Ready for Christmas

I thought I ought to get at least one more post in before Christmas, since December is now nearing an end, and my last post was at the beginning of the month. I have made a goal to post more often, but since our life is well - normal - there isn't always a lot to write.

Of course the Christmas madness has hit, however, and we have been busy busy busy. I don't know where this past week went. We spent much of Wednesday at the Temple for a session and a sealing, because Ian and Victoria were getting sealed. We are so happy for them! I don't have any of the pictures we took outside. Go figure.

For the most part we've just been getting ready for Christmas. Here's Emmett modelling his Santa hat:

His grandparents bought it for him, and he was sure showing off for the camera. Tonight we decided to go to Layton park to see the Christmas lights. It's cold, so we got all bundled up and headed out. Luckily Emmett did stay warm, but unfortunately the bundling up made it a little bit difficult to see him in the pictures. Oh well. You get the idea:

It was a lot of fun! Emmett seemed to enjoy looking around at all of the lights. It's a small park, but we enjoy going there every year. We're hoping to get a chance to go to Temple Square as well, but we've been so busy that it doesn't seem like that will happen. Oh well. There's always next year.

Holy Wind!

Well, we had a water disaster earlier in the year, and I guess wind felt a bit left out. Yesterday was one of the worst windstorms in 13 years here in Utah. Winds topped 102 miles in Davis County. The freeway was closed and commutes were a mess, even on back roads, because of flying debris. We woke up to no power, and it was getting pretty chilly in our house! They were warning people that it could take up to 48 hours to restore power to all residents, and we were preparing ourselves for a stay at my parents' house. We spent the day there, and then came back at 5 pm to grab some stuff. Just as we were preparing to leave, the lights came back on. Thank goodness!

 I was a bit worried that there would be some damage to our fence. My dad's dog did, after all, run right through it. Oh well, a few missing planks are fixable, right? We've done it before. Well here is what we got:

I officially declare this $6,000 fence dead, after only 3 years. The dogs are currently refugees at my parents' house until we can get a new fence, and we're desperately hoping the home owner's insurance will help us out with it. They will, fortunately pay to fix our roof, which is now missing about one-third of its shingles.

I wonder if they will pay for this as well:

Yep. That's right. The wind rattled the car port so hard that the ceiling fell on my car. Luckily my car is sturdy (and apparently protected by the ghost of my grandmother - but that's a creepy story for another time) and had only a few minor scratches.

Our neighbors didn't fare much better. In fact, the entire neighborhood was pretty much re-decorated. Here's my neighbors yard. That USED to be a huge pine tree around the corner...

That piece of siding, so thankfully not on my side of the house, ended up in our yard, and I have no idea where that chunk of fence went. BUT...let's end on a happier note. Emmett is 4 months old! PEEK-A-BOO!