Snow Roller Day 2009

Hello once again to all! It has been so long since my last post and I apologize for that, however it has been quite busy here. I would also like to put that unless I get a really big chunk of time, I will just try to keep you updated on the current happenings of our family. I would love to post all of what we did this summer, however I have so many pictures I wouldn't know when/where to start/stop. On the off chance that some of you visit us, I can show you the hundreds of pictures I took over the summer. :) I hope you all will understand.

The post I am doing now is of an event that goes on in our town annually called Snow Roller Day in honor of the tool they used to use to pack snow down on roads for the sleighs. Events start the night before (Friday) with a parents vs. kids game that finishes the basketball season for the kids and with the weekly "Monson General Store Bluegrass Night". I will list the events that fill the day below:

• Breakfast at the community church from 7-9am
• Sledding, snow-shoeing, and snow shoe jump rope - 9-11:30am
• Dog sled rides on the lake from 9:30am-12:30pm
• Horse drawn wagon ride - 9am- 1pm
• 11:30am - 1:00pm is lunch at the gym
• 1-3pm there are games at the ice rink and on the lake
• At 4pm the "Snowmiesters" (I'll explain later) were announced
• Bon-fire and town Tug-of-War at 6:30pm on the lake
• 7-11pm was a dance at the gym
• All throughout there was also a "Cookie Walk"; you walk around the town to different shops and vote for the best cookie. There was also a Poker Run on the Lake.

So as you can see, from 7am-11pm you go all day, although we did not attend the dance. I have some really good shots of the events all day and would love to show you all. Enjoy!

A SNOW ROLLER ON DISPLAY IN TOWN

LET THE SLEDDING BEGIN!!

This girl was one of the first to go down the hill, and also managed to take out the photographer!

Rebekah starts from the top.

Isaiah looks very serious as he focuses on pulling out of going off-course. (Which he did pull off.)

SNOW SHOE RACES

Isaiah is second to the left in this picture.

Elizabeth in this race is farthest to the left.

The men are off!

OFF TO THE (ICE) RACES AGAIN!

Bekah gears up on the ice.

Noelle also competed in the ice skating races and took 2nd place!

Rebekah is in the middle of the 3 girls facing us as she just barely holds onto 1st!

Rebekah receives her blue ribbon for ice skating!

SNOW SHOE JUMP ROPE

If you think that snow shoe jump rope is easy.....

THINK AGAIN. It takes a lot of endurance and it is the longest 30 seconds ever!

I was a rope turner in this event so I give credit to Rebekah for the pictures (which are REALLY great!)

Another man jump roping.

SKI TOSS

This is Rebekah participating in the ski toss, an event that I may argue is the hardest.

A long line of snowmobiles on the lake.

SNOWMIESTERS ARE AWARDED

As I said above I would explain what the Snowmiester is. The Snowmiester is the person who did the best overall in their gender and age category all day in ALL events. Here is the beautiful slate plaque made right in town for the winners.

The list of names from left to right: Mascot/Announcer for the event, John, Our very own Elizabeth, Halie, Sam C., Jennifer C., Nick C., Coordinator/Helper David, and Glenn C. (All the names with the last initial "C" are all the same family....HMMMMMMMMMM???!!!

TUG-OF-WAR

The last picture is one of the tug-of-war game. It is only one side, however it will give you an idea of how it looked. And yes, the people did keep going to the right side for quite a ways!

Again, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and update. Can't wait to post again.

Until next time, we send all our love, The Reynolds

Snow, Snow, and more SNOW!

This morning when we woke up, we awoke to a snow storm like we haven't had in a long time. Today we accumulated about 39" of snow!! That accumulation is only from 1 storm. It took us virtually all day, with a lunch break and a break before lunch, to clean it all up. We are VERY thankful that we have a snow blower, however the time and energy it took us was really unbelievable. We are hoping that just maybe we won't see anymore snow falling from the sky for a very long time!! Here are some pictures of the damage....

Before we started clearing the driveway was just filled!

The drift on our woodshed roof.This is what happened to poor Lacey who was the first one out this morning!
Chris holds a tape measure to record the amount.

A close up view. In this picture we have about 33 1/2", however it was still snowing hard and we ended up getting another 5-6" after clearing the first part. I didn't mention this before, but there were drifts over 3' tall!
Our handy helper!!

Well, I hope nobody else had to clear this much snow today!!!! In fact, probably most everybody hasn't accumulated this much snow ALL winter! Hopefully the weather will turn around soon.

Praying we will not get buried in :-) Love,

Jeff, Joan, Beth, Lindsey, Chris, Rebekah, Isaiah, Noelle, Hannah, and Timothy and Lacey too!

A Job Well Done

This post is of a home that my dad completed this year. It is really quite amazing to see the house-building process from start to finish. When we first saw the beginning stages, we saw a massive hill covered with trees. It is hard to imagine how things will turn out, but in this case they turned out very nicely! Probably the most rewarding part to the home for me, is that Elizabeth and I played a key part in the overall design and layout of the house. I hope you enjoy the tour!

The outside has log siding and many windows and french doors that go onto a deck to be able to display the amazing views.

The lowly start to a beautiful house.

