Electricity is never overrated!

Everything was covered in ice.

Ice is scary, powerful and yet beautiful.

That is some thick ice.

The sun shining on the ice makes it look like crystals.

The sun setting on the ice was amazing.

The family cuddled up around our camping space heater.

Jenni watching the train roll by.

Melting snow just to flush a toilet, that is the kind of fun we have.

The new refrigerator.

I just really loved this picture of the ice.

Sunday night about 2am our power went out, this has happened before, actually about twice a year it happens. It usually lasts a few hours at the longest. We had a horrible ice storm, I truly didn't even know it happened until Monday morning when we woke up with no power. Ryan left for work, the girls and I just snuggled in Mommy's bed waiting and trying to stay warm.

We spent most of Monday with my Mom and Step-dad Mike, getting a few snacks from Meijer and a space heater from Mike to keep warm. As day quickly turned to night Ryan scrambled to find a generator as power was not going to be in our near future. We ended up having to call my Dad, in the metro Detroit area, to get a generator. Thank goodness my Dad owns a business that sells these things!!!!! In retrospect it was NOT a good idea to drive with Ryan and the girls to get the generator, the roads were so bad, my nerves were shot by the time we got home!

Night 1 (Monday Night) we slept with lots of blankets and Ryan got up at about 4am to run the generator to get the heat in the house going. Day 2 (Tuesday) we had a few too many dance contests and lots of coloring books out. I melted snow to flush the toilet(we have a well which needs power to run!), and I made an impromptu refrigerator on the back porch. We played with flash lights at night, HUGE HIT WITH THE GIRLS!! We had dinner by candle light.

Ryan's work still had no power, but he had to go in and move all the food from his store to another store or it was going to go bad.

Night 2 (Tuesday) Ryan got the girls a television on, we watch one movie and then went to bed, we read the girls their bedtimes books and once again I am so happy and proud to be a blanket hoarder!! I grabbed a good book and read by flashlight. Night time was horrible for me, I listened intently for the girls in case they made any kind of noise, I was always worried they were cold! I also felt it necessary to listen for the generator, to make sure it was still in the garage, those things were rare and just about everyone around here wanted one!

Day 3 (Wednesday) By far my worst day!!! Ryan was supposed to have the day off, I thought he would be home with me and helping me entertain the girls, in all actuality they totally entertain themselves, I guess I just wanted him to be home for me and my sanity! Today was supposed to be Grace's snack day at school. Well, with everything going on I had totally forgot, so we got dressed and ready really early and ran to the store to grab some jell-o or something. As we are driving to the school, I hear on the radio that her school is canceled!!! So we drove back home with 20 cups of jell-o. If you need some jell-o please call me! (Thurday I found out it really wasn't canceled, the radio station screwed up! Grrrrr) We still only ran the generator for the furnace, I knew that I was going to have to fill the generator with gas at some point throughout the day and was planning on doing it while it was nap time and melt the snow time. I turned the generator off to fill it with gas, I at least knew to do that! The only gas can with gas in it was fricke'n 40 pounds heavy, and no I am not joking here, I had to lift and hold this gas can while pouring it straight down into the top of the generator. "Holy Hell" and a bunch more expletives came shooting out of my mouth as I was cussing out Ryan for not being home to help me do this. It was cold outside and I was miserable and exhausted this is the last thing I really wanted to deal with.

After dumping a good amount of gas all over the place I quit, I cried in frustration and ran into the house and freaked out because I now had gas all over my hands with no way to clean them off, (again no running water because we have a well) I hate living in the country! I finished melting down snow and that made about 6 gallons of water, good for about 3 toilet flushes, enough for the day I figured. I finally gathered myself together and said "suck it up, you can figure this out!" For goodness sakes I have a damn college degree, why can't I pour some gas without getting all dirty and I work out I should be able to hold a 40 pound gas can for a minute or two.

I DID IT!!!!!! I used a plastic bag to hold the gas can nozzle with my right hand to aim it into the generator and not get smelly gas on me, then I had the bottom of the can propped under my left leg for more support while my left hand held the can itself. Other then looking like I was playing twister I did it, I totally fricke'n did it! More then anything I was proud of myself for being able to push through and think and take my time and not be a nincompoop!

