snow days

So this week we've had more snow days than school but it's made for GREAT ski/snowboard Thursdays!! here are some pic's of the kids most of these were taken yesterday (brads were taken last week but you'd never know if I didn't tell ya!)

Hunter



KayLea is doing great her instructor says she's in the top of her level 3 class! I was playing with filters so that's why it's "soft" looking



KayLea with a friends son, they are best buds and can't wait to ski/snowboard together after their lessons; another play with filter this one is suppose to look kind of "pop art" ish...



Hunter was so excited he didn't have to take lessons this year so he just gets to free ski the whole time yea for him!!! thank heavens for cell phones and a mountain that I can get a hold of him at any time!!




Brad was somewhat reluctant to get on a slope that I could get his picture (there aren't many) but he did it for his momma!! he is such a good boy!




here is the snowboard stud!



we survived 28 inches of snow!

I know I should have taken a picture before the kids took care of the snow that was against the slider..it was really high!



you can get a better idea of how much snow fell today by how high it is on the bbq




and yes we had to shovel a path for Rowdy to do his business.. he didn't like it at first but he seems to be rolling with it for now...

 so today was the first snow day of the season.. normally I dread these days.. the kids fight and are board etc. etc. BUT today (for the first time I think) they all did pretty good.. they did chores and played video games and played outside.. got along for the most part.. it was a good day...
thankfully it's stopped snowing and there will be school tomorrow.. skiing again tomorrow too so bonus!
so aren't you glad you don't live in the Arctic tundra?
ta ta

Snow day Eve

So it's predicted that we will get 8-11 inches of snow tomorrow, which would mean that we will most likely have a snow day... of coarse the powers that be won't call the snow day until 4:30am tomorrow morning at which time I will get a phone call via the NEW fancy phone system the district sprung for this year, it will wake me from a deep sleep and tell me what I already know that school is cancelled the bright side I will at least be in my warm bed not having to go down stairs and stair through the news crawl looking for our school, the down side I probably won't be able to get back to sleep...
Brad just tried to start our Snow blower.. with no luck... not a good sign!!! but at least I won't have to get out in a hurry...
I am having great expectations for this un-planned day off... I'd like to get caught up on my scrapbook, clean out the fridge and finally finally get caught up on laundry... I've even made a list with the above.. I'm not usually one for making lists BUT i do like crossing things off...
oh and as an update from my last post.. I found Brad his Christmas present Shhhhh, (who am I kidding he knows!) I'm still not telling him though because if he even gets a wiff that I've purchased his laptop i'll get bombarded with questions of speed, size, ram, web cams etc. etc. it's almost a terrets like response so he knows if he wants peace he'll just have to wait until Christmas morning.. now Hunter on the other hand had to re do his Christmas request due to some poor choices he made, he was given a warning that if he decided to not follow through on some chores and school work he wouldn't be getting his MP4 player (yes, it's an MP3 that plays video... not an I Pod.. a Sony knock off) he didn't do it and so reluctantly I have to follow through... he seems OK with this but I am still wondering if bargaining with Christmas gifts was the right thing to do I guess we'll only know way off in the future when we are called into the therapists couch for his weekly visit!!! ha!
KayLea just having her birthday is content and probably the easiest of them all... I know this will not last!!!
so that's what we are up to.. I'm charging the camera battery with full intent of taking first of the season snow pic's...
wish us luck for tomorrow!
ta ta

My Kind of Snow Storm

So the last week or so we have had lots of Melting.. which means LOTS of Mud!!! we've all known though that we aren't completely through with snow.. oh no, anyone who's "seasoned" knows New Hampshire likes to fool you with warm days and with words flinging around like "SPRING" we all get to thinking that maybe we are DONE with snow.. today Ben even put the snow blower in the basement.. (which just for the record I told Ben was the KISS OF DEATH!) well we knew it would come and TODAY on the way home from church HUGE snow flakes falling from the ski, at first it was just a flurry or two then all of the sudden the ski opened up and it was REALLY snowing.. I thought for sure we'd have to go get out the blower again but Ben reminded us it was 40 something degrees and as soon as it stopped it would melt.. he was right but the best part.. all of the yucky, dirty, muddy snow is now all white again..

it's the simple things that make me smile!
ta ta

ANOTHER snowy sunday and My life is now my own again!

So once again for the 3rd time this season the roads were way too awful for us to brave Church this morning... I just got a new calling in the Primary Presidency and I'm beginning to wonder if they think I'm avoiding it... I know they don't, they know I live in the sticks but really this is getting WAY old!!!

