The Last of Winter?

Winter wanted to hold on as long as possible, and it did.  It also looks as if we will get one last snow this Friday before spring rolls in Saturday! The same weekend my van battery died at Lee's office, church was canceled.  There was a little freezing rain that Sunday morning, and with stake leaders traveling for ward conferences they didn't want to chance any accidents.  Lee received permission from our Bishop to administer the sacrament, along with inviting some families to come and join us. We had a nice little group with us!


We had a nice Sunday at home that day. 


The kids have been enjoying taking pictures with different filters on my phone.












Lee made a yummy stromboli for dinner that night.




Right before bed Sunday evening, Clark decked himself out as a ninja using household items.


On a Tuesday Lee did a couple of errands with me, but ran out of time for lunch. I packed one up and brought it to him at work. The kids had switched my camera back to one of the filters again.


One morning I did a cute side french braid on Haley's hair.  I took a picture of the back, but apparently I didn't push correctly on the camera because I couldn't find the picture later. Oh well.


That same week on Thursday we got more snow!  School was canceled Thursday and Friday.  Thursday night it was still a bit cold and the roads were pretty icky. The first of the month I did a HUGE shopping trip.  Sharp Shopper had strawberries for $0.99 a pound!  Lee and I enjoyed some with half and half.  YUM.


The kids like earning money by shoveling at Lee's office.  They got some done!  It was so pretty seeing the snow fall too.




I made some marshmallow caramel popcorn that day, and ate way too much!


While the kids were shoveling Elden stayed at home and played with Legos all by himself.  I think he quite enjoyed that! We all watched Sound of Music that night.  I didn't get all the way through it though.  Lee, Clark and Cal did.  I've seen it many, many times and I let sleep overcome me.


Lee came up with a cute date idea for that week.  He bought a bunch of different chocolates and we did a tasting contest to see who could identify the chocolate.


I won!


We crossed off the ones that we got right.


This one is funny.  I think Cal was enjoying taking pictures with Elden.


That weekend we were all invited to a birthday party for a friend and neighbor.  It was at the roller skating rink where we had our ward activity.  It was really fun.  Her cake was so cute!


Shanna and Haley with Brooklyn.  She is our neighbor and in the same grade as the girls.


Elden is with two of his classmates, Caroline in the middle, and Abby on the right.  Abby was the birthday girl that day.  She and Brooklyn are sisters.  My kids have fun playing with them.


Sunday was pretty nice out!  We enjoyed a short Sunday walk.


Our neighbor, Ron, must have seen us outside because he promptly handed Haley a handful of suckers. Ron is another great neighbor.  He brought his snow blower over a few times to help with snow removal this winter.






For fun one afternoon I took pictures of the finished laundry (minus one load that I still had to do). Elden had already put his clothes away.  I need to have the kids fold their own clothes, but they do put them away.  It would be fun to redo this room sometime, but I doubt we ever will. It's the last thing on our list of updates we want to make to the house.  We are hoping to redo the bathrooms this summer!


Haley found some flowers poking up!  Spring is trying to come!

Pinewood Derby

Cal had his second Pinewood Derby recently.  He had a great time designing his car, and Lee had a great time helping him cut it out and prepare it for the race. 

Lee had a gasline elbow joint with his tool "stuff".  Cal needed extra weight on his car, and this fit the bill.  Lee went to school and found Cal asking him if it would be okay to stick the elbow joint on top.  Cal enjoyed doing his own paint job too.  It was really cute because during the race Lee occasionally asked Cal if he could re-adjust the wheels or put more graphite on it.  Cal would tell Lee, "It's okay Dad.  I think I am going to get third." Basically, Dad, my car is doing fine, we don't need to fine-tune it during the race.  Well, Cal ended in a three-way tie for 2nd place!  Pretty fun!




Kind of a funny picture.  Not sure what Haley is doing!  Sorry, bad cell pictures.


Clark brought an old car of his to race for fun.  He was disappointed that his car times didn't count in the final scores. Some fun things eventually come to an end, including Pinewood Derby races.


Picking a prize for being one of the second-placers.




It was another successful Pinewood Derby!

A few days later we had....yep, another date night!  I made mint lava cakes and we watched "Scents & Sensibility".  A modern twist on Sense & Sensibility--it's on Netflix.  A cute movie.


I am not sure how other households run, but at the end of the month our fridge is pretty empty.  I tend to stock up at the beginning of the month, and then at the end we just use what we have on hand.  Mainly because I have run out of food money, or have only a couple dollars left. (I need to get better at managing the food budget more evenly throughout the month!) The end of the month is a great time to wipe out the fridge though! 


Our battery is on the fritz and if I leave the air on, or lights on for just a couple of minutes the battery dies.  I was at Lee's office the last Saturday of February to pick up his tablet and I checked the mail.  I sat in the van going through his mail for a couple of minutes and had the headlights on.  Well, I forgot that I had the headlights on and as soon as I realized what I'd done I figured the van wouldn't start.  I was right.  It didn't.  Clark and Elden were with me and Elden had a t-shirt on, no jacket! It was kind of cold out that day, but I didn't know what else to do but walk home as fast as we could.  I gave Elden my jacket, so I went home without one. Thankfully Lee's work isn't too far from home! After work Lee came and jumped the van. 

Snow, snow, snow!

Similar to last year, at about the middle to the end of winter, it snowed at least three separate times.  Probably more...the snow days are somewhat mushed together for me!

On one of these snow days Lee worked in town.  He had fewer patients that day and came sledding with us.  This particular day we arrived around 11:30.  Elden I went home before everyone else and Lee and the kids stayed till past 3!  They even got sunburns!










