To Samuel on His Birthday

Dear Samuel,

Oh, my dear boy. I can't believe you are two! I think I am in denial, because your birthday snuck right up on me!

"Could he be any cuter?" Daddy and I ask each other nearly every day. Your big brown eyes and your cute little voice are downright adorable. You are a charmer, that is for sure. How we love you!

Here are some things about you at two years old:
You LOVE trucks. You can hear a truck approaching from a block away and you run to the window to watch it pass. Your favorite day is garbage day when the big garbage and recycling trucks pass. You yell and wave at the garbage man and he waves back. "Truck" was one of your first words.

You are loud and full of energy at home, but when we go out anywhere, you turn into a shy, quiet boy. My Young Women think you are so cute, but you put your hands over your face when they try to play with you. Nursery has been a struggle. The only day you have stayed the whole time was when the Priesthood took over one week. Obviously you are partial to boys (and your mama). Hopefully you will like Nursery someday!

You like to study with Daddy. You make your way down the stairs to where Brad is and say, "Dada work? By-balls? (eye balls)". You're pretty hard to resist, so you usually end up in Daddy's lap looking at eye balls until you are satisfied.

You love to read books with Lainy and chase Leah around the house. Your sisters love you so much. You are sweet to give them big hugs and kisses when they need them.

We are so happy to have you in our family, my sweet boy. We love you and hope you have the best day!

Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mama

Winter 2015

The girls and I were pretty sad when it was nearly 60 degrees the day after Christmas. "We'd just like one good snowstorm," we said. "Maybe one snow day out of school," said Lainy. Oh, if we only knew!

As you've probably heard, we got much more than we bargained for! This winter in New England has been absolutely unbelievable! After 4 huge snowstorms in as many weeks, each dropping a foot of snow or more, we have been literally buried. The craziest stretch was when we got over 50 inches of snow in one week! This winter has broken every record ever recorded except one: largest amount of snowfall in a single winter. We are two inches shy of that record, which will probably be broken tomorrow with another storm (hopefully the last).

At first we were excited about all the snow. But as the snow drifts on either side of our driveway grew to be much taller than Brad and me, the novelty started to wear off. Our backs and shoulders ached from all the shoveling, and driving anywhere was downright dangerous because the drifts were so high you couldn't see around intersections. We would watch the weather forecast in disbelief each week as another blizzard was announced. All we could do was shake our heads and try to have fun with it.

Our kids have loved all the snow. Our yard has a perfect little sledding hill (which got bigger and bigger with each storm). We made some sweet sledding runs and snow caves, and the girls have loved playing "King of the Mountain" with Brad. He could literally throw them off the hill and they'd just land in soft powder, giggling. Samuel was very timid at first. He would just stand in one spot eating snow. But he has gotten a little more adventurous!

Luckily, Brad has been working in a clinic outside of Boston since January so he didn't have to commute in to the city. (Commuting has been a nightmare for people. The subway is just barely getting back to a normal schedule.) We counted that a huge blessing!

A few crazy facts for you: School kids in Massachusetts didn't have a single full week of school for all of February. They spent more days out of school in February than in! The City of Boston awarded citizens free Red Sox tickets for shoveling out fire hydrants. The MBTA (the subway and commuter rail) was paying volunteers $50 an hour to help shovel off their tracks. Downtown Boston was a mess. There was simply nowhere to put the snow. At one point Boston had snow incinerators brought into the city that were melting 400 tons of snow an hour to try to keep up!

After a few days of warmer weather the snow is starting to melt. Spring is coming! (Just not too fast, please, or every house in MA will flood!)

I guess we're glad to have been here for this unprecedented winter. We have stayed warm and dry. I'm sure it's something we'll be telling our grandkids about someday. "I lived through the Boston winter of 2015!"

Pictures in chronological order (so you can see the progression)

 This last one was taken on Wednesday when we hit 50 degrees for the first time since December. 50 degrees never felt so good!

Remembering 2014

Obviously having three children puts a damper on my blogging. I think I have posted about ten times since Sam was born. Eek!

There are things I want to record here about 2014, so even though we are over three months into 2015, I'm doing a recap.

January
Leah turned 4! My Mom came from Idaho, and Hayley and Jocelyn came from Alaska to celebrate!

February
We visited lighthouses in Maine and it snowed a lot in Boston.

 March
Samuel turned one!

April
We had ourselves a nice, quiet Easter,

And watched the Boston Marathon (SO inspiring!)

May
We went to Maui!

June
Samuel finally started walking!

 Lainy finished 1st grade!

 July
 Brad had a birthday, we went swimming nearly every day, picked blackberries and roasted marshamallows in our back yard, put on a production of Peter Pan with some friends, and had the most lovely summer!

August
We went to Idaho to welcome my sister Cassi home from her mission and recharge our souls with family.

 When we got back to Boston (after the worst traveling experience ever, ever, ever), Lainy turned 7!

September
My parents and my brother's family came for a visit! We saw a Red Sox vs. Yankees game (one of Derek Jeter's last games), went to Maine, and let the cousins play to their heart's content.

October

Peter Pan theme Halloween. Samuel was thrilled about trick-or-treating.

November
I turned 30 (strange) and Brad's parents came for Thanksgiving. We love them so much!

December
Our Christmas celebrations were so fun and sweet and wonderful. Our kids are such fun ages. Christmas was magical!

Goodbye 2014. You were a good year!