a week in winter

We've spent a lot of this week on the inside looking out.

We came home from church last Sunday to discover that Caden was running a fever of 102. I'm fairly certain he had the flu, since the rest of us had been vaccinated, and no one else came down with it. It was weird to see him motionless for several days. By Tuesday he was back to his usual -running countless (seriously) laps in his superhero cape.

Tuesday evening, Dee Dee and Monie came over for dinner (Grandpa Jerry, the chef, was out of town). She was lucky enough to shake Obama's hand before leaving. That night an ice storm rolled through, which meant no school for either of the boys on Wednesday.

On Wednesday late afternoon, Will enjoyed watching the snow begin to fall. Daddy came home a few minutes early - it was a nightmare commute for many in our area.

It was an extremely wet, heavy snow, which meant a huge amount of power outages. Ours flickered several times, and was out for good around 9:30pm. Our older two are used to sleeping with the sound of an air purifier, so didn't like how quiet and cold it was. Caden ended up in bed with us a majority of the night - a first...and hopefully a last. That child is a mover.

We put on layers and huddled by the fire for breakfast. I managed to enjoy a warm latte thanks to Miss Moka and a gas stove ;).

Andrew snuck upstairs to watch a show (under several layers of blankets) we had downloaded onto the ipod for the airplane.

It was a sweet morning to cuddle under blankets, play games, listen to music on the laptop. We were expecting to be out of power for several days, since our neighborhood typically takes a long time. I packed up the contents of our fridge and freezer in garbage bags, and buried them in the snow. Our last piece of firewood was burning out, I was beginning to pack up clothes so we could flee to friends/family with heat when our power CAME ON! It was a wonderful surprise, and a perfect opportunity to clean out our filthy refrigerator ;). The upper part of our neighborhood didn't get power for another 2 days (Saturday).

We canceled bible studies Thursday night since our roads were still a mess, but enjoyed having some fun new friends over for dinner. We cooked up some tasty Guinness beef pot pie - I can't recommend this recipe enough (thanks Choi's): http://http//www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/JAMIE-OLIVERS-STEAK-GUINNESS-AND-CHEESE-PIE-1257390

School was canceled the rest of the week due to messy roads and power outages. Our days were lazy - think pj's until noon, hot cocoa and marshmallows, countless board games...

and attempting to teach this little one on the move to stay away from the dog bowls (he was a little bewildered to hear me say NO).

By Friday, the morning seemed to be a non-stop stream of bickering. Then came a needed respite, and this. Bags packed for a trip to see Grandpa and Grandma in Seattle. This is a regular part of pretend play in this household (as well as unpacking the bags in "their" rooms at Grandma Kathy's house).

Friday afternoon we got a bit of snow time at the Choi's - they had a BLAST on this sled.

Such teamwork.

That night we enjoyed having these dear out-of-town friends in for dinner.

Saturday morning they planned a birthday party for Owl. Party hats, and a cheerios/milk/orange juice cake, baked in the oven and prepared with love ;).

And that night we loved having the Choi fam (including Nai Nai and Guma!) in for dinner.

A cozy week at home. Full and sweet - moments that we'll likely look back on and miss someday. As for now, I'm looking forward to resuming a bit of normalcy tomorrow.