Valentine's Day and More

We had a fun Valentine's Day and hope you all did too. I know some people think Valentine's Day is silly--that everyday should be a special day with that special someone.  True, true.  But I love Valentine's Day!  It gives me a reason to yet again, to do something special with loved ones.  Also, family traditions don't start and end with the holidays.  I think there are many fun traditions families can and should have throughout the year.  Anyway...

Before I get to Valentine stuff, here are a few pictures.  I braided the girls' hair a few weeks ago for church.  In the morning I un-braided it.  So cute!




Clark took some pictures of his Lego creations, so I thought I would share.


I love how Clark has depicted movement with these Lego figures.  Very impressed!








Clark's Christmas present.  It wasn't what he asked for, but we got a great deal on it and he loves it!


And yes, Haley is still taking pictures!


So the weekend before Valentine's Day we went up to Lois' and had a babysitting-swap weekend.  Or should I say Lois babysat our kids a TON while we watched her's a little bit. Remember back in September when Lee and I (yes, even I forgot too!) forgot our anniversary?  Lee happened to win a gift card that exact same day for Ruby Tuesdays. There happened to be one right around the corner from Lois.  The food was awesome!


The next morning we left yet again and went to the temple.  Afterwards we drove into DC to visit my first room-roommate from Ricks College. (Six of us shared an apartment, and Kim and I were in the same bedroom.) We've chatted about getting together since we live pretty close to each other, but now that Lee works Saturdays I didn't see that happening any time soon.  So we stopped by her work and had a fun, but quick visit.  It was so great seeing you Kim!  We hadn't seen each other for 12 years!


Oh and while we were at Lois' we watched Dining with the Dean on their Roku and Jeff made these amazing brownies with chocolate mousse, with homemade vanilla ice cream on the side. Oh so good!  And the show was pretty fun too! Jeff is quite the mousse maker!

Growing up my dad gave us kids Valentines.  Sometime in the evening the door bell would ring and at the doorstep were Valentines--a nice card with a treat for each of us.  The handwriting in the card gave my dad away, but I loved that tradition just the same. At Easter time we don't give our kids Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny.  And really, I bet they have no clue who the Easter Bunny is!  I thought it would be fun to have the kids find their Valentines--just as most people have to find their Easter basket. Lee made them Valentine cards and I pulled out the red-wrapped Halloween candy that's been in my freezer for a few months.  (Thanks for the idea Lena!) He hid them along with a Valentine from my parents.  My mom and dad send all of us individual Valentines each year and I LOVE that too!

Here are the kids searching around....Elden is somewhere....


Monday night for FHE treat I made heart-shaped sugar cookies.  After the kids were in bed I rolled and baked off the rest of them to give to the ladies at work and two other families.  I kept the cookies in the oven because I didn't want the kids picking at them.  I thought a couple of times about the unwise choice of using the oven because I have stored non-oven items in the oven before and forgot and turned the oven on.  But after I thought this I reminded myself that I wouldn't be using the oven and all would be well.  I took the cookies to ladies at Lee's work in the morning.  I had two bags left to deliver.  Well of course, last night I made homemade french fries and turned the oven on to 450. It wasn't till the oven was fully heated that I realized I left the cookies in there and of course on top of a NON-oven cookie tray! The cookies were already in bags.  Thankfully, only two cookies didn't make the cut (I ate them--I know, how noble of me!). I repackaged the other ones.  I just hope they didn't think the cookie amount was too odd.  I was going to give two per person, but one person at each household now would only have one.


Yesterday morning I took Lee's office key and after dropping off Clark and Cal at school, Elden and I walked to his office and I dropped off some goodies there.  He was surprised to find them on his desk! Lee surprised me with a Lego box, complete with a riddle/puzzle to announce a date he planned for me last night.


I babysat for some friends last night (can you believe, she was my next door neighbor at Ricks and she has twins and now they live by me and we're in the same ward!  So crazy!). Okay, so I really didn't babysit. I just sat in house while the kids slept! When I got home Lee and I had lava cakes and played Skip-Bo!


Clark made this for me all on his own. So cute!  Cal made me a heart too out of Legos, but Elden dissembled it right before its photo shoot. 


I know there is more to post than this, but with no pictures as a memory jogger, I'll post whatever it is later.  I did finish the Hunger Games; I might write more about this later too.  I have some family coming in this weekend and I am SO excited!  I also have a Relief Society Activity on Saturday. All should go well, but I am sure there will be a sigh of relief on my part when it's done--and I am not even doing that much! Maybe it's the fact that I am somewhat/sort of in charge of it.  Well, there will be lots of pictures that I will be posting from this coming weekend!  Stay tuned!

Budget

Image from http://www.familyhandyman.com

I ended with $0.03 left in the January budget.  Whew!  I love how the pennies, along with other currency/coins, have the inscription, "In God We Trust".  I am glad it's February--and it's a GORGEOUS day out too! (64 degrees at present.) I bought several food items in January with the intent to use them in February.  My kids would see the food in my room (that is where our food storage shelves are) and would ask if they could have something or other, like applesauce.  I would say no, it's for February.  Thankfully they were accepting of the fact that they would have to wait.  Well February is now here.  Guess we'll break out the applesauce in celebration!

