February

After Brynn got her violin and I ordered some books online, we got down to starting with some lessons.  I teach her, ideally in the afternoon when Ivy is asleep and Molly and Stockton are at school.  At first she didn't love it because she just wanted to play it like a toy and make up her own songs but now that she's starting to get the hang of it, she seems to like it and is catching on well.  I have no idea how to teach someone to play the violin but I guess since I play (I'm very rusty!), I am qualified to teach her.  When she gets better and if she still wants to play and improve, I will have to pass her on to someone else.

I received the following pictures from Justin when I was gone one night.

Ivy saw Justin grating cheese and wanted in on the action.  She needs a little practice with grating...she would put her little block of cheese on the grater and then lift it to her mouth to take a giant bite.

We were able to go to Plain City to see Grace get baptized.  They had a dessert and ice cream bar at the church after.  Ivy loves babies, including Lucy and Josie.  And she definitely loves Grandma.

Grandma, Josie, Ivy

Grandma, Lucy, Ivy

Abby, Molly, Tessa, Harper, Ivy, Gavin, Grant, Chloe

Superbowl!  Stockton and Molly made decorations.  Justin was in charge of food.  We cheered for the Falcons because we don't ever like the Patriots.  Stockton was disappointed when the Patriots came back to win it.  Boo, Tom Brady.

Ivy wasn't impressed by the game and decided to take a nap on the couch with me.  I didn't complain.

Stockton and his friends have started an inventor's club at school so he was really excited to come home and set up his own inventors station in his room.  This is where he gets all his inventing done.  You can't see the name plaque on the table that says, "Stockton R Goodrich, 2nd in Command."  Apparently his friend, Luke, is in charge.

I love my mornings with Ivy, especially when we have nowhere to go.  She has such a cute imagination and is so good at keeping herself entertained.

Brynn made this heart wreath one afternoon.  She loved putting the glitter on it the most.  A few days after this she made the exact same thing at school, minus the glitter.

Brynn love, love, loves makeup and fancy things.  When she told me that she shares lip gloss with girls on the bus I took her to Walmart where she could use some of her money to buy her own lip gloss.  She was so proud of these lip glosses.  She is definitely my girly-girl.

Stockton's love is sports cards.  He has a subscription to Sports Illustrated for Kids and he gets a handful of new ones every time a new magazine comes.  Also, my mom and dad (who know of his love for sports cards and the Jazz) got him some Jazz cards when they went to a game.  We spent about 20 minutes getting his folder of cards organized exactly how he wanted them.  I often go down to his room to tuck him in at night and catch him reading through his book of cards.

Ivy loves dolls so one day we got Molly's dolls out of her closet and did their hair.  Ivy did the brushing and I did the styling.

Molly had a 4th grade Rendezvous.  They had been preparing and talking about this all year so it was an exciting day when it finally arrived.  Ivy and I were able to go and help out a little although we mostly just watched.  They had an Indian medicine woman come and talk to them, they had scones and honey butter, they did games like the stick pull and leg and arm wrestling, and they stamped their names onto leather bracelets.  They had been collecting old jeans all year and some nice mom (not me!) had sewn them into bags for them to decorate and collect all their trinkets.

Molly totally schooled this boy!

I left before lunch but the fun part was the trading post that they did after lunch.  They had been working hard to earn as many "beaver bucks" as they could all year to use at the trading post.  Each student had also been working hard at home to make items to sell at the trading post.  Molly made about 30 fleece scarves and 2 dozen mini cupcakes.  I was worried she wasn't going to sell many but she sold out of both quickly.  She also came home with some fun prizes that other kids had made.  It was a super fun day for her and I'm glad she is fitting in so well at this school!

Samantha Steiner, Brynli Davis, Roxy Tobler, Molly, McKenna Olney

Roxy, Molly, Erica Arnold

I showed the kids how to make yarn pom-poms and we worked together to make a pom-pom garland for Valentine's Day.  Molly took it one step further and tried to make pom-pom hair clips for Brynn and Ivy.  It didn't work exactly how she had planned but Ivy was happy with it.

