Big Boy Feeder

I started trying to teach Vince how to feed himself and he picked it up pretty well. We've only tried oatmeal since it sticks to the spoon really well. It's definitely not a daily thing, as he is also learning how to fling food off the spoon too! haha But he's making progress and amazes me how fast he learns

BFF Reunion

So like I had mentioned in my last post all my best friends came over last weekend and we had a BLAST!! We'd been planning this get together for almost a year and it happened to me on the crazy ice storm weekend, but everything worked out fine and it was a trip to remember. 

It's crazy how Tami, Jaynee and I love within 6 hours of each other and we are all from Washington. So Megan was able to fly out and it worked out great. The kids had a great time (most of the time lol), we went to parks, on walks, tried to see a plantation but the storm shut it down, ate TONS of food, talked and laughed a ton. It was great!!

The kids LOVED baby Einstein

We went to Chick Fila one day, which was crazy because tons of people, including us, still didn't have power and had the same idea

This is the best picture we got of them all in the shopping cart, haha

Haha this one cracked me up, I had to put it on

Miss you guys!!!

Icemaggedon

Last Wednesday, we had one of the biggest ice storms Augusta has ever seen!! It was crazy! Freezing rain, sleet, rain, snow, wind, power outages, branches and debris EVERYWHERE, trees down and to top it all off a 4.1 earthquake! Yes, that's right, an EARTHQUAKE!

Let me go back to the beginning. We had a winter storm warning from Tuesday at midnight until Thursday morning. We woke up Wed morning and this is what we saw. Freezing rain over night accumulating about a 1/2 inch, there were trees down and nobody on the roads. Schools cancelled and most all public places closed, including John Deere, so Ryan was home. We still had power but had be warned over and over that power outages would be likely and to BE PREPARED. 

Vince got a basketball for Valentines day. We celebrated early.

Pretty much all day Wednesday it was either freezing rain, sleeting, some rain or snowing. More and more branches were falling and we were just waiting. We had power all the way up until about 9PM where it went out for about 30 min then came back on. We counted our blessings and went to bed. The next morning is when it changed. It had freezing rained throughout the night and now there was at least an inch of ice EVERYWHERE and no power. It went off about 4AM. This is what it looked like outside.

We thankfully has a gas fireplace and gas heating for our water, so we had heat and warm water. We are very blessed to have modern day prophets as well, who, for years, have been telling us to have food and water storage and be prepared for emergencies. We bought a generator 2 Christmases ago and finally put it to use! 

This was Vince's "fort" where he slept so he was warm enough. It was closer to the fire than in his room.

Here's some more pictures from the storm

This branch fell and literally stabbed into the ground, good thing we weren't out there!

We started putting our food outside to keep it from going bad before we started up the generator.

We decided to venture out and see what other damage was done.

Thankfully out power came on Friday around 6PM. Our power was off for a day and a half which seemed like a long time but we had friends at church who still didn't have power on Sunday! We saw trees down on houses, power lines downed, just debris and mess everywhere! We were so thankful that we were prepared and everyone was safe. Ryan truly took care of us (my 3 best friends came over for the weekend as well. We had been planning this get together for a year and it happened to be on this crazy weekend. I'll have pictures in the next post.), he's amazing and such a man! So as I said, the power came on Friday evening and we thought the craziness was over and then at 10:30 PM was had the earthquake! It was so weird. I've been in a 6.8 earthquake in Washington and that was huge.This definitely wasn't as big but, I guess it just really caught me off guard because I really wouldn't expect an earthquake down here. It shook the whole house and felt like a big shock wave going through the house for about 5 seconds and was then over. No damage but shook our nerves a little. Thankfully everything pretty much melted over the weekend and the past 2 days have been 80! haha

DIY Crib Rail Protecter

The other day I go into Vince's room to get him from his nap and I notice all these white flecks on his face and clothes. Then I look at his crib and realize he's been biting on the crib rail and chipping off the paint!! Thank goodness there's not toxic paint on his crib, but still, I didn't want him swallowing that stuff and want to preserve the crib for babies to come. I had seen plastic rails you can buy, but they can be a bit pricey and I wanted something now. So we found this great tutorial online for a homemade one here. Vince helped me and it took literally 10 minutes! :)

 

Evidence of the biting

You need fabric as long as the rail and 10 inches wide.

Then you lay it over the rail and cut strips between the bars and tie in a knot. Tuck the extras up in the rail cover and done! Easy peasy!

Elmo's always ready to play

Vince absolutely LOVES Elmo

Trying to rescue Elmo

He needed a little help from mom to free him

It was time for nap and Elmo is his sleeping buddy

Balla Vince

Vince LOVES basketball! It's so cute! A few months ago, I took him outside with me to shoot some hoops and he was going crazy! He loved watching me and was clapping, smiling, laughing. Since then we'll bring the ball inside and he'll play with it and points to it when he sees it on the porch. Recently since it's been warming up and he can walk around we'll go outside and "play" basketball. he loves picking up the ball and walking around with it. There has to be a ball for him and me, or there's a problem. haha

He's starting to venture to the grass and starting picking all the dandelions and trying to eat them!

Winter Wonderland

We got snow!!! It snows about every 3-5 years down here, so when there's snow its a pretty big deal. We got a storm warning Sunday night for the storm on Tuesday and I was STOKED!!! We've missed snow since moving down here and we were excited. There were calling for 8-12 inches at one point and an ice storm, so we had to get ready.  Monday we went out to get "prepped" by picking up a few things if the storm got really bad. On top of it, my mom was supposed to fly out Tuesday right in the middle of the storm. Thankfully she was rerouted (blessing from Heavenly Father) and left early and made it home before the storm really hit.

Tuesday comes and we've had the weather channel on like all day. Ryan got sent home after lunch and they let all the schools out too. Atlanta was getting hit bad and they didn't let schools or anything out early causing MAJOR havoc and people ended up being stuck on freeways for 10+ hours! We finally started getting snow around 7 PM and snowed throughtout the night. We woke up to about 2 inches to a winter wonderland!!!!

Ryan had Wednesday off too (when I say "off" he got to stay home but had to work from home, but still really fun)! We got Vince all bundled in like 3 jackets, socks for gloves, 2 pairs or pants and his hat. We originally had his jammies on under all his "winter gear" but we couldnt fit his shoes on. haha! Vince wasn't a big fan. I think he had fun for the first 30 seconds but probably the combination of not being able to move very well and the cold made it not so fun. I think his face says it all.