Snomageddon 2019

This has been the snowiest winter in Lincoln that I can ever remember! It seems more like the winters we had when I was a kid where the snow would drift over the chain link fence. I think after this storm, which dropped almost a foot of snow, that Lincoln has now had the snowiest winter since 1914. We have gotten 55 inches of snow this year. Since moving out here we haven't had to hire someone to clear our lane or driveway. This year Robb is wishing that he had a tractor or a 4 wheeler with a blade. We have had to hire a landscaping company to move snow for us. Each time is expensive and snow removal is not a fun way to spend money!

It might be cold and hard to drive in but the kids went out and played and had fun!

We are going to try sledding into the empty pond.

Caleb jumped off the dock into a snow bank.

Rolling down the hill.

Lucy loved the snow. She is the crazy dog laying in the middle of the yard in a snowbank.

Abby’s sleepover party

Abby ended up having her birthday a couple weeks after her original birthday just to work with everything in our schedule. Her and Addison had their party together and they had wanted to go a cheer party at the gym where they take their tumbling class. They had invited 10 girls to do that and then we were going to have them spend the night afterwards. But Jan/Feb birthdays are always tough because you are at the mercy of the weather, and this year the weather has been crazy! A full blown blizzard warning was issued for the weekend of the party and they were cautioning no one to be driving. The worst of it was suppose to start later in the night so we ended up having to cancel the cheer part of the party and we settled on just doing a sleepover. We had everyone come a little early to avoid the weather and we said they could stay until the roads were cleared the next day. Not many of the girls were able to come but it ended up being a great number for a sleepover!

Claire, Alli and Kaylee were the ones that made it to the party. The girls had cute #TEN shirts that Andrea had bought for them. They had cookie dough cake from Cold Stone a new favorite of theirs.

They had a great time together! They wanted to do spa stuff so they all put their feet in the bathtub which turned into some of them getting drenched.

They put on face masks and cucumbers on their eyes. I tried to put on relaxing music for them but they all go the giggles and were laughing to hard to even keep their face masks on!

They both got some really fun gifts from their friends!

They talked Robb into playing volleyball with them in the basement. It was wild and crazy down there.

Abby and Emmy were some of the first to fall asleep. It was really sweet that Abby included Emmy in all the birthday party festivities!

Th

After not much sleep they were up by 8am ready to play. We made pancakes, bacon and sausage. The girls all had a great time! The weather did not disappoint either. We woke up to almost a foot of snow on the ground and drifts that were much much deeper. Robb spent the entire morning trying to clear the driveway enough so that parents could pick up the girls. Most of them had to come a little later in the day so that the plows had time to go through. Everyone made it home safe and sound and it will be a sleepover to remember!

Weston's Party

We got to celebrate Weston's birthday with him this year. The last couple years we were either out of town or we had a sick kid so it was fun to see him.

He had a Toy Story themed birthday that was really cute. Courtney is really creative when it comes to decorations and themes! Emmy and Weston get along so good! They really could just keep each other busy for hours at a time.

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Cindy  brought one of Emmy's gifts to her. They had brought her an entire box of single serve ranch packets. She loves ranch and uses a ton of it. It was the perfect gift for her!

 

Such cuties! I know we only live and hour apart but we don't do a very good job of getting these 2 together often enough!

Every Dog needs a 5 year old

Bryce has always been the one to claim Lucy as "his dog" but Abby and Emmy really love her too! Caleb is a little on the fence as to if he is a dog person or not. Emerson has really been enjoying spending time with her this winter. When Lucy is bored she will take a toy to Emmy because she knows that Emmy will throw it or fight with her. The other night Emmy made a dog tea party plate for her, it was so adorable!. Look at Lucy just sitting there so patiently waiting for her snacks! Emmy will occasionally try to dress her up even though it never goes very well.

Travel Game

Every year their team has one "travel tournament" where it is a 2 day tournament and you stay in a hotel. This year the travel tournament was in Grand Island. Boo at least lets go somewhere cool! The kids look forward to this every year. The parents...well we would rather not shell out the money to stay in a crummy hotel that is only 2 hours away but I guess it is about the experience. This year it was a little complicated because we had promised Caleb that he could go to the travel tournament but his team was also playing that Saturday and Robb was coaching his team. So, Robb and Caleb did a lot of driving back and forth! The boys played 3 games on Saturday a different schools around town and then we headed to the hotel for the evening. To make things interesting this hotel was really old and apparently didn't have an elevator. Abby was still on crutches from her ankle injury and we were on the second floor. She crawled up and down the hotel steps more times that I want to think about.

These boys have played together for a couple years now and they are fun to watch! There are couple kids on the team that have really grown over the last year but for the most part we are a smaller team for now but they don't play like it.

Bryce is the only one in our house that can jump at all. His jumping skills for getting the rebound are pretty impressive.

