Our First Snow Day

It started late Sunday night. We could hear the wind whipping around outside and the snow had started to fall. Monday, thankfully, the kids didn't have any school thanks to a PD day so we hunkered down inside and watched the snow fall sideways. For a lot of the time we couldn't see past the end of our driveway with all the blowing snow and we were thankful we had a nice warm place to stay because it was freezing cold outside.
Our neighbour was out plowing the driveway and finally around 3pm Ryan couldn't stand being stuck in the house any longer so we all piled into the van (yay for AWD) and took off to Canadian Tire. It was so insane outside. There were so many cars just stuck in drifts of snow or people that had their vehicles stuck in parking lots because of the snow piles left from the big plows blocking their exit. Other then the random cars all stuck in the roads, it was pretty dead.
On our way home Ryan kept jumping out of the van to offer his pushing services but finally we decided it was time to get the kids home. As we pulled into our driveway we noticed that the neighbour's truck was on but it wasn't moving. We waited for a while and slowly went as far as we could until Ryan parked the van and ran to see what was up. Johnny's plow was stuck and so Ryan went to help pull him out while we sat in the van and waited. During this wait our other neighbour from across the street pulls up in his truck and offers his help so off he goes barrelling down the driveway as fast as he could until he's totally stuck as well. By this time Neighbour 1 had his other truck out and Ryan was helping to try to pull out the plow only to have Neighbour 1 get his second truck stuck.
So now with 3 trucks stuck in the driveway Ryan heads to get his truck and help pull....
Now with 4 trucks stuck the kids and I make sure all the snow gear we had with us in the van is on our persons and we make a run for the house. The -30*C wind pelting us with snow down our 400m driveway was ok but hauling Madison through the huge drifts was a challenge. My butt hurt the next day after that short work out.
By this time Neighbour 2 had run home with our van (since his truck was stuck) to get his big snow digger machine and Ryan was starting up his big work rig to try to yank all these trucks out since it saved the day last time.
Thankfully the big rig only got half stuck for a while before they were able to get it positioned properly on the driveway and get everyone hauled out and the driveway got plowed. From the time we arrived at our driveway to the time it was plowed 4 hours had elapsed!

The next day was a snow day from school and Ryans big work rig had been trapped in with a massive drift through our front loop so it looked like it would be a snow day for him as well. Ryan was able to borrow the neighbours plow and he went to work on our road pushing snow into big piles that would be somewhat out of the way. We also had Neighbour 2s snow digger/blower and so Ryan cleared off the huge drift in front of the house creeping up the front stairway.
By the end of the day all the drifts that were blocking the driveway and the turn about on our property were cleared away and the kids made their way outside to play.

As if that wasn't enough we went into Airdrie to a friends for dinner and Ryan spent the entire time using his brand new tow rope pulling loads of people clear from our friends street. By loads I mean about 45 minutes time. I thought we had it bad out in the country but after driving through Kings Heights subdivision I was blown away with the amounts of snow piled on everyones lawn.
After we were well fed and warmed up we ended up at the theatre for cheap night to watch the new Disney movie Frozen with some more friends. I have to say that the perfect way to end a snow day is to watch a cartoon as a family all about snow!
I hope all of you were able to stay unstuck or help quickly found you!

Sammy Day 5: Elf Yourself

Sammy was hard at work on the computer last night as we slept! With a bowl full of candy, he got himself to the Elf Yourself website and made himself a little video for us to wake up to this morning. It was pretty funny, the kids loved it and of course had to make one of their own. Since it's a snow day today it was the perfect way to start our day!

Sammy Day 4: Someone Has a Crush

Sammy is starting to get a little possessive of Mary. This morning we woke up to find Joseph pushed out of the way and Sammy snuggling up in his place. I hope Sammy figures out Mary is taken or things might get awkward.

Sammy Day 3: Zip Line Fun

It looks as though Sammy still loves his extreme sports. We found him zip lining across the family room this morning. I hope the kids aren't getting any ideas.

Our Christmas Mouse Mice

Since it's December we decided we could put up our tree and decorate for Christmas. The kids had a PD day from school and the weather was rotten so we hunkered in and started rearranging so we could find a spot for the tree.
While the kids and I cleaned up their rooms with their newly arranged furniture Ryan went up into the loft part of the garage and dug out our tree and decorations. We didn't have too many ornaments packed away because we had bought new ones but we had a tupperware that had the few we saved, homemade ornaments and the gifted ones to the kids each year from grandma. Ryan starts pulling out some things and notices movement. He calls me into the room telling me we found a Chrismtas mouse but we quickly decide it's not just one but two. As we start digging through the tupperware and pulling things out we start to think that there are 3 of them in there ... then 4 ... then 5.
We finally get everything out of the tote and decide that it's going outside for the dog. He's a mouser, this will be his early Christmas present. Banks has his way with mice after we get a final tally of 7. By the time Banks has finished with his new toys he's completely covered in snow and bouncing around like a kid on Christmas morning.
ICK!