As for the my life is my own again, THE PLAY IS OVER!!! it was a great success and the kids had a blast But I have to say I'm glad it's done... It was so much work...Here are some pictures.. I have to just share, KayLea was a little ham and did great but when we were getting ready to leave for the theatre the first night of the show she announced she didn't want ME to do her hair, she had heard there would be "someone" there who would be doing the girls hair, I told her the person was really only there to do the lead girl's hair (they needed up-do's) and she might not have time to do a curly high pony tail for her so I would leave with out it being done but she better not argue if I ended up having to do it.. she agree and to her glee we got there earlier than anyone else and she got to be the first one done and was so excited she also got to wear "real makeup" (don't worry we already told her it was ONLY when she was in a show) so besides the fact that she kept asking every 5 minutes if she needed more lip stick she was excited way before the show even started...

Hunter was Mayor Shinn below he's in the 4th of July scene (he wasn't nearly that colorful the whole time)KayLea was the youngest shinn daughter (Hunter's youngest daughter haha!)

KayLea's part was actually invented when we realized the stair step of the girl's heights; above is KayLea behind her two shinn sisters (yes I made the bows)

Ok so I've tried to add a few more pic's and i'm giving up for now i'll try to post some tomorrow maybe.

So I have to say the let down the day after the last show was HUGE... Hunter was exhausted and we were actually suppose to have Friday off of school for a 4 day weekend for MLK day BUT because we've already missed like 6 days for the ice Storm and recent snow days the district decided to cancel the day off on Friday and HAVE school, Hunter woke up and immediately had a melt down due to his homework not being done for the week so I gave him a day off, maybe that wasn't the right thing to do BUT I actually told his teacher and his principal and they both agreed with me that he needed a day off...

All in all i'm glad I was a "drama Mamma" as the kids and their teacher started to call the 3 Mom's who basically were at every rehearsal and anything related to the play... It was a success and I did have fun and it REALLY did help me get over the hump of having ALL of my kiddo's in school half of the day... BUT I'm not so sure I'll do it again.. I probably will have a VERY hard time saying NO if I am asked again and if KayLea is to be in any future plays up until 4th grade I may not have a choice (the play is actually for 4-5th grade's only but she was asked to be in it mostly because she was there anyway and she started learning the dances etc. and the cast and the teacher just thought she was so cute.) BUT we'll cross that bridge when we get there... I can't help but feel blessed that I am able to do these things and be a volunteer for the kids school.. I am so lucky to have great kids and a wonderful husband who not only supports these hair brained things I get myself into but who also doesn't quickly say "I told you so" when I come home exhausted and cranky...

So it's deffenatly time for bed now

ta ta

Snowy Sunday

So today we woke up to falling snow and we couldn't see the Road just in front of our house which means it was a stay at home day... these days have been pretty infrequent in years past (we have averaged 1 stay at home Sunday a year) but this year this is the 2nd Sunday we have been snowed in and it's only Jan!!! I have to admit the Snow and high heating costs are starting to ware on me, and AGAIN IT'S only JAN!!!, Don't get me wrong the BOYS LOVE that there is plenty of snow, Winter Activities started last week and there was absolutely no question that there was plenty of snow for the festivities... I went to Hunter's first Winter Activity day as a parent volunteer but of coarse I don't ski or snowboard so I was assigned to be a floater between the Ski rental guy (to fix any boots or ski's that didn't fit properly) and the "never ever skied before" group... see the actually prefer for those adults to NOT be on ski's so you can dive for a kid that's taken a face plant or to grab them before they get drug by their ski's on the carpet lift... it was fun but it was dang cold on Friday and the wind was whipping even though I came bundled with a stocking hat and my heavy (ugly) coat and my gloves my poor cheeks suffered the wrath of the cold wind... I came home to a burning red raw face, I have very oily skin normally so I have no clue what to do for this sort of thing but after digging through my plastic tub of old bathroom stuff I came across a moisturizer that came with some Hair gel I think, so i quickly slathered it on my face, it did feel a little better but i just figured it would take a bit for my skin to recover.. I quickly planted my toosh on the couch watched a movie and fell asleep on and off, I got up because my face and neck kind of felt hot and itchy, I'm only assuming My face revolted at the prospect of the cold, snow or most likely the moisturizer I had dime size blotches all over my neck and face.. I quickly washed my face and prayed they all would be gone by morning and that It wasn't the kind of allergic reaction that would close my throat.. luckily it wasn't and most of them were gone by morning.. lesson learned.. cover my face and don't use anything on your face you got for free with a hair product!!!
other than that all is well...
Next week we do the play.. we are all a twitter here in the Fox home our only concern, Snow is predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday, Tuesday is Dress rehearsal and the FIRST time all the kids will be on the big stage so it's kinda important.. and Wednesday we have 2 performances in the day and 1 at night then Thursday night.. the kids have worked so hard on this performance it would be a shame if any of it were cancelled due to weather.. we do have the prospect of having Friday as an alternative but it's not ideal...
well that's all that's going on with us.. please don't share with me how you sunned yourself in your pool and it's 60 degrees, i might have to put a hit out on you!!!
ta ta

