Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a Friday this year.  Since I usually work on Fridays at the school, I was fully expecting that to be a work day for me.  I found out the week before that we had it off because all the classes were having Valentine's parties and there wouldn't be time for PLC's (the teacher collaboration time during which we teach values and art).  Since Corey had already scheduled himself to have the day off and work the night shift, I decided to go ahead and volunteer to help out in the class parties.  I was able to help in all four of my kids' classes because fortunately, they were all happening at different times.  I went in at 10 am and got done when the school day was over at 1:25 pm.  I really enjoyed it.

Westley and I created a Star Wars Valentine's box.  He is really into Star Wars right now and came up with the idea to do R2-D2 for his box.  Of course, he saved it until Thursday, at which time, he almost gave up because it was hard.  But, Mom to the rescue!  I came up with a way to make the R2-D2.  You can't tell that there is a sideways shoebox in there, but there is.  We will definitely be saving this one for future use!

For a Valentine's Day date, Corey and I had to go out on Saturday, the 15th because  he was working Friday night.  We walked over to Kneader's in the morning for breakfast.  Then we spent the morning doing our usual Saturday cleaning and errands.  Then Corey and I went to the temple to do sealings.  After the temple, we went to Ruth's Chris steakhouse in downtown SLC.  It was an enjoyable day.

Decorating Sugar Cookies

For a Family Home Evening activity, the kids decorated sugar cookies.  They looked forward to it all day and were very happy to finally be able to do it.  I got out every single container of sprinkles we owned and the kids just went to town.

Funny back story...Travis and I made the sugar cookie dough several days before.  I put in way too much sugar and the cookies tasted terrible, like pucker up the lips terrible.  I had to remake the dough before we could decorate cookies. 

 This is Jonah helping Annmarie lick the frosting from the bowl

Skating Adventures

After doing some research on fun things to do indoors that don't cost an arm and a leg (well, that's not exactly what I typed into Google search, but you get the idea), I learned that a local roller rink had a dollar day once a week, every Thursday.  Admission for $1/person and skate rental for $1/person.  They also had rentals for in-line skates and scooters for an additional fee.  So I decided to take the kids roller skating.

The first time we went, I took Jonah along.  He really didn't do very well.  Eliza was about that age when she first went and she loved it.  But Jonah was scared of the blinking lights, the loud music, and all the people.  He also was scared of the skates. I wish I had a toddler scooter for  him, I think it would have been more fun for him.  The older kids didn't want skates, so I told them that they could rent their own scooters if they brought the difference (skates were $1, scooters $3, so they paid $2).  Eliza was brave and tried the skates.

We had a blast.  We had so much fun the first time that we went twice more during their off-track time in January.  Later in January, we even tried ice skating, which Eliza also loved and seemed to take to quite naturally.

Snow Day Fun

We have had quite a few snowy days this winter.  The kids did not go back to school after the Christmas break because they went off track at that time, so they were off the whole month of January.  I really wanted to take them south to warmer weather to visit family, but our car just didn't work and we couldn't afford to get it fixed.  So, we spent time playing around the house.  The kids loved playing outside in the snow, especially Jonah.  The snow really isn't so bad as long as I don't have to drive in it and can see it from my inside my warm house.

Snowman Pancakes

I was making pancakes and decided to make them a little fun.  I was going to try to do letter shapes or even animals, but then I just started making snowmen (because they were easier).  On a whim, I added chocolate chips for the face and buttons.  The kids loved them.  They added powdered sugar to make them seem snowy.  It was a fun way to start the day.

End of the Year 2013

This year has had its ups and downs.  We are glad that it is coming to a close.

Corey has continued his work as a store manager for In-N-Out Burger.  He is very busy with his job and continues to enjoy it.

Jenna started a new part time job in the fall as an aide at the kids' school.  It is once a week on Fridays and she teaches a character curriculum, art, and Bully Blockers while the classroom teachers have collaboration meetings.  It works out well with Corey's flexible schedule, so he is able to be home Friday days with the younger kids.

In June, our family decided to welcome a foreign exchange student from Norway into our home.l  Margrethe has been a wonderful addition, allowing us to see what life with a teenager could be like if we raise our kids as well as her parents raised her.  She seems to be fitting in well and enjoying her time here.

Westley started fifth grade this year.  He still plays trumpet in the band, is obsessed with Minecraft, and helps  lot with his younger siblings.

Caleb started third grade this year.  He continues to be his sensitive, caring self.  He is very energetic and loves to laugh.

Travis started first grade.  He loves to spend time with friends and play the Wii.

Eliza started kindergarten.  She has learned to read this year and now reads everything she possibly can find.  I think she will be our first child to read everything in our home library.

Jonah is a very typical two-year-old.  He absolutely loves the Ninja Turtles and spends every day all day playing with the action figures or pretending to be them.

Annmarie joined our family in March.  She is a very content, joyful baby who loves to be part of all the action around here.  When she's not included, she makes her displeasure known.  She is adored by all of her older siblings.

We hope that this Christmas season is one of joy, peace, and love for you and your families.  Merry Christmas and God bless!

A King Christmas 2013

We had a good Christmas this year.  I worked really hard to keep with our new tradition of "something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read".  To explain this tradition, it helps to simplify Christmas and keep the spending under control.  Everyone gets four gifts as the above mentioned rhyme indicates.  In better years, we may include a Santa gift too.  This year, there were no Santa gifts, except for family gifts, which were a few movies and games.  In addition to this tradition, we also do a family gift exchange with both Corey's side of the family and my side of the family. 

This year, we had John and Allison's family and Aunt Jamie.  We got John and Allison's family a set of personalized popcorn bowls.  We got Aunt Jamie a cookbook.  Aaron and Kaori's family had us and they gave us several Wii games.  Traci and Brenden's family gave us some cooking utensils and a board game.  I liked how simple it all was with our new tradition.