Molly had a filling that was falling out and causing pain so that called for a quick trip up to see Dr. Jeff.  We don't rush to him for all the dental emergencies but the kids do feel more comfortable with him and he's really good at what he does.

This is Ivy's set-up most mornings.  Breakfast and the pbs kids app on the tablet.  Usually she is watching Daniel Tiger.  She is spoiled.  Sometimes Curious George or some other doll will sit with her.

I gave an FHE lesson on charity the night before Valentine's Day and challenged the kids to make it a day of charity and try to do more Christlike acts of service rather than just focusing on the commercial side of Valentine's Day.  I don't know if it worked but they felt charitable enough towards each other to take this picture. 

As a side note, all the kids really love family home evening.  Brynn asks a few times during the week if it's a home evening night and when we call everyone together for home evening Ivy has started to say, "Oh!  I love home evening!"

Valentine's Day...

Molly and Stockton were in charge of making a Valentine's box at home.  Stockton looked on pinterest and found a football one.  Justin helped him finish it.

Molly found a couple of ideas on pinterest but didn't want to wait for me to help her so she did the whole thing start to finish by herself with things she found around the house.  I think she did an awesome job!  I remember the stress of having to have an over-the-top Valentine's box but this year was fairly painless and the kids were happy with their finished projects.

Brynn was the only one who got a Valentine hairdo (Molly didn't want one and Ivy doesn't have thick enough hair yet).  We did two hearts on the top of her head.  This was one of the crafts she made at school.

I had signed up to help in Stockton's class party for Valentine's Day and was in charge of providing a game.  We played a game with dice and conversation hearts that ended up being fun enough to keep their interest.  It was the only time I'd actually been in Stockton's class and I always enjoy doing that and actually seeing the kids that they talk about at home.

Richie Mann, Stockton, Sam Pinter, Ben Lawson, Mason Davis

I think the thing I don't love about Valentine's Day is feeling like I'm obligated to give yet more gifts to my kids.  I think they were spoiled enough at Christmas and really don't need more, especially just cheap little trinkets.  I did heart attack the kids' rooms and they also got their coupon for one date with me and one date with Justin, like we've done the past few years.

They got treats from both grandma's and plenty at school so everyone was happy.  When Molly and Stockton got home with their goodies, they all went down to Molly's room to do some trading.

Ivy had no idea what Valentine's Day was this year.  She was pretty cute, though, giving some extra love to some dolls.  Molly and Stockton were in charge of heart attacking her room.

I did try to make dinner a little more fun and exciting.  I let the kids make their own pizzas.

Justin and I also had pizza, it was just a little more grown-up.  I used some leftover pork carnita meat and made our favorite carnita pizza.

We ended the night with some brownie cheesecake (brownie and ganache for me, cheesecake for Justin) and called it a successful Valentine's Day.

Also successful was Stockton's first season of Jr. Jazz basketball.  He looked forward to every single game and we saw some real improvement from the first game to the last.

He had a pretty awesome coach too! He is 2nd in from the right.

Our first bike ride outside was the 16th.  There was still snow outside but it was definitely warm enough to go out with a coat.  Not sure who enjoyed it more...me, Brynn, or Cash!  Or Bitty Baby in the baby seat on the back of Brynn's bike!

We went to the cabin for President's Day weekend.  We were tired of the snow at home but glad there was plenty at the cabin because we have lots of fun sledding and snowmobiling on the golf course.  We got there late Friday night and were out on the hills as soon as we could Saturday morning.  I wanted Ivy to be able to go sledding before her nap.

We took a break for lunch and by that time the Broadbent's had arrived and were anxious to join us outside.  (They were the only other family able to make it for the weekend.)

Jeff, Brynn, Molly, Gavin

Brynn and Ali

Brynn and Grant

We went to church in Laketown on Sunday morning and then had a quiet rest of the day.

