A first......

No pictures for this post, I know it is a first! But I had to blog this so I can remember this very funny and interesting moment that involved Kaylee! Last night, after a long drive home from Vegas and Holden, we had gotten home and unpacked. I bathed the kids and we were in our PJ's relaxing until bedtime. I had given Kaylee a small bowl of Marshmallow Mateys to snack on and headed out of the room. After I came back out to the family room, I sat down at the table to go through receipts from the week, and Kaylee walked over to me with green all over her finger, mouth and nose. She wasn't crying but seemed concerned about her green finger. It took me a second to figure out why she had green all over, but then realized it must have been a marshmallow, and then I was like "why is in all over your nose?". So I picked her up and looked up her nose, and sure enough there was something in it. So I was able to get out a piece of cereal and tried to wipe out the green stuff with a qtip, but then realized there was still something else in there. So I got out my favorite nose sucker and was able to get a green marshmallow out of her nose too! It just made me laugh. I had always heard of kids sticking things up their nose, but Carson never did anything like this. So it made me laugh! This was a first for us, and I am sure not the last! But I hope that it was uncomfortable enough for Kaylee that she won't even think about doing that again!

An "Explosive" event!

On Wed, November 4th, I had gotten up early that morning. I worked out, got Carson ready for school, took him across the street to Kristi to take to school, showered, and had just finished eating Ham & Eggs for breakfast. I told Kaylee to keep eating in the kitchen at the table and I headed back to my room to dry my hair. About 2 minutes into drying my hair I heard a loud boom and my whole house started moving, and I lost my balance and turned to towards the bathroom door and watched a picture fall of the wall. Once I realized it wasn't an earthquake, I new instantly it was the refinery blowing up! I didn't know how small or big the explosion was at the moment, but I knew it was bigger than any previous fires since my house was still moving! So as soon as it stopped I ran out of my bathroom as fast as I could! My heart was pounding and all I could hear was Kaylee screaming at the top of her lungs. I wasn't sure what I would find....and a ton of thoughts flew through my head of her being hurt, under something that fell, burns all over her face....just anything and everything that could have happened to her! She was sitting up right on the floor between the bar and the green chair in our tv room. She had her hands out like they were hurt, but once I grabbed her and held her close I realized she was not hurt and just really scared! After examining her quickly to make sure there was no bleeding or anything, I turned around to see the mess.....my front door was blown open and my front window shattered! Then I heard a humming sound, so I went back into my room and realized it was my blow dryer still running. Then as I ran back into the kitchen to grab the phone, I saw my microwave door blown open and one of my cupboard doors open with some glasses on the floor that fell out. I couldn't believe what had just happened. As I ran toward the front door again I tried calling 911, but the call didn't seem to connect, so I hung up and called Nick's phone. While doing so I went outside to look across the street to see what had happend...I really thought I wasn't going to see the houses standing across from me....but they were, but I noticed Lind's fence was blown apart, there was dust and debri in the air and the Horne's house was missing siding....and I saw Kristi in front of her garage and yelled at her to see if she was okay. She answered she was and then Nick answered his phone. I don't remember exactly what I said to him, but I told him that we are okay but please get home NOW!!!! The refinery just exploded...get home NOW!! I need you to come home now!! Of course you can imagine I was a little emotional, so he had to tell me to calm down since he couldn't understand me. So once I was able to tell him what happened he said he would be there asap. I walked back into my house to get my shoes on and get Kaylee's diaper bag, since my thought was to get out of there fast. As I was walking back to my room, a friend in the ward, Andy called my cell phone and asked if I was okay, and I said yes, but was still quite emotional. He said he was right outside my house and asked if I needed him to come help, and I told him yes, so as soon as he came in the house I gave him a big hug! I was so relieved to have someone there with me because I just didn't know what I was supposed to do! Right away he went outside and started to find a way to get the garage door off and get the van out, since it had been crumpled in the explosion and the garage door wouldn't open. With the help of another guy, they were able to get the bottom 2 rows of the door peeled off and the top of the garage up enough to pull the van out. Then Andy found a drill and was able to use the broken molding from the door to screw the front door shut. The door had been deadbolted, so when it flew open it ripped the door right through the frame. He also put a piece of sheet rock up in the window so we could at least leave and the house would be somewhat closed up. But by the time we got that all taken care of the police where there and almost the whole neighborhood had started to gather at the bottom of the street. No one told us to leave, so I decided to wait for Nick to get home before doing anything. During all of this, I was constantly on my phone calling my friends to make sure they were okay, and other family to let them know what was going on. I called Carson's preschool teacher to make sure they were okay, and they were fine, they had felt it and the power went out, but they were good. She offered to keep the kids, Carson and Brooklynn, until we could come and get them. I was calling people and people were calling me. It was non stop, and I just was holding Kaylee for the first part of this until my neighbor offered to hold her. She only cried after it happened, and once I got her calmed down she stayed so calm. She was SO cooperative with everyone and I think she was just watching everyone and didn't know what else to do. That morning was so crazy that five hours passed before I realized what time it was and that it was already 2 PM. I couldn't believed all that had happened. The neighbors had moved Linda's stuff completely out of her house within 2 hours, since the house in the back was quite ruined and unstable, so they told her to get everything out. It was amazing to see our neighborhood and ward pull together so fast and get her taken care of. In fact, when Nick got home he found me and made sure I was okay, and then I didn't really get to see and talk to him again until about 5 PM since he was busy getting things taken care of for Linda and our other neighbors. Nick's parents, Ted & Karen, were actually planning on coming up that day and were in Provo when I called them to tell them what happened. So they were also there shortly after it happened, and Karen took both kids to lunch and kept them busy and away from everything for several hours. It was such a blessing!!! Finally around 5, after calling and talking to our insurance, and taking tons of pictures, we finally started to clean up our house. There was glass, dust, and insulation everywhere....so it was nice that there was a cleaning crew that came and helped clean up the glass in our house. Then some men came and boarded up all 5 broken windows, and the garage door. We also got our front door screwed in with a 2x4 and even were able to get the gas turned back on once questar gas verified our lines were okay. So we were able to stay at our house that night, and not have to go to a hotel. It would take me all day to write about all the neat things our neighbors did that day to help us out....but I want to thank them all! Tiffany for picking up Carson for us, Andy for being such a great first responder, Kim & Fiona for taking care of Kaylee and getting the gas and water shut off for us right away! All of the RS Sisters for the hugs, support, and friendship and concern. It made me feel so loved! I walked into Linda's house and saw a lot of the women in our ward packing up her house....even Kristi who's own house was in shambles! It was amazing! Even our friend Camille, who used to live across the street from us drove down from Kaysville to see if she could help! Seriously, everyone is amazing and that is why we don't ever want to leave this place.....we have the best friends and neighbors ever!!! I think they will agree!!!

