13 Years on the 13th

Thirteen years ago there was fresh snow on the ground. It was chilly, but not too cold for pictures. (And those pictures were taken with a film camera.)

Thirteen years ago two best friends were married in the Bountiful Temple.

Thirteen years ago the cake at the reception smeared across the floor. (If you were there, I bet you remember it...)

After dinner tonight we will celebrate with a cake and the kids. Lee heard of the fun idea to treat our anniversary as the "birthday" for our family. Sounds like a good reason to have cake. (And of course, I'll make chocolate covered strawberries!)

Boot Exploded

Lee went skiing last Saturday with Arik at Pebble Creek in Idaho. They had a great morning, but every once in a while Lee felt like his boot was a little bit loose. He tightened it up and kept doing runs...until in mid-ski his boot shattered. He picked up the big pieces and hiked down the mountain. Then they called it a day. When he got back to the truck he noticed the other book had a big crack across the bottom too. He has had those boots since High School (and they were old then) so just a little safety tip...if you don't want your ski boot to explode, you should replace them every once in a while. He had fun anyway. After we all had lunch we went to a park.

Snow on the Ground

Tyler and Andrew just getting started.

 This winter hasn't been good sledding weather! We took advantage of the Saturday that actually had snow on the ground and went sledding with some neighbor friends. (Lee came too, but he had the camera, so he isn't in any of the pictures.)

Andrew coming up for more.

Emma, Becca, Tyler, Laura, and Andrew

Ready to go!

Laura and Emma on their way down.

Tyler spinning down the hill.

All the kids were old enough to go down and come back up by themselves.

Laura had so much fun, and then she slept really good that night.

Happy Birthday Theodor Geisel!

We celebrated with Cat in the Hat Parfaits. It was easy to make, just layers of white whipped cream and red jello.

Extra Generous

The background: Our life insurance company, Modern Woodmen of America, is a not for profit company. They do lots of community donations and service and give away the funds that would normally be counted as profit. (For instance, I arranged for them to donate 750 jump ropes to Woodruff Elementary.) They have Youth Service Clubs that have monthly activities for the children members in the area. I am a volunteer leader for one of the youth clubs. (Modern Woodmen is still fairly new in Utah. They are growing in Davis and Weber counties, but my group here in Logan is still just my own kids.) We hope to add to our group soon...since Lee is officially signed on as a Financial Representative!

The story: I contacted CAPSA (Community Abuse Prevention Services Agency) to see if a donation of children's book would be something they could use. They were excited about that and I told them I would bring them in the next day. We went to Jenson Books and picked out 50 books. (When I told Jenson Books we were donating them to CAPSA they were impressed and told us to find 20 more!) We brought the books home and added a bookmark to each book. The next day we delivered the books. They were really grateful for the books. They had me fill out some paperwork. The last question kind of threw me off, it asked how I found out about CFSC. That made me notice the wall, that in very large letters said Child and Family Support Center. After we walked out, I turned to Lee and said, "That's not CAPSA." I had that building in mind the whole time, but apparently I had called a different place and I told someone they would have books coming. The Child and Family Support Center was, of course, very happy with the donation. We got back in the van, and went to Jenson Books again. (And I had to admit to Jenson Books that the donation they thought was going to CAPSA didn't.) We picked 50 more books, added bookmarks, found out the location of CAPSA, and made a second delivery. My mistake benefited both organizations. Our plan to donate 50 books ended up being 120 books!

Placing bookmarks in each book.

Kindness Begins With Me

Lee taught a lesson for Family Home Evening about communication. Well, it was more about communicating without getting upset or angry, stating clearly what you want to have happen, and doing so nicely. He split us into teams. Only the person with the blindfold on could touch the game board. The other team member had to kindly talk their teammate through the moves. Halfway into the game, we had the boys switch roles. (The girls both ended up falling asleep early that night.) It was an interesting game. It might be a good technique for newlyweds.

Fifth Time's A Charm

Emma had her fifth surgery today. She had another set of ear tubes put in. This time they used a "T-tube". It opens up inside to help it stay in place for longer (hopefully years!). We have already noticed that she is using an "inside voice" instead of yelling everything. Eventually she will have to have another surgery to remove the tubes, but we hope they help keep her ears clear for a long time before that happens.

Last night as I was tucking her into bed, when she usually asks me what is for breakfast, she told me she doesn't eat breakfast but she gets apple juice after she is done. She has done this a few times! She checked in herself at the Surgical Center. Emma happily played with a couple toys and then got in the wagon. The doctor and nurses said she did great. She drank her apple juice in the recovery room, had dad read her a book, went to the nurse's station to ask for a Kleenex, and colored a picture before we left. She has been doing great. Here's to being able to hear again!

