We thought so

After a few days of phone tag with our agent, we finally got to talk to him. Our floor is definitely covered. The first lady, obviously didn't know what she was talking about. The cost of repairing the leak in the dishwasher isn't covered (but Ryan had that fixed the day we found the leak), but everything else is. I really wondered about what she said. And the agent was very helpful about everything. So hopefully we'll have a new floor really soon.

Are you kidding me?

The other day, I noticed our laminate flooring in our dining room was felling a little warped by the sliding glass door. I wasn't sure what was going on and wondered if possibly the cold weather was causing something to happen. Well last night we figured it out. There was a leak going on, and our guess was it was coming from the dishwasher. We pulled some of the flooring up and realized that this was the case. This morning Ryan found the leak in the dishwasher, and fixed it. But now what do we do with the floor. The sub floor is wet, quite wet behind the dishwasher, and the wonderful waterproof barrier under the laminate flooring pulled the water all through the dining room. We've pulled up as much floor as we can so far, but you know, it continues on into the family room.
This morning I called the Insurance Company to let them know what was going on and to see what a claim would entail. She told me that if it was a drip from the dishwasher that it would be considered a maintenance problem and they wouldn't cover that. Are you kidding me? What do I pay a premium for? So now I need to talk to Ryan to see what exactly the leak was to see if our Home Owner's Policy is covered by that.
Anyway, I am angry, and my house is torn apart, and I have a beautiful little girl smiling at me and pushing all the keys she can. So all I can say is, This too shall come to pass. In the meantime, I better get to work. We'll have to tear apart the computer desk so there may be gaps in time of when I can post.

Can you say cute?

What the...

I loved Livvy's hair today, and so of course it was a time to pull out the camera. Unfortunately
it doesn't show up that well. I wasn't going to post all the pictures, but she was just so darn cute...so here they are.

Guilt

I feel bad about complaining about Ryan being busy with scouts. I mean, the first and not the last long activity came so soon after he was called that it is just an adjustment period that I need. We'll get used to it. I mean there are so many things I have to be thankful for, like the fact that his new work schedule is more flexible that the old one, so we are able to see him more than we used to. And I am very thankful that Ryan is more than willing to serve wherever he is asked. He is a wonderful man, and I am very lucky to have him as my husband.
So sorry about the little pity me party in the last blog. Life is good, and I am thankful for the opportunity to serve where we are needed.

And so it begins

Ryan was called to be the Young Men's President in our ward last week. Today, (thanks to the frigid weather the camp out was cancelled last night) he had to be to some scout activity. You know an activity that takes him away from the house all day long. Okay, not all day, but for 10 hours.
And so it begins. It's been awhile since we've had to deal with the activities that come with the Young Men Organization, and while I'm trying not to complain, (and failing miserably as you can tell by my post), it will be an adjustment.
Okay, so that's out of my system. I guess I better get back to work on what I need to do.

P.S. As a side note, as I am typing, Olivia is sitting in the bathroom on a stool reading to her baby doll she's trying to potty train. She just came out and said her baby went poo poo in the potty.

Fire Department, How may I help you?

I went shopping today. When I returned home, there was an odd alarm going off in my house. It was the Carbon Monoxide Monitor. There were 2 of them going off. The dog was still alive, but going nuts in her kennel. I let her out and then called Ryan. I tried to reset the alarms, they went off and then about 2 minutes later they started chirruping again. I fixed Livvy a quick sandwich, and then loaded her back into the car for safety. Then I called the non-emergent number for the fire department and gave them the scoop to get their opinion. They felt like they should send a truck to test the house. So I started calling neighbors to see if Livvy could stay with them until I knew if the house was safe or not. Every one's kids were sick that lived real close by, but better a cold than the alternative.
As I was leaving from dropping Livs off at the neighbors, the dispatcher called again and said that the truck had to go check out a house fire and would be about 10 minutes out. She made sure to ask again if anyone had any symptoms. I was very impressed with their help.
When the firemen came they were great and checked everything out to make sure we didn't have a leak anywhere. They even asked for a paper towel to clean up the snow that had been tracked in from their boots.
All is well, they couldn't find a leak, and all the levels were normal. What we concluded was that because I started the car, chased Livvy down the driveway, buckled her up, and then ran back in the house to grab something I forgot, that the wind was blowing just right and caused fumes to be pulled into the house triggering the alarm. It still doesn't make sense as to why the alarms kept going off after I reset them, but they also said that the alarms should be replaced every 5 to 10 years, and ours are 8 years old, so it would be a good idea to replace them.
I'm really glad that everything was okay, and that we have heat in this frigid weather. And most well maybe most of all, I'm really glad it wasn't poison control I had to call.
( I thought about taking a picture, but it just wasn't the best time):)

Life

Time with Dad

Ryan makes the banana bread in our family. It is one of the things that he does with Luke or Livvy. Today Luke is at a friend's house, so Dad and Livvy made the bread together. Livvy loves mashing the bananas and dumping the ingredients into the bowl.

After sledding today, Livvy took a shower to warm up. When I was combing her hair, I pulled some of it forward onto her forehead. She looked so different to me I had to take a picture. I love her curls. When you pull them straight, her hair goes down past her chin. What a cute and very tired girl.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

We have had a lot of snow the last couple of days. You shovel your driveway, and you wonder why, because the snow just keeps piling up on it.
Today with all the beautiful snow falling, and we had no where to go, (Ryan's meetings were cancelled), it was a beautiful day to make a big pot of soup and curl up with a good book in front of the fireplace. So what did we do?
We had the time of our lives. We went sledding. We met our friends Jonathan and Rollie out at the hill and enjoyed the powdery fun snow. It was so neat as you were going down the hill and the powder would just be spraying everywhere. Olivia doesn't appreciate sleds. Luke on the other hand is out looking for any jump he can find. Luke took a big spill after one jump he hit, and then he jumped up and did the stick and stretch gymnastic move to let us know that all was well. I crashed so hard into powder it ripped my hat off my head and completely covered my face and head with snow. I came up spitting snow out of my mouth. I've never done that before.
We all had fun, when we were done, we went back out to the parking lot and had hot chocolate and donuts. It was a fun day.

