Long Week!

Oh my goodness, it has been a long week!!! School has been so crazy. I think I had a meeting after school every day this week, including Friday.

This morning, I went to school to help with Governor's Cup. The boys went to visit Dede and Poppy. I hope I can talk Grant into doing something fun when Hayden wakes up from his nap, but what I really need to be doing is grading papers.

I am thankful that next week looks to be a little bit slower!!

Amazing Man

Grant would be very mad at me if he knew that I was writing this, but he is amazing (and doesn't often read our blog, because he says he already knows what we have been doing. Ha! Ha!). He received the Circle of Excellence award at work yesterday. He works so hard and the bank has been very good to always reward him for it. The picture below shows the nice plaque that he was given.


I also have a funny story to tell about Grant. Tonight we were trying to teach Hayden how to play hide and seek. Grant and Hayden were suppose to hide and I was going to go find them. As soon as I said that I was coming for them Hayden would run out and tackle me. So I just assumed that he was not quite ready for the game. Grant then went into the bathroom and shut the door. Ten minutes later he comes out smiling. I asked him if he felt better, being my very sarcastic self. I didn't know why he would be smiling. He sat down on the couch and said he had been hiding in the bathroom closet waiting for us to find him. :) Needless to say I felt so bad. I can't believe he stayed that long waiting for us to find him.

Sunday Mornings @ the Orr's

Yesterday before church Grant and I were trying to get ready at the same time. Hayden wanted us to hold him so we did the next best thing....put him on the counter. He quickly scooted into the sink. I had to run the get the camera. He was just so cute pretending to wash his hands.


Hayden was trying to see Grant in the closet.

I know these aren't great pictures, but Hayden was moving so fast. This is the look on his face when Grant is chasing him around the house. Grant will go hide and Hayden will want to go find him but has to take me with him, because he is a little scared.

When we get close Grant will jump out and Hayden will run away.

The Many Faces of Hayden

I love the many faces of Hayden!!!!!!!

Day with Daddy

Grant and Hayden had a wonderful President's Day together. I asked Grant to take pictures so I wouldn't miss anything while I was at work.

They played the drums for a little while. It amazed me that Hayden doesn't hit himself with the sticks.

Hayden still loves to play like he is going to sleep.

He pushed his Elmo chair around the house. The floors needed a good sweeping any way.

He even can disappear every now and then.

They made a surprise stop at school to bring me lunch.

Hayden wasn't suppose to eat with me but he had to have some of my fries.

After visiting me they went to have lunch with Dede, Anthony, and Allison. And even as I speak they are chasing each other around the house. I can't tell who had more fun.

Happy Valentines Day

Love Love Love

I love, love love, my new camera that I received for Valentine's Day. Here are just a sampling of the pictures that I have taken over the last two days.

Are you in my seat??

I have such a sneaky little boy. :) Anytime Grant or I get out of our seat in the living room, Hayden will stop what he is doing, and run to sit in the place where we were.

When we return Hayden will be all smiles and we ask, "Are you in my seat?" Hayden will giggle and squirm waiting for us to tickle him until he moves. I love watching this little boy grow up.

Radom Cuteness

Hayden did not want to finsih his supper tonight because Grant was eating an orange and he wanted some. Once he got a piece he was all smiles.

THis is what happens when you ask for a piece of his orange. Orange is the only crayon color he knows. I think it is because he eats so many oranges.

Hayden recieved a fire truck for Christmas. It makes real siren noises. Every time he turns it on he yells hot and shakes. It is so cute.

This is not Hayden's bed, but he was caught jumping on it. So when I came in he acted like he was going to sleep. I played along and turned the light off and closed the door. I just forgot to take the trains out of the room, so it really didn't bother him. He played in the dark. He is becoming quite the two year old, attitude and all.

Clean-up Day

We spent the day yesterday cleaning up limbs from the ice storm. We started the morning at Dede and Poppy's house. Hayden even pitched in and helped. In the afternoon we went to Paul and Lisa's house who had a lot of limbs down as well. I did take my camera but was to busy working and keeping Hayden out of trouble that I did take a single picture. We ended the night with Paul and Lisa at our house for pizza and games.
I finally head back to work tomorrow after being out for two weeks.

Playdough Fun

Since I have so many unplanned days off due to the ice storm Hayden and I have planned special activities for each afternoon this week. I know Hayden has played with play dough at Ms. Cindy's but we have never played with it at home. He seemed to really enjoy it.
He caught on quick where to put the play dough. He tried to shove the entire bottle of play dough through the press.


