Five years old!

Carson turned 5 last weekend. His birthday has always been interesting to plan because the date is so close to Valentine's day and a long weekend. Last year Carson's party was when we were in Tuscon with family. This year we decided to invite a few of Carson's friends. I didn't plan any games, just invited friends with kids in Carson's class, and they also had older kids in Colten's class too! The kids played up stairs, adults ate snacks, we opened presents and ate gooey cake. Carson is really into Batman now so that was the theme for the party, and he loved helping decorate for it. Opening presents showed it was a "Cars" party as well. Here's a Carson-ism for you: Carson thought that he would be able to start kindergarten once he was five. He was really disappointed when we told him he had to wait to start kindergarten in September.

Cooper having fun helping open presents.

Jammies from Grandma Schall!

"Finn McMissle" Cars toy.

Cool "Star Wars" figures from Will.

Cool race car lunch box from Great- Grandma Montgomery

The awesome cake my mom made. Carson chose chocolate (of course) with Neapolitan ice cream.

It took three tries, but he got all the candles blown out.

Carson's batman costume we ordered as his gift

The day after the party was Carson's special day at pre-school, and also their Valentine's day party. Carson and my mom made these cute pirate cake pops to share at school.

It breaks my heart..

My girlfriends and I used to sit around at girls' day talking about all the bad parents out there. One friend is a labor/delivery nurse, another was a social worker, and I'm a teacher. We used to joke that we helped abused children every step of the way, from birth, to placement in foster care, to trying to get them to learn. One time we came up with the idea that parents should be required to get a license before being allowed to procreate. Some way to ensure the parents are mentally, physically, and emotionally able to raise a child. Not that it will happen in time to save so many children's lives, but something's gotta change! This sounds high-handed and all, but the news is full of stupid, abusive parents. I also think that stupid abusive parents shouldn't be allowed to procreate after they've been abusive. What government would allow a known abuser to continue to have and care for their children? There are so many couples in the US alone dealing with infertility who would welcome a child into their family. Don't these people know that!
The Powell abuse case recently came into the news. What kind of parent can possibly ever plan and chose to kill their children? Those kids are the future! I know parenting is tough, and single parents have the worst of it, but there are so many avenues to help parents out there! Murder should never be an option!
I have the most difficult time hearing about abuse cases with babies; probably because I have young children. Right now this story is the one keeping me up at night. I remember the sleepless nights and the frustration of a new baby crying, but it takes a sick person to starve, beat, and then sexually molest their newborn baby. It's so sad that the crappy parents took so long to seek medical help and the little boy died. It takes work to break a newborn's ribs and legs! I can only know this baby is without pain, which he must have been in since he was born.
Another one that hit close to home is this one. The baby is the cousin of a classmate of Colten's. The baby's father was deployed overseas last February and wasn't even aware of the pregnancy until the family realized he was dating the mom at the time. Who in their right mind would throw their baby away! Even if the child was unwanted, all that was needed was to leave it at the emergency room, and they would adopt the child out, no questions asked! It takes an especially cruel person to do such a thing. The mom's trial is coming up soon and I hope she gets what she deserves!
A story that hit me the worst is this one, it came out when Colten was six months old and to this day still makes me think. You have to be really depressed to stay drunk for so long that two of your kids starve to death in their cribs. I'm happy the two year old was at least able to scrounge food to survive. What make me so mad is that the mother won't even stand trial because she's not mentally able to stand trial and that she had all sorts of resources available, and all it would have taken was a call to save the lives of these kids!
Why do people do this? Why can't people see that there are resources to help them, and put their children first before something detrimental happens? I know the CPS system is overburdened and underpaid, just like schools, but children are the future. If we don't invest time, money, and understanding in that, then cases likes these will become more common, and as a society we will need to examine what the value of a child's life is.

Pinewood Derby Day!

Today was the day of Colten's Cub scout Pinewood Derby. It was a big day in our house and everyone eagerly went to the school to watch Colten compete. I remember my brother building a derby car when he was in scouts, but I never realized how much planning and effort was involved in it. Colten was supposed to get his derby car at a meeting in December, but we couldn't make it. We went to another meeting to get it, but the leader had misplaced them. Colten got his car last week when another scout in his class was able to give it to him.

I'm really happy my parents live close and my dad has all the woodworking tools, because with only a week I know it would be difficult to finish Colten's car here at home. Colten and my dad looked up plans on the iPhone, drew out plans, and Colten did all the cutting, sanding, painting of his car. The trickiest thing was getting the weight right at the 5 oz. mark. I'm so proud of Colten for spending time and hard work to get his car finished. The best part for him was placing first in his age group and second over all. He got two trophies to take home and set next to his car. I know Colten was disappointed not to take first overall, but to take second out of fifteen cars total is really good. It's a good lesson for him to learn about being proud of his efforts and not always winning. Colten sanding his car
More sanding.....