Gavin, Molly, Stockton, Brynn, Ivy, Grant, Grandma, Lucy

The boys got up on Monday to do their all-day snowmobile ride.  Molly and Gavin got to go with them this time.  Unfortunately, it was really windy up on the top where they like to go so it wasn't quite as long since they couldn't see very well.

Molly, Grandpa, Gavin

The Brown's came to Utah for a week.  We missed the big gathering with everyone since we were at the cabin but they drove up to our house one night so the kids could play together.  We all love when they visit and miss them when they are in Seattle. 

Lizzy, Brynn, Ivy, Molly, Sam

We moved our cat food to the back deck when we discovered the skunk living in the garage.  We also put it in a big food storage bucket with a twist-on lid.  We knew there was some sort of animal that would sometimes eat what was left in the smaller food dispenser and we also saw evidence of an animal that kept trying to drag the big bucket away (claw marks on the lid, not put where we had left it the night before).  We assumed it was a raccoon (and hoped it wasn't another skunk).  One night we were sitting on the couch watching TV and I heard some scuffling on the deck...sure enough, it was a raccoon. He came back a few nights in a row and started getting more and more brave.  He was neat to watch but ultimately we knew we didn't want him around (they are mean, can carry diseases, and we don't want him eating our garden when we plant it this year) so I started bringing the food in at night in hopes that he would go away.  Justin would like to trap him to make sure he's really gone but we will see!

More snow.  This is what the Pilot looked like on the 22nd.  It's always worse when we've actually been outside and had a little taste of spring.

Stockton was so disappointed to wake up to more snow.  He came home from school and drew this and put it in the kitchen window.  I think he was hoping it would bring some warmer weather.

Brynn thought she was so clever to make this little "house" in our kitchen.

Molly was on the news!  It was just a picture of the whole 4th grade but, still, she was there.  The KSL weatherman visited their school and taught them a few things about weather and took a picture at the end that aired on the news.  She was at soccer practice during the broadcast so I had my camera ready and took a picture of it.  She is hard to pick out but she is on the third row, a little left to the middle, between two boys.

Ivy cooking up something yummy for me.  The little stinker somehow snuck those kitchen toys (not the plastic ones, thank goodness) into the oven when no one was around...good thing it wasn't on and hot!  I went to put some dinner into a preheated oven a little later and found them waiting for me.  Luckily, they are all wooden and metal so nothing was ruined.

Playing magnets with Brynn. I would much rather do this than play imagination games!

We were able to get down to Sandy to see the Brown's one more time before they headed back to Washington.  The Tanner's were able to be there too so it was one crazy time with all the kids, although I guess not as crazy as it would have been if Eric and Heidi would have been able to make it.  I am so grateful that my kids have all these cousins that they just love!

Micah and Ivy

Cameron, Stockton, Sam

Lizzy and Molly-saying goodbye is always painful for these two.

Brynn and Riley-I printed this picture so Brynn could have it in her room

A random picture of Stockton.  Can't remember any special reason why it was taken but we sure love this boy!

I guess it must be mentioned that I had a birthday.  I turned 35.  My mom and dad came up the day before with dinner.  The Walker's also came which was extra exciting since we don't get a lot of visitors besides grandparents.  My mom gave me some things for the kitchen and a quilt kit.

My mom tells me how on the day I was born she had to wait for my dad to mow the lawn before they could go to the hospital.  Well, there was no mowing lawns this year.  This is how much snow we got by the afternoon.  Keep in mind that it was completely melted off the deck the night before.

My birthday was on a Monday this year so pretty much a normal day but Justin did make sure I didn't have to make dinner and he bought a cake.  I picked out a rug for the living room for my birthday.  I was happy to celebrate with the people I love the most.

After lunch, Brynn and Ivy like to watch some shows on Brynn's bed until it's time for Ivy's nap.  And drink warm milk in a sippy cup.  Notice Brynn's footwear?

They are turning into good buddies, despite the age difference.  I wonder how this will change once summer gets here and then all day school for Brynn.

Here's our video for the month:

 Poor Justin.  He really got hit his head and had to call it quits after that.  He felt better after some Excedrin and a nap.
 More videos here!