What we did today

our town library had someone from the NH Audubon society came today and gave a little class on birds to all the kids.. it was fun she had a few stuffed birds and this live owl.. he was injured and then donated to the audubon because he can't fly... the kids had a blast and now want to go to the audubon museum in Concord (only about 25 miles away) now they want to look at the old copies of the Audubon magazine we've gotten a subscription from Aunt Carol for many years YEA...

Happy Birthday Ben!!!
the big 33!! We had a great grilled steak dinner then cheese cake for birthday cake! then we took him out for Breakfast the next morning and he got a new movie and some accessories for his BIRTHDAY truck... nothing like a grown up birthday...

A NEW NEPHEW!!

I'm extra excited.. William Davage Lane was born yesterday at 12:08am he was 7 lbs and some change (sorry i forgot) and is 20 inches long (a little guy :) and with 8 minutes to spare, on his mommas birthday to boot!

this is their first baby and they are so excited also because Jody (my bro) was so concerned he'd miss the birth because he starts his FIRST NEW job after college on Monday and he can't miss the first week of training.. so i told him Will is already an obedient baby.. he knew he had to come before Monday so Daddy could be there!

we are very excited for them


Michelle, Will and Jody

the happy new family

Our Lake!!

ok last year our Lake didn't freeze hard enough for us to go walk on it but with the really low temps it is plenty thick and so we decided to go walk on the lake.. we really should have waited until someone plowed the snow or the snow mobiler's packed it down.. it was pretty miserable tredding through the snow but we were walking on our lake we have so much fun in the summer in...

BEFORE (summer 06)

After (Winter 07)

Ok KayLea has kind of not been mentoned much on the blog so here she is.. for the record she HATES the snow or being cold so thats why she hasn't been pictured much.. she liked the idea of walking on the frozen lake but she wasn't too thrilled when she was actually doing it

here's prof thats ice benieth the snow

Ice fishing shacks.. we only saw a few but it's a huge lake and it took every bit of energy we all had to walk just a few yards out so i can't imagine what it took to tow a shack out there (they probably had snowmobile's)

Last day of Winter Activities

The boys have had such a blast doing Skiing and Snowboarding this past month... we got off to kind of a rocky start w/ not enough snow and it turned into a couple of cancellations because it was TOO COLD to go safely... Hunter today was ecstatic because he advanced enough to be able to go up the ski lift... Brad is getting good going down the "terrain" run where they have bumps and ramps for the snow boarders to "shred" down...

I have to say watching Hunter and Brad go down this huge run was a little UN-nerving but they are so good.. we are so lucky to be able to give them these experiences..

The boys going up the ski lift together

Brad "shredding" down the hill

Hunter going down the big hill

The big hill

What we woke up to this morning
the winds picked up so it's hard to say how much it actually snowed but this was not a big mound so i'm thinking this is pretty representative.. i measured about 6 more inches on the big mounds... it is VERY COLD!!!!! the kids have a 2 hour delay so the Brad's play is saved but the guy who plows our parking lot and driveway didn't do a very good job at making sure i could get out (can't see how he could do better but it still frustrating!!!)
it's gonna be fun getting out today to bring treats to Hunter's Valentine party!!! not to mention having to dig out my car from under the snow that's on top!

these are the big mounds of snow on the other side of the parking lot so i guess i need to be grateful those big things aren't in back of my car!!!

this was the picture before i shoveled the walk.. i had a hard time knowing where the path was!!! and YES I shovled the walk.. Ben is still at work and i don't want the boys wading in the snow before they get on the bus even though they will go in snow pants and boots this morning it wasn't too bad but i certinally could see why they worry about the elderly shoveling.. you can really feel it in your chest!!!

everyone stay warm

we luv ya and we are FINE!!

We've survived our first Noreaster

We aren't quite out of it completely but this is the most snow we've gotten in one snow storm before... we had our first snow day today and we are going a bit stur crazy and are wishing that school will be back in sesson tomorrow.. as you can see we have nearly 14 inches and that's just from about 2 am this morning.. we are expected to get up to 10 inches more... Ben has been working in it most of the day although they have cancelled a ton of flights they have to de-ice all the planes that they do have there no matter if they are leaving or not... we won't see him until tomorrow night sometime.. he's working round the clock since this morning until the storm is done (tomorrow afternoon after his usual thursday shift)

Brad has been begging all day to go outside.. i have resisted because it's been around 10-20 below (with the wind chill) but i let them go see how deep the snow was as you can see its about to his knee

Hunter also had to come out didn't even change his pj pants.. (yes it's almost 5 pm but we've been inside all day so i didn't make them get dressed!)

Before --------------------- After

the boys have been working hard on this "ice fort" putting block after block and there isn't much you can see of it now... they wern't too dissopointed though they were more excited that it seemingly stayed all together.. they have great plans to dig it out and build it up higher...

