A Very Scary Storm

Last night at about 10 o'clock, it started to storm. We had no reason for concern since we don't get local channels anymore, and we were unaware of any thunderstorm warnings. Well, little did we know there was a severe thunderstorm warning for our area. It began to rain extremely hard, and then began to hail. The hail intensified and was beating our house for every bit of 10 to 15 minutes. About 2 minutes into the storm, Matt went upstairs to get Nathan since his crib is pushed right against the window in his room. We then got Natalie out of bed as well, because we didn't want to leave her alone upstairs. We all went to the basement....since we again didn't know the severity of the storm, or what type of warnings that had been issued for our area. Though I'm sure a tornado is unlikely here, we didn't want to take any chances. At one point when Matt had gone back upstairs, I was in the basement with Nolan and Nathan, covering them with pillows. The sound of the hail was deafening. I have never been so scared of a storm in my life!

When the storm was over, we surveyed the damage, as best we could at 10:30 at night. The wind had blown over our plant on the back deck, and shredded my mums that were on the patio table. The cover to our grill was lying on the deck still around the grill, but totally ripped...it was blown around so much that it just tore apart. A tree was blown down in our neighbor's yard, and another neighbor's patio table was flipped over. The picture above was taken last night of the deck covered with hail. Below are some pics I took this morning.

What's left of my mums.

What's left of the grill cover.

Our house is covered in leaves.
We also have cracks in our siding, and our downspouts are consumed with dents.

Hail that is still on the deck this morning.

WVU Game

Saturday, Dad and Shirley offered to come up and keep Natalie and Nathan while Matt, Nolan, and I went to the football game. Before we left, I put new batteries in the camera so I could get some good pics this time. Well, I pulled out my camera while we were tailgating, and it wouldn't work!!! I'm assuming I put in dead batteries, but I haven't tried replacing them yet, so I hope there's nothing wrong with my camera. Anyways, Nolan looked absolutely adorable in his WVU jersey. We had several passerbys tell us how adorable he was!

We tailgated with our neighbor Matt again. This time, we had some new people to meet which included the governor's daughter! She was great! Our neighbor Matt met her a few weeks ago, and she was really nice. She loved Nolan. She played with him and let him empty a 2 liter of Sprite onto the pavement and then he would run down the trail of pop and stomp it with his shoes. She said he would be great YouTube material!

After tailgating, we met up with Jake, Farah, and their little boy Jackson. Jake was kind enough to get us tickets for the game. We only had 2 tickets, and were concerned that Nolan would have to have a ticket too because the WVU website said that all children over age one had to have a ticket. But, when we got to the gates, they just waved us all right in. We had a good time watching the game...though it was a blowout. Nolan is already telling us that he wants to go to another game.

Nolan's Adventures!

This week, Matt's parents and my grandparents came up to go camping again. My grandparents came up on Sunday, and Matt's parents arrived on Monday. Matt took Nolan to the campground Sunday evening, and Nolan camped with Granny & Poppy. On Monday, after Matt's parents were there too, we loaded up Natalie & Nathan and went over for dinner. We had anticipated Nolan wanting to spend the night again since he could stay with Mom-o & Pops, but it was already dark when we were getting ready to go, and Nolan decided he wanted to go back home with us.

Tuesday, Poppy came and picked up Nolan to take him camping again. This time he stayed...it was HIS choice to leave this time, and that normally works better with him than feeling like WE are leaving HIM. Steve, Teresa, Mom-maw & Pop-paw and Nolan all went sightseeing on Wednesday. They went to Blackwater Falls and to someplace (I never exactly caught the exact location) that had windmills. Nolan's favorite thing was the windmills. If I heard right, they stopped there first, and then had to stop there again on the way back! Nolan woke up from his nap today and said he wanted to go see the windmills again, so I guess this has really fascinated him!

Some of you who read this may know about my struggles with Nolan & Natalie, and the fact that they constantly pick at each other. I know they love each other, but the sibling rivalry is off the charts! I must hear Nolan say upwards of 100 times a day "Natalie is a mean person," or "Go away Natalie," or "I don't like Natalie." Well, Nolan is a little hypocritical I guess...let me explain. A little while ago, we were all outside playing with some neighbors. Nolan & Gregory (who is a little over 2 years old) were playing with a toy, and Natalie walked over. I heard Nolan tell Gregory that was his sister Natalie, and she wants to play too. For some reason (typical 2 year old I guess) Gregory said something about "not nice" (I didn't hear the full sentence). Then Nolan responded back "Yes she is nice!" Gregory said it again, and Nolan more forcefully responded with the same "Yes she is nice!" So I guess I need not worry too much about his nasty words about his sister, because obviously he loves her and will take up for her as well. I'm still holding out hope that when Natalie can carry on a conversation with him, that he will want to play with her better, and understand her feelings too!

Here are some pics of Nolan's big day out!

He looks so tiny on this big rock!

Looking cute by the wishing well

Granny & Nolan at the windmills

Sitting by some pumpkins.

Children's Museum

Yesterday, we all decided to head to Pittsburgh to visit the Children's Museum. We had heard from a friend that it was a really neat place for kids to explore. It's only a little over an hour away, so the trip wasn't too bad. We forgot to bring a toy for Nathan to play with, so we stopped at Target and I ran in and grabbed the first thing I found...luckily, it was a hit with Nathan! So the trip there wasn't filled with too much crying.

