just a shallow river that runs up not far past the dock.

This kid had the time of his life until he tripped in water that was above his knees and went under. After that he still had fun, but wasn't quite as trusting of the puddle, probably for the best.

Ella even got a little adventurous and let her daddy push a little way into the puddle.
The water was really cold, but it was fun to play in for a little while. We were only able to lure the boys away with promises of hot chocolate when we got home.

This is the James River bridge, just a few miles from our house. Almost completely under water. Yikes!

Sandy is expected to make landfall north northeast of us sometime early tomorrow it looks like Delaware, New Jersey and New York are going to get the worst of it we are just getting 30 mph winds and rain lots and lots of rain. It is expected to clear up by Wednesday, so we may have a soggy Halloween, but at least the skies will be clear.
 

Sunday, October 28, 2012

These Magic Moments!

Yes, we did come back from Hawaii. It was such a great trip, but we were very happy to be reunited with our little ones. Which is why for our next trip, in March, they will be coming with us (and my mom and dad too, Yeah!) on a Disney Cruise! In the mean time...

Harley has been working on this. He is doing reasonably well and remains dry through the night and most of the time during the day. However, he has yet to voluntarily go to the bathroom. I still have to remind him every half hour or so that he needs to try and most of the time time he replies with a very irate, "No, don't say that to me!" So, until he make the leap to independence I wont consider potty training a complete success. Any suggestions are welcome, please.
Also, my wonderful, cute, talented, charming, little sister got engaged!!!!


Isn't is sparkly!? They are going to be married January 17th. She will be Jenny Rebecca Elder, Wahoo! Way to go Becky!

We have been working hard to celebrate Halloween to its fullest. My kids love it! They really get excited about dressing up and all the spooky decoration, and pumpkins! We will be carving those tomorrow night.
Decorating spooky cookies has been a favorite activity. I think Kason had a little cookie with his frosting here. We went to the branch (because of a recent boundary change we are in a brach now) Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night. After going around to all of the cars to get candy Kason sat down on our bumper with Reed to help hand our candy to the other kids. Shortly after we ran out of candy and started turning people away. Our sweet little Kason said, "Maybe I can give them my candy, i don't want to eat too much!" I thought of when I was a kid and the way I counted and recounted every piece of candy I got trick-or-treating and moved it to a new hiding place every day until it was gone, to make sure I was the only one eating it. He is definitely here to teach me!
We went to the pumpkin patch last week for family night and actually arrived a half hour after they closed (oops!), but luckily there was still a guy there who let us come in and get some pumpkins and some cute pics of the kids.

Although it was a challenge to get non-blury + smiling + looking at the camera shots. Oh well, the memory is still there, right?
Awe, our little punkin choosing a pumpkin.

Here they all are together - all not looking together and all not smiling together. They really are good kids. They are mostly very loving to each other and I am blessed every day to be their mother. Kason was more excited and spent more time looking for Ella's pumpkin than his own and when it was time to go and Kason was refusing to come to the car, so we threatened to leave him in the pumpkin patch all night, Harley was the one in tearst at the prospect. And Ella just smiles and laughs through it all.


Here is our picture from last year. Each of the boys have grown 6 inches (at least) and Ella is up a whole foot! Although to be fair she is kind of on her knees in this picture. It's fun to see how they have grown!

Something funny I just noticed while looking at some other picture from last year - Kason is wearing the same pants in this picture from last year that Harley is wearing in the one from this year.