January - March

January 2016

 Our friends gave us some trivets for Christmas, and they've been used as everything but trivets.

A couple days after getting back from Europe, we decided to go find snow, since we didn't get to play in ANY while we were in Europe.  We went up towards Tahoe and just pulled off the road and found a good hill. 

We weren't the only ones with this idea.  They police were closing off the off ramps because so many people were parking on them to play in the snow.  We just had to keep driving until we found one open.

 Winter in California!!  Beautiful weather and everything turns green.

 I was putting little notes on the kids' pillows when they do something nice, so now Ava and Grant leave notes everywhere.  Some are sweet and some are not so sweet. :)

 WHY MOM!!!!!!  Every time I see this it cracks me up.  She was pestering me one morning so I 'smacked' (it was a soft tap of the toe) her cheek with my toe.  She gave this to me moments later. HA!!!

 Noah has shown NO interest in sports until now, but he's realizing that he gets to be with his friends if he plays.  He decided to try out basketball and baseball this year.  Basketball just finished and he loved being with his friends twice a week, but it was PAINFUL for his parents to watch.  He was NOT good at it.  He probably could be, but his focus is terrible, so he'd run down the court (while looking at his feet) and then just stand there and look at the clock or down at the ground.  We're CONSTANTLY telling him to FOCUS.  This boy is a daydreamer.

They lost EVERY game, but Noah could have cared less.  He always said after a game, "that was fun".   Good attitude, Noah.  Hopefully the coaches feel the same. :)

 Crappy picture - Noah in blue and Ava behind him with the walker. 

Saturday chore activity - roller skating rink.  I even did it.  I remember it being much easier when I was little.

 Following Saturday chore activity - fishing and lunch at Folsom.  Still no fish.  Someday we WILL catch a fish.  The kids don't really care, they really just want to explore anyway.

 75 degrees in January calls for swimming.  There were so hot, so they thought the pool was a good idea.  Ha.  Freezing.  With the wet suits though, they stayed in for a few minutes.  It's mainly entertainment for their parents.

 Another Saturday chore activity - Sunsplash arcade.  Noah was the only one who finished his chores, so the babies had to stay home with dad.

 Cool huge mushroom in my neighbors yard.

 Helped in Ava's class for the monthly activity day - Antarctica day.  Everyone listening to the teacher while she tells about Antarctica.

 First station - Listening station (read/listened to The Emperor's Egg) and making Oreo penguins.

 Station 2 - flubber.  They had a bag of Crisco that they put in ice water, and the kids put one hand in plain ice water and then into the bag of Crisco to show how the flubber keeps the penguins warm. 

Other stations that I didn't get a picture of - iPad learning station and ice cream sandwiches, weather wheel activity and penguin hats.

Our old Webelos leader used to make these nice plaques for any boy getting his Arrow of Light in scouts, but he got released a few months ago.  The parents asked if anything was being presented to their son for his Arrow of Light and I felt bad that the boys had seen the cool plaques and were looking forward to getting one.  I didn't have time to make a routing template, so I came up with the idea to burn the image into a piece of wood.  Making the template probably would have been easier.:) Although it took me a long time to make, I love how it turned out.   I tried making an arrow and it looked terrible, so I ended up ordering real Navajo Indian arrows (actually cheaper than buying the stuff to make your own) that I hung from the bottom of the plaque. 

Poppies at the temple.  Love these flowers.

In the Bear den they have to put on a carnival for other scouts, so for January pack meeting the Bears did a fun little carnival.  They came up with the games and ran their stations pretty much by themselves.  It was so cute to see them running their stations.  Noah and his friend, Evan, did a ball toss game.

Grant was drawing pictures in church and when I looked down (the view I saw was the picture below - Grant's view is the picture above) I said, "Grant! What are you drawing?!"  He looked at me puzzled and said, "Birds".  Ha, totally thought he was drawing bums with poop coming out.  My kids think poop is so funny, so I only assumed that's what he was doing.  I showed Adam and he thought the same as me, and then we both started laughing and almost had to leave sacrament meeting because we couldn't control it.

Adam took this picture of Noah.  He said this is how he comes down to find him every morning.

Perched like a bird eating his breakfast.  Seriously, he does not like to sit down to eat. He usually has one or both feet up.  Weird kid.

FEBRUARY - 2016

Our master bathroom was remodeled a few years ago, but the tile job was TERRIBLE (you could seriously trip over it because it was so uneven - we didn't do this tile job).  Over a year ago the shower floor started coming up because water was getting between the grout.  I thought I could chip it away and put down new tile. Ha.  There was so much cement and grout that I only got about 6" done.  It sat that way for over year and we haven't used that shower since.  Well, a couple in our ward lost their jobs (and home) and needed work, so we hired him to come rip out the tiles and start over. 

 

This is the new tile we have on the floor.  It was supposed to take 10 days - we're at the month mark and it's still not even close.  Ugh.  The tile job is a little better, but still not perfect.  I get frustrated, but Adam keeps reminding me that we're doing this to give him work and money to buy food. 

