Grandfathers

I love that we unearthed these pictures of my grandfathers.  Too bad I can't find any of Momaw or Grandma, but I know we'll get some up here sometime.

This one was on a previous post, but I wanted to post it again.  Here is Benjamin Harris Bohon, Jr, my mother's father.  I remember him being kind of strict with all of us grandkids when we were younger, but as he's aged he's become a softee!  It must be a grandfather thing - my dad has done the same!

Here is my PawPaw Shorter; Clarence Woodrow Shorter, aka Doc.  He is my father's father.  PawPaw helped Dad build our house in Roanoke.  I remember him always calling Clay "Little Ben" because he looked so much like Grandpa Bohon.  He would also pull each grandkid aside and say, "I'm gonna skin you alive!"  It was done in a playful manner and we expected it each time we visited!

(I like this picture because PawPaw is smiling!)

Family

I love old pictures --- especially when they have family in them!  Here is a picture of Momaw and PawPaw Shorter.  I can't give you a date when this was taken, but it was before any of their 5 children were born.

I wish I knew them better!  Thankfully they are together again.  Love you Momaw and PawPaw!!!

More of the Snow...

Can you tell that I've spent lots of time on the computer today???  There is nothing on TV and there is 2 feet of snow outside.  There isn't a whole lot to do but play on my blogs.

I thought I'd post some more pictures of the depth of the snow.  It finally stopped around 4pm or so and the sun even tried to peek out. 

Jake shoveled the driveway and the sidewalk, but it's quite slick.  Wouldn't you know that he just had to go out to find a new bar for his chainsaw?!  Walmart was the only place open (no surprise there!) and they didn't have it.  On his way home he decided to go "exploring" in some neighborhoods and got stuck!  Ha!  He had to dig himself out.  I had wondered what was taking so long but figured he was just glad to get out of the house and was looking up and down every aisle at Walmart.  WRONG!  He was working hard to be sore tomorrow!

Here's a downward shot of our driveway.  You can't really tell how high the snow walls are along it, but you can see the snow against the neighbor's fence!  That's a 6' fence!!!

I thought that giving a height comparison of the basketball goal would give you more of an idea of the heavy wet stuff Jake had to throw to the side.  Glad it was him and not me!

Our poor mailbox is nearly hidden.  I feel for the mailman trying to get into that mess!  I guess it'll be about a week before we get our mail delivered again!

This is our back deck!  It's a bit deep, wouldn't you say?  And I hear more snow is on the way later in the week!  Excellent (to be read in a sarcastic tone!)

I'm ready for Spring!  Let's bust out the grill and have some people over.  Oh yeah, we can't!  The grill is buried in snow and our friends can't get out of their houses!  Guess we'll have to wait a while!

Poop in the potty already!!!

I am so tired of the rowdiness and then sudden silence when I know Travis is taking a break to soil his britches!!!  He has no problem peeing in the toilet, and for a few days no problem pooping in it either.  I think I must have scarred him when I fussed at him for immediately pulling his pants up without wiping.  Could that be the problem?  Or is he just stubborn?

Not sure but I know I'm tired of it!  I'm ready to resign to Pull-Ups.  But they cost a ton!!!  Worse than diapers!!!  Granted, we should only need 2 per day - one until he poops and then one until the next morning - so they should last much longer than diapers ever did. 

We've been reminding him that he can't go to preschool until he can take care of all of his bathroom needs without diapers or pull-ups.  He always says, "Yes!  I go to preschool!"  But it hasn't sunk in yet. 

Please, oh please let this summer be a turning point for potty time!!!

Love my Brothers

OK, so now we're past the cute Shanan phase and moving into the uglier years...  I also thought I'd drag Chad and Clay down this memory lane.  These pictures remind me of many good times that we had growing up.  I wish we had more pictures of the days swimming and other vacations and being dumb in the backyard, etc.

Look at us cuties.  I think that Ian looks a lot like his daddy did in this picture!  This was in our house up the hill from Grandma and Grandpa's house in Roanoke.  We weren't there long, but we still have plenty of memories from there.  OK, so maybe I'm the only one that can really remember it!

How cute!  I remember wearing the shoulder-tie outfits all the time at that age.  I probably had 5 or 6 different ones.  And look at my long hair!  This was the summer before I started kindergarten - so we're looking at 1982.

This was before Clay came along.  Chad was my buddy.  We did everything together.  And then when I started school he would walk all the way to the bus stop and wait for me.  He walked a LONG way down a gravel driveway to the mailbox - probably 1/2 a mile or so - all by himself.  He was much braver than I was!

Sucking the thumb!!! Once the "baboo" was taken away, I turned to the thumb.  Of course Chad and Clay were thumb suckers too!!!

This must have been a Christmas Eve photo or something.  I can't imagine why we would have pictures in random PJs otherwise.

