XOXO

We have had a lot of fun things happening around Valentine's Day.

Thursday, February 10th Marcus celebrated 100 days of kindergarten. He wanted me to buy him a special shirt. Steve remembered Lila had a dance shirt that had 100 on it (Steve gets lots of bonus points for recalling this!) so she found it for us and we modified it with some duct tape and he had a great day. Although I had a hard time getting him to go to school on Friday because he was certain he was done with kindergarten after 100 days. I had to explain he has almost 100 more days of kindergarten.

That evening, Steve and I were able to go on a date night at Hale Center to see One For the Pot and it was a really enjoyable show. We laughed a lot and hard (which is a big compliment because it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud).

Steve took the girls and a friend each to the Ogden Temple the night of Friday, February 11th. The weekend before Steve and I found ourselves in Ogden running errands and I was looking for a place for us to grab some dinner (trying to turn errands into date night -- haha). I found this place called La Crepe. It was a tiny place in an alley way and we ordered our crepes to go and as we were waiting for them to come out we noticed all of these crazy desserts coming out. So we googled them when we got home and decided Steve would take the girls back for dessert after the temple. They enjoyed their "freak shakes" after the temple and even a neighborhood friend whom I happened to tell about the place that week was at the Ogden Temple that night and came over afterwords for a treat.

 

Monday morning was Valentine's Day and the kids woke up to a little treat. They each had a box of chocolates and their Lagoon passes to represent that we bought new passes for this year.

 
All of the kids passed out Valentine's this year. The boys had parties and even Lila's Shark Time teacher had a party for them that Friday where they passed out Valentine's and Ellie took some to her friends at school. For dinner that night we had our traditional fondue and we had a sweet neighbor friend over for dinner. The kids were good, still crazy but on good behavior. It was a great day!

 

The rest of the week was busy. It was filled with orthodontist, chiropractor, Ellie counselor meetings, Lila started an online Chinese Olympic seminar that was Tues & Thur for two weeks,  and regular life stuff. I was hoping to make it to Idaho for a portion of the long President's weekend, but the kids schedules and the forecast were not cooperating so we convinced Mimi and Grandpa to come down and spend some time with us. Friday night we smoked pizza and played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza and Five Crowns. Saturday Ellie had to work so we got her off then watched some Olympics, played Just Dance on the Switch, went and played pickleball, then played basketball outside, and watched a Marvel movie before sending Mimi and Grandpa left for home with more Marvel movies to watch (we hope they come down and enjoy a few more on our theater with us).

Steve took the older three skiing at Powder Mountain on Monday. Steve and I bought value passes at Snowbasin so we were blocked out for the weekend and we've been wanting to ski Powder again. I wanted to go but was not for sure Marcus could make the longer day and I had a lot of things I needed/wanted to get done around the house so Marcus and did errands and cleaned while they skied.

Twosday, 2.22.22 in 2nd grade Andrew had a party and I found him a tie dye shirt to wear and he pulled his tube socks up at least for the first part of the day, he came home with his socks normal.

We also got a package ready to send to Russ. He fell on Friday, February 18th and fractured his hip and shoulder. It took them several days to find an open bed in a rehab facility and he will be there for 2-3 weeks so we made cards and put together a few things to brighten his room.

Check Your Six

because my baby just turned 6. He had his first friend party. When I asked him who he wanted to invite he said my whole class. I explained we could only really host a few people at a time so he listed his closest friends and then said, "Dad has to be here too." He knew Steve had an upcoming ski trip and wanted him to be here for the party so we made quick plans to have a party the Thursday before his birthday and all of his wonderful friends were able to attend. It was a blessing. We had a rainbow themed party and Marcus was really excited and helped me setup the cupcake decorating station.

The girls were really flexible and stretching in this game. It was fun to watch them all and help them know what is left and right (oops -- didn't think about that part).

Upstairs playing for a bit. They all had a blast and it really was a good group of kids. Truly grateful for how it turned out and Marcus loved every gift he received.

Sunday we had a little family dinner and celebration before Steve left for Sun Valley with the guys to ski. Marcus really wanted a printing camera and well his wishes came true.

Today on his birthday we had donuts for breakfast and he wore a crown and got to pass out fruit by the foot to the class as a treat. He was the mouseketeer last week which was a little chaotic because last week Andrew didn't feel too well on Monday so he said he was going to stay home. Then Marcus was like if Andrew's not going, I'm not going. We finally convinced Marcus to go and then when I went in to volunteer I find out he's the mouseketeer. His sweet teacher explains she forgot to send the poster home on Friday so she gave it to Andrew and the calendar that had this information was in the packet I was putting in their folders that day since it was the beginning of a new month. So we really had no way of knowing. I told Marcus wasn't he glad he went to school and he said, "YES!" We still had to track down the poster because Andrew had left it at school and quickly get it filled out but we got it done and he had a great time being the mouseketeer.

Steve got home from Sun Valley around 6:30 and as he was unloading his gear. Marcus said, "What?! You went skiing without me on my birthday. No Fair!"
 

Here are some fun collages of him that came across in google photos yesterday.

Happy Birthday Monkey Doodle! We love you!

Crazy and Fun

We went and saw Treasure Island at Hale Center Theater. It was such a fun show. They had basically swimming pools on the sides of the stage where people walked the plank into the water etc. We were in the second row and saw people swimming and climbing in and out of the trap door. It was so fun. Marcus at one point asked if they were real people especially when Ben really wanted cheese. Marcus was concerned that he really needed some cheese.

 

We made rainbow smoothies one morning for breakfast.

 

A Come Follow Me object lesson about building or destroying Zion now it's turned into a Jenga tournament.

I bought a new vacuum and when it arrived Marcus really liked it. He thought it was part of his birthday because his job is to vacuum. 😂

 

and so begins comp season with PreComp. . .last week I started getting so many texts and emails about precomp. I had to check her out of school a little early to get her hair and makeup done in time. Right in the middle of things Rocky Mountain Power knocked and said they would be changing out the meter and there would be a small disruption in power. If all went well it would only be about 1 minute. Really the timing. I opened the garage just in case things didn't go well and we needed to go. Fortunately, it was only a minute disruption in power and we could continue getting ready. It's always stressful to think things through for the first time so I am truly grateful for precomp. Lila's team was the first to dance and they actually had them dancing 10 minutes before the start time and I actually missed the 2nd dance because I thought we had a few minutes after they called them before they would bring them in, but apparently one team wasn't ready so they pulled them in early. Lila danced their 3rd and final dance 30 minutes ahead of schedule and at the time their second dance was supposed to go. It was fast and furious but I'll gladly take getting done early.