The Last Almost Three Months

Wow! I was embarrassed when I seen it has been almost two months since I posted! I can't think of all thats happened since the last post, so here are the highlights. We had two birthdays, a trip to PA and a family weekend away. The garden has been planted and is mostly all up now. The most exciting is that we only have two days of school left!!

A couple weeks ago we went with our homeschool group to a childrens museum. This two story statue 'Eddy', the kids could climb inside exploring his insides.

All the exhibits were hands-on and lots of fun for kiddos

Most of our homeschool group

March 15th Marissa turned 6 years old!

It was her first time having a birthday party

March 22nd found Treyton turning 4! His birthday could not come fast enough!

He doesnt look very excited, does he?! (~:

One evening we went bowling with some good friends of ours. Treyton and Rissa didn't remember going before and had a blast.

David has been VERY busy and not home much. Especially since spring has come. One weekend the kiddos and I went to meet him in his delivery area and we spent the weekend catching up on some family time. The highlight for the kiddos was going to the zoo

They really can be sweet at times! I found this on my counter one afternoon. It says, " Dear Mommy, You make are day special. And you light our day with love".

Easter weekend found us in PA. It had been August since we were there last, so it was good to visit. Davids dad and brother tackled replacing the porch on his parents house.

Marissa loved feeding the calf!

The girls got to help with porch project clean-up.

Rissa enjoyed entertaining cousin Carter. It made her even more anxious for Poppy's arrival.

Marissa and Treyton enjoyed getting a long tractor ride with Grandpa Heisey

One night we went to a tractor pull to watch my little brother pull with his new tractor. Unfortunately it was dark till he pulled so I couldnt get a picture.

The Heisey cousins

Once in awhile David gets a shed thats 14 feet wide so we make a family day of it while I escort for him.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, our little Poppy is a girl!

 

When the Lights Went Out and Visitors

It has been an interesting last couple weeks! When I heard "ice storm" I figured 'just another Southern over-reaction to winter weather'. But alas, this time I was very wrong! The ice started coming Tuesday night as predicted, and it was at that point I knew we were doomed! I got up at 4 am on Wednesday to do some quick baking, hoping to beat the power going out. Till Wednesday morn the ice was thick. Every time the lights would blink off, we'd hold our breath to see if this would be the time they didn't come back on. At 2 pm Wednesday they did go off,  for exactly 6 loong days! The first night we had no heat and it was cold! Our pastor had an extra kerosene heater that they lent us, so that helped the rest of the time! Friday night we went to some friends who had power again to shower, my that was a good feeling!! Saturday night some other friends who got power restored, gave us their generator to use. That helped a lot cause we could then use some lights and had running water which meant showers and fresh water! I learned why I was not born in the pioneer days, I'm NOT cut out for that type of roughing it! I never realized how much I took for granted flipping on a light switch, having heat, being able to cook when I want, take a shower or even flush a toilet! I'm sure I will still complain at how much the electric bill is each month, but probably not for a long time!

Compared to some people, we did not have much clean-up work after the storm.

These birds were trying to find shelter on top of the wind chimes. There had been 3 on top

Heating up lunch

My bird feeders were very busy during the ice

Our 'refrigerator'

We had filled our tub with water to flush the toilets. We then collected spouting water to refill the tub

This past weekend my brother Parke and his family came for a quick visit. We all had a good visit, especially the kiddos!

They had rented a nice mustang to come in. We all enjoyed taking a turn getting a ride!

Treyton especially loved the car! He keeps saying when he gets big he wants a fast car like that!

Sad Days, Fun Days and Exciting Things

Seems that life has been busy with normal, abnormal, unplanned and unexpected activities recently. I guess I will let the pictures do the explaining their more interesting anyway! (~:

The sad an unexpected was the sudden death of my sweet Grandmother last Friday. The unplanned sudden trip to PA to prepare for, kept my thoughts at bay until we got there and I saw her for the first time since our visit in July. Lots of memories came flooding my mind and I have to say I only have good memories of her. She is going to be greatly missed by ALL of us and many others!

All but 2 of my cousins on my Moms side of the family

Some of the 36 great-grandchildren

We experienced some real PA winter weather with ice and snow

Some belated Christmas presents from Grandma Heisey made for a second Christmas

I fear some day when we move and have room we will be required to get some horses!

When the kids heard snow was in the forecast, I hoped for their sake it came because words would not describe how disappointed they would have been after 3 or 4 YEARS of waiting! I knew school was definitely off for the day! The lack of snow suits and boots make for wet cold kiddos pretty quick! At one point I found them out in flip flops cause they were out of dry shoes!

They were quite proud of their snow "Midget" as my brother called it

The kiddos enjoyed ice skating with our homeschool group

Well for the exciting, this is "Poppy" our very much anticipated baby expected to come sometime around July 28! The name Poppy was given because that's how big baby was when we found out I was pregnant. (~: We told the kiddos at Christmas and they literally screamed with excitement! They've been praying for this baby (actually for twins) for a year! I was anxious to tell them cause I was so sick and since they didn't know why, they were quite concerned. After 5-6 VERY LONG weeks of feeling beyond gross, I think I'm past that part and can actually function again!