Febraury Happenings

 Now that our kids are getting a little older, Family Home Evening has become a much more enjoyable event in our house. Each person can participate in some way, which helps them get excited about FHE. This particular night, Kinley was in charge of picking and leading our song. She, of course, picked "I am a Child of God". Kinley wasn't leading the music the way Shiloh wanted her to, so she got up and helped her out with this task.

 

 Let me just say that Jeff is a much more devoted parent than I am. Cooper needed to make a Valentine box for his school party, so Jeff sat down with him one night and weaved purple and pink construction paper and glued it to a shoe box. About half way through he was regretting choosing this method, but he got through it without complaining. If this were me? I would have complained and probably thrown a few things. Truth be told!

 We were lucky to see Jeff's cousin, Stefoni for a few minutes one evening while we were visiting Jeff's Grandma Borders. Stefoni is pregnant with her first little one. Kinley loves babies and loves stuffing animals in her shirt and says she has a baby. After seeing Stefoni, Kinley put a baby in her shirt so she could be just like her. I love how Kinley says Stefoni in this video.

Blue and Gold Banquet

Last night was our ward's Blue and Gold Banquet. This years theme was "One in a Minion". Every year the moms and sons make a cake together, err I mean, the moms make cakes. Mason really wanted me to make this cub scout shirt last year, but since it was my first time working with fondant, we went with something less fondant covered. This year, however; I decided to give it a go. It may not be perfect, but I think it turned out okay. Plus, it won "Best Cub Scout themed cake".

 

 

 

 Shiloh: The photo bomber

Dance Skilz

Friday night, our Stake put on a family valentines dance. We decided to go for a bit before the monsters got too tired. Shiloh and Kinley showed off their wonderful dance moves. Moves that they learned from their super coordinated mom and dad. 

Monster Jam

 Jeff and I were able to take Mason and Cooper to Monster Jam last night. The boys had a great time. Me?  Honestly, I couldn't care less, but I was glad to spend some time with just the boys.

January Happenings

 One of them likes the car wash....the other doesn't,

 Such a great big sister!

 Coop and I went on a date to Costa Vita.

 This is what happens when you wake up at 5:30am. You fall asleep in random places by 9:30am.

 Oh the cool things they do while I am away (or doing homework, which is probably the case).

Interesting choice...

...for a reading place.

Pinewood Derby

Last night was Mason's second year taking part in the pinewood derby race for cub scouts. This years car did much better than last years, but it didn't take first, second, or third.

 

  

Selfies with Great Grandparents

I cannot express how grateful I am to have these two wonderful people in my life. I have very vague memories of my great grandparents and not very fond memories of my grandparents on either side. So, I feel extra blessed that Jeff's grandparents have taken me in as their own. 

What's even better is that our kids are able to see them often because we live in the same city as all of our parents and Jeff's grandparents.

One morning we stopped in for a visit with Great Grandpa and Grandma Long. The girls enjoyed taking selfies with them.

Do you want to build a snowman?

I wonder how many blog posts have been titled that?

 Our snow fall this winter has been pretty pathetic and to make it even worse, it hasn't been good packing snow. It finally snowed a decent amount overnight, so after the boys were off to school, Shiloh, Kinley, and I headed out to build a snowman. Unfortunately, it started to rain minutes after we came in, so we didn't get to enjoy our snowman for very long.

 Building a snowman inspired the girls to make snowmen out of their blankets.

Then we did the next best thing to do with blankets. Roll up like burritos of course!

Little Helpers...Big Changes

 I've wanted to change the color of our feature wall in our living room for quite some time now. If you know me, you know that I love love love changing our house around. I would love to actually move every few years just for the change, but out of respect for my husbands sanity, I get my "fix" by switching around rooms, painting walls, re-doing the landscaping in the yard, etc.

Just before Christmas, like the tree was up and everything, I convinced Jeff to move our computer desk to a different room, so this left a big open space in our living room. After re-arranging the furniture in that room, I noticed some areas where the paint on this wall had chipped off. Since I didn't have any paint to left to do touch ups I had to repaint the wall. Oh darn. :)

Friday was my last free weekday before starting winter semester, so I enlisted the help of these cuties while the littlest one took a nap. They actually did really well. No major spills or mishaps.

 The finished product plus two cute little ladies.

December Happenings

Do you think either of them are comfortable?

Shiloh must have either been dreaming about raising the roof or being arrested. 

Daddy's attempt at a pony tail.

 

 

 Shiloh learned how to write her name!

  Kinley still loves her avocado and eggs.

 We were able to go bowling as a family the day after Christmas.