It will be a White Christmas after all. There's talk of a foot of snow tomorrow. Every morning all the kids want to do is go out to get in it.













Hunter has been going out every afternoon to stack wood. It's a Christmas present to his Daddy. I'm pretty sure it will be Matt's favorite.







The pile got a little too high for Hunt to stack nicely, so I had to come in at the very end. We're glad to have it done before we get more snow. Merry Christmas Matt!

The Hurricane Theme Continued

Hurricanes! So last night we had a practice for the Christmas program at church. That's a whole other hurricane. I'm in charge of it and let me just say: pray, pray, pray! Anyhow, we were wrapping up about 8:30. I still had a few things to do. Matt took Tenney home. Matt thought it would be nice to take Tenney on a little date to Baskin Robbins on their way home. He's such a good Daddy. They finished their ice cream, but Tenney had a little cup of M&M's in one hand, and the other hand in her pocket. They were right at the car. Poor Tennney tripped and fell against the hub cap of the wheel of our car. Skip to Hunter and I--We left the church and also wanted to go on a date, but Matt and I had traded cars, so my purse was in the Honda. We went home and didn't find Tenney or Matt there. I said, "I bet they had our idea. Hunter, call Dad and see if he'll bring us home some ice cream." Hunter called, and all Dad said was "Give me Mom now!" He was back in Baskin's trying to see the seriousness of the cut. The bleeding had stopped but the cut was right at the hairline and hard to tell how bad. We decided to bring her home and make a decision. There, we decided that I would take her to the ER. I had never taken her to the ER out of the three times she had gone. (Tenney split her head open when she was 2 on our coffee table in front of a babysitter.) You know, you wonder if the doctor will say, "Oh this isn't much of anything. We'll clean it out and put on a bandaid" or "It was a good thing you came in. This is pretty bad." Honestly, I'm not sure what I wanted him to say. Tenney, once again, was angelic. When the doctor was stitching up her 14 out of 17 stitches, Tenney said, "Mom, you know, doctors are good." The doctor about melted in her arms. She never cried or screamed. I guess reminiscent of the last accident. Matt did give her a father's blessing before she left the house. So what did the doctor say while flushing the gash as he could see her scalp? He said, "It's a good thing you came in." Matt is worried that anytime he tries to do something special with Tenney, that they are jinxed. I just think there's nothing you can do to stop a hurricane. You just hunker down and wait out the storm. Oh, and pray, lots of praying!

Hurricane theme

It seems this fall had a running theme. We would do something
beautiful or fun and a hurricance would come. You know, we had
Tenney's horse riding accident. Matt and she were on a fun ride in the woods and ended in the serious break. Then, on November 1st Matt and I met our friend Melanie and new friends, the Suter's, for a week on Grand Cayman. Melanie's husband couldn't come because he had changed jobs and the economy and all.








Melanie, me, and my new friend Chris.

See those black spots. Those are sting rays. We were in the water with them, feeding them, petting them, kissing them. One took a special liking to Matt.























Matt has the big hickey to prove it. If anything weird is going to happen, Matt will get it--pepper ticks in Africa, growing and birthing a botfly after two months under the skin from Guatemala, and now a big hickey from a stingray in Grand Cayman.

It seems Hurricane Michelle had already come through, so we got
Hurricane Paloma. On the 5th day there, a category 3 hurricane came right to where we were staying on the island. The condo people wanted us to go to a shelter, but we elected to stay. 120mph winds. We were 500 ft from the ocean with a building in front of us and we still got water and sand covering the carpet on our 2nd floor condo. It was way exciting! How many chances would I from Idaho have to be in a hurricane?

Fortunately, we were safe and well. We even snorkeled the day before and after the hurricane.

Frogs & Lizards

The kids favorite part of California was hanging out with their cousins. This was probably the kids favorite day ever. Their Uncle Greg, a 5th grade teacher, took them to Silver Lake.







Uncle Greg, Tenney, Hunter, Micaela & Logan. What's in that plastic box?








What does Tenney have in her hands?










Frogs! That frog on Hunter's hand was the biggest. It was huge compared to the others.










Hunter spent most days at Grandpa & Grandma's catching lizards. It was a reptilian trip.

Catching up. We spent Halloween in California with Grandma and Grandpa Galvez. Tenney had just gotten her caste off, so we pushed her around in a stroller.

The angel and dragon.