COLD

Another crazy week has blown by here in MA- literally. Last Sunday, the high temperature for the day was 54 degrees with 1.5 inches of rain. It melted off a huge amount of snow and left the kids with sad faces. By Thursday night, an arctic front moved in. With a daily high of 19 degrees and sustained winds between 25-35mph, we have been freezing! Friday night Brayden participated in the Scouting Klondike Derby. They have been building their sled and prepping for the event for the past month. (I even donated my ski's to the cause- which was VERY hard to do, since my brother had given them to me for Christmas my Junior year in high school- size 220 Red Pre's. I thought I was awesome on those baby's! Sorry Trav) When we dropped him off at the church, it was 7 degrees with wind chills nearing -10! I could not believe I was sending my boy out into those temperatures! He survived the event without any harm- I'm thankful to his scouting leaders who braved the cold to give him this character building experience.
This week Bekah's Strings class at school recorded a Podcast. Please take a minute to listen to it HERE then please fill out the form and let the class know you heard them. This is a great program and Bekah is always excited to add a pin to the "We Have Been Heard Here" map. (You only get to add pins when someone fills out the form online and says they know you) In the podcast, it is Bekah who says, "Please remember to click the link to tell us where you are" and she is the one cello!

Journaling=Blogging

I realized this week that I am about as good at writing a blog as I am at keeping a
journal... so, I made a choice. Instead of adding one more thing to the increasingly long list of mother guilt, I have committed to write on this blog once each week and count it as a step in the right direction. We'll see how it really works out!
I also know that if I try to go back and recount all the things that have happened in over six months since I last posted, I will become discouraged. So here's a quick look at some of the things Happening Now (or in the recent past)!
We hosted Thanksgiving Dinner at our house this year with our friends the Forsyth's, the Foate's, and Four Missionaries currently serving in our ward. Here's a shot of the adult table! Notice- Brayden made the cut!!

Once we got our Christmas tree up, Chloe took up residence under the tree. She was hilarious! She was quite annoyed when the presents blocked her spot.

Adam and I had the chance to get away to Philadelphia for his companies Holiday Party. We were so thankful to good friend who kept our kids (again) so we could enjoy this weekend on AGI!! This is the view of the city from the front of the Art Museum-

The kids wrote to Santa to ask if he could come a day early to our house so we could get on the road to TX. We celebrated Christmas Eve a day early with the missionaries. We acted out the nativity and everyone got PJ's! Thanks Gram and Papa for the super soft PJ's for the kids!

We got in the car by 11:30am on Christmas Eve day to begin our 30.5 hour drive to Dallas TX for our nephew's wedding. Here's what the first hour of the car ride looked like from Emma's point of view...


Emma loves to take pictures. As the wedding luncheon was wrapping up, she asked if she could borrow the camera to take a picture of her favorite Cousin-in-law. Here's a small sampling of the photos I found...





We had a great time in TX with almost all of Adam's family there! Our kids loved all the cousin time, but were excited to get back to our home and the snow. And I am proud to report that after two 30.5 hour car rides(straight through), we still like each other!
Adam is super busy with work, with soccer, and with Young Mens. I am staying busy with the gym, volunteering, and Relief Society. Brayden has been learning to ski. He is really having fun with it and is happy to report that he made it up the lift and back down the mountain, several times, without screaming! Bekah has been playing indoor soccer ever since the snow came and really likes her team and her coach(Adam)! She has made a goal to practice her cello for 25 minutes everyday and she's doing great! Cooper, too, made a goal to practice his viloin everyday and it's really paying off. His playdate calendar now includes a waiting list! Emma still loves kindergarten. In our town, Kinder is half day. She was in afternoon, but on Jan 19th, all the classes switched. I am loving having her in morning kinder!
In mid December, we realized that Emma's tonsils were very enlarged and that she snored worse than Papa or Grandpa Jarny! I took her to the Dr- they strep tested her and it was negative. I was told to wait 2 weeks to see if it improved. I told the Dr I thought she couldn't hear very well and was dismissed. So after 5 weeks of being dismissed by the Pediatrician, we decided to take things up a notch! We are still waiting to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat Doc, but was able to get her into an Audiologist over a week ago. It was confirmed that Emma has severe hearing loss. Her inner ear is fine, but somewhere in the outer or middle ear, things are getting lost. The Audiologist thinks that Emma's hearing loss may not be linked to the enlarged tonsils as she has made many adaptations on her own. (Did you ever notice how Emma had two volumes? Loud or asleep? Did you ever notice how Emma acts like she's ignoring you? She might look right at you when you talk to her and then not respond? Did you ever notice how Emma likes to get right up in your face and touch you when she's talking? I could go on and on) We are hopeful and prayful as we look forward to her upcoming Dr. appointment!
Here's a cute picture of Emma with our snowman named Fred!