Easter --- sometime in the mid 80s.  Chad and Clay got M.A.S.K. figures.  These are our Easter outfits for church.

We posed for a picture.  We had a recital just around Christmas.  I don't remember which it must have been though.  Clay didn't play for long, but I continued on into high school.  I LOVED playing in the orchestra.  I wonder how good I would have been had I actually practiced!!!???!!!  Thank goodness I inherited some natural musical ability.

Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse - Walt Disney World, Florida.  I am scowling because someone stepped on my foot.  The day before we left for vacation I kicked the bottom of the pool.  Still tender, it got stepped on just before this picture.  To this day we all still laugh at this one!

Myrtle Beach, SC - Good times!  And to think that our kids are all able to enjoy this great beach to this day!

Another Huge Snow Storm

We've been anticipating this snowfall all week.  The kids only went to school 2 1/2 days due to last weekend's snow and one in the middle of the week.  What is going on here?  You'd think we lived up north or something!

We knew this snow would be big.  At first they were projecting that it would be smaller than the one we had in December.  But as the week wore on, the storm started to build.  We have at least 2 feet on the ground now and the white stuff isn't expected to stop until this evening!

I admit, the snow is beautiful.  One of my (and Jake's) favorites sounds is the soft whispers of snow falling when there is complete silence everywhere else.  I took this picture of our beautiful cherry tree in the front yard before the boys made tracks all around it!

The snow is deep enough that Travis has to follow Brad and Wyatt around to get through it.  Once they got to the road they were fine since a plow went through earlier this morning.  It was more manageable to walk through for little legs.

Do you see the snow piled on top of the mailbox?  Crazy.  I took this picture so you could see the mound that the plows have made that is taller than the mailbox.  Of course there was still a bit of a mound leftover from the snow in December --- and then it has been added to over the past 2 weeks.

Trees are down!  This is such a wet snow that it is too heavy for most of the trees to hold.  This is one in our neighbor's backyard.  They actually have 2 down, but you can't see the other behind this one.

And we have one down too.  Earlier this morning Jake and I were talking about the larger evergreen in the side yard.  We didn't think it would hit the house.  It hit it!  Thankfully it more brushed it than anything.  We don't think there is any damage, but we'll see when Jake and our neighbor Brian pull it down.

We have some awesome neighbors!  Brian's wife Christie called to make sure all was well since she saw the tree against the house.  I told her everything was fine and that Jake was running to Nicole's to shovel a path for the dog to go out.  (Nicole's hubby is out pushing snow today!)  We all work together to help each other out.  I love that!

Travis had a bit of a blowout!  He lost his boot in the depths of the snow.  Wyatt was kind and sat and waited until help could arrive (aka Daddy).  Travie came in and got his socks changed and was out again.  I kind of feel like a pit crew! 

Jake and I decided to save on our gas bill, the boys were only allowed to dry their snow clothes twice in the dryer per day.  I feel quite generous because we never got the luxury of using a dryer when we were kids.  Of course we had the wood stove that was so hot it could burn a hole in a wet snowsuit!  So I guess we had our own perks in some ways!

It should be a pretty good weekend.  Jake said that Bishop mentioned the snow stopping around 7pm and that we could still have church tomorrow.  I think he's smoking something pretty strong if he things people will actually get out in this stuff.  Wishful thinking! 

The past

For whatever reason, my brothers and I have really gotten into the swing of preserving the past.  Over Christmas Chad interviewed Grandma and Grandpa Bohon so that we could have a record of some of their stories.  We also snuck the old family slides from Mom and Dad's house and had them all put on a DVD.  This way the pictures won't continue to fade and we can kind of enhance them to make some of the old crusties look a little better.

I laugh each time I look at all of the pictures.  I thought I'd share some with everyone too.  I'll start with the ones when I was a cute little girl.  Awww!

I am pretty sure Mom will love me sharing this one of her with no makeup.  It was many moons ago though, so who really cares???

Sheesh!  This pictures looks old.  You can see that it's a bit on the yellowish/brown side - and that's even after I tried to fix it.  And I love all of the gunk on the surface of the slide.  Nice!

 

Look how young Dad is there!!!  Well, and me too!  It seems that all little ones love to be in the back of the truck.  I know my boys have loved it since they could know what a truck is!  I like this one though because it's me with my Daddy!

Yes it's Farmer Shanan!  Do you like the black vinyl couch!  Niiice!

My first birthday.  I love this picture because it's one of Grandpa's younger years.  I am the first grandchild on my mom's side of the family, so he's pretty young in this picture.  Keep in mind that he grayed at an early age!!!
I understand that Grandpa was the first to give me icecream.  Apparently I loved it - as he knew I would! :)

This is a classic.  I have no idea where it is or what is going on, but I sure seemed to enjoy standing in the potty chair.  Come to think of it, I'd love to have that potty chair now.  Not that I'd have any kids to use it, just something to have.  They don't make potties like that anymore!