Power Outage!

When we built our house we decided to add a fireplace for two reasons.  The first was the atmosphere.  In the winter we love lounging around with the fire on while sipping some hot coco!  The second was for an emergency.  We thought that it might be nice to have some heat if the power were to go out during the winter.

We have lived here for 5 1/2 years and last Wednesday was the first time we were able to test out our second reason for having a fireplace.  The power went out while Brad was putting the kids to bed, I was at a relief society meeting.  He was reading them stories when the lights went out.  Luckily it wasn't pitch black since I bought some emergency flashlights that plug in and turn on when the plower goes off.  They light up the house and they are easy to find.  He said that they worked great!

Aleah was really scared at first and Cade was just fine.  Brad is such a great Dad, he handled Aleah and Cade's first power outage wonderfully.  Good job Brad.  Cade went right to sleep.  Aleah needed a night light so he put one of the flashlights up against the wall.  She also wanted music so he grabbed his IPad.  Smart Dad!

When I got home the kids were asleep and there were candles everywhere.  The rest of the evening was spent evaluating and planning for the next emergency.  Now back to the fireplace.  I was worried that it wouldn't heat all the rooms so we turned it up as high as it would go and opened the kids' doors.  When the power came on around 1 am (we knew it was on because we didn't turn off our kitchen light even though we thought we did) Brad got up to turn off the fireplace and noticed that it was 70 degrees in our house.  I was sweating hot, but at least we know now that it can heat all the rooms!

I am thankful that we got to have a test run!  I am also thankful that Brad made it home from his business trip to Nebraska a couple of hours before the storm hit!

Our 1 year old!

On February 1st our little boy turned 1!  I have mixed emotions about this.  I love that he is growing up, and walking, and his jibber jabber talk is really the cutest ever, but I miss my tiny little baby.  He is so sweet and his hugs are the best.  He is still very cuddly.  He says Mom, Mama, wow, hi, and hello. When he is playing peek-a-boo he will close the door and then he will open it and say heellloooo, it's so cute.  He has started his own little jibber jabber language, which I love!  He laughs all the time.  It is a very contagious laugh.  He loves to jump, run, play, climb, get into everything and basically do whatever Aleah is doing.

On Saturday the 5th we had his birthday party.  It was fun and wonderful to have a lot of our family here to celebrate with us.  I made his cake.  It was a dinosaur party so I made a volcano cake.  As you can see I used rice krispy treat to make the top.  I think that it turned out really cute!  

Cade had a fun time at his party.  He was a little shy at first but then he warmed up to everyone.  Here he is playing with Brad and hanging out with my parents.

 Aleah and her cousin Grant had a good time playing together with the legos.  Aleah loves playing with her cousins.  Before the party she was so excited for "all da cousins!" and after the party she couldn't stop talking about, "all da cousins!"  In her prayers at night she will say, "Thank you for Mom, Dad, Cade, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Todd, Grant, and all da cousins!"

While we were singing to Cade he just smiled and looked around.  Then he tried to touch the flame on his candle.  Luckily I have super fast reflexes and I was able to blow it out just in time!

He loved his cake! And true to how he normally eats (unless it is pasta), he was not afraid to make a mess and shove it in his mouth as fast as he could.

When present time came Aleah had to help him with the wrapping paper, but he had a fun time taking the tissue paper out of the bags.

 We sure love our 1 year old!