When It Rains, It Pours!

Apparently, it pours right down the inside of the walls in our house! Here is the current condition of our bathroom:



Those are two big fans and a dehumidifier whose NOISE rivals a brigade of jackhammers. They have to be kept running constantly to try and dry out our bathroom so that some water damage from a leaking roof can be fixed. The good news is...it wasn't the toilet, no mold upstairs, and now I can repaint the bathroom.

Seth is HOME!

Last week, my brother came home from his two-year mission in Oregon for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here we are waiting for him at the airport in our matching t-shirts. (The pattern matches if not the color!) He's the only one in our immediate family who has served a mission and we are so proud of him. We just had to go all out. So much for Mom not wanting to be a spectacle! I only wish we'd kicked up more of a ruckus when he came down the escalator!

Welcome home Seth! We know you are ecstatic about being home!

More and MORE Christmas Snow

This year we celebrated Christmas Hoffer-style. It snowed the entire week before giving us the first "White Christmas" we've ever had.

We slept at my sister's house on Christmas Eve with most of the grandchildren. Amazingly, they all went to sleep quickly and didn't wake up too early with the exception of Maddie who, like me, was so excited that she couldn't help but wake up a couple of times during the night. Sheesh, you'd think that after all these years I'd grow up and be able to sleep through the night, but no. I'm as bad as when I was seven!

Christmas morning we put on our coats and got ready to go to Nanna and Papa's house two blocks away (Maddie made her mom promise ahead of time to go before showering to save time). As we opened the garage door, this is what we found:

We knew it had snowed, but we didn't realize how much! Sarah carried the kids to the car while Will scraped off the car and got it warmed up. (Those are Maddie's feet swinging in the picture below!) We decided to cram into one car instead of taking two out in that treacherous snow. It was crazy getting to Nanna's house. We kept reminding the girls not to scream. That Sarah sure has a strong set of lungs. J/K Good thing it wasn't more than two blocks and that our gallant William got us there safely. He's so courageous!

It snowed all day. Papa couldn't help but get out and play in it even if it was still snowing! (That must be who I get it from.)

We went back to Sarah's house when it finally stopped snowing just before sunset to get a little sledding in before dark. It was Liam's first sledding experience and he LOVED it. "Again, again," was his mantra. My thighs protested and were burning after pulling, pushing, and carrying him back up the hill over and over. That was the only part of me that was burning though; everything else was frozen. We soon had to make the trek back to Sarah's house through snowdrifts up to the girls' waists. This is half of our sledding party in front of the pile of snow shoveled off Sarah's driveway:

Merry Christmas!

Merry VERY White Christmas!

Christmas Snow

We have had so much snow this week! I haven't seen snow like this for years! We have about a foot of snow right outside our door. Will is finally beginning to appreciate it now that he doesn't have to drive to work in it. On the other hand, Liam and I have been giddy about it all week. We just had to get out and play in it so we bundled Liam up in his new SIZE 4T coat and his "monster pants" (snow pants). The monster pants were a big hit, and allowed Liam to enjoy the snow without getting wet or cold. He had so much fun. A big improvement from last year when he wouldn't even touch the stuff. (Here he is the first day it snowed being amazed by his footprints.)

We made a snowman and began an igloo (with the help of a couple of neighborhood friends). The snowman became the first casualty of the year when he was knocked down the next day by a five-year-old in the neighborhood. His big brother, who coincidentally helped build the igloo, made him apologize. They apologized to Sam downstairs. I think Sam was a little confused. I asked the five-year-old about it on Sunday at church and he denied the act of vandalism...but I don't think he realized it was my house. He later came with his brothers to deliver a Christmas treat from his mother so I consider the debt repayed.

The snow doesn't come without its treachery unfortunately, and I've seen four or five cars get stuck in the insanely deep gutter across the street already. The snow deceives a number of cars each year by hiding its depth. Our friend Greg and even our mailman got stuck. (That's our mailman and our half-done igloo which is how it remained for a few days while we waited for some nice wet snow so we (I) could finish it. Every child that stopped by on the way home from school asked when and how I was going to put the top on.)

