Phone Photo Dump

Drew often puts on other peoples shoes.

Trying on Justin’s new basketball shoes – crazy to think that some day my baby could actually fit into these massive size 16’s    

Abigail’s brown fuzzy boots    

When we go out to catch the afternoon kindergarten bus, Drew usually has on a pair of Katie’s shoes cause they are easy for him to put on himself, but not sooo big that he can’t manage to walk in them.

This is how we found Katie when we checked on her one evening before heading to bed.

Another term down in middle school for Carly and Abigail – Carly just missed a 4.0 with one A- both girls made Honors Society and Abigail continues with her perfect 4.0 academic record.  Megan’s mom sent me this picture of these two friends since I wasn’t able to make it to the awards ceremony.  Best of friends since third grade and pretty much twins – not a week goes by that someone doesn’t mix these two girls up.

We attended our first Boy Scout Blue & Gold Banquet on Thursday, February 25.  The hot dog dinner was a hit for the kids – pretty sure Jason ate at least three.  There were fun games…

One of the games was throwing blue ping pong balls (water) into the box strapped to a boys head (fire).

Another was building the tallest fire (stacking cups).

The surprise guest made Drew’s night!

The kids and I all had dentist appointments last Tuesday.  This was Drew’s first visit to the dentist.  They took him back first.  He sat in the chair, let them put on the bib, raise the chair into position and turn on “Mr. Sunshine” but when it came to opening his mouth he refused.   Not in a whiny way, he just sat there silently with his mouth held firmly shut. 

I suppose I hadn’t prepared him at all for the visit (5th child and all) so he and I switched places.  He sat nearby watching Despicable Me on the TV overhead and glancing occasionally at the hygienist cleaning my teeth.  Guess that was all it took cause when my teeth were shiny and clean, he and I switched places and he sat there mouth open and let the hygienist count and polish his teeth.

He kept sliding further and further down on the chair

Drew also let Dr. Paul poke around.

And then Dr. Paul helped Drew clean some teeth molds – future dentist? Perhaps.

Another sign that my baby is growing up was that last week that kid started zipping around the park on a scooter

And Katie advanced to a larger bike given to us by some friends.

Justin helps out a lot with dishes around here and while I very much appreciate his help I also ask that if he’s going to put dishes in the dishwasher he should probably just start the washing cycle – cause honestly people, I get serious anxiety if I have to fit in more dishes with this sort of randomness – anyone else with me??

This morning I mustered up enough momentum to go to the gym.  I got all dressed and ready and then as we headed out to the car we found we were carless. 

I knew the van was in the shop for new brakes (and apparently transmission work), but my memory often resembles that of Dory and it totally slipped my mind.  Not that I was at all disappointed to miss out on a workout.

Winter Sports Wrap-Up

Both Carly and Jason participated in our winter recreational basketball program these past few months. Justin was the assistant coach for Carly’s team this year.  Carly’s been playing for years and is quite the seasoned player.  This was her final year playing on the rec team and I’m excited to see her playing on the middle school team next year.  She continues to be aggressive and fearless out there - #10  Her team only lost one game though there were a few games in which her team was so far ahead they tried to even out the competition by either passing at least five times before shooting or taking a player off the court.

Carly also just wrapped up her first middle school soccer season yesterday.  Not a single picture to show for it and not a single win.  It can only get better next year – thankfully, she felt good about the season and had fun.

This was Jason’s first year playing basketball.  I was nervous his lack of experience would make it rough for him, but he caught on quickly and scored in many of his games.  His team wasn’t the strongest in the league, but that didn’t bother Jason.  He had a great time and is looking forward to playing again next year - #6

I’m too cheap to by a team picture so I took this with my phone on the sly

Abigail has her final two soccer games for middle school this week.  Again, no pictures as proof.  She’s played left forward for the past several years and this year – new team, new coach – she was moved to defense.  She’s great on defense (the only game they’ve lost so far was one she missed because of dental appointments), but we both miss the action and acclaim of her leading the team in goals.  This may actually be Abigail’s last soccer season ever as her fall league may be switching to Sunday games and the high school soccer season is the same as volleyball and she’s leaning toward volleyball.  Tough decisions to be made for a girl as athletic as Abigail.

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.