Ice Storm

Since it's been awhile since we posted I am adding a few pictures of life before the ice storm. Cam has been wanting a new TV for a LONG time, so when we saw this one on craigslist for $45 I got it for him for his birthday. Its not huge but it is a lot bigger than our old TV and is HD. Cam LOVES it.Aleksandra got some blocks for Christmas and LOVES to play with daddy. She loves to knock down all the huge towers he builds and he just keeps building towers...

Aleksandra is one wild little kid, everyday we find her in some new crazy place. Cam always tells her "you don't know karate but you know CRAZY...." its true.

Here is another project from my sewing machine, I used my leftover zebra fabric and made some burp cloths as a baby present. I thought they turned out pretty cute.

And then the power went out! Augh. Monday night we started getting a pretty bad ice storm and we were so excited that Cam might not have to go to school- oh if we only knew! We he didn't have to go to school- FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! Our power went out Tuesday and we thought- what a fun adventure- we'll see how good our 72 hour kit is and just camp out. So here we are our first night with no power- all smiles.The ice just kept on coming. I ventured out and took some photos of the damage the first day.

My ironic photo- an icy power meter...Here we are that night more bundled up and a little less enthusiastic about it. Don't let the flash fool you this is what our living room really looked like by then...yeah... dark.Here we are the next morning, we all slept cozy in our bed that night with 5 blankets on or bed and bundled up. Getting out of bed was another story- it was pretty cold that morning.Cam boiled water over some candles to make us hot (warm) oatmeal, I thought he was a little crazy but it did raise everyone's spirits to have a hot breakfast. After breakfast we decided to go for a little drive to see the damage, we only drove near our house a lot of roads were closed due to damage.

Here is a little video of that day. Well to make a long story short, we spent the night at a friends house Wednesday and its a good thing we did, Cam and I came back to our apartment Thursday morning to grab a few things and it was between 35-40 degrees. That night our power came back on- HOORAY! However, people are still with out power and there are still branches down all around town. If nothing else we did learn a few things about our 72 hour kits. We were glad we had cash in our kits because we did find an open store but they were only taking cash- we just bought a few snacks for fun. We were also glad that we had glow sticks in our kit, they gave a lot of light and we didn't have to worry about Aleksa hurting her self on them. Our crank radio was a HUGE blessing- not only could we keep in touch with what was going on but we could listen to some music to lighten the mood. And last, always have at least half a tank of gas in your car- Cam filled up the night before the storm- we used the car for heat and the stations were all closed because of the power outage.

Now for the things we are going to add to our kit, we are going to add a big 100 hour candle to our kit- we had little candles but a big candle would have been easier. A little propane or something similar stove for heat and cooking. A sheet of plastic- our house may have stayed warmer if we had been able to seal our huge front window. A package of jiffy popcorn to cook over candles- we just thought popcorn wold be fun. And last but not least we saw the coolest thing in emergency essentials newsletter- its a crank phone charger- if our power had

been out longer we would have needed to charge our phones.

Happiest Place on Earth....

Well we are back from sunny Florida. We had such a wonderful time in Florida! The weather was great and the company was even better! Thanks Trent and Lori for such a great family trip. We went to the beach, sea world and Disney world. Cam and I even got a trip into the Orlando Temple, it was so beautiful. I can't even begin to write about all the fun things we did.

Poor Aleksandra, she didn't have any naps in a crib on vacation- we were playing too hard. But she slept like a doll in her stroller.Family photo at sea world, actually turned out super cute.

Not a fan of Shamu- but at least we knew not to stand in any lines a Disney world to see any characters...

A picture is worth a 1,000 words. First time I ever touched a dolphin, check an item off my life to do list. And I got to feed some dolphins too. Now I just need to save my money so I can swim with dolphins someday.

Cam and Aleksandra at the dolphin pool.

These were the best mouse ears Brook and I found.

Aleksandra LOVED the ocean. It was all we could to do keep her from diving in by herself! It was pretty cool that day but she didn't care she just wanted to swim.

