Days

Sunday morning brought a rousing game of shopkins with this sweet daddy and his girls. (I had my turn the day before)

It also brought FaceTime with sissy and lots of video taking. I let each of the girls choose something they wanted me to film. This was what Frankie wanted to see herself doing. Full time fancy. Bonus points for the messy room.

Addie wanted to see how it looked when she crosses her eyes. She's got a whole routine - eyes crossed, look left, up down, cross again. It's enough to give you a headache.

And little miss wanted to see how her bun looked from a 360 degree angle.

Pretty grown up, and as Delaney would say "so fashion!"

Matt still wasn't feeling well, so I dropped Delaney and Addie off at mcs, and Chris, Frank's and I headed out to WP for Chris to give a talk in their sacrament meeting. He did a good job, it makes a momma proud. Laura sent me these from church. Makes a momma real proud. (;

We left WP and hightailed over to our building. After, Chris took girls home and I had a good meeting with bishop. I'm so grateful to be learning so much. It's been a real blessing in my life. 

Matt was home from work today and we were able to spend several hours watching a marriage seminar bishop lent us. It's not often I get my husband all to myself to watch tv for several hours, and it was great. After school Matt and Chris went over to the high school and fixed Christians car. Not sure what they did, but it's fixed, so yay! Then Brian came over. They just out of the blue would start wrestling. They did this several times, it was very odd. Having just the one son, I don't get it. They weren't mad at eachother, just felt like wrestling. Weird, right?

Tonight was ballet and then our last high school spring sports night for a very long time. Can I get an amen?! 

Valentine week

Super Bowl party! Lamest one we've had, and yet, still fun.

Mc kids, ainas, and streeters came over.

It's tough that it's on so late here, but that's life on the east coast. After halftime, Ads climbed onto this chair and fell right to sleep.

That Wednesday I taught Valentine preschool. Pretty sure that's my fav one to teach. The kids had fun making heart necklaces. They all worked so hard, aren't they cute?!

Worker bee.

Then we worked on our Love art in the style of Robert Indiana. They did such a good job! They used their fingers to dot paint all around their letters, one color at a time. 

They were careful and followed directions and didn't even get paint on themselves.

I liked the way it looked as they added in one color at a time, and how their pictures looked so different with the different color combinations.

They didn't even complain, they just worked, worked, worked.

Finished products! So cute!

Love Laney and Ellie's faces here. Sillies.

Cookies

Chris camped out with the deacons last night as the troop guide. His car died at school. On the same day that Matt and I were talking about how reliable the Honda has been. Since Matt's not been feeling well, it's a stinky weekend to have car problems. He thinks it's the spark plugs, or something. :/

At noon Addie and I went and sold Girl Scout cookies at the little mckays. We sold 96 boxes, so it was pretty successful.

Then I had some rs stuff. Pizza and baths and bed. Chris is working on a talk he'll give in WP tomorrow. It's his 3rd talk in 3 months. I, for one, love it. 

Since it was a slow picture day, how about my other little cookie seller. 

talent show

I played shopkins with Delaney this morning. Just a few minutes, but so cute and fun.

Frankie got a joke book from the library, but I never read it with her because I always read ramona.(we're on the last book, ramona's world, and i'll be so sad when we're done!) when we picked the girls up from darrow's, alecia mentioned that laney had been telling her jokes. I was surprised because I had never heard her tell a coherent joke. but sure enough, when I asked her, she had a whole routine. so I filmed her this morning and posted it to our private family fb group - seagroovin'. #thecoolest

here is a sample joke: why was the witch late for school? because she over-swept. hahahaha. so this morning she told her jokes, then freestyled with a few, and since I never read the book I don't know if they were jokes she forgot the real punch line to, or just silly things she made up. either way she earned herself 3 oreos for her performance. :) #goodparenting

tonight was the big talent show. addie played a pretty piano piece called shimmering waters.

neighbor chris took some behind the scenes pics. the long skirt has become the performance ensemble. also performance hair = bun. I don't know why, it just does.

she did really well and only messed up on one part. such a bumsie when that happens because she's practiced it perfectly a million times. she did a really great job though, i'm so proud of her!

pre-intermission performers. we left after the cute teacher video at intermission. I hate to do that, but we were melting down and daddy stayed home not feeling well. times and seasons.

I've been listening to while the city slept, the book about Teresa's murder. it's brought up a lot of feelings, and emotions are high. it's just horrible all around. the man that killed her had a tough upbringing and then slipped through a lot of cracks and loopholes in the mental health system. it's just as sad for him, no, it's more sad for him than it is for Teresa. she died for her friend while he is still living in his hell. i'm grateful to know the plan of salvation and to know that all will be made right somehow. for both of them.

 

Preschool

Tuesday was a snow day because of morning ice and not being able to clear all the schools. It was the craziest thing though! It rained and was in the 50's, so that by that afternoon almost all the snow was gone! 8 inches of snow, gone by the next day. Will wonders never cease!

Dixie, rs baby, and I made a visit and had a little miracle. I was asked to visit a non-member woman and Matt felt like I shouldn't go alone. So I prayed about who to ask to come along and kept seeing Dixie. Since Dixie is the compassionate service leader i thought, no I want to take someone maybe not already in rs, but just kept coming back to her. So it turns out that the woman we visited is waiting to have surgery that is the same surgery dixie's mom had a few years ago. Little miracles are serious tender mercies. (: 

RS baby started to comment on the smell of the home, but after a gentle mouth cupping from mom, refrained immediately.  We're making slooow progress. 

