Mid-Winter Break 2016

Each February we get an entire week off of school.  It provides a wonderful opportunity to get out of the rainy winters of Seattle and go somewhere warm and exciting.  Unfortunately, we’ve never traveled over mid-winter break.  And even though we just got back from an amazing trip to Kauai it still was a bit of a downer to see many of our friends off having grand adventures.

I still stand by my long-expressed desire to hole up my entire family in the house for an entire week so we can get away from all the outside pressures and responsibilities, focus on family time, and pound out some major household projects.  Last week was just about as close as I think we may ever get to achieving that dream of mine.  Justin took off four out of the five days.  We may have only checked off a few of my desired projects, but I’m learning to take what I can get.

Katie’s room FINALLY got painted on Monday.  I failed to take a before picture and I’ll hold off on any after pictures until there’s a bit more to show than grey walls.

Justin and I started a massive household decluttering/organization project back in November after listening to Marie Kondo’s bestselling book and are still neck deep in it.  

I’m keeping track of some of the more interesting stats and will have to share some before/after shots later.  I finally got around to going though Jason and Katie’s clothes with each of them last Monday.  Ok, I just opened my KonMari spreadsheet and gotta share just this little bit – we’ve so far cleared out over 700 articles of clothing and accessories.  SEVEN HUNDRED!!  Seriously! And clothing is only the first category we tackled.

I finally moved the boxes of office supplies out of the dining room, which has been our temporary office for nearly a year, and into the completed office.  A whole office transformation post to come when I receive the crowning piece for the room - I can’t wait!

I’d ordered some large framed prints of the Proclamation to the World and the Articles of Faith that we hung in the dining room.

We’re currently trying to figure out how to make this room work the best for us.  This has become our homework/game room and we have no need or desire for a formal dining room.  I wouldn’t be at all sad to say good-bye to this dining room set we bought 14+ years ago.

On Wednesday I redeemed a massage in Bellevue that Justin had given me for Christmas.  An hour flew by way to fast.  Note to self (and spouse):  Massages feel  wonderful.  They are expensive.  They only last a moment and then they are over.  However, if you/we decide to splurge – you gotta go for the 90 minutes.

Vamping up our food storage has been a big focus for us this year.  We had a pretty decent supply back in Auburn, but since moving to Snoqualmie we haven’t purchased any additional long-term food storage.  Over the last month or so, Justin inventoried everything we still had and created a spreadsheet of what we would need to get us where we wanted to be.  We made a trip to the cannery on Thursday afternoon and filled up the van – with almost 200 large cans of food we were sure riding low all the way home.  In addition to stocking up at the cannery, I’ve been organizing group orders through Emergency Essentials these past two months so we can add a few ‘luxury’ freeze-dried foods to the basics at a significant discount.

The girls each had opportunities to hang out with friends during the week, stayed up much later than usual, and enjoyed lots of time at home with each other.

Abigail got to go see Star Wars with Justin Friday afternoon.  Jason spent lots of time with neighborhood friends and Katie got to join the fun on occasion.  Poor girl’s not quite old enough to ask friends outside without an adult and she doesn’t have many friends nearby for play dates. 

Carly had two basketball games on Saturday morning and Jason had one in the afternoon.  Both are having a great season.  This was Jason’s best game scoring six points.

We did some long overdue yard work - moving a couple trees and trimming back some neglected plants.  I certainly don’t miss the upkeep of our Auburn home, but I loved feeling proud of our yard and having an outdoor space we enjoyed spending time in.  Someday we’ll tackle the landscaping here and make things a little more appealing to look at.

On Saturday night, Justin and I got together with two of our favorite couples for our first game night since the Barlow’s moved to Texas.  We figured we’d mourned their departure long enough and it was time to start partying again.  Always such a fun time!

We like to take advantage of not having early church by making something yummy for breakfast on Sunday mornings.  Jason was a good assistant with the pancakes.