Ok I think ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

this is the path from our cars to the house, of coarse it still had a good 10 or so inches that was still on the ground before it started snowing again this morning.. according to the weather service we have gotten about 12 inches so far and it's still snowing (it was suppose to be done by now.)... we have been in a blizzard warning for most of the day... Poor Ben, our snow plower was a little late to the party, and Ben couldn't get in our parking lot so he had to park next door at the hotel and hike home, he was wading in snow up to his waist to get to the front door.. well another little funny (ok not so funny but now i can giggle) as soon as he started his journey (it's really not that far but it's all up hill) the plow guy came... so Ben wasn't so happy when he realized this prediciment... he decided to continue to the door and i drove him next door to get his truck...

here are some more pic's

This is the snow level on our downstairs window

this is how much was on top of my car AFTER i drove it to get Ben's truck (yes i should have taken the pic before we left but we wern't really thinking of pictures at that moment

Brad standing next to the pile of snow in the path to the house

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

Sending them off into the Artic Tundra

So today it was the scene from "a Christmas story getting hats, gloves, boots etc.. getting the boys ready for the 10 yard walk out to the bus, waiting until the last possiable moment so they wouldn't have to wait too long. it worked as soon as they got out there the bus came!!! (i would have taken a pic of them getting on the bus but they have a new bus driver and i didn't want her to think i was taking a pic of her doing something wrong (we have a very sketchy bus system)

Well don't these pictures look so nice w/ the nice white snow... well the nice white snow is actually solid ICE!!! the temps havn't gotten above 2 degrees and w/ the wind chill factor it feels like about 20 below zero... which they say is TOO COLD to snow (didn't realize that was possiable)... it's suppose to warm up a bit tomorrow (to a whopping 20 degrees) and it's expected to snow then this lovely ice will have a layer of snow over it.. the boys (including Ben) are eagerly awaiting this event and can't wait to sled down the hill.. We havn't let the boys sled for a couple of days for 2 reasons its just too cold to be outside for more than a few minutes and also the sledding hill would slide them right into the forest on the other end of the field, it would be so slick and fast (something they don't seem to think is a problem!!)

the boys wern't allowed to play outside at school yesturday because it was below 12 degrees (thats their limit.. no playing if the temp is below 12) seems kind of low to me but thats why i'm not an administrator!!!...

Oh Yea, we've gotten a couple of phone calls and e-mails wondering if we have power.. we DO!!! the massave power outage was mostly in Manchester (where Ben works) and Nashua big city just south of Manchester... there were like 30,000 people w/ out power but we never lost it (thank goodness!) the boys school (one town over) did loose power monday night and it took them a bit to get them back up so they had a 2 hour delay Tuesday morning but the electricity was actually up and running by the time school was suppose to start.. Awww the joys of living in the ARTIC TUNDRA!!!

anyway so much for feeling lucky the temps were so warm... i guess these cold temps are pretty unusual... they get more snow than this cold temps for more than a day at a time...

The boys walking (rather SLIDING) out to the Bus stop (just at the bottom of our Driveway, parking lot...

First Sledding of the Season...
It actually has stopped snowing now and the temp's are suppose to be in the 50's by the end of the week but we had a good 6 inches over the weekend so it was time to dust off the sleds.. Ben had even brought home an old Engine cover to use as a sled (it sounded allot better than it actually worked)... i think the pic's on my new camera are too big to post or e-mail (i'm working on fixing this) but in the mean time i'm posting a slide show of our snow fun... hopefully the first of many.. the kids start their winter activities on Friday.. Hunter is Skiing and Brad is snow boarding again... cross your fingers for good snow!! Also just to give a better picture of the pictures.. this is in our back yard!!! we know we are so lucky to have this great groomed sledding hill right in our back yard.. they are suppose to have the ice skating rink up and running by next week but w/ the temp's not cooperating i'm not sure thats going to happen!!! Bundle up everyone, maybe Winter is finally on it's way!!!

The Last of the Snow

the kids have been playing outside every possiable moment, they even griped yesturday when we left to get a Christmas tree, today they some how managed to make a very sorry looking snow man... snow is predicted again for this week (not too much though)...