Welcome Back

Hi.  My name is Kammy.  And this is my blog.  Oh, wait...
So I've decided to start blogging again.  It is really hard to keep up with sometimes, but I just LOVE being able to look back over the last few years that I've blogged and see the sweet pictures of my babies and be reminded of some of the fun experiences we've had.  I guess my last post kinda caught everyone up on our current living situation...quick recap...we are still living in the first house we ever lived in as a married couple...back at our first church and are very much enjoying being back. I'll start this post though, by briefly catching you up on the major highlights of the last 8 months and then maybe I'll try to start blogging more regularly....
So in December both big boys had a birthday.  Austin turned 5 and Daniel turned 8.  They had a football party and got football outfits...

 

 We had Christmas.  I got this GREAT snapshot of the kids in front of the tree at church.  Doesn't happen often that I get them all looking at the camera and actually smiling too!

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 We got snow twice.  This was the first one we had.  It happened overnight and was gone by noon.  The second one stayed around for quite awhile, but I'll explain why I don't have any pics of that later...

 Peyton is super mobile now.  He can officially climb on the kitchen table now.  Always creates interesting days when that happens...

 And now why we didn't play in the second big snow.  Our baby got his foot caught in the rotating brush on our vacuum cleaner.  It tore off several layers of skin off the bottom of his foot.  It was horrible.  After taking him to the ER and later to his pediatrician, we discovered that the foot was infected.  He developed a type of staff infection called MRSA.  So we headed down to LeBonheur Children's Hospital on completely ice and snow covered roads so little Peyton could be admitted to the hospital and receive IV antibiotics to heal his precious little baby foot.  He thankfully had just learned the word "NO" before we entered the hospital, so he got to use that word a lot while doctors and nurses poked and prodded his little arms and feet.  He wore the most adorable little baby boot for a week and a half so the foot could heal faster and the wound could close fully.  Now he's doing great and the foot is almost completely healed.

 One day while we were at the hospital the big kids came to visit for awhile.  They did an art project while they were there...

 So, those are the big highlights over the last few months.  Oh...I may have forgotten to mention that we decided to put the kids in school this year.  Daniel and Lily are in first and second grade at a local elementary school and Mondays and Wednesdays, Austin goes to a little church preschool.  So two days a week its just me and Peyton...but the other days its me and these two...

They love each other.  So there's our life!  The plan is to post more regularly from here on out.  We'll see.  :)

Hurricane Sandy

Monday October 29th was the beginning of a storm that many will never forget.  It brought an average of 2 feet of snow and a ton of wind here to Garrett county...causing tons of down trees and power lines and leaving thousands of people without power...many for over a week!  Now we were told when we moved here that snow was something we needed to get used to (even though last winter we hardly had any).  But this was one of the worst storms(if not THE worst storm) many people in our church have ever seen.  It's not the amount of snow we got that made it so bad, but the type of snow.  Two feet of dry snow is nothing for Garrett County, but two feet of wet, heavy snow is another story.  That is what caused so many trees to fall.  The first day we were actually able to get out, it looked like a tornado had come through.  No houses were destroyed that I know of, but trees were snapped in half and power lines were laying on the ground everywhere!  We were expecting a bad storm so we spent the majority of the morning Monday morning washing clothes and dishes, cleaning bathrooms, stocking up on groceries, and running a few errands.  Then, we randomly decided to run to Cumberland, MD (about an hour closer to the coast) quickly to grab a few things we needed since our blizzard warning didn't begin until 6 that evening.  Well, we took our sweet time since we left after right after lunch, and went into Walmart there and strolled through the mall.  Well when we decided to leave it was time to feed Peyton, so as I was feeding him in the car, Jason and I were piddling on Facebook.  We noticed several people posting that it was already snowing in Garrett County!  So hurried to finish feeding the baby and we began to high-tail it back home!  We made it fine, but as soon as we got home we began to finish our storm preparations.  We stacked a bunch of wood inside for our wood stove, finished the laundry, and filled up our bathtub and a 20 gallon storage tub full of water.  (We were anticipating power outages and we're on well water, so without power we also have no running water).  Well the snow fell...and many lost power Monday evening....and didn't get it back until the following Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  We were blessed and didn't loose power until Wednesday around noon and got it back that night around midnight.  But we were able to offer our shower, washer/dryer, and warm meals to any without....so that was fun!
Anyway...I also thought I'd share a few pictures of our storm...a few are pics others posted on Facebook, so I hope none of you mind that I stole them! :)
This is the side of our house...