Sunday was our final day until it was back to the grind today – school, work, sports, etc…  At the end of the day I decided to tackle my backlog of want-to-read books.  I’ve got quite a eclectic mix.

In the end I decided to go with the Destiny of the Republic – history isn’t usually my thing, but with book group next week it was the responsible choice ;)

Valentine’s 2016

I volunteered in Katie’s classroom last Monday and helped the students decorate their Valentine’s boxes with stickers and hearts.  Katie was so excited to have me in the classroom all afternoon.  She came over and gave me hugs multiple times throughout the day.  Katie was also very excited to write valentines for each of her classmates.  I didn’t take a picture before she took them to school, but we recycled a previous year’s “I’m WILD about you!” cards which included a pencil and animal eraser (pictured in 2014). 

She had her Valentine’s party on Thursday afternoon while I was enjoying my own Valentine’s party with Auburn friends. 

I think we figured this was our 10th annual Valentine’s Fondue Lunch and quite honestly, I think it’s my most anticipated meal of the entire year.  It’s always so delicious and I love any excuse to get together with these wonderful ladies.

It’s also become a fun tradition for us to exchange Valentine’s goodies.  It’s always so fun to see the clever, and often yummy, treats these gals put together.

Jason had to decorate his Valentine’s box at home.  His teacher sent home a whole list of requirements: size of the box, size of the opening, and four prize winning categories that the students would judge the boxes:  most creative, prettiest, most “Valentiney”, coolest box, and best overall.

Jason was set on creating a monster box.  I helped him wrap it in white paper, cut the hole to the proper dimensions, and then he took off decorating it with markers and stickers.  He had fun creating it, but he knew it wouldn’t win any prizes.  Jason wanted to make crayon hearts for his classmates – a little more time consuming that I’d imagined, but they turned out cute.

To my surprise Jason walked in the door Friday after school exclaiming he had tied for the COOLEST box.  He was super pumped.

Abigail made some pretzel/kisses treats for her friends and Carly put together a really cute ice cream card with EOS for three of her closest friends.  I didn’t take a picture of the girls Valentine goodies, but this was the inspiration for Carly’s card.

We had a broadcasted stake conference at 10am on Valentine’s Day so there wasn’t much time for a big breakfast.  I’d thought ahead and had some delicious chocolate croissants from Trader Joes rising overnight and they were the perfect breakfast treat.  If you haven’t tried them you must.

Justin and I didn’t really do anything for each other – surprise, surprise.  We did have some friends over for dinner.  Tortilla soup, homemade rolls, and an impressive brownie – raspberry – chocolate mousse trifle.  Yum, Yum.

Caught Up!

As the kids and I were driving home from church one Sunday afternoon in January the sun was beginning to set and was shining so beautifully on Mount Si.  With the approval of 4 out of 5 kids, we passed our exit and got off to take a quick picture at Snoqualmie Point Park.  It was so, so cold but the promise of dessert put a smile on everyone’s face just long enough to take a picture and run back to the van.

Sometimes Drew will want to eat on the floor – sometimes he’ll even eat directly off the floor.

A Café Rio opened just 24 minutes (without traffic) from our house last month (the closest was 43 minutes w/o traffic).  Enough of an improvement in travel time that we’ve visited three times in the last month.  The first was during the grand opening where Justin and I each ate a free meal/drink at the location and then took BOGO home to enjoy later.  The second we met Justin’s Dad there with the kids.  The third visit we met up with some friends from Auburn and again took a couple BOGO meals to go for later.  Not sure how often we’ll go when we aren’t scoring free food, but we took advantage while we could.

What to do on a holiday when you don’t want to get out of bed – invite the little ones to join you.

Until, inevitably it turns into mayhem and everyone gets the boot.

Drew’s blankie is actually Jason’s old baby blankie given to us by my friend Tara.  Drew sleeps with it every night and every nap – he finds the tag and rubs it between his fingers.

