33

33-the number of hours we went without power. Ugh! We had a lovely snow storm all day Wednesday and then some not so lovely freezing rain on Thursday. EVERYTHING was covered in ice. There were broken tree branches all over the place. I wish I had taken more pics of the trees. This is a hanging basket outside our door. Can you see the inch layer of ice on it? Total craziness! The boys enjoying the snow. Not sure what kind of face Tripp is making.
Tripp loves to eat the snow for some reason
Snow monster Deko

The biggest snowman in the entire complex!

The boys loved riding on the sled, but...

had to put goggles on cuz it was raining the whole time.

Our snowy adventures in a nutshell. The ice and snow are almost completely melted. One week of winter is hopefully all we'll get.

Blessings in abundance

Merry Christmas Everyone! 2011 was good for our family. We feel so blessed. We had a few changes to our lives this year. The best one being Randy's job with an amazing boss. He enjoys going to work and it's a full-time steady job! A million times better than being a sporadic substitute teacher. It was hard for me, having Randy give up his teaching dream (I was looking forward to vacationing all summer long). But this was a wonderful opportunity for him and he's really good at it. He works for MYCO as a broker. He buys and sells medical laboratory equipment to clinics and hospitals.

Another change we had was moving into a teeny tiny apartment to become assistant managers at the complex. I never knew how whiny people could actually be until I moved here. But it has been a very interesting learning experience for my family. Tripp actually enjoys helping me pick up garbage around the complex and gets mad at people who litter.

Tripp turned 3. He is a wild, athletic boy! He loves to wrestle Daddy and Deklan. He loves learning and preschool too. And he says the best prayers ever. (Sometimes blessing daddy to play Halo) He is a good brother to Deklan. He always tries to console him every time he cries.

Deklan turned 1. He is my master of disaster. He can get into just about everything. He always looks back at us and smiles when he knows he is doing something naughty. He likes to take stuff from me so I will chase him around the island in the kitchen. He loves his Trippy and wants to do everything he does.

I enjoy being a stay-at-home mommy everyday. I love being able to play with my boys whenever I want to. I am grateful for Randy and his willingness to support our little family.

Wishing all of you the best for 2012! Because you know that my family is going to rock it!

When it's not fun to go home...

This is my Grandpa LeFevre. Tomorrow (22nd) is his birthday. He would have turned 71. But he died on the first of this month. This is the most recent picture I have of him. Yeah, that's little 6 week old baby Tripp. I used to pride myself about still having all 4 of my grandparents still living. Now I am down to 3. It's hard to write this without crying, but I feel like more people should know about Grandpa and how much he was loved. Two words that best describe Grandpa: Flannel and candy. That is why they are on top of his casket. Grandpa loved candy so much that he called it medicine. I remember as a child falling off my bike and skinning my knee. Grandpa brought me some "medicine" to make me feel better.
He didn't like flowers. My aunt and the rest of us thought a candy bouquet was more fitting for him. Grandpa was number 7 out of 14 children. They didn't have alot of money growing up and he told us that they would use dried cow pies as frisbees. When Grandpa was a child, he was diagnosed with Polio. One of his legs was significantly shorter than the other which caused him to walk with a limp his entire life. My cousin Victor spoke at the funeral and told the story of how Grandpa would take me, Zayna, and Victor to get coffee with him in the morning. And the funny stares we would get cuz all of us followed Grandpa into the cafe, in a line, walking with a limp just like he did. He always bought us hot chocolate and occasionally we could talk him into buying us some fries as well.

It was hard for me being at Grandpa's house after the funeral. It just felt like he was going to walk in the back door from feeding the animals or walk down the hall with a bag of candy to share with everyone at any moment. Grandpa was generous. I think just about all of his children have lived with him at one time or another as adults. My family lived with him while we were building our house. I remember hearing him laugh at me every morning as I ran into the kitchen, grabbed my breakfast, and ran to school. He was usually smoking at the table and I was trying to avoid getting the smoke smell on me. Not sure if you can see it in the picture above, but I have a ribbon on my shirt with a mini Twix in the middle of it. All of my family members were wearing ribbons like these and several of my cousins wore Grandpa's flannel shirts to the funeral.
Notice how he is only picking out the suckers. Can anyone say "addict." It was just Deko and I who went to Idaho, since he is free on the plane.

My sisters. Funny how we are in order from youngest to oldest.

Darcy, Tera, Me, and Zayna


And this is where the kids hung out during lunch. -right next to the candy bucket.



Grandma Chidester (who just went through breast cancer), me, and my Mom



I went to a "hat and wig" party for her while I was there, but I'll include those pics in a different post.



Not sure if there are any easy funerals. They make me realize how short life really is. Grandpa you were loved and I can't wait to see you again.

Who is that baby?

This is what happens to my sweet baby hair when Deko is left alone with Zayna for a few hours.

Wow, that's a long time!

Can you believe that Randy and I have been married for 7 years now? And what do we have to show for it? 7 years of wild and crazy memories, several jobs to make ends meet, 5 different apartments that we have graced with our prescence, and 2 sweet rotten boys!
We look forward, with excitement, to the next 7 years!

Halloweeny Fun

This is pretty sad, but these are the only pics I have of Halloween. We also had a sweet trunk, but didn't take a pic of it. Oh well, the halloween carnival was a blast. Deko was super cute walking around with his treat bucket. Sometimes he was too fast and the people passing out candy couldn't give him any. He was definitely a little stinker. Someone please teach Tripp how to smile.

Smoothie Babies

My name is Deklan and I'm a smooth-aholic.

When my mom pulls out the blender, I go nuts until I get my smoothie. And when I finish my smoothie, I usually end up drinking half of my mom's smoothie as well. I can't get enough!

My name is Tripp and I am a smoothie master. I can make one mean smoothie. (do you like his battle wound above his eye? Titon and Diesol throw some wild birthday parties!)
Tripp started his traveling preschool and he loves it. He loves to learn and help with anything he can. After I made his lunch, I think Deko got jealous and he went and grabbed the other lunch box. Sorry baby, have to wait awhile till you get to go to school.

All ready to go to school!
Don't look at me, I never dress this kid!