Finally, it snowed six inches of great igloo snow yesterday, and I was able to finish! (I have to admit, I worked on it during Liam's precious nap time even though I had about a million other things I should have been working on. It was just so fun, and I knew the snow wouldn't last forever.) Here's a shot showing the scale of the igloo. Not the biggest, but pretty cute. The mailbox was Will's contribution to the project. Nice touch. Liam refers to the igloo as the "turtle sculpture." He must have picked up the word sculpture from his artist mother.

I was so excited to have it finished!

So were Liam and Will!

Happy Tanksgiving!

Although my other posts might lead you to believe otherwise, the misspelled title of this one is purposeful. The Pettit family has a Thanksgiving banner that missed receiving an "H" during production. (Manufacturer's fault, not the Pettits' doing.) So now, every year at least one of the Pettits will wish us a "Happy Tanksgiving" in consequence.

This year Will, Liam, and I spent a lively "Tanksgiving" weekend in Vegas with Nate, Aubrey, and Aria. It was so much fun!

I finally got to see the sites in Vegas. I've only ever driven through before. The fountains at the Bellagio were amazingly beautiful. The Bellagio keeps their part of Vegas surprisingly clean, morally and physically! I was pleasantly surprised.

Here's our little stroller brigade.

Liam LOVED running around and dancing to the music playing. (How do you like our compromise on shirts? I always said I would never let my children wear character shirts. They just seemed tacky. Ha...that was before I had children. You know how that goes. Now I realize just how much Liam loves them, and I confess, I bought the Wall-E shirt for him personally! I still try to dress it up a bit though, hence the compromise with the collared shirt!)

Most of all it was so much fun spending time with Nate, Aubrey, and Aria. We really miss having them next door.

My Little Mouse

Liam asked me to cut a piece of cheese for him yesterday. He carefully pulled the cheese from the fridge and lugged it my way. Lugged being the operative word because we buy the HUGE hunk of Tillamook cheddar cheese from Costco.

My hands were busy with something else so I asked him to wait a moment. Apparently I was asking too much of him because when I turned around he was trying to open the package himself...with his teeth. They certainly package that cheese well because with all the biting Liam did, amazingly there were no punctures in the plastic!

This story is especially funny considering that when Will brought home a box of powdered doughnuts about two weeks ago Liam tried to open them, and when he couldn't open the box, he tried to get at the doughnuts by licking the plastic window on the box.

Happy Halloween 2008

This year we took our cue from Liam who is SO into Buzz Lightyear. I don't think anything else was even considered as a costume. Will was Woody and I was Bo Peep keeping with the Toy Story theme.

Even though I only had to make my costume and Will's, I was sewing up to the last minute. Thankfully, I got a great deal ($10) online for Liam's. And to top it all off, I got a wig this year! I've wanted a wig for forever.

We actually went trick or treating this year with Liam. It was slow going, and I don't think Liam really grasped the concept that every house was handing out candy. (It was a little traumatic when he realized we had to give some of our candy away too.) He was very social though and tried to go into every house we stopped at. For a short visit, no doubt. I think he'd even planned a short message and decided to leave with the parting words, "Is there anything we can do for you?"

Potty Training

Yes, I know this photo is highly inappropriate and that someday Liam will be upset about me posting it. Nonetheless, here it is, and I LOVE it.

We are beginning toilet training in our house. We're taking it slow, really slow. I don't know if we can really even say we've started yet. More like tested the waters. I've honestly been dreading it and dragging my feet all the way until recently when Liam started to ask to go to the bathroom. It's become our special time of the day where he sits does his business and I read to him. No distractions. Just us. Just special.

Halloween Past - 2006

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year for two reasons: the costumes and my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law, Julie, has a birthday just before Halloween and so Halloween has always been her favorite holiday. We're talking more decorations for Halloween than for Christmas favorite holiday. No joke. She gave me my first Halloween decorations, and now I'm hooked! My addiction only increased after having Liam. He's just so much fun to dress up. Here are a couple of pics from his first Halloween:

Will and I were pirates and Liam was our "not-so-undead" monkey.Liam's monkey costume was purchased by my mother-in-law from Old Navy and it has been well used. Liam used it again later in the year to make a little movie for his Uncle Ben who is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Peoria, Illinois. Then, cousin Cael used it last year for Halloween. This year, cousin Aria is using it as the monkey music box from Phantom of the Opera.