Just this week the fishy fabric tore in multiple directions on the other side of the tag – not sure how we’ll get that repaired, but we’ll have to figure out some way to keep it from falling apart.

Typically I leave our Christmas cards up until Valentines Day, but this year I hung them in the entry from a string of lights in the shape of a tree without thinking about the fact that having a lighted tree displayed weeks past Christmas would feel too weird.  So they had to come down at the end of January. 

Just some silly pictures I found on my phone of my biggest and littlest – they sure do love each other.

Drew loves to jump in and get his hair done whenever he sees anyone else doing theirs.

Never too young to start doing jobs around here

Truthfully Drew does very little besides creating messes around here.  He’s can organize the shoes and help unload the dishwasher, but very little is expected of this kid. He was a little clever with the shoes on Sunday.

Carly attended her last Daddy/Daughter activity day event last Saturday.  Looks like a good time was had by all.

We saw the brightest rainbow last Sunday as we were sitting down to eat dinner.  We had to run upstairs to catch a better view.

Thursday night I came upstairs to find Katie reading to Drew on her bed.  She proudly declared, “I’m putting Drew to bed.”  I love her eagerness to read and her desire to share that with her little brother.

I found this picture gem on my phone tonight.

Tonight Abigail was at a birthday party and Carly was babysitting a neighbor so Justin and I took the three youngest out to dinner at Chick-fil-A and to run some errands.  It’ll be a sad, sad day when we run out of our free meals.

Abigail’s Birthday Week

Abigail’s FOURTEENTH birthday was on Tuesday, January 12.  She went off to school just like any other day, but after a yummy birthday cinnamon roll for breakfast.  Birthdays tend to require a lot of time in the kitchen for me.  We enjoy good food and I’m realizing that food might just be my love language.  Abigail requested a three flavor cake with white frosting.  I had a little buddy hanging out with me in the kitchen.

Abigail has AWESOME friends.  They made her day so special.  She came home with her backpack all decked out.

She requested gnocchi soup for her birthday dinner – a close second was spinach enchiladas.

Her birthday cake met her approval and tasted delicious.

I posted this picture on Instagram that evening - my teenage daughter clearly digs me.  The girl’s not a hugger.

Friday, January 15 was Abigail’s birthday party.  She’s been planning her party for months and had a tough time deciding if she wanted to keep it small or invite a lot of friends.  She said it would either be 6 or 12+.  In the end she decided to keep it small so that everyone was friends and they could just comfortably hangout, low pressure and less crazy.  One of her best friends couldn’t make it so it was just Abigail and 5 of her besties – PERFECT! 

I hadn’t planned on shipping the other kids off, but as we were getting everything ready it became clear that it would be much better if Justin and the kids just disappeared for the night.  So as soon as Justin got home from work he loaded everyone up and they met his parents and sister at a new burger joint and then hung out at Grandma and Grandpas – WIN/WIN!

There was no party theme – just FOOD and FRIENDS.  We had PLENTY of food!

Abigail picked out some fun minute-to-win-it GAMES to play.

Hanky Panky

A Bit Dicey

Junk in the Trunk

Scoop it Up

Toilet Roll

The girls enjoyed repurposing the mess

More FOOD! Pizza rolls, enchilada dip, sundae bar…

Kaylee dropped ice cream on the floor

Such a fun group of girls!

Just days after her birthday she was able to attend her first tri- or quad- stake dance following our stake’s Best of the Northwest event.  She had a great time and is excited to have more of her friends turn 14 over the next few months so they can join the fun.

Abigail had one final birthday celebration on Sunday, January 17 when we had the Fletcher family over for dinner and dessert.

We had a dessert throwback to her birthday dessert of choice (Oreo Madness) from back in the day when she couldn’t eat anything with egg in it.  Yummy, but so glad those days are behind us!

Happy Birthday to my Abigail!  Love you!