No Pictures

No pictures, nothing new to report. Really, what is ever new in January? It's cold. It's snowing. It's icing over. The boys are trying their best not to do their school. They are fighting. I'm cold. See? Nothing new LOL. I hope February gets better.

Some More Christmas Pictures

The boys all got pajamas and bathrobes from MIL, which they all love. My personal favorite was the set she got for Jacob:



LOVE those polar bears! lol



Here is Troyer in a pair of flannel sleep pants that his aunt sent him:



They are Hong Kong Phooey pants! We laughed over those.



Here is a shot of Levi doing a ninja pose for me. Whenever the camera comes out, he starts posing. Not that he's ever had karate lessons or anything. Too much TMNT probably LOL





Here's another pic I got of all the boys together. I don't like the lighting, and I should have tried to be a bit taller for it. I was sitting in a chair when I took it. But still, it's a record of the moment lol.





One more of Jacob, just because I love the jammies so much!

Ice

They were calling for an ice storm yesterday. It was supposed to start yesterday afternoon. Evening activities were all cancelled. We got a drizzle. Not frozen, just rain. Bah, another warning for nothing. The power blinked a few times, so I figured it must be icy up in the hills where people aren't being careful driving. No big deal. We watched tv, surfed the net, went to bed.

This morning I was woken by the sound of my 4 yo coming to tell me the night light wasn't working. Sigh, such big news that it was worth waking me up for, huh? But when I went to see what time it was, I realized why the light wasn't working. The power was out. Ugh! The boys were freaking out, because they like to get excited about everything, lol, but I figured we'd have lights again within a half hour. Then I looked out the window. Oooohhhh, that's why the power is out! Overnight the rain DID freeze, lol. How pretty! But then again, a PITA! No lights, yes, but also no heat, and no water. Ugh. And for how long, since the electric company will have a tough time fixing things while they are all still frozen. We snuggled on the couch and read books, and some of the boys got out a board game. In the end the power was only out for about 3 1/2 hours, and it didn't really get much colder in the house. If the power had been out overnight that would have been worse, because we have our thermostats set to turn back at night. Luckily it was already up to 61 inside when the heat went off. In 3 hours, it only went down to 60! Nice to have a house with 8" thick walls!



I ran out to get some pictures of the ice covered trees, but it was COLD! The thermometer said 33, but it felt more like 3. Something about that breeze blowing through the icy branches right at me LOL.

Happy New Year!

Overall, 2008 was a pretty good year for us. We moved to our new (and hopefully final!) house, which we all love, and so far we have weathered the economic uncertainty pretty well. We are all healthy, and so are our families. The biggest blessing of 2008 was that my brother-in-law had a bone marrow transplant in July for Hodgkins' and he has come through wonderfully. Last spring things were looking pretty grim, so we are all soooo thankful that he made it through!

I have a few catch up pictures for you, and of course there are more still on my camera from Christmas Day. I got some new photo editing software for Christmas but I haven't played with it yet. I want to try it out on the pictures I have in the camera still.

Here is a shot of the boys piled on the couch watching tv. That's pretty much the year-end photo, as I never did get them all set in front of the tree. Troyer and Samuel did get haircuts the day before Christmas, btw LOL.



Here I experimented with the black and white feature on my camera. I was just playing around so I don't have all the boys in the picture.



Our tree doesn't look as good as it did at the beginning of December. The kitten has been playing with the lower branches (that would be Flame, the younger kitten, not Tigger) and the boys have been moving things and knocking things off. Plus one line of lights midway up have gone out, and I haven't figured out why. Since it is a pre-lit tree, I will have to wait until we take all the ornaments down to be able to check it out competely. All I know is that it is plugged in, and the rest of the lights on that cord work fine.

On the 17th I took the 3 oldest boys down to my sister's to attend her church's production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, which is a "children's opera" about the 3 Wise Men's trip to see the baby Jesus. The set and costumes were great, the singing was impressive for a group of volunteers from a church (this was opera, not just Christmas hymns!) and the best part was that my sister and niece played in the orchestra that accompanied the singers.



We did some marathon baking the last week before Christmas. The first day I let the boys help, which meant it took 3 times longer than usual, and I was sooo tired but not even half way through! I ended up doing the next round by myself and it went much better LOL. I am still not done, as we haven't done the sugar cookies with sprinkles yet. I meant to take some tins of cookies to the neighbors with a card, and it hasn't happened yet. I guess it'll be tins of New Year's cookies now LOL. I DO intend to get them delivered yet!



Last night, New Year's Eve, Troyer and Samuel stayed up with us to bring in the new year. Chris and Samuel went to bed right away, but Troyer stayed up with me for a little while and we watched Dick Clark. I know he does that show for nostalgia's sake, but it was very hard to understand him. I think as a whole it was good as background noise but not so much for watching as entertainment. I am too old to even know most of the musical acts on the show LOL. At least I know who Ryan Seacrest is ;-P

Troyer drew this last night. It is part of a series he has done since 2005:



Happy New Year!