 Our back fence...

 Our garage...

 My foot in the snow...

 This was one on Facebook...

 Now although the amount of snow was not a surprise to those who have lived here awhile, it was quite a surprise for those of us who have only lived here a year and moved from Tennessee...where 8 inches of snow is a good winter! :)  So Tuesday we bundled up and went out in the cold and wind for a little while to play...

 There's some down trees...

It was quite a storm.  As I'm writing this going on two weeks later there is still a lot of snow on the ground!  We are starting to see grass in some places, but I imagine the big piles of snow created by the snow plows will be around for a good while!  We sure appreciate the many of you back in Tennessee who were praying for us during the storm!  I think we weathered our first blizzard pretty well...and I'm thankful that many who had it much harder than we did are now back to normal as well!

Snow Fun

So as I said in my last post, Friday was a fun day. We haven't played in the snow in awhile...partially because this winter has been unseasonably warm for Garrett county and they haven't gotten much snow....so we decided to get out there for a little while Friday. When we first got out, Daniel discovered some sort of animal foot-prints...

I couldn't get a good pic of the actual track, but I'm guessing a rabbit maybe?

Anyway....one of the things we wanted to do was get the kids' power wheels out and let them ride them in the snow. Austin got his lawn mower right before we moved here so he had never ridden it before. (For those of you who don't know, Jason's parents have always made a little deal with the all the grandkids that when they potty train they will buy them a power wheel). So here is little Austin riding his lawn mower...

And Lily on her jeep...

And Daniel...and his cool new warm face mask...on his truck....

Fun fact: Power wheels don't work on snow. So before you spend a bunch of time putting one together, and lugging all 3 up your basement stairs so the kids can ride them...just know that. Honestly, I have no idea why we thought they would considering our mini-van had a hard time on the snow and ice before we got new tires....however the old tires were at least real and not plastic. Mini-brain freeze I guess. Anyway...lesson learned.

Jason decided to take a few piecesof wood out of our enormous stack to build a little fire for us to stand by and warm ourselves...I know...he's the best...

Not the prettiest of fires, but it was still snowing, and it served it's purpose. Lily enjoyed it...

Then the kids thought it would be really funny to throw snow balls at me...

But little Austin couldn't make it over to throw it at me without eating it first...

And then Lily caught on to that...

My kids LOVE to eat snow.

Finally we rounded out the afternoon with some good ole sled-riding. Daddy decided to make one trip down with all 3 kiddos...

We had a lot of fun out there. And the kids lasted longer than usual. We of course came in and drank lots of yummy hot chocolate. All in all, a really fun time! Well, on to the tasks of the day! Happy Valentine's Day!!

Sledding!!

Ok....so maybe my New Year's Resoulution (well one of them) is going to be to keep up with the blog more. I have soo much catching up to do over the last several weeks, but I've decided to start with the most recent fun thing.....sledding! Winter has officially hit here in Garrett County! I think over the last couple of days we have accumulated about a foot of snow on the ground and temperatures have mostly been in the teens and twentys with wind chills in the negatives! Yeah...it's been COLD!! But yesterday, despite the freezing temps, we decided to go to the Lahay hill and sled!! But first, Lily needed to make a snow angel...

Jason got pretty tired of lugging the kids and the sleds up that hill!

We had to wrap the kids faces with scarves to help with the chilling wind...(in case you couldn't tell, this is Daniel). And btw..he has pink gloves on because he left his at home and had to borrow some of Ashley's old ones!

Lily girl....

The boys got creative with the sledding...

And Austin! What a way to ride!!

The kids didn't last long, but it was fun for a little while! Well...off to church for now, but hopefully in the next couple of days I can get caught up on here!!

Wintery Fun!!

So exactly one week ago, we got our first real snow. Today....our yard doesn't look much different than it did that evening....

Well....it is a little thinner I must admit, but since our yard doesn't get a whole lot of sun during the day...and it's still been pretty cold...we still can't see grass. :)

Anyway...Austin didn't have to wait long to get some use out of his new birthday present!

And of course he shared with the other two...

We had a lot of fun playing in the snow! Our next step is to build a really good snowman (watch out McLillies)! :) This snow was too powdery for a snowman....I'm sure we won't have to worry about getting plenty of non-powdery, snowman-making snow this winter! Happy Winter!!