Friday, January 16, 2015

First of the Year Happenings

Here we are, half-way through January! Crazy!  Hope you are all enjoying your fresh new year!

For our New Year's celebration we were in Pennsylvania at my brother's place.  We turned the heat way down in our house since we were going to be gone for a few days.  When we got home it was 51 degrees inside.  Brrr!
Jan 1 2015 home

Since we were going to see Darrell and his family the very next day Clark stayed up in Pennsylvania for some extra cousin time and Jessie came with us. She had fun with the dress-up clothes.
Jan 2 2015 (2)

Jan 2 2015 (3)

Stephanie and Andy gave us the game Clue for Christmas.  We finally broke it out.  We've played it several times since!  I think it must be Shanna's favorite game at the moment.
Jan 2 2015

We brought home some incredibly delicious chocolate milk from New Jersery, made by Halo Farm.  OH yum!
Jan 3 2015

We were going to have Tim Tam Slams in December, but it never happened.  And then at Christmas there were so many goodies anyway, it seemed a waste to pull them out then.  So we broke them out for a family home evening treat.  My brother Sam served a mission in the Brisbane, Australia area for our church-The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  When he came we were able to try a few things from there like Vegemite (yuck) and also Tim Tams.  He told us some story about prisoners in Australia eating them for something or other as a tradition.  Can't remember the fake story at all.  But they do have Tim Tam Slams there!  You can by these chocolate biscuits at World Market. That's where I bought mine.
Jan 5 2015 Tim Tam Slams (8)

To have a Tim Tam slam, get some hot chocolate.  The hotter you can stand it the better. 
Jan 5 2015 Tim Tam Slams (7)

Get a Tim Tam.
Jan 5 2015 Tim Tam Slams (6)

Bite off a little corner on one end.  Then bite a corner off on the opposite end....like bottom left and top right.
Jan 5 2015 Tim Tam Slams (5)

Dip an exposed end into the hot chocolate, and use the other exposed end as the opening to the straw!  Start drinking. Enjoy the hot chocolate and then the melted, gooey, yummy biscuit. (See the Christmas decor in the background?  I could not bring myself to take down the Christmas decorations.  We don't have very many decor items in our house because that's not my forte, and I knew as soon as we took them down our house would feel empty like we're trying to sell it or something.  Plus I didn't want Christmas to be over either. It went by much too fast! While I was painting the boys' room--see below--Lee took down the decorations for me.  Thanks Lee!)
Jan 5 2015 Tim Tam Slams (4)

Jan 5 2015 Tim Tam Slams (3)

Jan 5 2015 Tim Tam Slams

We've had a couple of snow days too with school starting off with a two-hour delay, then canceled right after 8am.  Lots of snow, I know! We love snow days though!  Even if there really isn't any snow!
Jan 6 2015 (2)

Jan 6 2015 (3)

My kids (except Elden) had fun wearing their "new" snowpants that day.  It was a good thing too as it was kind of wet and muddy out.
Jan 6 2015 (4)

We have an awesome hill here to sled on.
Jan 6 2015 (5)

For a date night Lee and I played another game Stephanie and Andy got us--Dutch Blitz.  It's really fun, even though I lost three times!  I need to play again. Not sure if I'll get better at this game or not.  It may be like ping pong.  I don't think I've ever beat Lee at ping pong.  And if I did I am sure it was because he let me win.
Jan 6 2015

Last week I finally painted the boys room.  We recently purchased a bunk bed for the boys.  I thought that it would be much better to paint their room before the bunk bed was set up.  The thing holding me back from painting this room is the fact that we have two huge metal storage shelves in here holding food storage and other items.  Really, it's like our pantry in their room, but also is home to our three-month food supply (not yet done!).  We don't have any other place to store the food at a good temperature, so that room it is.
Jan 7 2015 (2)

While Cal was "practicing" the piano. He made his name Cal out of gummy lifesavers. 
Jan 7 2015

Last week the temperatures got pretty cold...about 8 degrees.  Well, our poor washer out in our unheated sunroom, froze on us.  After a couple of days of it not working I bought a space heater and left it running by the washer for a few hours. The washer FINALLY turned on!  YAY!  I actually got the water to come out that afternoon, but then after it filled up with water it stopped and would agitate the clothes or move at all.  The heater somehow unfroze some other working washer parts and it started washing.  I was about to bring our clothes down to Raleigh to wash... (Upcoming post!) With nothing to do with the washer freezing, I think we might be purchasing a new washer/dryer set soon.  The middle agitator really isn't working and the knob I push in on the dryer to start it, seems to be on the fritz.  They are all still working though!  Laundry is a very easy task and I am so grateful to have a washer and dryer in my home!  We've used laundromats since we've been married for about 5 years.  And that too is still a luxury, all things considered.  But it's so awesome having them in your house for sure! (And for certain....Lee, he he.)
Jan 9 2015

Wow, what a great way to start off your new year....you now know about our laundry situation!  Ha! Truly, we hope it's been fantastic thus far.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hope that your washer keeps working! That would be such an inconvenience to have go to a laundromat. Would a new washer keep it from freezing? It seems if it was 8 degrees, any washer would freeze! I guess it makes doing the laundry in the winter exciting!

The tim-tams look super yummy!!! We should have a slam fest at Thanksgiving!!!