Snowed In...

On Friday night, the snow started to fall......and fall and fall some more. We woke up on Saturday morning only to find it was still snowing - a lot! We got 2 feet of snow in a 24 hour period of time. Here is the view from our front door. Needless to say, we're not going anywhere anytime soon!


And here is our screened-in porch.



Our driveway before Dave strained nearly every muscle in his body shoveling.



Lacey decided to "help" her Dad.

Our little snow-bunny.

Lacey with her shovel.

It is now nearly 4pm on Sunday and we haven't left the house since Friday. Everything has been cancelled - Lacey's gymnastics, the ward Christmas Party, Church, etc. The snow plows have been so busy trying to keep up with the main roads that they haven't made it into our neighborhood, so we are literally snowed in. I had the brilliant idea of telling Dave that he needed to go to his sister's house (who only lives a couple minutes away) to pick up some boots for Lacey. I had tried to get some on Friday, but every place I went was sold out. He told me that there was too much snow. "No, there isn't. Not if you take the RAV4. It'll be fine. It's only a short distance. You'll be fine" was my reply. So, my loyal husband grabs his keys and hops in the car. A minute later, I get a call. "Kerry, I'm stuck." "Where?", I ask. "Open the door" comes the reply. I open the garage door to find Dave in the street in front of the house, wheels spinning, going absolutely nowhere. Whoops! I went outside and between the 2 of us, it took us half an hour to get the car back in the driveway. Never a dull moment!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

in our very own Living Room! Last night, our doorbell rang shortly after 5pm. And guess who it was? Santa! I was very excited, but the kids looked a little more confused than excited.


I love this picture because Santa is asking them if they have been a good boy and girl. And Lacey looks like she is contemplating the answer....



No gleefully happy faces (when do they ever make picture-taking easy for me?!) but, no screaming or tears either, so I'll count it as a success!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night.....

Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma!

My beautiful Grandma Mitchell turned 90 years old yesterday. What a feat! She is my only living grandparent. Dave's grandparents have all passed on, so she is also the only living Great-Grandparent of my children. One of the highlights of my year was going out to visit her in Oregon in June.


I introduced her to her Great-Grandson, Tanner. She loved him!



Here we are with Uncle Jim (my dad's only sibling) as well. I wish we could have been with her on her big birthday. I guess we'll have to settle for celebrating her 89 1/2 birthday (which we were there for in June)! I love you, Grandma! Happy 90th Birthday!

Festival of Lights

Each year, we attend the Festival of Lights at the DC Temple. There is a program, hosted by Bill Marriott (CEO of Marriott hotels, etc), with a sweet Christmas message. It is a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season. At the end of the program, they ask all the little children to come up to the front and sing some Christmas carols. We have always opted to leave our children at home in years past since they are so young. However, this year, we decided to bring Lacey since she is getting a little older and we thought she'd have fun singing and seeing the lights. We were right! As she went up on stage with the other kids, they handed her a bell on a necklace. She didn't sing to any of the songs, but she stood up there and bopped up and down shaking her bell. It was adorable! I wish this picture was of the three of us. We tried.... but alas, Lacey was less than cooperative!


Lacey in front of the Christus before the program.



After the program, we walked outside to find the Temple grounds covered in lights. It was beautiful!