She kept diving down and trying to go out deeper in the water!

At the end of our day at Disney.

Like father like daughter, Cam and Aleksandra LOVE to eat popcorn. Here they are waiting for the light parade to start.

Cam and Brook after their ride on the tea cups. It was a little more than Cam bargained for.

Not sure what to say, I just love this picture.

Poor peachie- she was so tired!

Aleksandra's dress was my first project on my brand new sewing machine! Thanks mom and dad!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We have had a great year this year! Cameron spent the summer in Russia, while Aleksandra and I spent time with family in Utah. Aleksandra learned to sit, crawl, walk, run, talk, yell, kiss, hug, eat by herself, read books, sing and many other things. I started my tile business and have been busy working part time as well. How do you sum up a year in a paragraph? Here are some things we have done since Christmas.

Aleksa spending a few last minutes with grandpa and grandma.I love that they have matching expressions! How does that happen?!Yes, we finally have hair long enough for pigtails, now if we could just get her to leave her hair in any kind of ponytail. Until we get her to leave her ponytails in she'll look a little rag tag.Happy New Year! Here we are in our party hats ready to party. And pary we did until about 8:30 pm when Aleksa and I crashed, Cam hung out by himself. Cam woke me up at midnight after many protests and I stayed awake long enough for a kiss and some sparkling cider and then back to sleep.... poor Cam...What a little crazy... see cute hair gone... but she is still a cutie. Not one of our better family pictures but I made a resolution to take family pictures regardless of whether we all look great or not.
We had a tim's pizza and root beer to celebrate- just looking at our picture makes me hungry- Cam says that tim's is almost as good as Heise pizza for those of you who have had Heise pizza. I just think it is fabulous!

We still have our tree up and this is the reason that we can't take it down, Aleksandra loves the lights so much!

Christmas Happenings...

We have been really busy since our last post. Cameron finished all of his finals and is now halfway through law school- Hooray!!! The night after Cameron finished his finals he got really sick and tore the lining between his esophagus and stomach, he is still recovering so things have been pretty low key at our house. This experience made us really grateful just to be together for the holidays. We did have a great Christmas at our house, we were very lucky to have my mom, dad, and sister Tori come to visit. Aleksandra loved having more people to play with for a few days. We made sugar cookies, gingerbread houses, rode camels and ponies, looked at lights and just enjoyed having family around. Aleksandra was a blast this year at Christmas she loved looking at Christmas lights and especially loved our tree. She would sit by the tree and just smile and wave at the tree, we even caught her patting and kissing the tree on occasion. She learned to say Santa, Hohoho, and Falalala. She also loved to look at pictures of baby Jesus. Thank you to everyone who made Christmas so wonderful this year!

Playing with grandma.

Aleksandra hard at work playing with all those new toys, grandma was such a good sport!

What else could a girl ask for... Disney princess hot pad, mitten and towel, thanks mom and dad... Aleksandra is hard at work playing her guitar.


Aleksandra opening her stocking.

Checking out the toys from Santa.

Poor Aleksandra got stuck under the mistletoe- we love those chubby cheeks!

Aleksandra and daddy after her pony ride.

Visiting Santa on the square.

Making sugar cookies with girls.

Aleksandra made her own cookie and then ate it right away!

Aleksandra on her pony. On the square downtown they had a pony carousel, Aleksandra LOVED it, although we weren't sure if she realised that she was actually on a pony- she was so excited about all the other ponies.

Aleksandra was quite sure about sitting on Santa's lap this year. She loved looking at him before and after just not really during. Santa was very nice to her! Aleksandra made lots of friends while we stood in line, she gave lots of hugs.

Aleksandra had fun decorating the tree with mom and dad!

Mar Edits and Designs

My good friend Ashley Mar has started her own business designing photocards. Her cards are adorable, and even better she is offering a give-away right now for 25 Christmas cards. Visit her blog at http://rogerandashleymar.blogspot.com/ to enter the give-away- if you do enter mention that you heard about it on our blog!