FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!!!!!!!

JUNE 22, 2012:  We had quite the exciting weekend. A Fire was started on our hillside on Thurs. afternoon, June 21.  We watched it late that evening coming down our mountain.  It was really cool looking at night.  I had a nightmare that we were evacuated that kept me up during the night. By Friday morning this was the view from my driveway.

I felt really nervous and scared and called Justin at work and asked him to come home.  My mother-in-law, Jeanne, had just arrived bringing the boys home from a sleep over.  Justin came home and stopped to pick up the van on his way in case of an evacuation.  Jensen was really scared, Drew and Breck didnt really care.  By the time Justin got home this billowing black smoke had changed direction and it was just little white smoke as if it was clearing up.  We drove a couple streets up to where our friends and ward members live. Just to see what was going on.

Scary!!!! the wind had shifted again and we saw this 6 ft wall of fire.  Fire trucks were telling people to get out.  People were flooding out of their houses, grabbing whatever they could.  Every car that passed was full of belongings.  Justin tried to see if he could help and they were just saying, "get out, get out now"!

As Justin was out of the car seeing how he could help, I took this picture.  This little girl was running to her car with her lamp and her doll.  Her mom followed carring their dogs. People in the background were loading their car and seriously everyone was fleeing off of this street.

I felt like the scene was a war scene.  There were like 3 of these planes flying over our house.  They were dropping fire retardant. Like 3 helicopters were also flying over spraying water on the fire. People were all out of there houses and loading there cars, trailers, vans, etc.  Police and fire trucks were everywhere.  Like 5 police cars zoomed up my street going like 70 and the last one stopped and said there is a mandatory evacuation, he was going higher to tell the houses closer to the fire, but told us to tell everyone around here.  We were knocking on doors and telling the neighbors. the police were knocking on doors and telling people they had 15 min. Another police car was patrolling the streets with a consistant on beep siren telling all to evacuate.

We watched this helicopter dip in the lake and suck up a tank of water and then fly right over our house and go spray it on the fire.  I felt so fortunate to live by the lake and have quick access to the water.  They were also loading tankers with water in as well as diggers to try and dig like a fire ditch.

After we were racing through the house grabbing what we could, scrapbooks, pictures, special notes and schoolwork, bills, important files, the wind had again shifted and it looked as if we would be fine.  Then I went back through the house and packed some bags of clothes and grabbed some other things.  Then we just kinda sat out on the driveway with some of our neighbors wondering what is next.  Then another police came by and said, "This is a mandatory evacuation (around 1 pm), you need to leave now." So we got in the car and headed to Artic Circle for lunch. (really rough, :))  We spent the rest of the day at the Smiths house watching the news and playing.  We were told were would not be able to return Friday night. We spent the night at my parents and had a co ed softball tournament all Sat.  We kept looking up the news on the internet and were officially told we could return  to our homes around 5 pm. Sat. night.  We of course were still playing in a tournament so we didnt get home till around 11 pm....completely exhauseted!

We had church at 9 am the next morning.  They had considered cancelling it but decided to hold sacrament meeting.  Our Stake Pres. came and spoke humbly and sweetly to us.  Grateful that we and our homes are all ok.  Talked about how the church has been so wonderful in providing all the supplies at the high school and how the Brethren are very aware of us, through the chain of command.  He was in constant contact from our bishop to the area 70, to the quorum of the 70, to the brethren.  He said he know our prayers are what saved our house and how exhausted and frazzled we must all feel, and yet we all came to church, did what is right.  It was cool.  (I have to admit that I probably would not have been to church if it wasnt for my wonderful husband. I WAS exhausted and frazzled, we were all filthy and I just couldnt get up early and bathe the whole house and get to church by 9 am. I suggested going to a later ward but we ended up going to our ward and it was cool.)  After thinking we only had sacrament meeting, they did have all 3 blocks, but the majority of church was spent talking about the fire.  It was cool how everyone had different stories and perspectives.  It was a good "fire drill" for me on how I can prepare better for this type of situation.
     Sunday evening we drove the route of the fire to see all the damage and how much closer it got when we left.  In the pictures above you can see the fire retardant line of red.  We saw the airplane drop that. You can see how close it was to these houses. It went down this gully  and to the edge of the street, one more wind gust and houses were gone.  I just imagine the fire fighters standing in front of those houses blazing their water hoses.  We were definately blessed and protected.  We feel so grateful to be safe and have our house and all our belongings.

Joining the club!!!

We had our gender check ultra sound and............

ITS A BOY!!!!!!!! We are joining the 4 boys club!! It is going to be awesome.  My ultrasound lady is so great and comes in the room asking what I have already......3 boys. "Oh pressure is on, Im so nervous. I'll try my best!" She says.  She gets on and goes right to the "area".  I dont even know what we are looking at yet and she goes,"Oh no.....its a boy!" I wasnt sure if she was joking or not.  She wasn't. A fourth boy....four in a row....that is crazy!!!! I was telling her it is good. I am comfortable with boys, I know boys, I have all boy stuff. We are good!!!! We had time in the waiting room before the dr. apt. Justin and I were talking about it and he said, "well, we will have lots of daughter-in-laws.  Then I got a little teary and explained that girls always go to their moms and their husbands just do what their wives want, so even if I am a cool mother-in-law, I wont have them around as much. Girls go to their moms when they have babies.....I reminded Justin, "I'm not sad, I'm just pregnant!"

"So, who do you think he will look like?" I said. Justin said Drew but as we were looking at this profile picture, I said, "that doesn't look like Drew". "It looks like Breck", Justin said.  So we will see what mold this one comes out like.  Amazing how we can see the profile, with little lips and nose and hand.  It is about the size of an avocado.  When we got into see Dr. Hansen he asked, "Well?????" "Another boy", I said. He got all pumped and was cheering and gave my knuckles. He has 4 boys. "Welcome to the club", he said. "It's a good one"!!! We are excited.