Cutting the shape on the band saw

Trophies for 1st and 2nd place.

Colten painted his car to look like a lizard with orange paint and hand drawn scales. It even has eyes, and a mouth with a red tongue!

18 months old!

Dear Cooper,
You are now 18 months old. That's a year and a half! You have grown and changed so much in the last six months! You are now not only walking, but almost running! You try so hard to keep up with those big brothers of yours. Out of all my boys, you are the most physical one so far. You climb everything...the bunk bed (scary!) the top of the couch, onto table and counters. Of course you love to play with everything up high out of your reach you shouldn't be playing with. One of your favorite things to play in is the toilet... flushed or not, with your brothers' toothbrushes. I've started stocking up on kids brushes just so we can throw the nasty ones away. Every bathroom door now stays closed if you are up and about the house.
You've gotten so tall now too! You're 33 inches (77th %tile) and we've had to turn your car seat around. You love that you can see forward and look where we're going. You're also tall enough to reach things up on counters and can open doorknobs. I'll be installing the knob covers on the bathrooms soon. You get into everything you shouldn't and love to spread things around to see how big a mess you can make. I feel like all I do is follow you around the house cleaning up after you and waiting to catch you if you fall.
You don't weigh that much yet, only 25 pounds, but some days it feels like you've got lead in your diaper.
I'm so excited because in the last few months you've started talking!! You don't have a huge vocabulary, only about 15 words, but you are adding to it all the time and starting to see the value in communication. Momma and Daddy are very popular words, along with Blue (the cat) puppy, Binky, ball, book, shoes (you love going out) and others. You understand everything I tell you, and react when I tell you, "No!" You jabber in gibberish plenty too. It is easy to tell when you are trying to communicate and we are just not understanding (or we're just not letting you do what you want to do!) you throw the biggest tantrums. All your life I've been saying you're the child making sure I want no more, and you're doing a good job of it. Your temper fits are throw down, blood-curdle screaming fits, and the best thing Daddy and I do is put you in your crib for a time out. Of course this invokes more screaming, but after a few minutes you calm down and you get out.
The other milestone that fills me with joy is your sleeping. I can finally say you are regularly sleeping through the night!! It happened all of a sudden, mostly because I think you're done teething for a while. I am much happier to see you early in the morning when you've let me get a good night's sleep.
As the days pass, more and more of your personality shows. Daddy and I enjoy watching you and wondering which of us you got the stubbornness, your temper, and your endless energy from. My favorite times with you are snuggling up reading books or nursing, still your favorite thing to do with me. You've grown so much, and keep surprising me every day with all you do.

Baby Shower!!!

This last weekend we had a baby shower for my SIL Jackie at my house. She and my brother are expecting a little boy "Eddy" March 16. I am so excited for them and wanted a chance to spoil my nephew and SIL. Here's Jackie with all her presents. My mom found a tiara that said "New mom to be" on it an so she looks like a glamorous queen.

Eddy's room is aviation themed (cool since my brother is a helicopter pilot) so my Grandma Hisaw made a baby blanket with the perfect material.

My brother's in the army, so camo was the color of the day. These will be perfect here in rainy Washington.

My mom passed on lots of things she had from Ed's room. It'll be nice for him to have some of his stuff for his son.

My dad's family, Grandma Montgomery, Aunts Beth and Barb, and cousin Mandy all got Jackie the high chair she's been wanting. It was a fun party, my house got cleaned, and the best part was visiting with family.

It's the small things...

This post started out as a posting of all my snow pictures... until the power and internet went out last Wednesday. Pictures are at the end of the post if you want to see all 2.5 feet of snow we got.