Yesterday, by 8 AM there were already tons of people, insurance adjusters, and contractors looking at houses and getting things back in order. I met up with our insurance adjuster and contractor in the morning, and by the afternoon the window and door people were at my house seeing what needed to be done to get it fixed. On Friday, we got a new front door, and the 2 other doors were repaired. We also got the 2 windows upstairs fixed. We get our garage door on Monday. I have been so pleased with our insurance and the fast work that Josh with ServePro is doing! Our insurance will be fixing everything, and then they will work with the Refinery's insurance to get reimbursed. The refinery said they will pay for everything, including our deductible.

I am so amazed that no one got hurt and that it was only damages to houses. I am sad though, because all 5 neighbors around me are having to leave their home until they can fix or rebuild them. They have to much structural damage to stay. So they are temporarily staying in apartments and rental houses for the next 6 to 8 months. I am sad they have to move all their stuff and rebuild, but all of them said they are coming back! It is just unreal when I think about all that has happened in the past 3 days. The news interviews, the meetings, the millions of phone calls, and people willing to help! We are truly blessed and I know that our Heavenly Father was watching over us that day!

Here are some pictures of our house from the explosion....

It blew out the front three basement windows, and all of our windows in the back of our house aren't broken, but they blew out the seal so all of them will have to be fixed.

My pantry...it looks like we had an earthquake!

The explosion went through the house and blew out the back......blowing out the soffit and insulation....

There are cracks and lines like this in quite a few places inside the house.

This is the back door.....

The cleaning crew....

Again...thank you to everyone that was there that day! I don't think I will forget that day for quite a while! But I will always remember the service and love that was shown to everyone that day!

More Family Pictures...

I finally edited the rest of our family pictures, and just wanted to share!

This is my favorite of all....in fact, I just ordered my debit card with this picture on it!!

I am so glad we have them done and I can get started on my Christmas Cards!!!!

Halloween 2009

What a fun weekend! Our Halloween celebration kind of started Friday evening. Matt, Nat, and Hallie came down from Ogden to have dinner with us and decorate cookies. Even Gma & Gpa stopped by on their way to a Jazz Game (The Motab was singing the National Anthem). We all had tons of fun holding and playing with Hallie. She is 5 weeks old and still SO little! Kaylee didn't hold her, but had a great time looking at her...I think she likes her!

Nana made some yummy and SOFT sugar cookies for the kids to frost. Both Carson & Kaylee had a blast with the frosting!

Carson dumped probably 1/2 the jar of sprinkles on this cookie, and then spread more frosting on top before eating it....eventually it turned into a cookies sandwich when he added another cookie on top!

Kaylee didn't eat the cookie....just the frosting!

It was fun to spend time with them and their little girl! Thanks again for coming down!

On Saturday, we thought we had better get one more use out of our passes to Lagoon, so after lunchtime we met up with our friends, the Yospe's and enjoyed some rides at Lagoon. I let the kids wear their costumes there. It was fun!

It was such a NICE and SUNNY day! I couldn't believe how nice it was! It made for a fantastic afternoon!

Me & my great friend Jana!

The guys....they were so great with the kids!

After Lagoon we picked up a Jack-O-Lantern Pizza for dinner! How appropriate for Halloween don't you think
Then we got all ready to go Trick Or Treating around the neighborhood.

Here is our Handsome Cowboy and Cute Ladybug!

Grandma Karen had given them these cute candy bags. They worked great, but since Kaylee is so small that by the time they were done she had drug a HOLE in the bottom of it and Nick had to tie it to keep all the candy from falling out! Next year that shouldn't be a problem!

Don't you think Carson has the cutest little skinny Cowboy legs?? I don't think just any child can pull that look off!

After a few houses we met up with the Yospe's once again to go trick or treating all together. Well, Jana & I stayed home to pass out candy and Nick took the kids around the block!

Carson liked the trick or treating, but couldn't wait to get home to help pass out the candy! And I was so happy that the weather was so warm! It made it even more enjoyable! Every year gets more and more fun! I just can't believe it is now November! Where did the year go? Bring on the Holiday Season!!!