February 2017

Brian's gift for 10 years at Adobe.

Hayden and I went out for donuts. Yum! He was SO pleased!

The weather warmed up, slightly, so we went on a bike ride! All bundled up...with shorts.

This is what it looks like when ninjas go on bike rides...

 Cozy comfy!

 Katie had her "starfish" day in Kindergarten. We put together a little video with pictures of her and her voice telling about herself. It was a little painful to put together (Katie is very particular about pictures being taken of her, and pictures being shown, of her. I had to get her approval of each picture and each sentence she would say. Then it was like pulling teeth to get her to say any of it on the recording!), but she was pleased as could be with the finished product! She was both elated and completely embarrassed by being in the spotlight! Funny girl.

 Calling no people to ask questions that she could then answer (mostly "what's your favorite___?" questions). She loved getting to be in charge!

 Her starfish day happened to land on the same day that they were celebrating their "100th day of Kindergarten", so everyone was supposed to be dressed up like a 100 year old. Then they went on a parade through the front office, to show off their costumes. I stuck around to watch that part. It was a riot!

 Brian, breakin' out his toys from Christmas.

 Katie got into my phone, during Sacrament Meeting.

 Katie got invited to a couple of birthday parties for kids in her class. It was fun to have familiar faces there, helping her not be (quite as) shy!
Katie and Sophie, with the "bugs" they found (this was a bug themed party)

 And one of her favorite new friends, Courtlynn.

 Hayden was a pretty good sport, sitting through the party.

 Cupcakes and drinks! Yay!

 Rachel picking dad up with her legs!

 Cousins on a shelf! Way better than an elf on the shelf, any day!

 The girls helped dad with his lego project.

 Dad, the official tooth puller-outer, helped Katie to lose her first tooth!

 She was so brave, and she was SO excited!

 Our 2017 Valentines Picture:

Katie did SUCH a good job sharing her Valentine's Candy with Hayden. It was so sweet! Of course, by the time I got my camera out, instead of her arm around him, I got him pulling away from her.

Balloons, Brian and dinner! What more could I ask for? #Vday #Bemine

 Ugh. So. Much. Snow. Can I tell you about how much I don't like having to shovel my driveway...AND HALF WAY INTO THE STREET!

 I recently started to have success with natural yeast (aka "sourdough"). It's kind of exciting for me! See all those air pockets? It's alive!

I found this in a stack of papers. Haha. This has Maliya written all over it!

 We had some work friends over for dinner! It was a nice visit. I hadn't seen Ben's family in several years and it was fun to catch up and fun for our kids to meet new friends.

 My pretty girl; I'm always finding selfies of her! Haha

 Story:
Feb 14th: Brian comes home with 2 balloons.
Feb 17th: I get tired of kids fighting over the balloons, pop them (and make Hayden watch, because I'm cruel. And because I wanted him to know for certainty that they were GONE), and then throw them away. There were tears shed from all 4 kids.
Feb 20th: I find this heart shaped balloon in my house. I ask Hayden where it came from. "The forest," he tells me...What???
Then he asks me to pop it for him. He gets really insistent that I pop it, with a kind of disturbing gleam in his eye. When I won't pop it, he takes it and throws it away anyway. I think I've messed him up, emotionally...
He wasn't totally wrong about the "forest." Maliya said they found it in a "field." They both start with F...

 I think this was supposed to be George Washington...

 I looked outside and saw the big neighbor boys being so nice and playing tag with Katie and Mia. It is always so nice to see people being nice to my kids!

 We got cabinets in our kitchenette, downstairs!

 And a built in entertainment center!

 Hayden got it in his head, one day, that he really wanted to go to the farm and see the goats. And then he would. not. let. it. go.  So, as soon as it was warm enough and I had a free moment, we went! It was lots of fun!

 Hayden opted not to ride on the horses.

 Rachel made herself a nice cozy reading corner!

Hayden hurt his lip and was convinced that he needed a bandaid on it. Once it was on...I think he realized why I had discouraged it. He was not really a fan.

 Rachel's 2nd grade class put together little plays (skits, I guess?) and this was the costume she put together to be a poor, old mother.

 The girls discovered that they could text me from my old phone. I have never received so many love notes in my life!!!