June

Again, I have so much to catch up on but at least I am catching up on them.:)  I think i am going to do multiple posts today to keep them seperated.  We are loving the summer with all the heat and warm things to do as well as the lack of structure, go to bed when we want, sleep in, play and play some more. Well, lets get started.....

We were downstairs watching a movie and Breck came to the top of the stairs saying, "CHEESE".  I came up to check on him and he had gotten in the fridge, taken it from the wrapper and helped himself to some bites out of the side.  I couldn't help but laugh.  Now that he can open the fridge and all the other doors it has really made things tricky and he has really become a little, no big, stinker!

But with a kid so cute, how can you be mad for long? He is crazy and active just like the rest.  He is zooming around on his razor scooter, and shooting hoops and hitting balls and people continue to be amazed. I mean he just turned 2 this month!  He is saying more and more words, which is so fun.  Now he says Drew-Jew, Water-Ladoo (which now is also for any liquid in his sippy) and tries so say more but they aren't as distinguishable.  He always is reminding us to say the prayer for meals by calling our name and then folding his arms. So the other day I started saying the prayer and apparantly he wanted to say the prayer, so as I was talking he began quietly saying, "mommy.....daddy.......mommy.......daddy.....amen!"

CHAMPIONS!!!!!

The boys baseball team won the end of the season tournament.  It was crazy how intense it got and they are 6...some are 4.  We got to play on the dirt, with umpires, which wasn't how the season went and there were lots of fans.  Some of the other teams fans were seriously out of control, yelling at our coaches and stuff.  They were asked to leave the ball field. Again, they are 6!!! It was really fun.  But I myself had to pace.  I told my mom, " I dont know if I can handle my kids in sports if it is already this intense when they are little."

This is the core group of our team....from left to right: Drew Whatcott, Nolan Peezley,Catcher Wilson, Carter Cederholm, Drew Smith, Brody Garrard, Jensen Smith.

Here is the core to MY team.  Cute brothers.

Me and my best friend Ceder!!!!!

JUNE 16, 2012-DREW IS 5!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday to you. You live in a zoo. You look like a monkey, and you smell like one too!!! That is how his kind older brother sang to him. :)

We went to Chuck -e-Cheese for his birthday.  We brought his 2 best friends, Ren Neilson and Jason Bruck. It was so much fun.  Drew got to do the ticket blaster, where they put him in this blowing chamber and he has to try and catch as many tickets as possible.  We had him tuck his shirt in and just shove them down his shirt.  It was awesome!  He caught 12 tickets and then a bonus red ticket worth 50 tickets.

Busy May!!!

There has been so much going on. WOW!!I have too much to catch up on.  I hope to do it mostly with pictures, so here we go......

My boys Red Sox team had the opportunity to be introduced and do the National Anthem with the Riverton High School team.  It was cool.  Jens and Drew are the two middle.  Look how little they are, and how big those high school boys are.  Are my little boys really going to be big boys one day?  AHHHH!!!

JENSEN'S BIRTHDAY!!
Jensen had an awesome 7 year old birthday party!

It was a shark party so we had shark cupcakes and water fun.  A pool and slip n slide, a fish pond and a lochness monster bounce house.

And he invited like 20 kids.  Smart kid......lots of presents.  It turned out really fun.

AIR SHOW!!!

 There were tons of planes to walk around and walk through and play in.  It was so much fun.

 These were the Thunderbirds.  They were the closing act and they were amazing! As you can see the dark clouds made the weather difficult.  We got to see about 2 hours of different flying shows, so awesome and then.........

DOWN POUR!!!! it was blowing rain so there was really no way to hide from it.  We all started rushing out in flocks.  All the cars were like 1/2 mile away and people would take cover wherever possible for a little break, then keep on chuggin.  We were all soaked by the time we got to the car.  It was a fun adventure.  It worked out great.  We went and got dry and warm and some lunch and then came back and watched the rest of the show.  It was so amazing.  I have been wanting to go to an air show forever and it was worth it, even in the crappy weather. 

BRECK'S BIRTHDAY, JUNE 1 !!! 2 years old!!!

We took the family to the Bees game for Breck's birthday.  He loves ball and it was a perfect night.  He also got his very own scooter so he doesn't have to borrow his brother's anymore. 

Grammy also got him this cool new motorcycle!

DREW'S PRESCHOOL GRADUATION, JUNE 2!

 Drew was given the title of "Defender" because he is always a hero that fights and protects.

 His preschool buddies, Ella and Noah.

 His best friend Jason

Drew's wonderful teacher, Mrs. Millington.  He had such a great year and learned so much.  He is ready to advance to kindergarten!

A LITTLE RANDOM EXTRA!!!

Cute boys playing in the closet.
-Jensen has officially advanced from 1st grade to 2nd grade.  He hated waking up early but seemed to enjoy Mrs. Paepke and school once he got there.  We are hoping to get Later Gator schedule next year.
-Breck is saying more and more words.  His latest is thank you..."tankooo".  He does pretty well in the nursery if we sneak out.  The leaders say, " I think towards the end he just gets tired and takes no crap from nobody." He does push and hit but hey, the others were biters so we're good!
-Drew has been noticing the trees lately, the "Dripping Willy" as Justin always points out the cool Weeping Willows.

After lots of requests Justin has put a little video together of our amazing 2 year old.  Actually, all this happened before he was 2, which we think is pretty incredible.  Check out this link to a short youtube video of Breck.
http://youtu.be/R5-qEK7gDFU