Emma sitting on mom's lap for the pre surgery stats.

Headed to the operating room in the wagon with the anesthesiologist.

Reading a book with dad in the recovery room.

Coloring in the recovery room, waiting to be released.

PTA in February

This week we had the Valentine Manners Social. We set up tables and decorations Monday night. Tuesday I spent ALL day at the school. I had neighbors set up to watch the girls, but Lee decided to switch days at work and he stayed home. That worked out well because Andrew ended up sick and stayed home too. Each class (well, it was really two classes at a time) went to have a manners lesson in the Little Theater. One teacher was Ms. Manners and the other teacher was Ms. Un-manners. The teachers were pretty fun for the students to watch. The one I stepped in and saw was when Superintendent Garrett was being Mr. Un-manners. He was hilarious. He ate his cake with his fingers, flicked water at the other teacher, knelt on the chair, used his sleeve instead of napkin, threw the napkin at Mrs. Kelley, and kept wiggling around. Then the kids went into the cafeteria and we served cake, and red Kool-aid. We kept 72 seats always set throughout the day. We had 15 different shifts of classes. As soon as the kids left from one group, it was a mad dash to set up for the next group.

After school Tuesday, and after we cleaned up the Valentine's Social, we set up for the Book Fair. The girls got to go play at the neighbor's house and Lee came to help us. We set up in the Little Theater this time, so we had to carry the book carts down the steps.

Parent Teacher Conferences were Wednesday and Thursday. We opened the Book Fair during the conferences. We stayed open until 8pm both nights!  We earned over $1700.00 in books for the classrooms and Media Center. I had some great helpers! We worked late and cleaned up the Fair Thursday night. Lee came and helped then too.

And here is the estimation jar. None of the students guessed it exactly.

Because it was Parent Teacher Conferences, the PTA also provided dinners for the teachers on Wednesday and Thursday. I didn't help much with that because I was in charge of the Book Fair. They served large sub sandwiches with chips one night and the huge hit was the Chinese buffet. We have some great teachers at Woodruff.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Everybody picked what they wanted their own card to look like. Andrew wanted his to have a pencil this year. It says "You're the 'write' one for me."Tyler added "I think you're sweet!" to his. (And a kiss on his cheek too.)

The kids were being silly...

Marshmallow "Snowball" Fight

For Pack meeting, the scouts and their siblings decorated Marshmallow Shooters. Then they went in the gym and shot at a target. The targets that were set up were ignored, and the marshmallows were shot at the moving targets, each other! The kids seemed to enjoy it.

Using stickers and tape to make marshmallow shooters.

Tyler decorating his shooter.

Kickin' the Habit

Emma liked to suck her thumb. A lot! After a year and a half of having the dentist tell me she is damaging her teeth, and me telling him we were trying lots of other things to get her to stop, she finally got a habit appliance. It's a metal thing cemented into her mouth. She will have it in for four months after the last time we see her sucking her thumb. Which was the same day she got the appliance.

Spikes keep Emma from sucking her thumb.

She doesn't suck her thumb anymore.

Maybe I should be logging her hours...

Haircuts that come in phases are not my favorite. (Laura's hair was still recovering from the last time this happened.) However, Shayla lives too far away now to do the second phase, so off to the beauty school we went. If you haven't guessed yet, Emma found the hidden scissors. She cut a little bit of Laura's hair in the back. I think Laura protested or she would have done more. Emma also cut her own hair. (Her hair was all the same length, about 6 inches below her neck.) Here are the phase one and phase two pictures.

Not really a "before"  more like a during phase one.

Phase one back view.

Some of Emma's cut off hair.

Laura's phase two front view.

Laura's phase two side view.

Laura's phase two back view.

Emma's phase two front view.

Emma's phase two side view.

Emma's phase two back view.

December 2011: Christmas

We had a couple different family parties. I have pictures of none of them. We played Minute to Win it games, we did a steal the gift exchange, we tied some quilts, and of course we ate yummy food.

For Christmas Eve the kids got to open their one present of new pajamas. I had my ultrasound earlier that week and Lee and I knew the gender of our baby, but we told the kids we would tell them on Christmas. (Tyler was more excited to find out than he was for the actual Christmas.) Anyway, on Christmas Eve, we had five presents pulled out and we had them open the baby pajamas. They were pink. Baby girl is due May 14th.

Christmas morning we saw that Santa came, ate breakfast, and went to church. After church, we came home and opened presents before heading down to see both sets of grandparents.

Andrew and Tyler with their new Lego sets.

Laura opening a present.

Emma opening a present.

Emma, Tyler, and Lee

Becca, Emma, and Laura

December 2011: Andrew's Birthday

Andrew turned 7.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Building his new Lego set.

Andrew's cake.