Inside, there was a "tunnel" as Nolan called it where kids could climb in and either go up or down on the boards inside. Natalie didn't go in, and good thing because I think she would've got stuck. Nolan even had a little difficulty climbing up on some of the boards, but he eventually made it all the way to the top.

We never found the area where you could make art, but the kids did some other "hands on" activities. There was a drum that you put rocks in and made chime-like music as they fell to the bottom. There was a "Gravity Room" in which the floor was tilted at a 25 degree angle, and it really threw our balance for a loop. Nolan loved this because to get out, you had to go down a slide. He did this a few times by himself, it nearly made me sick inside, so I only did it once...and considering I had Nathan strapped to me, I didn't want to fall and injure him.

In the "Nursery Room" there were more activities that were neat for Natalie. There was a big board that reminded me of a "lite brite". There was a teeter totter that created bubbles in the middle partition that made bubbles when you went up and down. There were several other things that I don't know how to describe, but the kids had a great time figuring out how things worked...which is right up Nolan's alley.

Some pics...

Nolan in the tunnel

Nolan & Natalie on the teeter-totter

Natalie working on the light board

Katy's Wedding

Last weekend, my cousin Katy got married. The wedding was at the house of my cousin Tonya, who lives in Stafford VA. We initially were going to take Nolan and Nathan, and leave Natalie with Matt's parents, but we decided to just take Nolan, and it worked out great. We missed a turn on the way there (not our fault...the guy who gave Matt directions forgot to tell him about this turn) so our trip was probably extended about 45 minutes...We got to the hotel around 11:15 Friday night. Nolan had fallen asleep in the van, and when it was time to get out, he wanted me to carry him. He was so tired, but as soon as we walked through the automatic doors into the lobby, we perked up and asked if we were going to ride in an elevator. He then pushed the button to our floor, and continued to explain how cool it was to be in an elevator. When we got to the room, he explored a few things, but was ready to go to bed when we told him.

The next morning, we ate some breakfast with Dad and Shirley, and went back to our rooms to get ready. My sister Kelly met us at the hotel so we could all follow each other to the wedding. We arrived at Tonya's house about 12:30 (wedding was to start at 1:00). We had just been informed that the wedding dress was not ready, so the wedding would be delayed until the dress arrived. Fortunately, Nolan had some other kids to play with and best of all, we got to watch the WVU vs. MU football game (Go Mountaineers!). The wedding started at about 3:00, and it was worth the wait to see my beautiful cousin look so happy. Nolan behaved for the most part, but refused to sit with Matt or me. Instead, he sat with Ella (Tonya's girl) in the row in front of Tonya & her husband.

After the wedding, we headed off to the reception. It was very nice, and the food was delicious. Nolan enjoyed getting out on the floor and dancing, and of course he wanted me to dance with him...I'm not big on dancing these days, but I'll do it for my little guy anytime! He also threw in some break-dancing moves that he observed another bigger boy doing...I must say I was impressed. We went back to Tonya's afterwards, and had a couple drinks and caught up on what everyone had been up to. I really enjoyed talking to Tonya and Kelly...as a child they always seemed so much older than me, and I always looked up to them wondering when I would be big like them...guess I'm in the club now!

Here are a few pics...




Mom-maw and Nolan relaxing in the swing

Matt trying to interrupt a conversation to get a pic...Kelly giving him "the finger"














Nolan break-dancing!

Basement fun

This past week, Nathan has begun sitting by himself quite well. He has also begun his transition to being mobile. He can do the "commando" crawl, but it takes quite a bit of work for him to get very far. I know the more he practices, the better and faster he will be. This is also a good activity for him because it wears him out, and he is even easier to get down for a nap.

Natalie has a new favorite activity. When we go down to the basement, she likes to ride on the rocking horse. Matt put some of Nolan's work goggles on her the other evening, and knowing Natalie, I would've thought she would rip them right off. Instead, she liked wearing them, and kept them on the entire time she was on the horse. It was so funny because she had such a serious look about her as if you were supposed to wear goggles while riding the horse.

Then, of course, we have the laundry man, Nolan. When we do laundry, he likes to take off his shirt and pants and throw them into the washer too. He had a spell a while back when he would let me do laundry by myself, but now he's back into it 100%. If I do laundry while he's down for a nap, and he hears the dryer when he wakes up, he gets pretty upset with me. He'll ask me if I did the laundry by myself, and then he tells me "That was my job!".

On Saturday, we packed up the whole family and went to the WVU tailgates. We didn't stay for the game, because we knew that would be too much for the kids to handle. We stayed at the tailgate for about 3 hours, and the kids did really well. I didn't get any pictures in this time. The kids were very hot even though the temperature was only about 80. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, so the sun was beating on us the whole time. We tailgated with our neighbor Matt. The tailgaters had a little girl that was 18 months old, and her parents were kind enough to let Natalie and Nolan watch DVD's in their vehicle with her. They also had the hatch open, and let us lay Nathan down for a nap there. He didn't sleep but maybe a half hour, but long enough to give my arms a break from holding him...the little booger weighs a ton! We're looking forward to the next time we can tailgate again, and hopefully the kids will do as well. We had to pay $30 to park, but luckily when we left, the man taking money actually gave us our money back since we didn't stay for the game. We owe this to the kids, cause I'm sure that he wouldn't have been so giving if it were just Matt and me!