the funny things they say...

February in Texas is more like mid spring is everywhere else, except we still get our share of Winter's colds and flus. We've had it pretty easy on the sickness front since coming to Texas' warm climate, but of course occasionally someone gets a cold, and obligingly passes it along to the rest of the family. So, from the germ factory that a public elementary school is, Harrison brought home a cold recently, and Asher's had it this last week or so.

He woke mom in the middle of the night a few days back, saying, "I'm stuck, Mommy. I'm stuck." I said, "What do you mean, Asher? To which he continued to lament in his half awake stage that he was "stuck." Finally, I woke up enough to realize he meant he needed some help blowing his nose- poor little guy. Last night he came in and woke up Sean, saying, "I'm gonna 'splode, Daddy! I'm gonna 'splode!" Which once again was a request for help with a 2:00 a.m. nose blowing.

And Harrison told me on the way home from soccer practice this week (which was a little chilly and got his nose running) that there was a "waterfall of boogies coming out of his face."

Though colds don't make our list of favorite things, some of these comments sure have. We wish all of you health as Winter closes, and if not that, a few choice phrases to laugh about!

brothers are the best

Harrison and Asher are the best of friends... or not. As with lots of siblings, there's not much middle ground. They're learning to take good care of each other, and Valentine's Day is not the only day at our house when "I love you" notes are made for each other...those days do a mother's heart good...

living life at the top of your lungs

Harrison's our little fireball- full of intensity and energy. He's delightfully spirited, and has found great joy in lots of sports this last year. He's on a small soccor team coached by a dad in the ward; and loves to spin out out on his big wheel or play football whenever dad or Asher are game.

Asher means Happy

As many of you know, Asher means happy in Hebrew, and the name fits. Asher' s content to do projects- like making mud pies- playing in the leaves- or decorating a gingerbread house- for long stretches of time. He's full of "I love you's" and we adore him.

preschool

Katherine's been teaching preschool with a few other moms in the ward. We rotate through weeks- and we ended up getting the Thanksgiving party. I helped the kids make their own little pies, and they helped me with some of the other foods for our feast. This is a picture of our little Native Americans and Piligrims.

SNOW IN HOUSTON

So, funny thing about hurricanes, I guess they do something funky to the humidity for the season following, and can actually be a catalyst for snow. Yeah, snow. One of the highlights of the Christmas season this year was a snowstorm in mid December. It was tons of fun!

Hurricane Ike

So, lots of friends and family have been curious about pictures from Hurricane Ike. I know this is old news, but they were something we were going to post but never got around to. The eye of the storm passed right over us, and spun off several tornadoes in our county, so we were without any electricity for 10 days, and local damage was impressive. There was lots of cleanup and many trees through many roofs.

We felt so blessed that we were safe and had everything in order to happily endure. And, the cleanup provided many wonderful opportunities to serve and lift others.

The boys behaved beautifully- tho our kitchen table will never recover from all the craft projects from that week and a half. There's only so much you can do to keep little ones entertained when you can't go anywhere or even put in a movie...

They were such good boys and did a great job helping with the cleanup of the back yard. They earned a penny for every broken tree branch they picked up- Harrison had over 200, and Asher almost as many.

The night of the storm was sort of surreal- to listen to the wind build and the rain pelt harder and harder; then to lose power and with it the hum of the air conditioning and appliances- made the sounds of the storm even more intense. The humidity and heat built so quickly in the house- tho it was 12:30am when we lost power. The boys woke up from the noise and the swampy heat, and we all huddled in a closet trying to go back to sleep. Then, amidst the pounding rain, relentless wind, and thousands of tree branch snaps, there was a big boom, and the ground shook. We wouldn't find out until the next morning that a huge pine tree- over 100 feet tall- had come down right next to the house.