Be MIne

Valentine's Day was a success!
 Austin made cowboys eggs for breakfast while did the girls' hair and nails.

   Nick, Maddie, Eddie and I helped in both Maisie's and Meg's classroom parties.

 (Maddie stayed still by playing iPad.)

 The kids came home with tons of loot.

 Shockingly enough I haven't eaten ANY of theirs, just ALL of mine.  Someone, give me some control!

February

So quickly I find myself zooming through week after week.  I rarely take pictures any more.  But, here is what has/is happening during these first few weeks of February.

We celebrated Super-Bowl Monday.

Last Friday the married couples went to the church for our very own Valentine's Dance.  We ate delicious Austin-Italian cuisine, danced to DJ Ricky's music, and celebrated Mom's birthday with a scrumptious creation a-la-Mindy.  It was a rare treat. 

Nick plays in the snow everyday.

 Today we prepared valentines.

Austin and Eddie while working on valentines.

Snow

We've had so much snow that we can no longer see the mound in the front yard.  I love it!

 Winter and Summer

You Clever Girl

I feel like I was certainly very clever this week:
Meg's Science Fair Project

Arranged a family date night that was so fun -- bowling and dinner.  I loved watching the boys chuck the ball down the lane with two hands, bowl with their left hands, and bowl from the carpet.  John did better in the crazy second round....

Our dinner conversation was one for the record book.

And I sewed all day today.  Naturally Eddie ate rocks, fell off the couch and was dumped out of the toy shopping cart.  (Andy finally came home to save the day.)

This kleenex dispenser was my favorite item of the day.  Can't wait to use it in church tomorrow.

 Maddie's "hight" skirt.

 Scripture Baegs.  Maybe I should sew one for TAMC.

Tomorrow is my first day as the new ward choir director.  Wish me luck!

Good Free Family Fun

We went to SLC yesterday for some free family fun.  

Nice.

Today during church Eddie crawled behind me and played with the neighbor's "therapy" dog.  That doggy licked and sniffed Ed up and down.  Now I need therapy.

After church while Austin and I were doing dishes, and Nick was "watching" Eddie, he crawled into the kitchen, pulled himself up onto the trash can, and starting eating the garbage.  Luckily it was just the dirty napkins from lunch.

In both situations he seemed so pleased.  I was not.  I am pleased, however, that he is mine.

Carrot is to Chicken Soup as Book is to a Head Cold

Last month we were sick, really sick.  All eight members of this family got a severe bought of the common cold.  Thus, we read.  Lots.

The Family Under the Bridge
A Midnight Clear
A Christmas Carol
The Witches
The Tale of Despereaux
I Am Number Four
The Power of Six
The Rise of Nine
Edenbrook:A Proper Romance

I had been promising the kids that we would watch the movies of the books we'd been reading.  Just last night we streamed "The Witches" from 1990 and watched it with our kids.  It was actually less scary then I remembered, but the kids thought it was pretty intense.  Maddie fell asleep in Austin's arm (shocker that he fell asleep with her) with a blanket over her head.  Maisie scrambled when it was too intense.  Nick kept moving to the smallest hole between people he could find, he surely thought that if he burrowed under the couch the Grand High Witch couldn't get him.  Andy conveniently got up several times to get a drink or eat a snack.  Meg took it all in stride.  I sat there cuddled with the baby on me and the children nestled around me.  I liked it.  And, I didn't even have scary dreams, like the ones I've been having about the Mogadorians in the Books of Lorien.

I do love to read.

Happy New Year!

We are a week into this new 2013 year, and I am a weak blog poster!

Shelly came and visited.  My cute sisters-in-law only ever come for 24 hours, but we love 'em every minute.

We celebrated the new year with a "dance" at the church.  Hardly nothing better than a large room where the children/adults can run and play and dance and sing.  We also collected science fair specimens (Meg and I made the agar).  We finished the evening with snacks and "operations" at Mom's house.

Maddie is a sunbeam!  We currently have no one nursery (which has never happened since Meg began), but we have 5 in primary.

 FHE tonight was the activity from the Friend.  We made a paper-doll family.  Ha!  We filled the 4 boy slots and the 4 girls slots on the paper dolls.  Mostly we felt the spirit as we talked about how we are all children of God, that He loves us, and that we love each other.

My current internal debate is instagram vs. blogging.  The first is so simple, the latter is hard to give up. Thoughts?