Watch Scott and Megan blow out their candles!

We had so much fun with Megan and Weston this last weekend. We celebrated birthdays, had cake and ice cream, discussed wedding details, heard a beautiful choir piano accompaniment at church, and played in the snow. We wish they could've stayed indefinitely!

My handsome husband, Scott on his 29th birthday. Yea, he's catching up to me...

My gorgeous sister Megan four days before her 21st birthday. And she's holding Krysta.

The cute engaged couple at the birthday party.

I made a snowman cake for the birthday party of Megan and Scott (inspired by Cheryl). It turned out cute!

The Snow Tunnels

Megan and Weston came to visit us this past weekend. Weston, Scott, Emalyn, and Tyler decided to convert the snow in front of our house into snow tunnels. This is Emalyn in front of one of the tunnels.

Above is Tyler coming out of the tunnel and below is Tyler entering the tunnel.

This one is Weston (right) and Scott (left) peeking out from two of the tunnels.

First Visit from the Tooth Fairy

We had our first visit from the tooth fairy last night. Yes, Tyler lost his very first tooth. His front two bottom teeth had been loose for a few days, so I had some time to prepare him for what was going to happen. He was still a little concerned though, when he brought me his tooth after it had fallen out. However, after the tooth fairy came and left him a candy cane (our tooth fairy must be friends with Santa Claus), he decided it was worth it. As you can see from the picture, he and Emalyn were playing with stickers right before I took this picture.

On a sadder note, our heater broke down yesterday. It hadn't been working all day yesterday, but I didn't worry too much because it's done that before but Scott's always been able to get it to turn on when he's home. When Scott got home, he tried to fiddle with it, but he still couldn't get the blower to turn on. We finally called the repairman last night, so it cost us a bit since it was after hours. Turns out that our pressure switch had broken. It'd been doing poorly for a while, but finally gave out yesterday. This is the miracle though, the repairman said that our heater used a particular type of pressure switch, one that he NEVER carries around because it is used so rarely. So when he comes across one, he has to go back to their warehouse and get one and then go back to the house to fix it. However, last night, he "happened" to have one in his back pocket (he'd thought he'd need one earlier that morning, but hadn't needed it and so he'd just been carrying it around all day) and it was the exact one our heater uses. He called it "serendipitous", but I told him we prayed it there. We'd actually been praying that we wouldn't need to call the repairman at all, but I guess we needed this miracle instead.

Snow, Snow, and more Snow...

Yes, I believe Idaho Falls is trying to get enough snow to compete with Siberia. It has snowed everyday this past week, and we've been getting snow every 2-4 days before that ever since early December. As of yesterday evening, even I-15 is closed, along with Highway 20. So Scott finally got his Snow Day today. He's home for the whole day. They closed down INL due to snow and icy/windy conditions. He's super excited to be home, as are we all. He and Tyler are changing the oil in the van today. Doesn't he know how to truly celebrate?

After shoveling our drive way for about the 8th time this week, the snow drifts are almost as tall as Scott, I, and our truck. We even took pictures to prove it. You can't see me very well, but I'm standing in our driveway next to the snowbank on the left.

Thanks for the encouraging and sympathetic comments about us all being sick. Guess what, we're all still sick. This is a nasty one. The never-ending cold. Now Tyler may be coming down with it too. He actually went back to bed after breakfast and took a nap! That's a first in a couple of years. So that ruins my theory of his super strong immune system, but I guess he just didn't want to be left out.

I should have knocked harder on that wood...

Yes, I definitely jinxed us with that last blog post. Now, we are ALL sick, except for Tyler. He has this amazing immune system--this is not the first time that the rest of us have all been sick and he hasn't gotten it yet. Anyway, we're all pretty miserable. Emalyn is finally starting to get better though, so that's good. But the rest of us are stuck with horrible sore throats, a little laryngitis, and runny noses. So it's probably good that none of you were able to make it to share our bacteria-ridden brownies last week. I'm most worried about Krysta, I hope it doesn't turn into something worse with her. So far, I think she just has a sore throat and she sounds a little hoarse (which is bad enough), but no temperature. Please keep her in your prayers.

We heard from Ryan and Mel today, that Matthew's surgery today went well. He had to have surgery to correct Pyloric Stenosis, which is a shrinking or hardening of the opening from the esophagus to the stomach (Thanks Mom!). That poor little guy is having such a hard start to his life. Hopefully, he's just getting all his trials in early, and life will just get better for him. We're so excited to see him in April. Our hearts go out to Ryan and Melanie, and the rest of their kids. Surgery on a baby is so stressful and worrisome. We love you guys!