Scary week...

We've had this blast of winter weather, first the 13" of snow last weekend and now the "balmy" 12 degrees - wind chill of 1! And today is the WARM day...

We are all hunkered in for the evening. The realization that mom really isn't overprotective and doesn't want anyone driving when it is bad has now settled in.

Last Saturday night, Emily and Tess (my niece) were coming home from their grandparents and as they were merging on I-80, Emily slid on black ice, heading sideways across 2 lanes of highway, she was able to straighten out the car just in time to be hit by a tractor trailer. Fortunately, he had seen her slide and had enough time to react a bit and caught the driver's side end of her car. They were thrown off to the side of the road and are sore, but thank god, no injuries. The car has no back end and is totaled. Had she spun a 1/4 turn in any direction, they'd have been killed. It was so, so, scary.

So, I'm more than ready for spring and the snow to go away! I've said it before, I do not want to win the lottery, I have my friends and family and our health and safety. When you have that, you have it all.

Happy New Year!

Well, we've all made it through to the New Year pretty much unscathed. It was the first time in years that I was off almost the entire holiday with the kids - well, with Hannah since the older two no longer care if I'm home (not publically at least!)

As if we hadn't eaten enough, we had a baptism between Christmas and New Year! Colton Timothy was baptized on December 27th. Here is a picture of all of the boys. I'm sure he will grow up quickly with the twins dragging him around everywhere. They are a lot of fun - and a nice diversion from, and for, the older cousins.

We took our yearly "cousin" picture at my dad's on Christmas Eve. It is amazing to see how much everyone has grown. Steve, who is the oldest at 20 is no longer obviously the "big kid" having now been caught up to by his 6'3" 15 year old cousin Robby. So, we have 13 Goodyear cousins, 20, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 7, 5,5,and 1 month. (and this is only half of the cousins for my children - Dave has 18 on his side of the family, ranging in ages from 24-5).

I love big families!