Our Great Snow Adventure!!!!!

So, yesterday my wonderful hubby got to be home ALL day long with us! How fun! We decided that we should get out and restock groceries and find a snow shovel for the new snow today. Also boots, only Sam and Michael had them. As we pulled out of our driveway, our neighbor looked at us kinda funny, but we weren't sure why since it was not snowing and was warming up a bit. We figured our drive way was the biggest hurdle, so once we got passed that we were SO excited to be out two days in a row! We went to every Home Improvement and department store within a 15 mile radius. Guess what! NO Snow shovels. That is okay though, our great neighbor said he'd share his regular shovel with us. Next on our list, boots. Let me tell you, parking lots with no lines plus ice are UGLY!!!!!!!! But we made it through generally unscathed! After running all our errands we went to McDonalds so that the kids could play in the playland there. Everybody stuffed the food in themselves so they could play, it was great. UNTIL Sam went a bit too fast and fell on his face. He hit so hard that his lip swelled up and by the time my frantic boy found his way through the maze in tears, I realized his mouth was bleeding. I figured he might have bit his lip, so once I calmed him down and cleaned him up enough to see, I realized he had hit so hard that it ripped his gum open just above his front tooth. The prepared mommy that I am, I got a ziplock baggie from the diaper bag and filled it with ice in hope his lip would go down. In about 2 minutes he was itching to run through the maze again. We are watching his tooth, we'll see if it falls out soon! Then, we decided it was naptime and we needed to head home. So, away we went. UNTIL we got to the hill entering our neighborhood. That is where the going stopped! WE now know why our neighbor looked at us like we were crazy! He's lived here for 20 years and knows that once you're down, you're down! It had warmed up just enough to turn everything into slippery slush and we were stuck with 5 tired babies! We managed to turn around 3 separate times and try again, but to no avail. We pushed, spun, and laughed our heads off, what else can you do?!!!! We decided we either needed to find chains or get a hotel for the night. Well, the search for chains was about as successful as the snow shovel. It took over an hour, but we finally found a tire place 20 minutes after they got a delivery! JACKPOT! We were SO excited that we might be able to make it home after all! Way more appealing than a night away with NOTHING! After some more laughing during the installation of said chains, we headed home again. This time WE MADE IT!!!! In time for dinner! We colored some Santa cookies, which was quite the adventure in itself! Sarah and Abby enjoyed Mint Oreos with Mama while the big boys colored. I'd love to say it was a first, but I can't lie, their Mama has a sweet tooth and they love to share! After baths, the kids all got to open their Christmas jammies and this years Christmas Story book. We all cuddled up and read the new book as we remembered what Christmas is all about. Just before bed they set out Santa's cookies and Diet Coke along with 9 carrots(for each reindeer). Once everyone was in bed, it was time to put things together and get batteries in them. This led to our next adventure(or should I say it led to Marvin's next adventure!). We realized that we needed ONE extra battery. We looked at eachother and laughed. Did we dare go out there again? Remember it took hours to get home earlier in the day. But, what fun is a new Christmas toy that doesn't work? NONE! So, because he is such a wonderful loving father, Marvin headed out again, this time in his car. We had gotten some chains for his car at the same time we got them for the van, so he headed out with the chains in the car just in case. Well, it turned out that the slush froze back up. The problem with that is that the slush froze back up. On the way out of Walmart, he tried to stop at the stop sign, only instead of stopping, he slid. He missed a light pole just barely and ran into the stop sign(better than another car I think!). So, we got batteries and bodywork on Christmas Eve. Thankfully he made it home okay after his big adventure. Hopefully the boys will appreciate that vast love their Abba has for them at some point in time! I'll put pictures in the next post, I promise, it is just getting a bit long and late!