Tornado 4-14-2012

I just want everyone in the blog world to know that my family is safe after the tornado that hit our town last night around 7:00 p.m.

We were warned a few days before that severe weather and tornadoes were a serious risk to our area. I used the day to prepare our home and pack tornado bags just in case we had to go to the basement. By the time 7:00 rolled around, our power went out.

As soon as the power went out, hail, rain, and wind started pouring (and I mean POURING) down. The color outside was a scary shade of green/grey and then the wind got really, really terrible. I looked at Charles and said, "I think we need to get to the basement NOW!" He looked at me and said, "I think you're right."  I grabbed Vivian (who was napping at the time) and looked outside when everything stopped. Charles and I just looked at each other. We didn't know what was going on.

We got our storm radio wound up and found a radio station that said that our county was in a Tornado Warning... but it only had 2 more minutes until it was over. I said, "Do you think that was  a tornado or a micro-burst?!" We weren't sure.

We didn't have power or phones until about 9:30 last night and I updated my Facebook to let everyone know that we were fine.

We heard a little while later that it was a confirmed tornado that hit under a mile away from our house.

We were all upstairs when it hit. The sirens NEVER went off.

We are extremely lucky.

This morning Charles went outside. He came back in to tell me that the tree in our backyard was knocked over and landed on our neighbor's shed. I got the camera and started snapping photos. Here are the before and after photos of our tree.

Our tree before the tornado

The Tree after it fell over from the winds caused by the tornado.

Our neighbor's shed... or what's left of it...

The inside of our tree was rotten... probably why it knocked over so easily.

The inside of our tree was rotten... probably why it knocked over so easily.

Our Neighbor's shed with the contents in the yard.

I've cried and cried today in gratitude for the preservation of our lives and our home. The damage around town is bad. Our hospital got hit as well as the college, some apartments, homes, and cars. I am not sure about injuries or fatalities, but I'll keep everyone updated on what I find via Facebook. Thank you to everyone who has emailed, Facebook messaged, and called me to check on our family. We have great friends and family.

Happy 3rd Birthday Caitlin

We celebrated our oldest daughter's birthday a few weeks ago! A few months before her birthday, I put out photos of all Caitlin's favorite characters (The Little Mermaid, Dora, Rapunzel, Belle, etc.). After taking her time to decide, she finally chose Belle. I started planning and getting things ready for her party.

I've recently discovered digi-scrapbooking and came across a site that has free kits to download. I let Caity pick out the kit she wanted and she went with the Energy kit! I loved it! I knew it'd go really well with Belle and it had a ton of colors in it! I searched the internet for a good site with Disney clip-art. I found some really stellar ones! I've pinned them onto my Fun Stuff board.

I made her invite first. She picked out the Belle she wanted and I did the rest! Here is the final design!

I think it turned out great! I worked really hard on it! I'm still new to digi-scrapbooking, but I've come a long way! I even made cupcake toppers using the same software! They were a hit!

I broke down a bought a Wilton Dress Cake Mold and used it to have a trial run for Caity's Belle cake. It turned out great, but I needed more batter to make the dress fuller. The cake was easy to decorate. I'm not sure what tip number I used, but I used a medium size petal tip. Here's my amazing "how-to" that I made in paint!

I used a toothpick in step 2.

This is how the cake turned out! I used frosting to make her top. I just piped frosting onto her body and smoothed it out with my finger dipped in water. It was super easy to make!

Everything turned out fantastic for her party! The day was gorgeous, we had a fantastic turnout, and Caitlin got a ton of presents! Here are some photos from her big day!

Pink cupcakes with "sparkles" as requested by the birthday girl!

We served a fruit platter (Pineapple, Grapes, and Strawberries), a veggie platter (Carrots, Celery, and Ranch dip), Mexican dip with chips, and the cake.

Watching Beauty and the Beast!

Caitlin had a BLAST! The girls all did very well! I played Beauty and the Beast on the TV and that kept the littler ones from going too crazy!

It seems crazy that my little baby has grown so much! I am literally speechless when I look at my beautiful daughter. She's come a long way in the three years she's been with us. From coming too early and being right on time, she sure takes my breath away! I love you, Caitlin Nadine!

8 months pregnant with Caitlin

Caitlin born at 35 weeks, 6 days

Caitlin on her first birthday

Caitlin on her second birthday

Caitlin on her third birthday

Here's to many, many, many more birthdays with my firstborn! I cannot wait to see how my little lady grows up and what she plans to do with her life! She makes me so proud!

March Wrap-Up!

