Not Quite The Partridge Family

....not quite... but maybe someday?
Ramsey insisted that Connor "play guitar" while he sang the Months of the Year song.

Preschool Field Trip: The Dentist!

Ramsey's preschool class had a bit of a hiatus regarding field trips throughout the holiday season.  But, their first trip of 2019 was to the dentist!

Ramsey said they had lots of fun seeing all of the neat things dentists use to help people with their teeth.  He got a cool sticker too.

 Ramsey said he wanted to go the dentist because this dentist had Legos!  I reminded him that our dentist also has Legos. :-)   I suppose he should go there one of these days, just for a check-up.

Below is just a pic of him and his friend Rebekah playing Legos after their return.  This is Ramsey's "girlfriend" (this week... it changes constantly), Rebekah.

Take Our Picture!

We've got a couple of camera hams. 
After supper, Ramsey yelled out, "TAKE OUR PICTURE"!
Ok.  :-)       Gladly.

SNOW Much Fun

Eric may slightly differ with the post title.  Ramsey loves to play in the snow.  Eric... is just plain tired of it (and rightly so!). 

But, Eric thought Ramsey might have fun making a tunnel or a snow fort in the big ledge between the garage and the main entry door. 

He started digging and showing Ramsey how to make the recession bigger.

Ramsey had fun.  But, more than digging a tunnel, he enjoyed trying to tear down the entire ledge, making a bigger mess for Dad to have to clean up on the pathway.

 If he would have had some Star Wars guys, I have a feeling he would have stayed in this fun hiding spot (his Star Wars "Planet Hoth base") for a lot longer.

Fun fact: Our yearly snowfall is typically around 35" for the season.  As of now, we have had over 50" of snow, with March (and April) blizzards yet to come.  Yay. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ramsey was looking forward to his preschool's Valentine party.   The teachers had sent us home plain white paper bags for the kids to decorate.  Ramsey wanted Star Wars (of course!).

 I went on Pinterest for ideas (of course).  The day before Valentine's, I cut everything out for Ramsey, then he glued the pieces onto the bag, and decorated the [back of the] bag with Star Wars stickers.

Then, we put the Valentine's goodie bag together, with a colored heart sugar cookie and a Valentine card. 

Ramsey said he had a GREAT day on the 14th!  They played games in the gym, decorated cards, and had a super fun party.

Dad had surprised me with some beautiful roses.  And for supper, I cooked lobster tail and sea scallops (for Eric and me) and Ramsey "feasted" on a peanut butter sandwich, Cheez-Its, and a Gogurt.  :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snowmageddon

The winter from ####!
Storytime:
It was a snowy afternoon that turned into a snowy evening (January 27th).  Connor had already gotten stuck in our yard (took about 45 minutes to get him out), trying to leave for work.   He had to work that afternoon plus had an in-service immediately thereafter.  That evening, his adviser let them out an hour early (9PM) to go home, due to the storm.  With the inclement weather, Eric had told Connor to go to his Mom's that night instead of here, since it was only five miles out of town, vs our fifteen.

I had come up from putting Ramsey to bed (we had heard the wind go wild when saying prayers) and asked Eric if Connor had been released from work yet.  He called Connor, no answer.  He called Connor's Mom and she said she'd just heard from him; he'd gone in the ditch!    The snow had dumped rather heavily during the day, but when the wind came up, there was zero visibility.  And, it was COLD!  Apparently the wind had come up horrifically just as Connor was leaving town and created a major white-out.

Eric got on the phone to Dispatch and the PD to get a rescue out to Connor.  It was a LOOOONG few hours for fretting parents (Connor wasn't loving it either).  With the blizzard, even though he was only one mile out of town, it took nearly two hours for Connor to be found. Yay!   He drove back to town with the police officer, then stayed with his girlfriend Emily and her family.

The next day, Emily's Dad helped Connor get his car out of the ditch.  After he slowly drove it home (was quite shocked that it even started), he opened the hood.  This is what he found:

Thankfully, after his car had been in the heated garage for the day, the snow had melted.  And, his car started up again with no issues.  Whew!