Here are some more pic's of the house and car etc.. just to show just how much snow there really is here... it will be dark when it all stops but its not suppose to get too warm so hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to take more pic's to show what the final outcome was...

Everyone cross your fingers that there is school tomorrow... Brad and all of the 5th grade has been working so hard on their play and tomorrow is the day they are putting it on for a couple of the local elementary schools... they have worked so hard and they don't have a make up day for the theatre they are using... they are doing their evening performances on thursday and friday evenings.. and if one gets cancelled we are going to have to try to get 45 kids parents stuffed into a small town hall for one performance!!! anyway hopefully it will all work out but it would make life allot easier if we just have school tomorrow!

ta ta

FREEDOM!!
finally Ben's new truck is out of the shop... we got an amazing deal on a dodge truck for Ben but the only hitch (and why we got an amazing deal!) is that it needed a new engine... so we have been living witn only my car for almost a month... and finally it's DONE!!! it's amazing how much we come to rely on so-called luxury's... i didn't have it too bad.. Ben would be home most days by noon or 1 so frankley thats why we could make it work but it will sure be nice not to have to schedule my "things" around his schedule.. (i tried to post a picture of the truck but blogger won't let me tonight i'll try again tomorrow but it's nothing special it's a 2003 fullsize black dodge truck)
they are predicting a nor-easter for tuesday night to wednesday lasting into thursday afternoon.. they are predicting doom and distruction w/ mass amounts of feet of snow w/ a mix of sleet and ice etc.. so we'll see what actually happens.. i almost think it's wishful thinking by the ski resorts because we havn't had hardly any snow.. the only saving grace for them is that it's been unseasonably cold so they can continue to make snow and it doesn't melt right away.. we'll see what it does..
Bradley has his play this week on Thursday and Friday evenings.. they are doing a play that one of the 5th grade teachers wrote kind of like "highschool musical" it's very cute and Brad has a one line solo in one of the songs... he's very excited about it which is suprising because he's so quiet and he doesn't ever want eyes on him...
anyway we have one more week of Winter Activities if it's not too cold for them to have it... the boys have had a blast and are already talking about what kind of equiptment they want for their birthdays...
Ben's Birthday is also coming up we will probably go out on a date but his Truck is his Birthday presant (yes he already knows this!)
thats' the in's and outs of the Fox's this week... i'll try again to post that pic of Ben's truck tomorrow...
love to all

Funny!!!
ok i promise this will be the last post for a bit... today we took the boys out to the big sledding hill out back because we got about 8 inches last night and someone had done a little ramp.. Bradley had a blast getting air from the ramp.. Hunter on the other hand wasn't nearly as graceful and only went down it once (that i got on camera) and he was happy going down the smaller hill near by... here's the slide show they are hilarious... pic's 1-3 are Brad 4-7 are Hunter and the 8-11 is Brad again... enjoy!

My Winter Boys

Well today was only the 2nd winter activity sesson but the boys had a blast... we went and met them and they got to have some free time on the mountain we were so impressed with both boys!!! they both are so good... just another thing we are so thankful to be here... they are getting lots of great experiences we never got to have!!! i had some anxiety last year and i was afraid i would be a nervous wreck watching them but they were so good it made me very comfortable.. now we think we need to get them their own equiptment.. next year Hunter will be able to do Snow Boarding so it looks like we'll have to save our pennies and get them both snow boards and boots etc.. .. we might try to find a good deal at the end of the season...

Hunter speeding down the hill and then taking a rest while Brad took one more run... Brad hot doggin it down the hill then racing one of his friends.. they ended up tying!

a Fun Trip!!

Ashley, my sister, is a Theatre major at BYU and she is studying to be in the management side of Theatre.. She has been the stage manager or a couple of productions and KayLea and I went off to Provo to see her final Senior Musical "Oklahoma", to top if off we suprised her by bringing my parents with us... they wern't origionally going to be able to make it but at the last minute we were able to swing getting them there... it was very fun and KayLea had a blast feeling like the Big Girl on our girls trip... she loved the play.. she kept asking "are those people reallly REAL? she was trying to figure out if it was a movie or what... Ben had fun too being chief cook etc.. to the boys.. the house looks awesome (i guess i'll have to take off more often!!!) .. KayLea and i didn't get near enough sleep so we are both exhausted but i'm so glad we went we are so proud of Ashley YEA you go girl!!!

here are some pic's of our back stage tour of the props and set...

The Girl of the Hour!

Mom Ashley and the little girls, part of the Set of Oklahoma (the lighting was AWESOME!) and KayLea and my Niece Annie on the saddle that was part of the set props...

it was a fun trip!!