Roswell's Reward


 





We have reward charts for the kids to encourage good, helpful, and kind behavior.  When they fill it up with stickers they get to choose what reward they would like to do.  Most of the time the boys have chosen camp-outs in the basement or trips to the zoo, but this time Roswell chose to go with Daddy and eat dinner in a train at a place called Clara's in Lansing.  It is an old train station that they converted into a restaurant and even have a train dining car available to eat in for those who are not claustrophobic.  :)  Dan and I have enjoyed eating here on dates.

 

Ross in front of the dining car.

 

 getting ready to order

The food was A-ok!  He made his brothers jealous with his reward, so they may want to go next.  :)

Mom and Son Bowling

The boys' school has fun activities to involve the kids and their parents and also to help get to know other school families.  This time it was a Mother and Son bowling party.  The school rented most of the lanes in a local bowling alley and grouped us with other families to have a fun time.  They also gave us snacks, lunch, and drinks.  We had a really fun time.

 

 Donovan being a suave bowler.  The cool thing was that he also got to pass of a cub scout requirement by bowling.

 

Elliott had a fun time too.

We were paired with a kid from Dono's class and his mom.  I had never interacted with the mom before and found that she is really nice.  We had a great time together. 



Trial by Flood

We have seen many blessings for our family since Evelyn passed away, but it also feels as though we are not done being tested and tried with job insecurities (Dan's campus is closing so we are on the hunt for a new job.),family difficulties, and house problems to name a few! 

On Jan. 24th I went down into the basement and the carpet felt a little wet.  Avery was trying to go downstairs with a cup of water, so I though maybe she was successful and spilled a little.  By that afternoon, it seemed like there were several spots that she must have spilled on.  The next day as I went downstairs the carpet was so cold and squishy wet.  I started to panic and knew that I had wrongfully blamed the 'spills' on Avery.  There was something wrong and water was getting into the basement somehow.  I checked all the possible suspects: hot water heater, sump pump, furnace.  They were bone dry - thank goodness!  But I couldn't figure out where the water was coming from.  Our basement isn't exactly level so the water was spreading fast and soaking all over our family room/play room areas and right in front of the stairs.  I figured there must be a pipe burst in the walls.  I would have to wait until Dan came home from work and also called our friend Tom to see if he could help us figure it out.   I left to pick up the boys from school and immediately found the source:

 

 Our front hose had frozed and burst and was spewing water all over the front yard for the last 2 days!  It was an ice wonderland.  The formations were so pretty but I was so upset that it was causing so many problems!

I finally got the water to shut off (mostly, but we'll have to replace the pipe and nossle once it warms up).  On to saving the basement.  We really hoped we could save the carpet and not get any mold.  We spent several days using our and our friend's shop vacs to suck up the water, and having at least 6 fans and a dehumidifier to help dry it out.  We got a tip from Dan's sister (who is very familiar with floods from living in Florida) that Borax will help dry up the carpet and also kill any mold that might be drying to grow.  I think we used 6-7 huge boxes of Borax just to make sure!  Then to get the funky smell out we used a type of baking soda just for this purpose (fyi- a very STRONG fragrance!).  We feel that we were able to save the carpet, though some of our furniture has seen better days and everything was covered in a white dust from the Borax and baking soda, and we had yet to discover if the walls were affected.

 

 Our friend Tom is very handy and new what to do to check.  We found that the wall was indeed wet but just at the base.  So he and Dan went to work to remedy that problem.  While I was gone in AZ, they tore apart the wall and set the pieces out to dry.  They also found that this was not the first time flooding had occurred!  Some of the wood behind the drywall had dry rot.

 

 So they had to take off the bad and dry out the wall.

 

 After about 2 weeks we were finally able to put our wall back together!

 



The wall is put back together, but now we are just putting the finishing touches on to make sure the drywall doesn't have any seams.  Sometime this spring/summer we will have to re-paint the basement.

We are grateful that this was an easy fix (though somewhat time-consuming - going on 2 months).  We are so grateful for friends that lent their time, talent, equipment, and manpower to help us through this bump.

Crazy Kids

My kids are always keeping me on my toes!  They do the craziest things that make me amazed to be their mom or just plain make me laugh.  I love that I get to stay home and be a huge part of their learning.  Some days I wonder if I make a difference, but most days I am blown away by the wonderful kids I have and the great capacity they have of love and kindness.  We must be doing something right!  (Most of these pictures belong to my crazy girl Avery because she is always moving while Roswell snuggles with me and the big boys are at school.)

 

 Avery moved her baby and crib next to her rocking chair so she could rock and watch Baby 'Dora' (Princess Aurora).

 

 We watched the Lorax (with crazy songs that will NEVER leave your head!) so the kids decided to get groovy with the music.

 

 Avery is all girly these days (except when she wants to get rowdy with the boys).  I made her this headband/ear-warmer that she can easily put her "pretty bows" on.

 

 We went to the temple and Avery decided to play dress-up with daddy's change of clothes.  Might I add that EVERY day during nap time Avery plays dress-up with her own clothes and is usually wearing something different when I come to wake her up.

 

 Boy if only I were that flexible again!  Avery loves to fold up like a clam.

 

 Crazy hair!!

 

 Elliott being silly and working on a hand stand.

 

 He ended up going back to his normal craziness of climbing the pillar like a monkey.

 

 Avery the hobbit.

 

 One of these is not like the other!  Obviously the inside of the house is warm compared to the snow we got causing yet another fun snow day!

 

 We love the new movie "Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings".  Avery got Tink and Periwinkle for Christmas and decided that since they were twins they could share clothes.  Thus with the boys' help they also got new names:  Peri-bell and Tinker-winkle.  What imaginations!

 

 Giddy-yup Daddy!

 

Avery LOVES this dress that my sister got her for Christmas.  She tells us that she is a princess in it.  She has a tendency to lift up the sides, like this, and tell everyone that she is a princess and that this is her Zowie dress.  (Zowie is her cousin that gave it to her.)

 

Avery with her friend Maggie in the nursery at church.

 

We ordered this engraved ornament for Evelyn to hang on our Christmas tree.  Unfortunately the UPS man put it between the doors that we have a sign on to not use.  So we didn't find it until after Christmas.  :(