All bundled up.

Family Fun.

WARNING: Potty Talk

What a cutie. Livvy is currently potty training. I took her to the store and let her pick out a baby doll she wanted, and then we brought it home and put it on the shelf above the toilet. When she left a special present in the potty she earned the doll. Luke was so excited for her he had to run grab the camera and take a picture of her. He wanted to take a picture of the special treasure in the toilet, but I told him I wouldn't post that. Since Livvy had this great success 2 days ago, she hasn't had an accident yet. She is doing great and she gets upset when I put diapers on her for bedtime. She even woke up last night to go, and the night before woke up dry. Yea Livvy.

My Idaho Spuds

Livvy loves to help me mash the potatoes. I usually scoop some out and put them in a small bowl for her and then I give her the extra potato masher. She goes to town mashing and eating as much as she can. Luke did not want to miss the photo op, so he joined in with her tonight too. They had a lot of fun, and we had some yummy potatoes.
Mashing potatoes with my dad was a fun thing for me to do, so it's fun to share it with my kids too.

Dessert time

While we were concluding Family Home Evening with a prayer, Ryan said, "please bless the refreshments." After the Amen, I asked him if he made the refreshments, he hadn't and neither had I. I've been potty training. That was a full time job on Monday.
As I searched the cupboards, fridge, and freezer, (all were looking quite bare due to being out of town and recovering from a job loss) the only thing I came up with was some frozen blueberries, and some bananas. I decided to make something nostalgic from my childhood. I defrosted the blueberries, poured them in little bowls, topped them with milk, then added a sprinkle of sugar. We did the same with the bananas slicing them and eating them in milk.
You would have thought I had made the best gourmet dessert ever. Everyone LOVED them, and slurped everything up to the last drop of milk. It was fun to think that something so simple, so healthy, and so easily repeated was so loved.

It's a Girl!

Meet Sarah Joy.

Last week our new niece/cousin made an early entrance into the world on New Year's Eve. On New Year's day, since Luke was out of school, and Ryan kind of had work off, (he did computer work there) we left for Ohio to go help out. We had fun spending time with family and especially getting to see Sarah Joy. She is adorable, she has a good set of lungs on her, and she is very loved by her big sisters. Congratulations Eric and Angella, she's beautiful.

Olivia's First Bubble Bath

Olivia received some Bubble Bath from Santa too, she's never had a bubble bath before as they aren't really recommended for a little girl's health. But since Santa brought her some we decided we'd give it a try and see what she thought.

Olivia loved the bubbles and had a fun time plastering her face with bubbles. She didn't even eat too many bubbles, and that is saying a lot with Livs.

Isn't her hair beautiful?

I like the lighting in the bathroom for the pictures.

My Bubbles

The boy loves bubbles! Luke was very excited to get bubbles in his stocking from Santa this year.

This picture was taken of Luke when he was 4. He LOVES bubbles.

Awwwwww!

Luke was sitting on the floor playing the Wii, and Livvy went over and sat next to him and snuggled up. Who could resist taking this picture?

Christmas time is here

Christmas time is here,

happiness and cheer,

fun for all that children call their favorite time of year.

Snowflakes in the air,

carols everywhere,


olden times and ancient rhymes
and love and dreams to share.

Sleigh bells in the air;

beauty every where;

yuletide by the fireside

and joyful memories there.

Christmas time is here;

we'll be drawing near;

oh that we could always see

such spirit through the year,

such spirit through the year.

I love the music for the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. We had a great Christmas. Luke said over and over that it was his best Christmas ever. He got a Air Hog helicopter from Santa and flies it very well. Mom and Dad got him and Air Hog Zero Gravity Micro Racer. You'll notice it behind him on the walls in some of the pictures. It runs on the walls and the ceilings. It is really cool. He also got Madden 09 Football and was so excited.

Olivia was spoiled with many dresses and clothes. She was in heaven. I think she had changed outfits 10 times in the first 10 minutes she found them. When she found the dresses Santa brought her, she said "oh, pretty dresses!" and proceeded to change right then and there. She got some fun games too, and she loves to play them. And don't forget the candy, she was very happy to find that.

Mom and Dad had a fun Christmas because the kids were so excited and thankful. Luke kept running and giving us hugs because he was so happy.

We hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas. May the spirit of Christmas follow you throughout the year and next.

'Twas the night before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas...

And all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring,

Not even a mouse.

The children were tucked all snug in their beds,

While visions of Sugar Plums danced in their heads....

We've had a fun day, and the kids are so excited for Santa to bring them presents. Well, Luke was, Livvy didn't want to go to bed because she thought Santa would come into her room and scare her. We let the kids go to bed in our bed so she wouldn't be afraid. Livvy had the time of her life rolling out the dough and cutting the shapes for the cookies.

We let the kids open their presents to each other tonight to try to make it more memorable for them, or at least an attempt to help them remember what they gave to and received from each other. Luke gave Livvy Tinkerbell the movie, (she had it, but broke it- what a sad day that was). She was so excited. Livvy gave Luke a rocket set that you build and then you can shoot them off. Luke was so excited he wanted to go and shoot them right away. He decided that a good way he could shoot them off and be warm at the same time would be to cut a hole in the roof and light them in here. That didn't fly so well with the parents.

And then of course the kids opened their Christmas PJ's. Well I better be off to bed so Santa can make the rounds.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.