A Reason to Celebrate

Especially after the devastation of the storms last weekend, I am especially grateful this weekend and the time to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus so long ago.  We went to the coast this weekend to celebrate Easter with Papa Witt and the Melby Zoo.  We watched the sun rise on Sunday morning as the Son himself rose so long ago to be our living savior.  Here are some of the memories I captured of my precious family this weekend.

Liam hanging out with daddy.  He's getting really good at walking.  He still prefers crawling most, but he is taking more and more steps for longer journeys every day.

Checking out the tire swing

Graeme wasn't quite ready to ride it, but he had a great time pushing it

Easter picture attempt . . . maybe they'll be ready next year to smile at mommy

The Melby cousins with their bunny, Sparkle

After pictures was a meal of yummy Papa food and then an afternoon outside hitting the softball.  Still in our "Sunday" clothes, Sarah and I took some swings of the bat.  Sarah is becoming quite a player.  On a quite humorous side was Graeme.  He got a small bat and would run around (disregarding if Sarah was about to hit - sweet cousin and Papa often had to stop mid-pitch or swing) and hit at the bright yellow softballs on the ground.  It was a blessed weekend.

Well, the weekend didn't quite go as expected

As I write this, today has already been an adventure.  Dealing with insurance has to be the worst part of any disaster (at least when there is no injuries and just stuff was involved).  My heart breaks for those who were injured or lost loved ones.  

For anyone who didn't hear about the crazy storm that raced across North Carolina this past weekend, it was bad.  Over 60 tornadoes touched down and damage is widespread throughout the state.  Unfortunately, we are one of the families dealing with damage and clean up.  We have been blessed with the well wishes and help of some really great friends to help us through.  

Here's our story . . . 

Saturday started out pretty normal.  We got up and got dressed to go to a wedding for some of our friends (they had matchbook favors, how awesome those turned out to be).  We came home, where Mike and Liam napped and Graeme and I hung out in the living room.  Mike and Liam got up and not too much later a storm system hit us.  We knew we were  supposed to have thunderstorms coming, but we had no idea what was on its way. 

Mike took Liam outside to listen to the thunder and watch the lightning on the front porch.  The power flickered, I picked up Graeme and went to the door.  The wind and rain started really whipping around and we came back in just as the power went out for what would turn out to be 36 hours.  Mike said grab the kids and lets get into the bathroom.  Right after he said this, I saw the wicker bench on the front porch get picked up and whipped off the porch (Mike found it later behind the garage amongst the debris from our neighbor's tree).  We sat in the bathroom with only a headlamp providing light . . . Graeme did not care for this activity.

We came out and discovered any plans or thoughts we had for how this weekend would go had just changed.  Both of our vehicles suffered from broken windshields, siding was missing and shingles were everywhere.  The friends from out of town we had planned to have over for a cookout that night would instead be helping us cover up spots on the roof where the tar paper was exposed from missing shingles. They still got a grilled meal, it was the only way we could cook.  

Thankfully our friends Dave and Anna had another friend with a house nearby (thankfully undamaged) who was out of town.  This friend had a generator we could borrow to power our fridge (and occasionally the hot pot for Mike's coffee :-)

On Sunday, more wonderful friends came over to help.  Kristin and her boys came and helped pick up small stuff around the yard and to thoroughly make my boys day as they played outside.  After another on the grill lunch, we were joined by more great friends to tackle the really big tree between our backyard and our neighbors that had fallen.  To get the boys from underfoot, Kristin bravely loaded my car seats into her car and we packed all four of our boys (hers are 8 & 9 and so great with my fellas) off to see HOP.  

Power was restored a full day before we expected it, so now we are just waiting for all the hoops we will need to jump through for estimates, deductibles and insurance claims.  

Here are some pics of the aftermath and clean up.  We were truly blessed, so many have much worse damage.  Thank the LORD for such great friends and pray for those who lost more than stuff.

We stood this tree back up so hopefully it has been saved

Siding pulled away

We found our shutter, our neighbors are still looking for theirs

The back window of the van was smashed out

The garage door was bent in

Our rainbarrel and kids' toys were thrown around but the grill didn't move at all

Our back fence and bird house, sadly some eggs were smashed in nest, but one did make it through!!!

The garage and tree looming over (most of its limbs were ripped off but luckily none hit any structures)

Part of their climbing toy the rest is scattered across the 25 yards of woods behind it

Pine cone through screen

Roof and missing fascia 

Doesn't show up great but window is spiderwebbed out from top right across whole windshield

column moved off front porch

The debris Mike, Sam, Ryan and Darren (and Monty and Bradley) hauled to the curb.  Thankfully, none of this was on our house

Where the "Hale" have we been?

While it might seem like this picture would tell you that we've been to infinity and beyond, really, we've mostly been around the house.  We've had a few visits to Fayetteville to hang out with our new niece and her awesome older siblings, all of our brothers, sisters, mom, dad and the animals, too.  There has also been a drive to the coast to see Papa Witt and the Melby Zoo in the last month. 

But on the whole, there's been a lot of home time.  We've had spring weather, a turn back to cold weather, some wind, some rain, and a whole lot of growing boys.  I'm so excited to see my front garden and trees blooming and full of color!

We've also been working on a pathway from the back door to the garage and driveway.  We are about half way there.  Graeme loves to walk from stone to stone while we can sit Liam down with a trowel on the edge and he will happily "dig" away.

Graeme loves to get hold of the camera and this is his true first picture that he took.  He was so cute "looking" through the view finder and taking the picture.  

Enjoying a spring day and plastic eggs in the front yard.  I was also hoping to get a usable picture of the boys in their Easter outfits . . . I will keep trying.

Lots of birthdays in our family in the month of March-Nana, Jonathan, and Papa Witt.  We tried to get Papa Witt and all of his grandkids, but the older two kept making funny faces.  I did get a pic or two but the crazy faces are truer to what the photo "shoot" was like :-)

After church this past Sunday, we packed the boys up and took them to enjoy the beautiful weather at the zoo.  They had a cool exhibit that had just opened up in the Africa section which included a "ghost" alligator (completely white).

Love the double umbrella stroller!

Graeme loves the statues around the zoo

His favorite thing is the helicopter

Can you guess why I had to take a picture of my two boys here?

Isn't he the cutest sleeping smurf?

The grizzly even settled down for a rest

The boys loved the geysers in the prairie section

GRRRRR!

Playgrounds are awesome (and way too crowded for me on this beautiful, busy day at the zoo)

Fun times abound

As Spring has finally come round

More Adventures sure to come

So look out for Mom, Dad, Graeme and Liam!

Baby Number 3 is on the way!!!!

If you have read the title and then come this far for more information . . .

APRIL FOOL'S!

It's just the four of us for a while longer yet.  Have a great day everyone!