The only reason I brought her along was to take her to gymnastics. Bubba watched the big girls. And when I say that he watched them, it means they watched tv for 3 hours until I got home. 

Anyhizzle, these sweet girls came over for dinner, and after dinner shared a message with us + a&a. Our A&F had gone to play over there, and when we called them home for dinner, we offered to feed the rest. Extra kids are a blessing to have in our home.

I thought these sweet girls momma's would like to see their cute girls in action. See, I'm praying to be a missionary momma in a few months, and hoping for lots of pictures from other understanding momma's.

On Wednesday I taught my last, maybe last ever, preschool. Pretty sure Laney will make it into prek, but stranger things have happened, or not happened I guess. All these lasts are super bitter sweet. I am trying hard to see the sweet in it all, and it's working. After all, I've been momming for 20 years this year. That's kind of a long time.

We learned about teeth and did the brushing of the eggs we had done with Frankies preschool. If I'd have been smart I would have done the same themes through all 3 preschool experiences, but you know, life.

Laney is kind of l-to-the-azy and was "soooo tired" after brushing for exactly 28 seconds. So her egg/teeth weren't the cleanest, but whatevs. (Ellie's egg was whitest)

We had apple smiles for a snack and d-money was cutting it up! Love this silly. (:

We played a "lose the teeth" game. The kids rolled a die and "lost" however many teeth they'd rolled. Super simple and they all really liked it.

It was another super fun day at preschool. Almost makes me sad to be done! Although, since Leisa and fam are moving, I might teach again. Friends moving = boo.

Thursday was a meeting day. Presidency meeting, then panera delivery as a valentine gift to teachers and office staff, then vt meeting since Dari was released. I had actually forgotten about that one (one of those I remembered all day up until a few minutes before I was supposed to be there and then I forgot kind of situations), so I was very thankful the meeting was at my house. Chris entertained the ladies until I arrived and they were both sweet about me being 5 minutes late. 

Addie had talent show practice, so when we drove to pick her up (don't judge, it was so cold) we made an impromptu decision to go to the library. Then we ran into Joni and Owen there, and our 30 minute library visit turned into 2 hours of Joni and I commiserating over our obsession with food. So to recap. Friends moving = boo, food = yay. 

Snow day

We started this snowy day off by making a big ol' batch of mama Debby and Sarah's hot cocoa mix. So yummy!

I love this picture so much. My big girl reading with the snow falling outside. Just about perfect.

Gearing the girls up to play outside was massively frustrating. First off, Addie's snow pants went missing. Nowhere to be found. I'm sure I am wrong, but when things just up and disappear, i tend to blame Matt. He's got a knack for putting things in weird places. I'm sure I should take more responsibility. Someday. (; anyway, we looked all the places I would have put them, and nowhere to be found. So she squeezed into some 5/6's. And she is not a 5/6. Then Frankies boot had lost a zipper. Of course putting them on today they just came opened right away. So we white trashed it up and duct taped them.

Could we be any more hillbilly? Doubtful.

They finally made it out to play, and Chris and I watched one of our stories. Frank's wanted to come in and I felt like such a bad mom telling her to come back when ma stories were over. Just a cute girl at the back door. 

I love snow days still, but I also have been frustrated with myself when they are over. I tend to cook a lot, which is good, but I don't get a lot else done, which is frustrating. But then I feel like I should get to enjoy a "day off" too. So hard to figure out the balance. I did take down most of the valentines stuff, so that was good. 

FHE was challenging. A certain 7-year-old done loses her mind and gets major attitude. Laney was a tired mess. Frank's was sweet, but accidentally erased the scripture we'd spent several minutes writing on the whiteboard. Came around in the end with some snow ice cream.

Delanes couldn't get it together and choke down 4 bites of her stew, so even though it was her turn to pick snack, she didn't get any. Definite room for improvement. Tomorrow is another snow day, so here's to another day to work it. 

And some silly pictures I found of my baby boy. Dental program antics.

He's definitely the lone man!

Spirit week!

Gotta love the classic totem.

And finally - throwing the gang signs.

Good stuff. 

Valentine's Day

We picked the girls up and went to the darrows for breakfast at 9. It was so nice, Alecia made Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, egg bake, and bacon. We felt super spoiled after spending a weekend away from our kids, to get breakfast too! So nice!

We came home and let the girls start their scavenger hunt. 

Our printer has been acting up, so the clues were super short and sweet since they had to be handwritten.

They each took turns figuring them out, and loved running upstairs and downstairs.

The final gift - rare, Valentine's Day shopkins. (; they loved them. 

Then they were excited to show me their Valentine loot. Never one to be left out, lanes got in on that action. Vera made her these cute glasses, and when you add them to the cute face = perfect.

We missed our Saturday valentines, so after church Frankie made up for lost time.

Church was wonderful. Tracie gave a fabulous lesson about adversity. It's such a blessing to get to work with my presidency. Our last few meetings have been so unifying and truly revelatory experiences.

This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. I had no idea! Like, I thought we might get a dusting, but I guess I haven't been paying attention to the news. I heard the TJ bridge has iced over and there are people stuck on it. Worst nightmare, I am praying for them!

So today, instead of visiting washingtons birthplace and enjoying cake with hundreds of our closest friends, we'll clean and bake and play games. It'll be a close second to the original plans.