Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday this year. Since we have 1 o'clock church, I decided we would have a "fancy" breakfast, instead of a fancy dinner. Then I remembered that we had stake conference that day at 10am, and we had to rush it a bit. :) I picked out some BOX cereal for the kids (big deal), bacon (another thing that never happens around here), and I found these cute little heart pastries online. They are adorable, but were wanting in the taste department.

For a Valentine's Day surprise, the tech stuff in our church building wasn't working, and the conference wouldn't stream. We stuck it out for an hour and a half, but left 30 minutes early. Gotta love that! Because Tay babysat for us the night before, Richie and I got to attend the adult session, which was surprisingly fabulous. So we didn't feel too bad about sneaking out a tad early. Let's be real here- Stake Conference is like a 2 hour sacrament meeting. And with 3 small children it's just....hard.

Richie and I like to keep things really simple on Valentine's Day. He let me sleep in on Saturday and take a bath, while he cleaned the house and made breakfast with the kids. I framed some family pictures for his office, and let him have a nap on Sunday.
“True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well-being of one's companion.” -Gordon B. Hinckley
Couldn't have said it better!

First half of February

One of our most go-to cheap dinners is biscuits and applesauce. Since it was officially February in this picture, we made heart shaped ones. Aw, for cute. :)



Having a school room downstairs is really nice. However, we don't use it all the time. Sometimes I need to be doing something in the kitchen during the morning, so the kids do their school work in the kitchen. The downside is that Lindy is less entertain-able upstairs. This day I pulled out the trusty table slide. It was her first experience with it, and it was such a huge hit. She played happily the entire time, and the kids joined her during their brain breaks. :)


Uncle Jacob took Miles to a BYU basketball game for his birthday early in February. My kids have the best aunts and uncles. Period.


We hosted homeschool group here on the 9th. We did a pretty basic review of our history reading that week, then had a Valentine's party. There were pink water beads, a heart bean bag toss, conversation heart patterns to make (all courtesy of previous years of joy school). I helped the kids make Valentine holders, and the other teacher that week organized a bunch of fun minute to win it games.


My visiting teaching partner and I decided that for visits this month, we would get everyone done at the same time by inviting them and their kids over to frost sugar cookies. It was such a fun afternoon of chatting and decorating. The kids would frost, then play, then frost some more.

One day, the kids got out the paint. Lindy is starting to really like doing these "big-kid" things. So I set her up with everything she would need and knowing she would be a little messy, I ran to the bathroom quickly. When I came back, this is how she looked. :) I wasn't expecting it and even though it took a bit to clean up, it had me laughing pretty good.


Taysom decided to come up from Provo to spend president's day weekend with us! It also happened that Mom and Dad were up for a Hinckley planning meeting, so we got to spend time with them this weekend too! So fun! The kids have been in heaven. It's so nice having someone else to play board games with the kids and babysit when you want to get to the adult session of stake conference (thank you Tay) and getting to go out to lunch (Thank you G&G).

The Rest of January

The school blog hasn't been updated in a few months...it may never get updated again. In case the state comes knocking at my door and demands proof that I'm not using my kids as cheap labor, here's a few more pictures to prove it, even if they're not on my "official school blog." We are studying ocean animals. Sea foam, ocean puzzle, blue water beads. Boom.


The kid built a marble track taller than him! And quite quickly too. I snagged a picture real quick, and it was a good thing I did because seconds later, Lindy destroyed it.


Speaking of Lindy, this chick is potty trained! She has been potty training herself for a few months now, I just wasn't ready to get fully on board. When they're wearing diapers, if they make it to the potty-great, if not-no big deal. When they are in underwear, it gets real. Well, the other Sunday, she ran out of diapers, so I figured it was as good a time as any. It's been about a month now, and she's only had maybe 5 accidents. She was so ready. We still put her in a diaper at night, after a few nights of her waking up all wet. Our kids don't seem to be equipped to do the night-time dry thing until they are a bit older.

Gwen had a really good dry nights run a few weeks ago and we were so excited. So we put her in underwear at nights. Then after her good run, she proceeded to wet the upper-bunk bed every single night. Whoever invented bunk beds was clearly not thinking of potty training at the time. After about 2 weeks of this, we went back to diapers at night for Gwen. She was heartbroken, and it was heartbreaking for me to see her feeling that "I failed" feeling. I tried to reassure her that she would get it sooner than later. And she will.


