January

We hadn't made any plans for New Year's Day so were happy when Gene and April called and said they were coming down to take us to lunch.  We went to Cafe Rio and then home to watch Brave.  April brought stuff for white chocolate peppermint popcorn that we munched on while watching the movie.

We had a great time with them, considering that all we had planned for that day was to clean the house, organize toys, find homes for new toys, etc.  This was much more exciting!

Grandma taught the kids how to play "slammers, creepers" before they left.  This is where you hold a coin in one hand and either slam or creep your fingers open on the table.  The other team tries to guess which hand the coin is under.  Molly and Stockton need a little more practice, but I wasn't the best at it either. 

 

Sometimes Stockton draws "play board games" out of the mommy/stocky activity jar.  Sure, he likes playing Candy Land and Memory and The Ladybug Game just fine but his favorite is Ticket to Ride.  We adapt the rules to make sense to a 3-year-old, of course.  He loves to line up the cards into one long train.

One night I was so tired and so frustrated at myself and my inability to keep my house perfectly clean, and my kids lack of motivation to pick up their toys.  Anyway, inspiration struck and I hurried and wrote the words "Head Cleaner-Upper" on a piece of paper, tied yarn to it and told the kids when it was hanging around their neck they could boss the rest of us around and tell us what to clean.  Aha!  It worked!!  They thought it was the best game and I've never seen them clean their rooms quicker.

Unfortunately it was lame a couple of days later.  But at least it worked once or twice!!

Wednesday is quesadilla-for-lunch day at our house.  But it's fun to change it up every once in while.  Snowflake Quesadillas!!

Our after-school snack was also a snowflake quesadilla...with cinnamon and sugar and powdered sugar on top to make it while like a real snowflake.

Molly planned a family movie night one Friday night.  We had pizza, watched Alice in Wonderland, and made snowmen doughnuts.

 

My kids are obsessed with the YouTube video Elmo's Got the Moves.  We watched it almost every day in January.  Actually, not much watching, but a whole lot of dancing!  If one person turned it on the rest of the kids would come running!

Justin got some tickets to the Utah Women's Gymnastics meet for Molly and myself.  I didn't want to be driving by myself so we took Grandma April along with us.  Our seats weren't super close but we had a really good time.

Justin took Martin Luther King weekend and headed to St. George for a fishing trip with his friends.  They left on Sunday evening, got there super late, had to hike a mile at midnight to find their cabin.  They woke up and...oops...the lake was frozen over and the river was dried up.  And Justin got the stomach flu.  So not the best trip for them.  I took the kids to Plain City where we had a much better time.  We went to the Treehouse Museum and let the kids run around.  Molly went off with Grandma and the girls and I stuck with Stockton, Brynn, Ali, and her boys.

 

Brynn and Grant

 We took all the kids to the dentist where they were all cavity free!  Well, Brynn maybe doesn't count because she clenched her teeth so tight and wouldn't open.  But there were no tears so I'll take that!

 (No pictures of Molly because she has done this so many times.  It was a first for both Stockton and Brynn, since we finally have dental coverage for the whole fam.)

January was cold, cold, cold...there were also a lot of kids in our ward and neighborhood who were plagued with sick, sick, sick.  I am feeling very lucky that we managed to avoid pretty much all sicknesses.  I don't know how we did it and maybe we're not out of the clear yet, but despite the cold and the yucky air we have managed to stay healthy and busy and not too bored.  Although we anxiously await some springtime weather!!