Before and since then, we've gotten crazy amounts of snow.   The last little blizzard that came about (the night of February 7th) brought in a ton more snow and ferocious winds.   Eric had been working on an important case at work and didn't leave until 6 PM. 

The driving conditions coming home were horrible.  When he got past the North Bridge, just a hundred yards or so before being able to turn onto our road, he noticed a van was stuck in a huge drift that was above the hood of the vehicle.  He got out to help, but there was no way it was getting out that evening.  Once those people were safe and had plans, he left to try the alternate route home.

He then drove clear around the lake to attempt that way to our home.  He ran into the same thing... on the final stretch to our road, there was another enormous drift where vehicles were stuck, and no way to get through.    Again, once those people had a rescue plan (they chose not to go with Eric), he left.   Because the plows had shut down at 5 PM, he was forced to drive back to town in nearly zero visibility on drifted snowy highways.    I said a lot of prayers for him as he made his way back to town.  When we talked on the phone during his drive, his tension was easily sensed and he yelled out a few times, as he plowed through soft drifts that were above the hood of his truck.  He said if he would have had better visibility, he wouldn't have even attempted going through them.  And, he also said he had to keep his speed up so he could make it through the snow (even though it was impossible to see at times).  Yikes.

He went back to the department and continued to work through the night, leaving just before 6 AM on Friday morning.   At our main turn-off road, he had to wait 45 minutes for the county to dig out the van that was stuck and plow the road.   He then went to bed for a few hours.

When he awoke, it was time to do some more snow-blowing.   By morning, the drifts were no longer soft snow, but hard as rocks from the harsh winds.  Ugh!    Here's a few pics of our place..

Front walk-way.
By the front door, one of the drifts is up to my neck and higher by the sides of the garage. (grimace) 

INSIDE of our garage!  (There is a small void that allowed the snow to pass through.)

It's "Bear Week"

This week at Ramsey's preschool, it was Bear Week and the kids did lots of fun learning activities and heard all about bears.    Rowwwwl!

Mrs. Brown surprised me and sent me these pictures.

At snack time, they made bear bread.  Cute!  Curious, I asked if Ramsey tried the bananas for her.  She said he did try it (and that's all she said! ha!).   

I knew better than to ask about the raisins.

Ramsey and his buddy Keegan found a good place to chill!

Happy 17th Birthday Connor!

Connor is 17... 17!!!!  What a wonderful young man he has become.  We are so proud of him and are blessed to be his parents.  XXOO!

Now, for his yearly "stats"..

CONNOR'S STATS:

Birth date: February 1st
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 150 lbs

FAVORITES:
Color: Blue
Food:  Pizza, Shrimp
Games/Activities:  XBox One (Star Wars Battlefront is the current favorite game)
Sport: Tennis
Music/Song:  Connor doesn't listen to music.
TV Show:  The Punisher (Marvel on Netflix)
Movie: Star Wars (all of 'em)
Book: Connor's not a big reader.
Restaurant:  Pizza Ranch, Dairy Queen
Flavor of Ice Cream: Cookie Dough
Outdoor Activity: Fishing
Actor/Actress: Will Farrell
Favorite Thing to Do With Ramsey:  Light saber battles
Best Friends: Jared, Dylan, Brayden, "Gibby" (Nathan)
Girlfriend: Emily

Winter Festival

A yearly tradition (as of last year) is attending our church's winter festival, full of games, prizes, and activities for kids and families.

We got there a little early.  Ramsey peeled off his shoes so he could start bouncing on the inflatables the minute they opened!

He went in the bouncy castle maze a dozen times (we had to "coerce" him out of there each time so other kids would have a turn).

Between bouncy castle fun, we went into the gym where they had Plinko.

And a bag toss...

Basketball...

A ring toss...

And also hit up the bowling room.   We did manage to avoid the cake walk (darn diets!).

Ramsey was pleased to win so many prizes, like stickers, suckers, pencils, slime, and Play Doh!