One of Richie's new year's goals was to take me on a date every week. Super ambitious, I know. He didn't miss a single week in January. :) We went to the gym together, went to see movie at the cheap seats, went to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit down at BYU, and went to the temple together. It's been a great month for dates. I don't think we normally go on that many dates in 6 months time!
The movie date ended up being quite the adventure. The one we wanted to see was sold out, so we saw that movie about "Moby Dick". Heart of the Sea? Into the Sea? Well it was 3D, and mostly all on the ocean. About 3/4 through, I had to exit the theater and throw up in the nearest garbage can. I thought I could handle the rest, so I went back in. However, on the ride home, we had to pull over again. I spent the rest of the night in a bath. :) Ah memories.
The Normal Rockwell exhibit was awesome! We grabbed ourselves some Hawaiian food on the way down, and some doughnuts on the way back. Big splurges. I had to hold back tears the entire exhibit. His paintings are just so real and true to life.


More School. Ha! Take that! *The Planetarium for Gwen's joy school. *Celebrating finishing "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" They drew pictures of what would be inside their wardrobe. We watched the movie, and planned on making turkish delight...but then I didn't. *File folder games for an easier school day.


Always the Comedian


There is this giraffe in the "baby room" named "Girdy". (Right mom?) My Grandpa Hinckley made it for my Mom one year for Christmas. I had it for quite some time in my room growing up. At some point, I snagged it from my parent's house and brought it to put in my little girl's room. :) Lindy loves to climb on it these days.

Miles's 7th Birthday!

This kid. Man, what a stud. I can't believe he's already seven. He was looking forward to his birthday all January and agonized over all the details. When we'd snuggle at night, we'd go over who he wanted to invite (EVERYONE, including his primary teachers) and what games he wanted to play etc. I'd run an idea past him and he'd have to ok it. Turns out, we pretty much threw out all of the original ideas because I didn't have the energy to follow through. And luckily, he was happy with what we ended up with. Honestly, this was the most last minute birthday ever. I literally hadn't done anything for it except buy some plates and cake mixes, until the night before. Ha! An hour before all the kids got here, I was still in my pajamas painting a giant mario for pin the mustache on mario, hoping that it would dry in time.

When the kids walked in, we gave them either a Mario hat and mustache, or a Princess Peach hat and a star. Then they all lined up for the punch board. They are supposed to look like the bombs in the game. Inside they got Mario fruit snacks and gold coins. Then we played "pin the mustache on Mario". Both games took up about 15 minutes. I looked and looked on Pinterest, but couldn't find a lot of do-able activities for this theme. What's up with parties these days being only about the themed food you serve??? Makes me angry.

Then we opened presents. Before the party, I reminded him to make sure he showed his gratitude for all his presents, no matter what. He took it to heart. He did really good,but I had to laugh when one girl handed him her present. It was an envelope, which obviously had money or a gift card inside, but he didn't see that. He says, "What? Just a card?" *doh! Besides that, all day he kept telling us, "Thanks for the best birthday party ever!" "Thanks for this wonderful party." "I love you guys"
After presents we had cake and ice cream, and then we let the kids play Mario Kart until their parents picked them up. The boys were ecstatic, the girls, however, asked to go downstairs and play after about 2 minutes of the video game. Cracked me up.



After all the kids left, we realized we had forgotten to give Miles the present we bought him. We got him a new, bigger bike. I can't believe how fast he out-grew his first real bike. He had been complaining all summer that his knees kept touching the handlebars when he rode. He'll be all set for this summer.

Here's a few pictures of him playing with one of the toys a friend gave him. He's never really had army men, so it was fun to watch him be creative with these.

On Sunday, we celebrated Miles at the Garner's home for Sunday dinner. He got a new outift, new ties, a cool star wars book, and a chess set. He was recently introduced to the game and fell in love. Guess I should learn how to play chess now.



That night when I said my prayers, I thanked Heavenly Father for sending me Miles and for his goodness. I knew Heavenly Father was proud of Miles and shares that same intense love that I have for him, although probably more. I think one of the great blessings of being a parent is that you realize a little more, how much you are loved by your Heavenly Parents and how much they love these little people they have entrusted you with. It's completely mind-blowing, and wonderful.