March was a great month for our family! We had a few weeks of gorgeous weather! We decided to clean up the yard when the weather was first starting to be nice! The girls were more than willing to help us out!

Playing in the front yard with sticks!

Vivian watching her big sisters!

Caity and Rosie walking along the planter stones!

Vivian and I relaxing!

We decided to reward the girls afterwards with a dilly bar from DQ! (I know that rewarding with snacks is somewhat controversial, but Caitlin asked for some ice cream when we went back inside for the day. I felt she deserved it! And so did Rosalie!) The girls really enjoyed their treats!

On the 10th, Vivian hit another milestone! She ate rice cereal for the first time ever! She did very, very well with it! I started noticing her cluster-feeding and not being content after nursing. I decided it was time to start feeding her rice cereal!

I had my first trial run with Caitlin's birthday cake. She wants a Belle party and with that comes a princess cake! I looked online for different ways to make a dress cake without having to buy a cake mold, but I didn't have the appropriate bowls and cake pans to do so. I broke down and bought a Wilton Dress Cake Pan and it's glorious! The recipe called for only one cake mix in a box, but I'll need two in order to fill the entire pan. I made the yellow gown and it was a lot easier than it looks! I think it turned out fantastic! It was a little disproportional, but Caitlin just LOVED it!

We took the girls out to to park for a picnic and they had a BLAST! Aside from the occasional screaming and throwing sand at each other, they had a fantastic time!

Photo taken through the branches of a pine tree!

On St. Patrick's Day, I made the girls green pancakes with eggs and bacon. They got impatient when it came to the bacon and eggs, so they ate their green pancakes first!

I made Corned Beef and Cabbage for supper. The girls didn't really like it, but that's alright! They ate the potatoes!

For the next few days, we enjoyed the nice weather and took the girls to the park every evening. Caitlin is getting stronger and braver! She can climb a latter all by herself now! Before, she'd need me to stand by her and hold her sides, but it finally clicked! She's getting so big!

It rained a few days, and with the warmer and rainy weather, it means more bugs inside our house. Mainly, spiders. Our house is older and the basement is scary. It was once an outside basement and so there are a ton of bugs and critters (sometimes). Killing spiders has become a regular routine in our home. Let me make one thing clear. I. Hate. Spiders. Absolutely hate them. One morning I was getting ready for a shower when I looked into the tub and found a huge spider trying to climb out. After about 5 minutes of me being completely grossed out, I decided to put it in a jar to show the girls. I wanted them to know what they look like and that if they see one, they need to get Mommy or Daddy to get it. They all had a fun time counting the legs and even naming the thing! Itsy Bitsy!

He met his death when the girls went down for nap. The rule for spiders and other insects in my home is simple. If you're inside my house, game over. They can run, but I tell them, "May the odds be ever in your favor!"... but inside, I'm lying. I don't want them inside my house at all. Ever.

I snapped some cute pictures of Miss Vivian while my other girls were off playing with the spider in the mason jar! Aside from the weird eye reflection in one eye and not in the other, this photo is well captioned! See:

Do you have tickets to the gun show?! I'm all muscle!

Her arms made me laugh! She's so healthy and happy! To be 18 lbs at 5 months is quite an accomplishment! She's just huge! We call her Chubbers! She's rolling all over the floor and kicking herself across the floor! Caity and Rosie get a kick out of her rolling around! They will all lay on the floor and giggle!

Caitlin turned three on March 24th!

We had a fantastic day! I'm dedicating a blog post to her and her party, so I'll leave the details out for now! But I did snap a photo of her after the party! Her and I sat on the porch and she decided to catch our cat Leo!

We're still working on getting her potty trained. We've tried about everything we can think of, but still no progress. One of the perks of potty training her is that we bought her some undies. I can't tell you how hard I laughed when they were being used for the first time...

At least they are being worn! Rosalie just cracks me up! Caity will wear them (the correct way) but only if they are over her diaper. Hopefully she will want to train soon, but that's one of the perks of having the cloth diapers! I don't have to worry about constantly buying diapers! WIN!

I don't really have a reason for this next picture, except that my baby is the cutest baby EVER!

I just love her!

Every 6 months, my church has a world-wide broadcast of General Conference. Since Charles and I have been married, we've watched it at his parent's house. We have never had cable or internet. Since we purchased internet a few months ago, this General Conference was different! We were able to enjoy it in the comfort of our own home with our children! We watched it on the computer! The girls did very well! They started off sitting in their chairs, but after about 45 minutes, they wanted to color! It was a wonderful conference!

Now we are welcoming April 2012 and I'm very excited for Easter! I have some fun stuff planned for the holiday and can't wait to share it with you all!