The power came back on sometime Thursday morning, with cheers from Grace, all she wanted was to brush her teeth without using a bottle of water. I have learned that my house is always in some sort of state of chaos, it will never be clean, and my girls are going to be crazy. We were warm, we were eating food, even if it was cheerios or oatmeal, and we were taken care of by our families. All in all, it was a good week over here in our corner of the world.

The Most Hated Question

A random dance party!

Giving a 'cheers' before drinking tea!

My Lovelies on Valentine's Day!
(Grace asked me to straighten her hair)

At the Lowe's build, making a music box.

Jenni in her new 'Big Girl Bed', she has done AMAZING with the change, and we are now 4 weeks with no Binky!!!!! She is a superstar!

I think once a week, we get this question, it is a stupid question, I can't stand it!

"So, are you going to try for a boy?"

What I wish we could say: "Hell NO!", what we opt to say instead is "Nope, we are content to be done."

Why do I need to have a baby boy? Why is it assumed that the perfect American family has to be one boy and one girl? Why can't my family with two daughters be enough?

Ryan and I had many conversations about the number of kids we wanted before we were married. I wanted three, he only wanted one. We met in the middle with two! Babies are no joke, they need someone 24-7. We have had several talks after having our second about possibly having a third. We came to the conclusion that we would LOVE a third baby, but I am a horrible pregnant woman and it would be totally irresponsible of us in a financial sense.

I heard someone say somewhere along the way that "all a babies needs to live is on love alone." Someone was smoking crack when they said that! My kids need diapers, clothes, toothpaste, socks, underwear, and education and not to mention food! Love is not going to come to my door and say here is your food for the month. Yes, my girls are loved to the brim, but that is not all they need nor want.

I personally believe that I had two girls for a reason! I am NOT a girly girl, never have been and more then likely never will be. I hate the color pink, I don't wear a dress unless I have to, and I love to watch and play sports. I sincerely believe that having two girls has forced me to look into the mirror and take a look at myself and realize that I have to be a strong woman for my girls. I have to show them to love themselves, to take care of themselves, and that means having to take care of myself first. Lead by example as they say. Grace is going to be 4 SOON and Jenn will be 2 SOON, everyday is a wonderful, sometimes painful, adventure. Why would I want to mess up all the fingernail painting parties and tea parties and such with a boy. Besides, us three girls kinda like having only one boy in our life, Daddy!

Hold 'Em Tight

© Grace Henry Photos
(yep she made me pose like this and I did it!)

Jenni enjoying some brownies.

This is Kobe (not my child, but I would take him!) we celebrated his 1st Birthday on Super Bowl Sunday. I think he had a bit of a crush on Jennifer.

Daddy and the girls playing puppets before nap time.

We have had a lot of snowfall this week, I find it to be sad and beautiful.

This week I had every intention of writing about a question I can't stand getting. I will save that for next week as this week has brought a lot of tears and heartbreak for a man that I don't even know.

His name is Chad Cole, and even though is his name is not really important, I have prayed for him all week. He lost his wife, Sara, in a car accident this week. Sara was pregnant and due to give birth in a few weeks. Baby Miranda was born about an hour after the accident and brought into the world early and with no Mother.

Miranda was born about 30 minutes away from us in Ann Arbor on February 5th. She was put on life support and began the battle to save her life. Three days later, on February 8th, Miranda "took her first steps into the arms of her Mother and Jesus." These are the beautiful words that Chad said as his daughter lost the battle for her life.

I cried and I cried over these words, what a massive lost this man has had, and yet his words gave ME comfort. I struggle with my spirituality on just about a daily basis, this man that I don't even know, finds his peace and strength in knowing that his family is safe and together with Jesus. Sure I pray, and yes, I believe in Jesus, but I don't know if I would have the strength he has to not be mad, not be angry and say "why me?" To have a total stranger have so much strength and faith in God and Jesus makes me wonder why I don't have that, or would I be able to have it in a situation like this?