They played great and ended up getting second in the tournament. It was a fun weekend.

The other fun thing about this group is that there are a ton of little sisters! They all have a great time hanging out with each other. Our family gets two rooms when we stay in a hotel so that everyone has a place to sleep so we usually end up having at least one if not more girls in our room for the night.

Aladdin at the Orpheum

This year Aladdin was playing at the Orpheum, so for Christmas Bob and Susie got all the girls tickets to go. We were all very excited to go! This show did not disappoint! The actor that played the genie was amazing and the entire show was very impressive!

Grammy got to come with us which was fun!

Aunt Ginger is nicer than me and got Emmy the Jasmine and Aladdin dolls.

Abby's Injured Ankle

 We had given Emmy the option of picking an activity for her birthday or a place to eat. She loves going to Defy Gravity, the trampoline park, so that is what she picked. We paid and waited until it was our turn to jump. Abby and I stepped out on the same mat at the same time and she rolled her ankle. She was sobbing in pain. Robb picked her up and carried her to the chairs. by this time we had the attention of everyone in the place with all the crying. A worker came over to check on her and have us sign a sheet saying they weren't responsible for what happened. She then brought her and ice pack. I was thinking that it was just a little injury and that she would bounce back shortly. Her ankle started to swell and bruise immediately though and it looked like it was at an odd angle. I hadn't been able to get her to calm down and she was sobbing and shivering and shaking from the pain. Emmy was crying that she had hurt Abby by picking Defy Gravity. It was a mess. We made the decision that I would take Abby to the ER and Robb and the other kids went home. 

We usually go to Bryan West ER. They are the trauma center so they don't let minor injuries just sit around usually. The waiting room was really full that night and I had to carry her in which was interesting. We sat in the waiting room with a bunch of coughing and hacking people and a couple police officers that had people in handcuffs in the waiting room. I was starting to regret coming to Bryan West! It is in a sketchy part of town and it is the only psych hospital too. I guess I felt differently about it when I had a 10 year old in the waiting room with me. At one point I needed to use the bathroom so I asked a mom that was there with her toddler if she would keep an eye on Abby. We swapped moms to watch our kids while we went to the bathroom. That is how sketchy the night was.

Her poor ankle was swollen and I was terrified that it was broken.

We hung out there for a really LONG time. They got xrays and didn't think that it was broken but with the swelling they said they couldn't completely rule out a hairline fracture. They sent us home with the instructions of having her walk with crutches until we saw Dr. David the next week. They didn't have any pediatric crutches though so it was interesting getting her out to the car. It hurt too bad to put any weight on.

Abby had remembered that one of her friends was on crutches last year so I text her mom to see if we could borrow them for a week. The poor girl had to use crutches for about 2.5 weeks until her ankle felt better. We followed up with Dr. David and he cleared her from having a fracture but he did say that she had a high ankle fracture which can hurt as much as breaking it. She wore a lace up brace for almost a month. Her ankle turned every shade of blue, purple and green over the next month. Poor girls! She was out of dance and volleyball for a couple weeks.

Happy 5th Birthday Emerson

It's hard to believe you are 5. I will always think of you as the baby. Our family would truly not be the same without you. I always have a hard time thinking of what all to say about each kid so this year I will write what I want to write but I also asked everyone what they would say about you.

Caleb: She is Sassy! She is like a 16 year old in a 5 year old body.

Robb: She is a terrorist but we love her.

Abby: She is cute, she is nice and she is sometimes crazy.

Bryce: She is sweet but a psycho.

You have such a big personality. You really are an unforgettable little person. You have always understood things that are so much above your age. You know what you want and you are not afraid to make everyone's day bad if you don't get it. Yet you are caring, sweet and a little snuggle bug. 

For your birthday you got it in your head that you wanted Luciana an astronaut American girl doll. These dolls are pretty pricey and we just weren't sure if she was old enough to take care of one. She was pretty convincing and we bought her Luciana.

I was off on her birthday and she stayed home and we hung out for the day. We had a couple ideas of what we wanted to do but we ended up going to the new Scheels store and she had the time of her life! This was the cheapest birthday venture ever. She told literally everyone that we saw that it was her birthday. The ferris wheel worker gave her free coins for 3 rides and he also gave her a handful of coins to play all the games. We did mini bowling, the ferris wheel, the race cars etc. We spent about 2-3 hours there just hanging out. Oh and the candy store lady gave her a bunch of "samples" since it was her birthday. This girl knows how to work it!

She is responsible for a lot of babies now! She has quite the daycare. On days where she stays home and we play daycare, I am exhausted by 10am. We have to dress them all, feed them all, change them, put them down for nap and then it starts over. I thought being a NICU nurse was intense. I think working at Emmy's daycare is harder!

Happy 5th Birthday baby girl!