Keegan's Party

Hope you don't read this post expecting pictures because there aren't any.  I had every intention of taking pics so that he could remember his 6th birthday.  However, when your house is full of six 6 year old, an almost 4 year old, two 2 year olds and a 20 mo old plus 5 adults AND a puppy who is locked upstairs in her kennel the noise level is ASTONISHING and quite distracting.  Keegan had a blast and I think the other kids did too.  It was fun to watch them all play together.  He got a lot of fun things, and has been playing with them all since.  Next year I'm thinking having the party outside the house so that I don't have to do the cleanup.

Six!!

Happy Birthday to the cutest little man ever. 

Love you!

Here he is before school  

And here he is trying to show off his shoes that light up.  I couldn't catch the lights but he is super excited.

She likes TV

This is a common sight.  Scarlett likes TV, she watches Wild Kratts with Keegan she also really like watching the Australian Open with Josh and really liked a National Geographic program about bears.  When watching the bear program she actually got up and jumped up on to the fire place (the tv is over it) to get a closer look.  

The Blackout!

Here are what the streets looked like, thankfully we know how to drive in the snow and most of the  others who don't stayed at home.  

And here is the freezing rain that caused the blackout, it took down trees all over the city which took the power lines with it. 

We played TONS of this and also Chutes and Ladders which if I never had to play again  I'd be happy .

Since we couldn't cook we went out for dinner and what kid doesn't like free ice cream

Here was Scarlett's favorite spot, she would lay as close as possible  literally almost touching and she would stay there till she got up panting needing water.

We were luckier than most, since we're a happy campy type family I was able to save almost all of our food using our cooler and we didn't really have to use candles because we all have headlamps.  And while I could have cooked on our camp stove it was just easier to go out or eat sandwiches.  I will have to say it was kind of fun for the 1st day or so but after 4 nights we were kind of over it.  

We decided to build a new snowman in our own yard now that we had enough snow.  

With beach rocks for eyes and a kazoo for a nose.  

SNOW!!!!!

We've got SNOW!!!  Now, it's not like the huge storms we are used to growing up in Salt Lake and it's not like "The Storm Of The Century" that we had in Spokane but we've been told this is the most snow seen in the Oly area since the 1940's  

I think it's our fault now that I think of it, we moved to St. George and then had the "100 Year Flood"!  Spokane, like I said, the most snow they had had in 106 years.  Vancouver wasn't so bad, ABQ last year had the worst cold weather they had experienced in a very long time, shutting off natural gas to thousands of homes.  AND NOW  HUGE snow in Olympia!  

Because of this I got up at 5:30 a.m. and headed out the door to Wal-Mart.  If we were going to get out there and play Keegan was in need of new snow boots and winter gloves.  He had been making due with his rain boots but this called for more.  So by 5:45 I was the crazy Utahan shopping for snow gear, there was 1 other customer in the store.  I had to get out there on the roads before everyone else tried to do the same. 

We got up early this morning and hurried and ate and then got out there so we could be the first ones to make tracks in the new snow.  

Scarlett is loving all the snow, she wasn't quite sure how to use the bathroom though.  

Loves to run in the snow, and look goofy doing it. 

Josh and the dogs jogged all the way across the church yard and then ran back.  

No explanation really, cute boy, cute dog

More of that cute boy of mine

Little birdie prints on our porch when we got back. 

With a carrot for his nose

Keegan and Josh went across the street to the church and used their snow to build a snowman.   They actually got to build one that is taller than Keegan. 

This one is for "Pa" he wanted to know where the church across the street was.  So.....this is the view out of Keegans new bedroom window and just to left, you can see that in between the trees that are directly to the East and the end of the townhouses is a little break, all that snow right there is on the grassy area behind a Lutheran church of some kind.  Also, if you look closely  smack dab in the middle there, you can see Keegan's snowman waiving to you.

Here are some pics for those people (Pa) that kept telling us that it was sad that Keegan would never get to see snow.  It's been snowing on and off for the last day and a half.  

He could not wait to get outside and play in the white fluffy stuff.  He's trying to catch the huge flakes on his tongue but keeps getting them in his eye

You can see the size of the flakes on his jacket.

Mr. Blue Eyes

The trees across the street to the East.

We moved to the front yard where the snow on the grass was "safe"

so pretty these are the trees to the south in that big grassy church yard

And of course when we got in we needed a nice mug of hot chocolate 

Lazy Day

Keegan and I had a lazy day today.  We may have spent our day in our jammies but we actually did  stuff.  