When I went away to college, my Mom told me that she used to pray "let me see my kids go to school", "let me see my kids drive", "let me see my kids graduate", "let me see my kids get married". I used to think that was crazy, until I had kids! I want to see them grow up and grow into young Women, I want to be able to comfort them when a boy breaks their heart, I want to be their mom. Ryan and I have talked about IF something were to happen to me, traditions he must continue, things to always say, reasons to find another wife. It is hard to think about, but for me it is a comfort in knowing that my girls will be loved even if I am not here.

As I lay my kids down to sleep at night I read them a story, I tell them I love them, and I tuck them in and say goodnight. Tonight and for always I will hold them a little bit longer and a little bit tighter, for I could never wake up in the morning, nor could they. I will breath before I get mad and frustrated, I will pray a prayer of Thank You for letting me have spent the day with them, for it could always be my last. I am not perfect, I will still forget to breath I am sure, and I will rush through the bedtime story sometimes, but at the end of every day I will still say a Thank You to God, for he made me a Mom for some reason, for some purpose, and THAT I know I believe in!

Snowdays 2011

Grace the scissor star!

Jennifer has learned: When Mommy has the camera, you smile.

Hopefully we will be doing this is shorts again soon!

Thursday is laundry day in this house (My OCD) playing with the laundry baskets is always a favorite in this house, sometimes its a train, or a boat, or a race car, or a hair styler!

Cuddle time!

The weather man said we were going to get a MAJOR storm over the week, well I didn't think it was bad at all, and then I realized he meant IN my house we were going to have a major storm!

Lets see what happened this week?!?!? Its more like what didn't happen :) Daddy has been in Brighton for some work classes all week, he is up and gone before we even think about getting up for the day, then he is home just in time to read books and tuck-in for bedtime. The girls know that daddy is working this week, but everyday they have asked me when he will be home and my answer is always "soon"!

Over the weekend we went sledding with the Braun's, that was fun, and Grace had issues when it came time to leave, she was not happy about it! Jennifer has decided that she HATES snow, that is soooo my girl! Grandpa Mike came over one day to watch the girls so I could take my Grandma (Gammie) to a doctor's appointment, OMG, my Gammie is 90 years old and she is awesome! The best part of taking her to her appointment was I got to see her cover her mouth with her hand and then she giggled like a 6 year old, I laughed so hard with her, it was the cutest thing I had seen in a long time!!!

Then the snow came, or some of it anyway.......it was supposed to be a big giant blizzard and it was really not a big deal at all, but I guess I would rather be over prepared then not at all :) Two days of no school, means we have school in the house!! Grace practiced her scissor skills, she did awesome cutting out all kinds of shapes by cutting on the lines, and Jenni learned to put her shapes in the right holes on her shape box. (My life is so exciting, I know!) We made an attempt to go outside with all the snow, Grace the snow bunny loved it, again Jennifer, not so much! Here are more pictures from this week.

The hardest part of my week, the girls have learned to tag team me with the word NO. Holy Hell that word just pisses me off! "Grace, go pick up your books from off the floor" "NO". "Jenni, you have had enough juice for the day, you need to drink milk" "NO". So I am learning to fight back, "If you don't pick up your books, I will pick them up for you and throw them in the garbage." Oh, that works like a charm, for now. As for the continued fighting over toys, well I am still working that one out!

Project 52: Weeks 1-4

Week 1: Something from around the house.

Week 2: Interpret a song.

Week 3: Shades of gray.

Week 4: Soothing Repetition.

I made a choice to join a photography group at the beginning of 2011 to help me grow as a photographer and really learn to think outside of my box that I live in : ) Each week we are given a theme and we can then interpret that theme anyway we so chose through a photograph. What an amazing time I am having and we are only on week 5. I hope that from this journey I find myself learning, thinking, and loving what I am doing even more. I wish I could shoot a photo everyday, but then they would all be of my kids, and well, what would the learning be in that really! So I hope you enjoy looking at my pictures as much as I LOVE to take them.