Ava thought she would be nice and share some chocolate with Grant.  He was asleep so she put it on his pillow.  He ended up rolling onto it and it melted all over him.  When he came downstairs I thought he had a bloody nose.  He had no idea until I made him go look in the mirror.

Saturday chore activity - rubber band flying rockets at the park.

I made the kids make and assemble all their Valentines again this year. 

Grant - capri sun

Blueberry fig bar cookies

 

Noah doesn't like to take as much time as the babies. :)

 

My mom sends us Valentines books, and this year they were so cute.   

Valentines - I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and then Adam and the kids thought it was so cool, they took over.

Adam was getting all fancy.  Me water-skiing.

 

Noah's creation.

Our friends had us over for dinner on Valentines.  She made these cute heart shaped foods for the kids table and yummy lasagna.

Daddy-daughter dance at the school.  Adam was running late at work, so they grabbed a quick dinner and then went to the dance. 

I took the boys to Leatherby's while Ava and Adam were at the dance.

Right after the dance we headed up to the cabin.  This time we got to sleep in the cabin, instead of the trailer.  The outside is almost done and we're starting on the inside next week.  (I updated the cabin blog - if you want an invite just leave a comment and I'll send you an invite). 

Our framers made this box to hoist up on the lift when they were putting on the trusses.  The kids used the left over roofing to turn it into their clubhouse.  The pipe is their telephone.

Went on a little adventure before coming home. 

Noah found this on the path and said, "take my picture in this for Rachelle". 

So pretty up there.  We love it. 

 

Pulled out the rest of the kindergarten garden so we could plant peas.  I already pulled the beets, kale and chard and took them into the classroom for them to try.

Planted a bunch of peas and beets for the kindergartners.

Ava's patriotic program. 

Ava and Abraham Lincoln

Grant's lego creations.  Jail with guards.

The lady working on our bathroom has been taking the missionary discussion and was able to get baptized a couple weeks ago.  It's been great watching her go thru all the changes she's had to make.  They taught her the word of wisdom and told her she had to stop smoking and drinking coffee before she could get baptized.  She immediately stopped and is doing so well.  She was leaving our house to run some errands and got in a car accident (4 days before her baptism date) and broke her leg.  She told the doctors she couldn't have a cast because she needed to get baptized on Saturday.   She was able to get baptized!!  She had to hop into the font, but she did it!

MARCH -2016

I got to help Noah's class on their field trip.  We went to a living history museum.  Everyone had to dress up in 1880's attire. 

We couldn't leave our station during the day, so I went around and took pictures of each station before.  Station 1 - the kids made fabric dolls and button spinners.

Station 2 - outdoor kitchen where they made biscuits

Stove in the kitchen where the biscuits cooked and the iron and hot water was for the laundry station.

They have a garden with wheat growing, and then they grind the wheat, churn the butter (used the buttermilk from the butter too) and make the biscuits. 

Station 3- Laundry. I was over the laundry station.  We had to pump the water from the well, then take it to the stove to heat up.  We grated homemade soap into the barrels and then used the washboard to wash.  Then we used bluing to 'bleach' the whites.

Next we put the material thru the wringer and hung them up to dry.  

 

And finally, we would go to the stove and get the hot iron to iron.  The kids got to do everything at every station.  Noah LOVED this field trip. 

Station 4 - leather dying and making a marble bag.

Station 4 - fruit basket and plowing.  They got to make those wooden baskets (like the one on the table)

Such a fun field trip.

 

We had our Blue and Gold last week.  It is SOO much work, but the boys had fun, so it's worth it.  Our theme was Minions.  

 

I made these invitations.

Instead of a cake competition this year, we changed it up and had them bring 12 decorated cupcakes. 

 

Noah's cupcakes got put to the bottom of the list, so a couple hours before pack meeting I told him to go outside and figure out something as a cupcakes stand (I knew decorating them wasn't an option since I had so much to do still).  We came up with this.  He went out front and went to town with the spray paint.  The paint was still a little wet when we had to go. :)  We made Boston Cream Pie cupcakes.  We were in a hurry, so I made most of it, but he did help me with the pastry cream for the inside.  He won the award for "Topographical Altitude".

I didn't get hardly any pictures during the night, so this is all I have.  I printed off large minions at fedex, and cut them out onto cardstock.  Then I stuck them to a paint stick and put them in blue buckets.  We had blue and yellow balloons tied to them. 

I had different minions at different places. 

We made 'purple minion blasters', AKA marshmallow guns. 

The kids loved it.  The few parents cleaning up the smashed marshmallows off the floor, probably didn't love it as much. :)

I didn't get any pictures of this station, but we also had a 'Minion Mix' station, where the kids decorated yellow cups with googly eyes and markers.  Then we filled them with a minion mix (honeycombs, blue sixlets, lemon heads, pretzels, minion crackers and icing eyes).  Instead of a dinner, we had an ice cream bar (and ate all the cupcakes). It was a great night and the boys had a great time, so I consider that a success. 

I'm always so happy when the Blue and Gold is over!

Wow, another long one.  Seems that's all I know how to do.  I still have last weekends adventure to Cambria, but I'll save that for another post.