Earthquake!!!

I was awakened this morning about 4:35 to my bed and the house shaking!!! At first, for a second, I thought it was wind, as it's been very windy here the last few days, but once I got my wits about me, I realized very quickly that it was an earthquake. The next think I heard after waking John up was "I'm shaking" from the girls' room. It had woken them up and Katherine was a little scared. They got out of bed and joined me in a group hug in their doorway. After the shaking stopped, they promptly went back to bed. After watching some news, I tried, but dont think I slept much more. Definitely a rude awakening and lots of trying to explain to Katherine this morning what an earthquake was. I'm afraid that I didn't do a good job, but told her to ask her teacher - that's what they are for, right???

Sad Times

It's been a while since I've blogged. It's been crazy here. Many of you know that John's mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer right after Thanksgiving 2006 - 16 months ago. She beat the odds that they gave her, but she finally lost her battle with the dreaded disease and died last week. The last week has been a whirlwind of emotions and stress, but we've made it to the other side and are now trying to resume "normal" activities following the funeral on Monday, April 7. We know that "normal" will be different now with her gone, but are doing our best to adjust and explain it to the kids. While we knew it was coming, the end was VERY FAST, which blindsided us a bit, but really was an answer to prayer. She went from her "normal self", albeit on pain medication and growing weaker every day, to gone in 9 days. A blessing for all those involved that she didn't suffer and and we and John's dad did not grow as weary being the caregivers. The hospice workers that we had for the last 5 days were fabulous and she died at home. She was 82 and lived a full life. We'll miss you, Hazel Mae, Grandma Bauer, and Mom.

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a joyous Easter! Yes, that is snow in the picture. We had snow flurries on and off all day! We got a dusting in the morning as we were going to church, but it quicky melted and then 3 or 4 more times during the day we looked outside to see it snowing again! I'm all for having Easter in April!

A lovely lady at church brought the girls a lamb cake to frost and decorate, so we did that on Saturday and the girls really had fun with it. Thanks, Mrs. Ricks! Here's the finished product.

My pretty girls in their Easter dresses with their Webkinz stuffed animals that showed up in their Easter baskets!

Hunting for eggs (inside, since it was snowing and 33 degrees!)....

Christopher was napping durning the egg hunting, but we finally got him up for dinner with my (Julie's) parents and pictures - I had to get some pictures with all my kids, so here is the best I could do. Christopher wouldn't smile for anything! Oh, well!

Come on, Katherine, smile - it's Easter! Anyway, hope everyone had a great Easter!

Should We Build an Ark?

There's just something not right about going to sleep listening to rain and waking up to rain, knowing that it's been raining all night - two nights in a row! Yes, we've had over 36 hours of near constant rain. It started raining on Monday evening and didn't stop until this morning. We were driving home from school yesterday with all 3 kids in the car and I asked Katherine - "should we build an ark with all this rain"? She answered "The car can be our ark! You are Noah and we are the animals!". That's kind of what it has felt like! We are glad for the rain that will help the grass and trees and flowers to grow, but enough already!!

"Baby"proofing

All my kids have been late crawlers - Elizabeth was the earliest at 10 months. Due to his size (he wears 24month/2T clothes at 13 months) and lack of desire (he hated being on his tummy until he was about 9 months old), Christopher started crawling this month - army crawling. Until this morning, he's pretty much stay within a 2 room area. Well, this morning while I was taking a quick shower he crawled across the entire house - from our tv/family room through the breakfast room and kitchen , office and into our living room. The fact that this entire area has wood floor made it pretty easy form him to move himself along, but this is the first time he's made it that far! So, the gate went up on the stairs immediately (I'm not sure he could pull himself up on the stairs, but I'm not going to wait to find out!) and I'll be spending the day looking for things he could get into and cleaning them up or removing them. He's much more curious than I remember my girls being and likes to take things out of my kitchn cabinets instead of just opening and closing them and also likes to pull things off of shelves and the coffee table. My "baby" is not a baby anymore.

Snow Day

Well, just as they predicted. Although we had our doubts. School was cancelled and at 8:00 it still wasn't snowing at our house. It finally started around 10:30 (although it started much earlier in other areas of St. Louis) and we ended up with about 6 inches here at home. Other areas got as much as 12 inches. It fell hard and fast and I shoveled the driveway 3 times before John got home at 1:30, then he shoveled again after the snow stopped. A fun afternoon for the girls. They went on a "snow walk" with dad twice and just enjoyed getting outside and playing in it. Here are some pics, as promised. Has the past month been crazy, or what???

If You Don't Like the Weather....

They always say in St. Louis, if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes. Well, that describes what's going on right now. Yesterday it was 78 degrees and we got out and enjoyed the taste of spring. Well, last night it rained, a cold front came through, and right now (8:30 am) it's 36 degrees and raining. It's supposed to change over to rain/sleet/snow this afternoon, then tomorrow we are supposed to get heavy snow. Not just snow, but HEAVY snow. The are forcasting 6+ inches. We'll see what unfolds. I enjoy the snow, but am really looking forward to spring and putting away the heavy coats, hats, and mittens. So, expect some snow pictures by weeks end!