I was very pleased about staying within my food budget last month (okay I did add $0.66 to it)...AND I was able to do food storage too!  Having Sharp Shopper here has been such a blessing.  It's nice to know that I can keep the food expenses low, and continue to do one or two food storage purchases a month. For February I stocked up on sugar and black beans. In January I bought 50 pounds of wheat and 50 pounds of flour. 

Lee and I are feeling incredibly blessed right now.  It's such a blessing to pay tithing and fast offerings.  We also are grateful for the power of prayer; its power truly is real.

Pinewood Derby

We all went to our very first Pinewood Derby last night.  Lee and Clark had been working on Clark's car for a couple of weeks.  Clark was very excited for the derby.  And being the sweet boy that he is, he was excited that we would all be there too.  I haven't taken the whole family to Pack meetings, but last night was a good exception.

Clark let Lee design the shape of the car, and Clark designed the artistic touches. Clark placed 5th out of 13 kids.  Clark was a good sport about getting 5th place; and with 13 kids 5th isn't bad.  Well, 13th wouldn't be bad either for that matter!


The kids really enjoyed watching the races...52 of them actually.  Okay, so my kids didn't watch ALL of heats, but they enjoyed many of them.




Shanna loved getting Clark's car after its race.


Clark and Lee. Dad's first pinewood derby with his oldest son, with many more to come!


Some of the Cub Scouts.  They all look so young!  And of course they are.  Sometimes I forget that an 8 year-old is still a young kid. Definitely a photo for the photo album (when I finally print one).


Lee brought one of his boyhood pinewood derby cars and raced it against Clark's.  Lee won.

Babysitting Weekend

A few weeks ago Lois told me about an upcoming trip her family was going to take to Philadelphia. I brought up the amazing suggestion (if I say so myself!) that she and Jeff go by themselves and I'll watch her kids.  Well, she loved the idea and they had a fun get-away last weekend.  Clark asked if they went on a honeymoon; too funny.

Shanna got a hold of the camera one morning...






Baby Blake slept so well for us! Grover was pretty good too. I didn't know he was so shy.


Cal doing a "storytime" with Reed and Shanna.


Blake!


I love that Elden and Blake like to play with each other!


Funny enough, with two extra kids for the weekend, we had a great time!  Blake and Reed enjoyed themselves.  Sacrament meeting wasn't too bad either.  There was some extra squiggling, but it was Elden that was making the most noise! Lois and Jeff met up with us last Sunday evening for dinner.  Lois spoiled me by staying an extra day when they came to pick them up (they left Monday night).  We had a fun trip on Monday to Sharp Shopper and watched Rachael Ray...exciting, I know! 

When Lois left on Monday she took Haley with her.  I was sad that she was gone, but Haley seemed to have a wonderful time at Lois'.  It was weird not having Haley here for a few days...and Elden and Shanna were bouncing all over the place!  I guess Haley has a calming factor?

Elden has been building little Lego creations of his own lately...and they're so cute!








Since the boys didn't have school on Friday we went to DC, picked up Haley and swapped going to the temple with Lois and Jeff.  Lee and I also went to the commissary and Aldi for some February groceries. If all goes as planned we'll stay in budget for groceries in January!  Well we better...the money is all spent!

We met up with Lois at a shopping center.  There was a little music/play group thing going on in the mall atrium.  After we stopped at McDonald's and Lois and her friend treated all of the kids to a snack.  Thanks!  My kids loved it!


The night before we went to DC the PTA showed Cars 2 at the school.  It was a fun night. The PTA gave away 50 door prizes!  Clark and Elden won some fun Cars 2 paper/pens/paint things.  My friend Laura's kids each won something! We actually didn't stay the entire time because the speakers weren't broadcasting the sound very well and it was pretty noisy.  Lois had rented Cars 2 so we watched it Friday night while she and Jeff were at the temple. Well, I watched a little.  I took a nap so I could drive home.

When we left DC I drove through a little snow storm on the way home.  Thankfully we arrived home just fine. It took over three hours to get home though, when it normally would only take two.  I am glad people in DC are very cautious though when it comes to icky freeways! I couldn't believe a movie my brother shared about the snow storm in Utah this weekend! Keep it muted to by-pass the swearing.  And all this happened in front of some guy's house! CRAZY!


I have been enjoying my primary class.  I team-teach with another lady and I thought that would be weird, but it's great. We teach the sunbeams and we need two people in there--mainly because there are quite a few of them. They are sweet kids. I taught the lesson a week ago and really enjoyed the spirit that was in the room.  It was great telling each of the children one by one that they lived in Heaven before they were born and that each of them is a special daughter/son of God.  I still love Relief Society, but I also am loving Primary too!  Plus, there are so many primary songs I need to learn!

Besides everyday life, not much else is going on.  I hope our last tax form comes soon as I would like the taxes submitted soon. Also, I want it to snow and to have a snow day!  We FINALLY bought sleds.  Three of them actually.  We've never bought them before because they were always so expensive. Our previous neighbors were nice and let us use theirs...or we would use some pool floaties I bought for a really cheap price. But of course now that we have sleds, there is no snow!  The little amounts of snow that have come down this winter melted quite quickly. At least it's only January.