I always thought it would be fun to experience pioneer life. After the power outage last week I know that life would be tough. When you think about how much of our lives in modern times depends on electricity, having it out for a week, I have an new appreciation for the small things in life. Our power went out Wednesday night from branches, heavy with snow, fell and broke power lines. The power came back on briefly, only to go back out with the ice storm that broke off tree tops and split trees in half. In all we probably lost around 100 trees, either that were topped or split right down the middle.Living in the boonies is lots of fun, and believe me I LOVE the privacy, but if you've never been a country person, snow storms and power outages are very different in the country. We live at the end of a private road in a private development, located off a small, no-shoulder country road. My girlfriends always love to tell me how steep the hill is just to get to my house. Being in the country means no snowplows!Tony and I took the kids out in the new (to us) truck Wednesday to get dinner and escape the house for a while. I remember driving down the hill and clearly seeing the tire tracks, and figured out that the line in the snow between the tires was the trailer hitch leaving a mark in the snow. Yes, that's how deep the snow was! None of the country roads were plowed, and not even the highway was until on our way home. Even with four-wheel-drive, it was tough getting back up our road and we wound up parking in the cul-de-sac because our second hill was just too much. Our neighbor got her little Rav4 stuck there on Monday night in the snow and waited for AAA to come and help tow her, they didn't make it to her door, only a few hundred feet more up the slick hill.Once the power went out we started up our generator. Tony got a great deal on it a couple years ago, but we've never really needed it until now. Most of the time our power is restored pretty quickly. We discovered the generator is very particular about it's oil level and likes it topped off every several hours. Having our power out is a big deal. I've got minimal heat from our propane stove, but no fan, no way to cook, and the worst: no water. Without power our well doesn't work so no flushing toilets or washing hands. We melted snow for washing and flushing the best we could, but I still felt gross. The kids all wanted to play but it is hard with only candle light. Tony gave them a glow stick to use as a night light, but I didn't sleep much because I was always listening for Cooper to wake up and me not hear him since the monitor was out.
Thursday morning came and Tony was going on call and went into work. As he was walking up the drive to his truck the generator died. We didn't know about the oil level touchiness then so he left for work and I had no generator. Tony called an hour later to let me know he made it into our small town, and that he'd had to cut his way through all the downed trees and branches to get there. With a dead (to us) generator and bad road conditions, Tony told me to take the kids and dogs and abandon ship to head to my mom's. Being on call with the bad weather, Tony figured he'd be working round-the-clock until the power was restored to his plants, and I didn't see him again until 48 hours later.
It took my brother and dad 2 hours to reach my house, which is only 2 miles away. My brother had not only 4WD, but chains also, and the two of them made quick work of all the trees on the roads. Power lines were down everywhere so any hopes of wanting power back soon were gone. Trees were falling so often that as we were loading things up we had to dodge the branches coming down. You'd hear a loud crack and immediately look up ready to run if a tree was coming your way. We couldn't get my jeep out so we all piled into the truck and made the slow trip back to my parent's house. They were without power, but my great-grandmother's wood cook stove was great heat and the propane range let us cook; two things I couldn't do at my house without a generator. They also have a generator that runs their well so we could take hot showers and run the fridge occasionally. That night the cell tower lost power and we had no communication with the outside world at all. Tony was working and I was dealing with my kids and dogs, but I got to talk to him really quick Friday morning from the neighbor's house.
I never realized how fast my kids got dirty just playing inside. I'd never be able to be a pioneer with basin baths! EWW! My kids were filthy! It was hard not being able to see well in the dark either. Lantern light is better than the dark, but try reading a book or seeing what's cooking! My mom and I decided to make biscuits one morning and got the cook stove all fired up. It took 30 minutes just for the oven to get to 200! It needed to be 400 for biscuits. Dad had the generator going so we decided to cook them in her range oven. Much faster and much bigger than the little stove!I went home on Saturday because Tony got the generator going and was able to come home from working for a while. I even got the jeep out eventually. Monday we got our generator transfer hooked up so we were really comfortable being able to run our house electrical panel with the generator! Yeah for our furnace and a microwave!
Having the power out was really tough on the kids. They couldn't go outside with trees and branches falling like crazy and they couldn't play with so many things they were used to having inside. My kindle and iPod were well used for games and we would plug all the chargers in when my dad was running the fridge.
The power company finally restored power Tuesday afternoon, so we were out of power for six days total. I was most bummed about having to miss my girl's weekend at the beach. I really wanted to go, but couldn't even get my jeep out for the drive.Most people were surprised at how much more severe the snow was at my house, but I think just the little bit of higher elevation makes the biggest difference. My parents only live two miles away, but they got a foot less of snow. I love my hill, but I don't like it in the snow, though it is GREAT for sledding! Not only do I get more and worse weather, but I can't get up the hill. I'm grateful for our gas-guzzling SUVs that are able to get through it most of the time though. Living in the boonies is great, but I pay the price with lack of road clearing and being the last one to get power at the end of the line. Saying I'm out of power is different than living in town without power. Out here I'm isolated without basics and have only myself and my generator to depend on.
Here's what my poor trees look like now! My FIL has plenty of yard work awaiting him this spring when he returns.

Snow Day!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words....