You can see the look the of concentration on his face. He really had to work hard to make the press work.

He was always amazed at the different things that came out. I probably had more fun with this than he did though.

He is just the cutest little boy ever!!!

New Header

I am so excited about my new header. I have wanted a customized one for quite some time. I broke down today and asked Blogger Boutique to design one. I think she did an amazing job! I hope you like it also.

Ice Storm - My Story

Last week started off as normal as possible. We all went to work, but all people were talking about was the upcoming winter storm. Grant and I had gone grocery shopping the night before for just the basics. We thought we might be stuck in the house for a couple of days. We were not prepared to be without power for a week.

Tuesday morning we woke up with ice covered roads. The picture of Hayden riding toy below shows the amount of ice we received.

Grant braved the roads and went into work. Not long after Grant had left we lost power. I bundled Hayden up at we enjoyed a cold day at home. We knew the storm was not over and the worst part was still to come. We weren't for sure what we were going to do for heat.

While Grant was still at work on Tuesday I blew up Hayden's new ball pit that he received for his birthday. I had been saving this for a special day. This kept him distracted from the falling temperatures in our house.

Grant came home early because the power continued to go off and on at the bank. We quickly decided that we could not stay the night at the house and we packed a bag and headed to Debby and Larry's house (Grant's parents). It was an interesting trip. There were several time that I thought we wouldn't make it there. They live just thirty minutes away and the roads were in decent shape since it had rained a good portion of the day. But there were so many trees and power lines in the roads we struggled to find a clear road to travel. We did make it and they still had power.

Tuesday night Hayden and I slept together. We didn't get much sleep because we could hear all the limbs and trees falling from the weight of the ice. The next day we got outside to see the damage to the house and the yard. The picture below show what limbs hit the house. The limbs are directly above the room Hayden and I were sleeping in.

You can see there are a tremendous abut of limbs down. The pine trees did not fair well. We did lose power in the middle of the night. Since Debby and Larry get their water from a well that meant that the water pump would not work and we would not have any water to use.

Wednesday we slowly made our way home to pick up more clothes. We could see that it would be awhile before we could return home.
Hayden loved being at Dede and Poppy's house. Hayden enjoyed playing the piano with Poppy. That night for supper we heated some left over BBQ in front of the gas logs.

It was hard to get a good picture to show how dark it was because of the flash on the camera so we took a couple of picture without it. Below is the best one that turned out. The glow is from the wonderful fireplace that kept us warm all day long.

We listened to the radio a lot to get information and pass the time. Hayden entertained us by dancing and acting silly.

Dede found some old puzzles. They passed the time by putting them together over and over again.

There were some birds outside this window that Hayden enjoyed watching. He also like to play hide and seek in the curtains.

Thursday morning we went to Granny Orr's house to take a hot shower. She made us a wonderful lunch of hash, green beans, corn, homemade corn bread, and black eyed peas. After lunch Hayden took a much needed nap. When he awoke we traveled to Pairs TN to get some groceries. Tennessee didn't get as much ice as Kentucky did. We waited in line for gas for a little while before making our way to Walmart. It was so crowded because it was the only grocery store open for miles. We did stop by McDonald's on the way home for everyone.

Friday we traveled home again to check on our house. Below are some pictures that I took on the way there.

We were so glad to see the linemen working hard to get the electricity back on.

Hayden handled the constant changing very well.

Saturday we planned on going shopping for a generator so that we could return home, but Mom called saying that she had one for us if we wanted it. Of course we did. She brought it down by lunch time. While Larry and Grant went to get the cords for it, I took Mom, Debby, and Hayden to lunch at a restaurant that now had power. By late afternoon the generator was running. We spent our first night back at home. All three of us started out in the same bed for warmth. We didn't want to run the generator at night for safety reasons. Before midnight Grant moved to a different bed because of a squirmy little boy.

Sunday we went shopping in Pairs again for a few more supplies. We stopped at McDonald's again for breakfast. It is amazing how much you rely on your appliances. We decided to let Hayden play in the indoor play area if Grant went too. As you can see he had a blast.

When we got home we noticed our neighbors had power. We flipped our switch and we did as well. We had it for a couple of hours before it went back out. While it was disappointing we knew it wouldn't be long before it would be back on again. Sure enough it was turned back on around 6:30 and so far it hasn't gone back off yet. They may turn it off again to help fix other neighborhoods close by.

We are very thankful for our families and hope that they receive power soon. We are letting some family borrow our generator until they have their power back. Grant did go back to work today but I probably won't have school all week. I think that we have made it through our first federal disaster pretty well.