We added a second coat of paint onto Keegan's red wall, touched up the areas that the stupid painters tape took with it.  AND, I managed to let Keegan help paint.  It nearly killed me to hand over a roller full of red paint to a 5 year old but, I survived and so did the carpet.  

Then, we grew  Underwater Magic Rocks

Thanks to Aunt Mimi

 10 minutes later they were growing....

 THEN....We made cute little heart shaped crayons.  They will go on cute little valentine cards for Keegan to take to school.  Now I know it's only January but I was just to excited to try something I found on Pinterest a long time ago.  Keegan actually really enjoyed peeling and breaking crayons.  

Then, not as exciting or as pretty I did manage to make myself vomit by cleaning the shower drain.  SERIOUSLY the grossest drain I've ever cleaned.  I'm still sticking to the claim that it isn't all mine.  

Getting ready!

Want to know what happens when you let your 5 year old choose his own paint colors??  He chooses RED!!  I tried my hardest to convince him of something else but in the end he won.  But only on 1 wall.  So, we started by cleaning out the "spare" room which will soon be Keegans new room.  And then we got started.

Here's Josh working on the gray primer.

 Here comes the red

 Ahh, the light is a little better in this one.

 And here is the red wall.  You can see that we are leaving the other walls the tan color.  

And so we get to be the fun parents who let the 5 year old choose.  

A little Announcement

Baby Girl Viehweg  Due May 14th

Christmas Eve

Since Josh works tomorrow, Christmas Day, we did our best to squish our traditions into 1 day.  We woke up and had breakfast pizza then after lunch we went and saw a movie.  After the movie we came home and while the boys napped I started to get our yummy dinner going.  We decided that like last year we would have seafood and broccoli salad and crab stuffed avocados. 

My Favorite.....King Crab Legs

After dinner was all through and Keegan was sure he couldn't wait any longer we started opening presents.

This year because of Josh's schedule we did Christmas like I did growing up with a Danish mom.  We opened everything tonight on  Christmas Eve.  Except the Santa stuff of course.  

Here's Elfie, he's been with us since the day after Thanksgiving.  It's been a lot of fun but I'm glad he's going back with Santa tonight.  I always forgot to move him to a new spot until AFTER I was all warm and cozy in my bed.  And then because I was afraid Keegan would get up before me and see him in the same spot I'd have to climb back out of bed and go move him.  

Our cute tree and presents.  Keegan can hardly wait and really didn't want to sit still for this picture.  

Koda and his GIGANTIC bone.  Keegan and I got smacked with it more than once as he carried it around. 

Keegan chose this present from Grandma Sue as his 1st one to open.......

The Aluma-wallet!!!  Now notice he isn't too excited.  It's not because he doesn't like it, it's because "I don't even make any money"  He is sure you need to have a job to need a wallet.  Little did he know Grandma Sue filled it with $1 bills.  

Next one is from Uncle Jon, which he read all by himself.  As he unwrapped it he saw that it was a cell phone!!  And his response was "What??"  I had to tell him that Jon just used an OLD cell phone box.  

Because this is what was inside!  He was really excited and jumped up.  This picture doesn't show it because he never waits long enough for the flash on my camera before he stops smiling.  

This one is from the Jamesons'  It's a really cute dinosaur shirt and pants.  He was very excited because they are T-rex's and those are his favorite.  

Keegan with his gift from aunt Jacey.  You can see that he's carefully sounding out her name.  

This one is from Pa!  He's very excited.  It's almost as though he knows that Pa always gets him something really fun. Which it was, it was a r/c car that does flips and stuff

This one is from Grandma Sue.  Another r/c car!!  He says that's ok now we can all drive one and share

The dogs sharing (and growling at each other) the GIANT bone

You can see that even though Koda is now chewing on the smaller bone he won't let go of the big one.  

Ahhh, he's excited for this one from Grandma V.  Little does he know Santa is bringing the mask to go with it.  

Somehow Scarlett got the big bone to herself.  

And r/c car #3!!  He loves them all and can't wait to get outside with them!!

Here's one he's been asking for for WEEKS!  It's the Mega Wreck Shark Ship!  

He was so excited that he said it's name 5 or 6 times.  

Cute hat to keep his ears warm on the walk to school

And lastly from Grandma Sue, a Hippty Hop!!  It was a hit!!  After playing with Pa's car (that lights up) he wouldn't get off this.  I finally had to take it away so he would go to bed.  

And Finally, Santa came and filled our stockings!

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas.  We're sorry we couldn't be in Utah this year but we will be there next.