More of the Same

What?  Another post concerning snow?!  Who knew?  Snow seems to be center stage in our lives right now so there's really not anything else to write about. We have now received a whopping 82.6 inches of snow, and very little of it has melted! The kids have missed more days of school than I can even count, and we've even resorted to making our front yard into ice cream!  (Thanks, Cara!)  In case you're interested, 1 gallon snow, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups milk, and 1 Tbs. vanilla make a delicious treat!

I'll start with the good.  It truly is a winter wonderland at our house, and the scene outside our front window is beautiful!

Cardon is at the bottom of our front steps. You can barely see the top of the bush that sits along the landing.

Em's playhouse

Em and Bud in front of one of our various snow piles!

What's left of our mail and paper boxes

Cardon dug a sweet tunnel to sled through.

Dennis had to dig a trail out to our propane tank so our propane company would deliver.  This is not a snow bank.  This is how much snow is sitting in our yard!

This is where the beautiful turns ugly.  On Sunday, January 30th, we started having water leak into our front bay window.  This is Dennis getting "the ox out of the mire" to help stop the leaks. We didn't have any more troubles until Saturday, when to our dismay, we had wet stains in numerous rooms in the house.  

ceiling stains :(

broken rain gutters :(

wet carpets :(

This is where the ugly returns to beautiful.  We had a whole crew of fabulous men from our ward come and help us clear the roof and break channels into the ice dams.  

This is Elder Ficklin doing a flip from the roof onto the snow on the deck!  Shhh!  Don't tell the mission president!

Here's the crew cleaning the driveway of the snow that came off the roof!

What can I say?  It's been a crazy, beautiful, frustrating and gratitude-filled winter so far!  

Snow Shmow!

My thoughts on snow have changed since my last posting entitled, "Christmas Snow." A title made by someone who enjoys snow. What was I thinking! After our Christmas vacation snow, I was walking around quoting Robert Frost's poetry--"the woods are lovely, dark and deep" but that was about 10 snow storms ago (OK, a little bit of an exaggeration--but not much!). We have had snow coming out of our ears since my last post, which isn't necessarily a bad thing except for the fact we've had 3 snow days with school canceled, an early release and a late start, with another snow day baring down on us for tomorrow! Just toss in a MLK day of vacation AND two more snow days forecasted for next week! Aarrggh! No more poetry for me. Just cussing! I have cooked every kind of pancake known to man, and we have watched every movie we own. We are all bored and tired of being stuck home, and tired of playing in the snow but it does make for some great photos!

Em jumping off a snow-covered rock!

Chiara in a cloud of snow

Cardon jumping from a larger snow-covered rock.

My cute kids

Cardon kind of disappeared into the shadows in this photo, but if you look closely, he's on the mountain of snow along the edge of our driveway!

The wreath looks very pretty. Does it not?!

Hangin' in the snow

The view onto our deck from the kitchen door!

ps.  Yup, It's a snow day today again!

Christmas Snow

The Great Blizzard of 2010 that pounded NYC, gave us about 6-8 inches, but the wind did howl, and we had a lot of very lovely snowdrifts. What a great way to spend a day of Christmas break!

Em eating snow off of her scarf

Bud sledding down the front steps

My snow angels!

Chi being put to good use

Bud and Sis having a contest to see who could stand in the snowdrift on our deck the longest!
(It was a tie!)

Christmas

Christmas arrived at the Elwood home again. I love Christmas and all of the excitement and build up to the big day. We had two families, the Singers and the Tibbitts, over for Christmas Eve, and then we spent Christmas Day alone as a family. Our first time ever! I must admit, spending Christmas Day in your jammies is not a bad gig!

Em sharing her wishes with Santa.

The obligatory "kids in front of the tree" photo.

Em with her new snowman nightgown

Bud with his new weapon

The "Santa dumped his sleigh here" photo.

This is such a lovely photo of me, but I couldn't resist the blue bathrobe shot for my family! I received this bathrobe for the Christmas when I had just turned 18, and it's still going strong after MANY years! My family has tried so hard to get rid of it--ridicule, harassment, bribery etc., but I can't do it! It's warm and soft and snuggly! Long live the blue bathrobe!

Chi with the new guitar! Meet country music's newest star!

First Recital

Monday, December 20th, was a night of firsts for our family. Chiara, (my freakishly talented and beautiful daughter), had her first piano recital as a piano teacher, and Emory had her first piano recital as piano student! Chiara teaches both Alaina Tautkus and Claudia Victorino, both from our ward, and of course, Emmy. It was short and sweet and the girls did a fabulous job! Chiara had a short FHE lesson to go with it, and awards, music note charms, and flowers. We finished the night off with lots of treats. A good night was had by all! Way to go, Em and Sis!

The Girls!

Em and Chiara playing a "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" duet.

Claudia

Alaina

Friends and Family

We have had the wonderful problem of being inundated by guests this autumn. We've had fun and excitement about every other week at our house since October, and I have been the official tour guide, which I looooove!
Here is a little overview of what's been going on:

We went with Dean and Margaret to the Great Pumpkin Blaze near Sleepy Hollow, New York. It was an awesome display of thousands of carved pumpkins on the grounds of an old Dutch Manor. Very cool.

This photo is of a beehive and swarming bees made from pumpkins

A sunflower

The fam in front of the manor house

A tour of Fenway was a hit with the Sox fans!

Our next great adventure was when the Labrums came for Thanksgiving. We got really brave and decided to go to the Macy's Parade. I was a little bit nervous of the disaster this undertaking could possibly be, but it turned out awesome--no rain, not too cold and honestly, the crowds were not bad! A bonus for us!

Dang! Our camera battery was dead and so I do not even own one photo from the parade. Fortunately, Chantel and Barrett took about 200! Chantel has posted one measly photo on her blog so I stole it for mine!

Dennis turned around to look at the people on the balcony above us just as Spidey passed over his head. He looks terrified!

The Grandma Margaret gingerbread house tradition lives on! Unfortunatley, Max and Morgan were not allowed to take theirs home in the suitcase!

Hammocks at the USS Constitution Museum


Oh, look! It's Dolly and James Madison. Not really--it's Max and Em at the museum.
The Labrums trying not to freeze.

Our most recent adventure was the Blotter girls. Jill surprised Jenessa with a trip to our house/NYC. The girls' trip was awesome. We had a lot of fun--Christmas decorations, delicious pizza, 2 trips to Magnolia bakery, a trip up into the crown of Lady Liberty and Wicked! It doesn't get much better than that!

The 16-year old and the 15 1/2-year old. They are lovely young ladies!

Jill, Ness and Chi on the subway

The giant Christmas lights on 6th Avenue
Looking down on the statue's tablet

In the crown--the only photo we took of the four of us together!

Well, I'm pretty sad about the fact that no more visitors are scheduled to come so it's a long way until July. Someone get busy and book a visit!