My favorite part... the kitchen. (On a side note, on the left side of the fridge, you can see there is an opening, go through there and it will lead you to the 2 downstairs bedrooms and the bathroom. Also, coming up the cellar stairs brings you up to the side view of the kitchen where you see the fridge. So in essence, after you come up the cellar stairs go to the left and you are where the beds/bath are, go straight and you are standing in the kitchen.)

The dining area which is only seperated from the kitchen by the bar and stools.

An overhead look of the living room area. (To the left is the dining room and kitchen)

The beautiful staircase leading to the master suite.

After opening the french doors, you go into the master bedroom.

The closet in the master bedroom.

The sink area in the master half bath.

The rest of the half bath.

This is the first bedroom located downstairs. The main bath room.

The second bedroom downstairs.

The deck.

The amazing view!!

I hope everyone was able to get a good look at what dad does and what amazing creations he gets to build. This house turned out beautiful and this is only one of them. Though building a house from start to finish can entail many headaches, problems, and challenges, the result is truly beautiful. I hope you all enjoyed. Until next time, Lindsey

Hannah and the Money

Hello to all our readers! Today was a very interesting day for our family. While Mom, Bekah, and I were doing a morning devotional, Hannah managed to break through our blockade of gates and get upstairs. We knew that we had to get her, however we had many interruptions already and really just wanted to finish our little study. Very shortly after, we heard Hannah's little voice calling for someone to come upstairs. I found her sitting on Beth's bed. She then told me that she was eating something, and after I got out a small plastic piece from her mouth, she told me that she ate money. Now Hannah does very, very well communicating to us though sometimes certain things get one name and I was unsure if she was serious about it being real money. I asked her where the money was and this was her answer, "I put it in my mouth and it went down, down to my belly and now you can't get it." I was very stunned with her answer. I told Mom and we then questioned her some more; her answer and little hand motions were the same every time. Mom called the doctor and they had her go in for an X-Ray. Sure enough there was a coin down there! We are very thankful that nothing serious happened to our little Hannah-Banana, although it is hard not to chuckle thinking of what happened, however we do not wish for it to happen again. The pictures are of Hannah after getting home from the hospital with her tiny teddy bear she got from the nurses who told her she did a great job during her X-Ray, and also told Hannah that she should name the bear Penny!!!!

This was Hannah this morning geared up to go outside with her 3-D glasses on :-)
We are praising the Lord for HIS hand of grace in this whole situation. Love from all,

THE REYNOLDS

Sewing Projects

I have decided to make a late New Year Resolution: DON'T TELL ANYONE WHAT YOUR GOING TO POST NEXT BECAUSE YOU NEVER DO IT!

Rebekah, at age 10, completed her first sewing machine sewing project today! She was so excited about it, I told her I would post it on the blog. She isn't exactly sure what you call it, however she does know you can use it one a dresser or table as a centerpiece. She thinks she is going to use it on her dresser and then will probably be able to put her jewelry boxes on it. Rebekah did a lot of it herself, however she did have help from our awesome neighbor Debbie. So here are the pictures of her project.

She used really pretty fabric that she received for Christmas.

(The first side.)

Oh, and did I mention that it's reversible?!

The fabric she used on the reverse side was a delicate light green print and a pale yellow

Close up of the first side. (I personally love the red material!)

Rebekah proudly holds up her creation!



GREAT JOB REBEKAH!

Until next time, The Reynolds

Piggies

Hello Again! I thought that this time for real I would do some animal pictures. I will start off with the saddest transformation of all. My piggies! :-(

As weird as this sounds to most all of you, I actually got attached to them. And as many of you think pigs are awful creatures, they aren't. I would also like to put that pigs really are intelligent animals and they do have the intelligence of a 3 year old. We also found out that they bond very well with other 3 year olds! Noelle also liked them very much and would go down and talk to them and also yell at them when they got out. She told me once that Ethel was SO naughty for getting out of her pen at least once a day, that I needed to give her a spanking, but that I would need to wash the spoon after because they had just rolled in mud. I tried my hardest not to laugh, but as you can imagine, it was quite difficult not to! Anyway, we found out when I taught them how to play hide and seek and tag how intelligent they really are! They learned that even after we put several large rocks in their big water tub, they could work together to tip it over to roll in the mud, even if I had just made a mud puddle for them!

Using their water bucket to make a mud puddle.

After installing what I called "the finishing touches to our Pig Concentration Camp"(barbed wire on the bottom and in between the electric fence), Ethel would use innocent Piggybank as a stool to hop over the fence. They never got out after we installed the new fencer though!

Ethel also found it great fun to push Piggybank into the electric fence after we installed the new fencer. At first I didn't know if they were just playing, but after watching her we knew she did it purposely. She would walk back to their house, look at Piggybank and wait for her to either munch on grain or treats, or start drinking water, then run full speed right at her and literally ram her into the fence, and then proceed to run back to the house and act like nothing happened!

We found that if you gave them attention and actually did stuff with them they were much better behaved and they didn't get out as much. So here are some more of our beloved pigs...

Hopefully you all enjoyed the stories and pictures leading up to their difficult departure from us. I can't bear to write any more about them! No, just kidding, but I do have to go now! Hope you enjoyed, I'll do the chickens next. Love on behalf of all, Lindsey