I Hear the Girls Love a Moustache

All you ladies out there, don't start swooning. This isn't some mexican soap opera star, it's just a 9 year old with a moustache:

Sammy Day 2: Smooth As a Babys Bum

It looks like Sammy knows movember ended today because we caught him trying to shave off his peach fuzz this morning. Of course just shaving wouldn't have been enough for Sammy but he had to draw a snowman on my clean mirror too and I doubt Sammy will cleaning up his mess....

Sammy Day 1: Just Swinging

Sammy wasted no time making himself at home. The kids ran into Sammy this morning on their way into the bathroom. Thankfully he was just high enough over their heads no one knocked him off his swing with their heads.

Sammy's Back

Our trap worked! We caught ourselves our elf. The kids were SO excited this morning to see Sammy hanging from their trap.
There is something kinda creepy about an elf almost hog tied with a grin like that on his face!

Sammy Trap #2

Tonight is attempt number two at trapping our Elf On the Shelf Sammy.
The kids helped Ryan rig this beauty up tonight before dinner. Apparently, Sammy will step into the big loop while trying to take the candy canes (we know he already likes from the last trap). When he does it will trigger the safety pin breaking it free from the few carpet threads it's attached to, springing the green coil back, and closing the loop around Sammys legs trapping him helpless. Muahaha!
Sydney had all sorts of questions like "Won't Sammy just use his hands to get free?"
I guess she's an over analyser like her mother. We just had to explain that it'll be too tight for him to get free. Hopefully tomorrow morning we'll have something other then a mouse caught in our trap!

Better Luck Next Time

We have a rule in our house that in the morning the kids aren't allowed to leave their bedrooms until 7:00am. At around 6:45am this morning I could hear the beeping on the clocks as they were illuminating them to see what time it was. 7:01am and Brayden comes into our bedroom to tell us that Sammy left footprints. No Sammy. He was too smart to get caught in the trap. He ate every little piece of candy cane except for the one hooked up to the trigger and then went on his way.

Tonight Brayden was at Cubs so we didn't set up another trap but Ryan came up with a good snare idea that we'll do tomorrow and see if we have any better luck.

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

With a month until Christmas the kids are already getting excited. Madison has been asking when Santa is going to come since the first snow fall and has been questioning me relentlessly on how Santa will get through our fireplace with the glass closing it off. It seems that my continuous answer of "magic" isn't cutting it and I don't know how I'm going to survive the next month of daily interrogations. 'Tis the season I suppose and the excitement is contagious so I'll just have to brainstorm or use pinterest to come up with some genius explanation thought up by someone else. Once Christmas is over the questioning will stop and I'll have 11 months until they start up again.
Even though Santa doesn't come up in our conversations all year round, Sammy, our Elf on the Shelf, has. They've wondered out loud what Sammy was up to and when he would return. Tonight for our activity we decided to set a trap for Sammy. The kids thought that candy canes would get him here and then we made our trap! Our sneaky mischievous elf won't know what happened when he grabs hold of that candy cane, muahaha.

Monster Muffs

How cute are these? Sometimes I just can't say no to those big brown eyes. She used her own money to buy these and she LOVES them and they are worn both inside and out. I wonder how long it will last?

Snowed In

Saturday the snow started to fall. No big deal, it's November and so I expected it, except it doesn't stop. I have nothing against snow but it gets to a point where enough is enough. The ground is covered, everything looks white and the kids can get on all their snow gear and go out and have a fantastic time flopping around and trying to make snowmen. The dog loves it. He's running around like he's borderline crazy and I've never seen this much energy out of him. Maybe he's just super hot all the time and now he's finally cool enough that running around doesn't over heat him. I'm sure that's part of the problem, he's kind of a beast of a dog.
Anyway, I went out before I went to bed and shoved a big glue stick in the snow and snapped a quick pic so I could share how much snow we got in 12 hours and went to bed. When I woke up I went and checked on my glue stick and found that even though the snow was no longer falling it must have kept it up for a little bit after I went to bed. We got ready for church and Madison practiced her memorized scripture she was to share in Primary and off we went. We made it maybe 150m down the driveway until "BAM" we weren't moving anymore. Hmmm, with everything so perfectly white we couldn't see any dimensions at all and totally missed a massive drive blocking the driveway and was now mushed against the van up to our hood. Ryan starts digging and the neighbour comes out to help rescue us. Finally he pulls us out and we back out of the way so he can go to work with his plow. Have I mentioned we seriously have the best neighbours ever? Well shoot. Now he's totally stuck and crawling out the passenger door because the snow is too deep on the drivers side. The kids and I head inside to wait by the fire while Ry gets his truck and chain and goes to help the neighbour. It's not too long before Ryan's truck is stuck as well. I take off my jacket because it looks like we might be a while.
After quite a bit of digging and joint effort between Ryan, our awesome neighbour and their son Ryan gets out his big work rig and uses the weight of that truck to slowly yank everyone out and our neighbour gets back to work plowing the driveway. At this point we are more then an hour late for church and I'm seriously considering we not even go but Madison starts to get really upset. "If we don't go to church and I can't give my talk and I won't get my treat!"
Why do I bribe my children? So off to church we go, an hour and a half late so Madison can give her memorized scripture and get her treat. Have I told you I sure love her?