Hurricane Ike

Well, Hurricane Ike came through our area a couple weeks ago. The hurricane hit late Friday, September 12th, and early Saturday, September 13th. We tried to be prepared. Our good friend Al Ralston, helped Brian put plywood on our windows...

The girls knew that a big storm was coming and helped get out flashlights and batteries and get things ready in the house. We tried not to scare them, but wanted them to know what could happen. We put them to bed in their rooms Friday night, knowing that if we needed to, we would get them up and move them somewhere a little safer.

The power went out at our house at 1:40 a.m. (Brian couldn't sleep very well and had gotten up to check on things!) Elizabeth woke up at about 3:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. She is used to having a nightlight in her room. But with the power out and her window covered, it was very dark. It sounded pretty loud outside, so we decided to get the girls up and have them go back to bed on an air mattress in our master closet. (Our closet is huge! Enough room for the whole family to sleep during a hurricane!) They thought it was great fun to have a slumber party!

They took a while to get settled down and then we all slept for a few more hours. It was still pretty loud when we got up Saturday morning. We stayed in the house most of day and played games. It was kind of dark, since most of our windows were boarded up.

When we looked out in our backyard, we could see that a neighbor's tree had fallen over the fence into our yard. The branches were just a couple feet from our bedroom window.

We could also see that the top of one our our trees had broken off, just missing the fence on the other side of the yard.

Other than that, there were just a lot of tree branches everywhere! We cleaned up the driveway and sidewalk on Saturday afternoon, then did the backyard on Monday morning.

Elizabeth liked helping pick up leaves and branches and making a pile. Abby liked riding her bike.

Elizabeth wanted to use the broom and Abby kept riding her bike!

Finally, Abby decided she was missing out and decided to help!

Saturday night there was a huge thunderstorm. It was very loud and lasted a long time. It was even louder than the hurricane the previous night!

We heard that our power would probably be out for a while, so Monday afternoon we decided to drive to Uah to visit family. We arrived late Wednesday afternoon (after about 30 hours in the car!). We were able to attend all of Grandpa Russ's funeral services. We were glad we made it.

The girls and I had fun visiting with family while Brian worked in Salt Lake the next week.

We kept hearing reports that our power would not be restored until sometime between September 28th and October 6th. So we were planning to stay at Grandpa and Grandma McPheeters for a while.

Then on Friday night, September 26th, we got a call from the Ralstons - our power was back on! We decided to start driving home on Saturday. We got home really late Sunday night, and spent yesterday doing laundry and getting our house in order.

We are really happy to be home, and very grateful that we did not have any major damage from the hurricane.

Here is a link to Woodlands Online where they have a photo gallery of Hurricane Ike in The Woodlands.

More Birthday stuff!

Abby got to open birthday presents from the family on Sunday after church.

She got new clothes and shoes for school. She seemed pretty happy with everything.

I found this book for Abby. It is called "Abby's First Book of Shapes". Even though she already knows all her shapes, I couldn't resist a book with her name on it.

Abby also got a new bike - a big girl bike.

She liked it and rode it around the house for a while. She will try it outside on Monday when Brian gets home from work.
The Raltons came over after dinner with gifts. Al and Joeby gave Abby a beautiful Cinderella dress...

...with matching shoes. It was beautiful. Abby loved it. (She has worn the shoes around the house all morning! I'll try to add a better picture of the shoes later. Right now they are in Abby's room and she is napping!)

They also brought a gift for Elizabeth - a Princess Belle cup. Elizabeth was already trying it out before we could get it washed. She loved chewing on the straw. When we finally got it cleaned up and filled with water, she drank it down three times - it is so fun to have a new cup!

Lily got Abby a Cinderella nightgown. She loved it.

Here is Abby trying on her Cinderella dress over her clothes. It fit great. Maybe she will be Cinderella for Halloween!

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby is 4 years old!

We had a pool party for her on Saturday. Our friends, the Ralstons, were nice enough to let us use thier pool.

Here is Abby in her swimsuit and pigtails, ready to go!

In addition to letting us use their pool, Joeby made Abby's birthday cake - a beach ball! It matched the plates and invitations we used for the party. (Very yummy too!)

Here are Abby and Elizabeth waiting for Abby's friends to arrive!

Abby's trying out her goggles. (We had fish goggles, beach balls, squirt guns, and squirty fish for all her friends who came to the party. Abby had to test everything out!)

Abby and Elizabeth swimming (Abby is using the purple noodle, behind Elizabeth).

Aby had a great time in the pool. She swam back and forth and played with her friends. A huge difference from the beginning of the summer when she had tantrums if we even suggested getting in!

Brian and Elizabeth had lots of fun too!

Well...I think everyone had fun. It turned out to be a perfect day for swimming. All week it had been cooler and rainy. And we were worried that it would be raining on Saturday as well. But the weather turned out great!

Everyone was hungry after swimming - we ordered pizza for lunch. We almost didn't have enough!

After pizza it was time for cake. Abby had to try a few times to get the candles out, but she got them!

Then she opened her presents from her friends.

Thank you everyone for all the great gifts. Abby has had so much fun playing with them the past few days.

A special thanks to the Ralstons, for hosting the party. We really appreciate their friendship and all they do for us!

Vacuuming

Abby really wanted to vacuum on Sunday with the real vacuum. So Brian told her she could. She remembered today, so Brian helped her a little after dinner.

She really seemed to enjoy it!

Elizabeth really wanted to try too and was crying, so Brian helped her as well. (Normally she is afraid of the vacuum and I can only vacuum when she is napping!)

As Brian said - hopefully they will still be fighting over who gets to vacuum when they are teenagers!

Funny Faces

Elizabeth loves to make funny faces. We tried to take pictures the other day, but it's not quite the same as seeing them in person. She will do grouchy faces and happy faces and silly faces. All during sacrament meeting on Sunday, she is making faces at the couple that usually sits behind us. She's so cute!
She will go back and forth between a groucy face and a silly face until she gets so confused she can't remember which she is supposed to be doing. It's pretty funny!

Of course Abby had to do her silly face too!