Brynn shopped and shopped for a fancy dress and high heel sandals for a couple of weeks in January. This is what she finally settled on. It was an exciting day when they both finally made it to our house. She is so funny. Also, last year's February post started with a hoverboard picture. Our kids still love it.
One Friday afternoon before the big kids got home I had a little playdate for Ivy all set up. We had Verity Phelps and London Mathis over to decorate Valentine cookies and also so the three of them could play. Verity and London are in our ward. All three girls are in the same ballet class. Verity and London are cousins. Verity is one of my piano students. London is in Ivy's half-day Kindergarten class. So, connections all over the place. Anyway, I thought this would be a fun couple of hours for Ivy and I was right. They had so much fun using all the sprinkles and then playing with Ivy's toys. They only needed a little bit of guidance right there at the end when I had them pull out the magnetic blocks and that kept them going until mom's showed up.
 |
| Ivy, London, Verity |
Brynn and Ivy had earned $5 when they helped dog sit a friend's dog over a weekend. They were anxious for me to take them to the dollar store so they could spend their hard-earned money. I told them they could each pick out 3 things and that they needed to save their remaining $2. It was funny to watch how they picked out their items and what they picked. Ivy picked her three within the first three minutes in the store. She didn't care to shop around and then decide. She picked a blue recorder, some bathtub toys, and a stuffed unicorn. Brynn took the entire 15 minutes that I had allotted them before she finally settled on her three items. She picked a box of chocolates, a mirror, and a goblet for special drinks (or water). Gosh, they make me laugh!
Ivy set out a blanket, put on her swimsuit, and filled a tupperware with water so she could play with her water toys right away.
We did a couple Zoom calls with the Browns and the kids played Among Us together. Among Us is sort of a virtual mafia that has become wildly popular. Our kids had a blast both times we did this. Everyone wore hats this time.
Ivy got her date, finally. She was dying to go ice skating so I took her to the outdoor rink in Midway. She was pretty funny. It was not easy for her. She fell a lot. She had a great attitude about it though! She would fall and then say things like, "I'm okay!" and "Don't worry, I'll get the hang of it!" She improved over the hour that we were there but she still has a long way to go before she is good at it. She had all the confidence in the world and would exclaim, "I'm getting so much better!" when she had a good stretch. She could have kept going but I was getting exhausted from holding her up and pulling her up so I called it quits and took her out for an ice cream cone.
Stockton started passing the sacrament on our home church days. I had to take a picture that first time.
We went to my parents house in Plain City to watch the Superbowl. My mom has a big party every year and we haven't been in years. I don't think we've ever been since we've had Stockton so Justin decided it was time to go back. Ben makes a trivia questionnaire that we have to fill out before the game and he tracks all the answers throughout the game and determines the winner and loser. We have a duct tape trophy that we pass around and a toilet plunger (unused) for the losers that also passes around. My dad also has a game that has a winner after each quarter, based on the score. I came home with a huge jar of chocolate macadamia nut caramel clusters for winning one of those.
 |
| Josie and Ivy |
President's Day was a divide and conquer weekend. Molly was playing soccer in St. George so I took her down for that while Justin took the kids to the cabin for the weekend. We thought it was the best arrangement this year-Molly's team didn't decide to do the tournament until mid-January and everything was so expensive by then. I was able to find a hotel with a king bed that was decent-although still completely overpriced. Besides, the three younger kids would way rather be sledding and playing with cousins than sitting through soccer games in weather that always seems to be unpredictable. These are the photos that were shared with me.
 |
| Hannah
Risto, Brinette Winegar, Carley Anderson, Jordan Gibby, Aspen Ivie,
Natalia Wagstaff, Regan Heywood, Molly, Caroline Turner, Lucy Miller,
Savannah Frost, Brigitte Ferreyra, Kate Giles |
 |
| Molly, front right |
As for the tournament-I would say it was a success. We actually ended up driving down a day early (Thursday rather than Friday) because the weather report showed a bad snowstorm across the state for Friday and I didn't want to get stuck in it. Go figure, it didn't snow at all on Friday. But it ended up being a good thing to have that extra day. The Walker's were also at the tournament for Tessa so we caught Tessa's game Friday morning and then I took Molly and Chloe shopping for the afternoon. We were able to watch Tessa's game late that afternoon and then the kids swam in the hotel pool where the Walker's were staying for a while.
Molly played two games on Saturday. Keep in mind her team hasn't played together since the fall of 2019. Their spring 2020 season was canceled due to Covid and Fall 2020 they were divided since the majority of the girls played on the high school freshman team. I was curious to see how they would come together. They came together amazingly well! They won that first game 7-1! After a few hour break they played a team they have played in regular season and never beat, the Aggies. About one minute into the game, the skies opened up and it started pouring. That wouldn't usually stop them from playing but it was accompanied by lightning so they sent everyone off the field and to their cars or some other shelter. I was soaked by the time I made it to the car. The team huddled under the eaves of the closest building. Luckily it passed fairly quickly and they were able to play a 25 minute half. It was a battle but we ended up coming out on top, 1-0. It was so exciting!