A snack one snowy afternoon.  Growing up, almost every Sunday night in the winter we would have tortilla chips, salsa and hot chocolate.  Eating the chips and drinking the hot chocolate is definitely a sensory memory for me!


In between snow days we headed to Funky's--a roller staking rink.  Every year the two wards and Spanish Branch do a combined activity there.  It's very fun. I was feeling like a homebody that week and didn't want to go, but in the end was glad I went.


Lee, Clark, Cal and I participated in the races. I stayed in 2nd almost the whole way.


Lee did a great job and was first!


A free bag of popcorn for the winner!


It was fun that Cal and Clark participated in their age-group races too.






One night we attended Suessical put on by a local high school.  As always they do such a great job.  One or two of the kids weren't excited to be there...okay they just didn't want to be there.  Maybe there will be some fond memories when they're older?  Maybe not, ha ha.


Fun stage props.




My parents sent us some Valentines, which I love getting every year.  My mom slips in money to get the kids a treat.  We hadn't spent it yet, so during intermission they picked something out as the treat from the grandparents.  Thanks Mom and Dad!


Haley getting styled up to head out into the snow.


It sure is pretty when it snows!  This snowfall happened on a Saturday.  It snowed all day, about 14 inches total.  Loved it! Our little lamp post reminds me of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.


Even though it was snowing like crazy, Lee took the kids on dates that day.  He went out several times in the snow.  We even headed out to hit up a sale at ACE Hardware. Shanna bought a balloon-animal-making set...sorry, I can't think of what it's called...is there a name?  She made some cute animals and flowers.  I was quite impressed.




Lee took some of the kids to do some shoveling at his office (they like earning the extra money).  They got stuck just a block from our house.  After they dug themselves out they just came home.  A little while later he took some kids sledding.  It was about 5pm.  They just walked to the park. 


Right before leaving before sledding.  We shoveled our walks several times that day.  And about a half-hour or so later, there would be another 1/2 inch, or an inch.  Crazy! I love big snowfalls though!






Sledding at the park wasn't super fun (or so I heard from one child) as the snow wasn't really packed down.  It was very fluffy still.






There is something magical about playing in the snow at night though.


Lee has been coming up with some very fun, creative dates lately!  And of course I am the direct benefactor of that!  One night we played Othello and watched a cute movie Scents & Sensibility, on Netflix. Now I have a weird thing with Othello.  Normally when I play a game I don't get too worked up if I lose.   Okay, unless it's Monopoly at New Years, or Dutch Blitz.  But in general, I kind of know I am not going to win anyway.  Othello is weird though.  About half-way through, almost to the very end I get very worked up and frustrated and think I am going to lose.  Then I win.  Always. Except once that I can remember--this is always when Lee and I play.  At least I have a game I can practically win at every time, right? He he.  I know if I play ping pong against Lee I am going to lose.  Same with Dutch Blitz.  Or darts. Mainly ping pong.  He is much better at ping pong than I am.


The next day after the big snowfall, regular church meetings were canceled.  They did have a joint sacrament meeting at 1pm.  I was very impressed that morning as Cal got up, showered, and dressed very quickly and all on his own.  I love it when kids take initiative. Cal and Lee headed over to shovel out our friend's car so they could go to church.  I stayed and shoveled out our van so we could go to church.  Our kids thought it was pretty fun playing outside in the snow on a Sunday.


That same night my friend's son received his Eagle.  Clark received his Boy Scout pin, again. Not sure what happened there, ha ha, but I was pinned twice.


Monday we headed out for sledding. Shanna had quite the gear on.  I am so glad I bought all my kids snow pants after Christmas.  They have loved using them.  I am sure I didn't get an amazing deal on them, but I was able to buy all five pair at a thrift store in Pennsylvania.  One trip to buy all five pair sounds sweet to me. At the same store Lee found two pair of nice jeans too.  It was on our shopping trip with Darrell, Stacie, Lois, and Jeff.  My brother Darrell is quite the shopper.  Side story...at this same thrift store he bought his son a really nice Columbia coat for only $10.  Too bad I hadn't seen it first!


The end of February came so quickly.  At the end of the month my wallet is thin, and the food in the house is down to the basics. With some shifting around we stayed in budget.  I have a hard time staying in budget with each category. Like food money...I am not careful the whole month through so at the end I have to get creative.  Or I dip into another category to purchase food items.  In the end, staying in budget is the main goal. But it is a fun little game to try and stick with the budget...though I often fail in individual categories!


Like I mentioned, at the end of the month we are down to the basics. Or even food storage basics.  I had one egg left, and didn't want to use it (I used it in something else...can't remember). So I broke out the powdered eggs to use in some muffins.  Lena gave me a bunch of powdered eggs that her friend gave her.  I used the bags she gave me all up and I quite liked using them.  The powdered eggs worked especially well in my rolls and muffins.  They were fine in cookies.  It's just nice knowing I can use a food storage item in everyday cooking....as really, that is how food storage should be. 


We enjoyed the snow and survived the snow.  And with fewer patients for Lee, we just keep reminded ourselves that they will reschedule (for the most part) and to just enjoy the time home together being snowed in.  All the snow made me think of how fun it would be to be in Maine, snowed-in at a cabin surrounded by tall pine trees, with a roaring fire in the fireplace, munching on yummy treats and playing games.  Lest you think I am a cold weather girl, I really am not--though I do enjoy a good snow.  I seriously am ready for the sweltering heat of summer.  I was quite sad when August wasn't super warm last year, and fall and winter came all too quickly.