We had all of Sunday with not much planned. We watched our church meetings from the bed in our hotel room and then went to visit with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Cherie who have a second home in St. George and spend their winters there. They made us dinner and we played a few games before going back to the hotel for the rest of the day. We were really quite lazy-we watched the Hallmark "Rom-com-athon" and tried to predict what would happen (wasn't very hard). Molly had an early game Monday morning so we called it an early night.
She had two games on Monday-they lost the first game but won the second which put them in the championship game. They were to play the Aggies again. Unfortunately, this game did not go like they would have liked and they ended up with a second, not first, place finish. I thought they had a great tournament but it was a bitter loss and Molly was pretty quiet for the entire drive home-just disappointed that they lost. I was worried we would get stuck in a snowstorm but it managed to hold off for the most part. We made it home around 9:00 that night and our ground was covered with snow the next morning. I was so grateful not to have had to drive in any weather and I was so glad to be home.
Here is the photo dump from the cabin weekenders. I have much more pictures from their weekend than I do of the St. George weekend. They had a lot of fun in the snow. My mom did some fun things for Valentine's Day and had a little activity/gift for the kids for Sunday afternoon.
 |
| Justin had to feed the kids a couple of times before going to the cabin where my mom took care of meals. Pizza one night... |
 |
| ...and Panda the next night. |
 |
| and a vacuum ponytail for Ivy. |
 |
| Lucy, Ivy, Brynn, Grant, Stockton, Gavin |
 |
| Grace and Brynn |
 |
| Jeff, Seth, Ivy |
 |
| Ethan Pearson, Stockton, Rocco ?, Sam |
Here's the photo of the water heater being replaced. Gene came to our rescue once again to help with the plumbing that Justin was a tiny bit uncertain about. It was hard work to get the two old tanks out of the basement!
That is the last appliance that was from the old owners so we should be good for a long while. Plus two huge cardboard boxed provided several days of fun for some kids.
Justin wanted me to make cinnamon rolls for JR Coleman (the plumber from our ward who helped us get the water heaters at his discount rate). I made a double batch and then we had the Webb's over that night for a game night. That was a lot of dough!
Kelton Webb does his piano lesson on Monday's right after school so that he can stay and hang out with Stockton for the afternoon. One day they used their imaginations, cardboard, duct tape, along with a few other things to make these cars. They even roll!
At the end of January, I was released as primary pianist and called as a Young Women's advisor . I am with Molly's group. I was a little hesitant because Justin is still working with the priests plus both Molly and Stockton have activities on Wednesday nights now leaving Brynn and Ivy on their own. Brynn is getting there but she is still not comfortable staying home with just Ivy, especially at night, so I was concerned about the logistics of each week. But I accepted and figured that we would just sort it out week by week, which we have. And I have loved being with the Young Women! We meet every week in person, alternating between combined and class activities (staring combined with YM this week-first of May-once a month). I love the whole group but our class is so much fun. It's just the 8th graders and they mesh together so well. They get together and laugh and giggle and no one is left out. It has been a blast. I am also the assistant camp director and looking forward to going to Girl's Camp this summer...I haven't been to Girl's Camp since Molly was 10-month-old baby, and not even for the whole week.
 |
| Samantha Steiner, Sloane Ellingford, Emma Stinebaugh, Pallas Anderson, Kelsey Larsen, Molly |
*This photo is from a class activity we had at our house where we memorized the new theme and had ice cream sundaes.
Molly got two garbage bags full of hand-me-downs from Angel Phelps, who was leaving on her mission. She kept a couple of dresses and some tops but the rest we donated. Brynn kept a pair of high heel booties that are way too big for her but that she wears around the house anytime she can. The kids also wanted to keep this huge fleece onesie in the dress-up bin. Boy, did they have fun with this one. I ended up having to hide it because they got so out of control and it was driving me crazy.
I guess Valentine's Day needs to be mentioned. Brynn did stuff at school. Ivy stayed home that day because she had a stuffy nose. I did heart braids of some sort in their hair. On the actual day, Molly and I were in St. George and Justin had the other kids in Bear Lake. My mom did some things and gave the kids a little gift. I did a Valentine's Dinner on Tuesday after we got home (bibimbap because everyone loves it and it's easy) and we had them draw months for their dates. After several years of doing this, the kids still want their dates but we changed it around a little. Instead of thinking of eight different activities, we are just going to take them to dinner. We always get so behind so we are hoping that we can stay on schedule with this plan. (So far we already have been able to.) This is what we came up with and everyone is happy with it.
I also had my birthday at the end of February, on the 27th. I turned 39. That seems so strange. It was a Saturday and, to be honest, I really just wanted a day at home and do nothing. Justin kept trying to get me to choose something to do but I was truly happy with staying home and relaxing-I get so few of those kinds of days. My only request was for Justin to take me to lunch at the Junction so I could get their french dip sandwich and sweet potato fries. We had pizza for dinner and I made myself a chocolate fudge bundt cake. Not the most exciting birthday I've ever had, but a good one anyway. I plan on picking something exciting next year when Justin and I both turn 40.
Comments
Post a Comment