Tales of a Frigid January

I’m pretty sure this morning’s –22 degrees broke the cold record for the month.  I guess that makes the –12 of a couple of weeks ago seem pretty warm. 

Spring has never looked so enticing!!    I’m sure those icicles are only going to get bigger as we shiver through the next several weeks.

We’ve been working on our sign language lately.  Rachel really loves to use “no”…

…but I’m not sure we can take that big smile seriously!

Daniel has started to sign “book” – though he does the sign for “again” instead.  I’m not sure how he got them mixed up.  But we know what it means, and he obviously does too, so we’re working on fixing that one.  He started nursery yesterday.  There is a lady in our Ward who is in charge of being his assistant.  So he gets one-on-one attention while he’s in there.  I’m so glad our Primary President was the one to take the initiative on that.  She recognized that we might have a need there and came to me for the scoop.  I feel much better about sending him when someone is directly responsible for only him.  Though, I’m still super worried about the germs.  We’ll see how these first few weeks go.

How could you not love this face?!?!

Or this one??!?  (This is what he does when anyone talks about animals.  He’s barking like a dog, but without much sound.)

This is the month of hardly any school (at least it feels like it) for our kids.  They started back on the 3rd.  Rachel has today off, and they all have tomorrow off, for parent teacher conferences.  Next Monday is MLK day, so there won’t be school.  And the following Friday will be a no school day as well!  Good grief!  Sometimes I wonder why they even have school at all during January!!

We’re going to cross our fingers for a warmer-than-usual February and try to stay warm in the meantime!

Playing Catch Up

This is gonna be a long post – sorry!  I decided to just pay $50 to get a new hard drive for my computer, rather than buy a whole new computer – even though my screen is totally messed up and my battery is useless.  So I’m back in business for blogging!

Someone had a birthday last week.  Not sure who it was, but we had a fun day celebrating!  We spent the morning at the aquatic center.  You’ll thank me for not posting any pictures of that.  We’re all so white it’s scary!  After that we had lunch, and Jared and I did some shopping while Daniel was sleeping.  Then we came home, picked up Daniel and went out to dinner.  The kids love it when we go on dates because they eat cereal for dinner.  After we were done, we grabbed the kids and went for a special treat.  There’s a local food place in town that fills a sink with soft serve ice cream, bananas, toppings, and whipped cream.  They told us it’s around a gallon of ice cream…but they don’t measure, so no one really knows.

We thought that with 7 people we could easily finish it off.  If you do, you get your picture taken and earn a place in the “We Cleaned the Sink” Hall of Shame Fame.

Daniel sure pulled his weight.  He would have eaten (and then spit up) all night long!

 

Unfortunately, Josh has developed an aversion to ice cream since he threw up after eating 24-ounces of ice cream all by himself!  Five bites into the sink and he was complaining that he needed to throw up.  So he spent most of his time in the bathroom (no throwing up) and complaining about watching everyone else eat.

Emily added her personal touch with a little bit of art work on the side of the sink.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish.  That was a lot of ice cream and we were stuffed!!  And, believe it or not, that was waaaay cheaper than taking everyone to Twizzleberry!

On our way out, Caleb saw the rows of newspaper racks (?? – those bin-like-things that you put a quarter in and open the door to retrieve your paper) and exclaimed, “Video games!!!”  A couple walking in chuckled and the guy said, “That’s OK buddy.  They tricked me too!”  Love me some Caleb-isms!!

On Tuesday we had swimming performance day for Josh, Rachel and Caleb.  I brought Emily and Daniel – against my better judgement – so I didn’t get many pictures.  It was unbearably hot and Daniel was miserable.  The kids did a great job.  Josh is becoming quite the swimmer.  I think maybe he should aim for the swim team in high school.

This year he learned the breast stroke, the butterfly, and how to do an underwater summersault off the wall.  During the performance they were supposed to stand where they were and do a summersault.  Josh misunderstood and took off down the the pool as fast as he could and did his summersault off the wall – just like what you see in the Olympics.  I was in awe, and all the other parents were oohing and ahhing as well.  Take a look at this kid!  (Sorry about the crying Daniel in the background!)

Rachel is a natural fish and loves the water.  Look how white she is!!

Caleb is a little more reserved, especially when it comes to getting his face in the water.

They both did great and learned a lot for their first year.

Later in the week, we were at the park during a house showing.  Daniel was sitting right next to me on a bench, and in the 2 seconds that I was focusing on keeping one of the other kids in line, he fell off the bench and smacked his head on the cement.  That is a sound I will not soon forget.

He’s a tough kid though, and after a huge cry, he perked back up and was fine.

And just for fun…this kid thinks he’s a monkey!!

And the best news of the month: I got my birthday wish!  We accepted an offer on our house this week.  The offer was dated on my birthday, so it really was a birthday present!!  We are supposed to close on Sept. 4, so we’re in apartment hunting mode now.

I hope to get a house update up later today or tomorrow.  Please don’t keel over in anticipation!!

Peninsula

Should I be embarrassed that I didn't know that a PENINSULA is a piece of land that has water on 3 sides??

Should I be embarrassed that my 2nd-grader knew this, and I didn't??

Josh was spouting off geographical facts as fast as his little mouth could move (which is pretty fast!) today at dinner. Once of them had to do with peninsulas.

I also learned that Europe is the smallest continent, but has 40-s0mething countries and 60-something languages are spoken (he threw out exact numbers, I just can't remember them).

Josh likes geography - in fact, he made sure we all know that it's his most favorite part of the day! Those are his words. Really.

You Know It's Bad When...

In Primary, leading the music on Sunday:
Girl (Emily's age): "Wow, you're really pale!"

Me: "Oh, that's usually the way I am."

Boy (Emily's age): "You're not that pale!"

Me: "Oh, well thank you!"

Same Boy: "Wow, now you're red!!"

I am officially self-conscious!!

Fully Dressed & Shake Shake Shake

Rachel loves loves LOVES to dance. Somehow it turned into "shake your booty" and is completely hilarious to watch. Anyone who has seen it knows exactly what I'm talking about! Emily and Josh were running around with the camera the other day and managed to coax it out of her. For your enjoyment, I present "Shake Shake Shake!"

Here she is on the kitchen floor...

...and workin' it on the piano bench!

Shake what your momma gave ya!

On a different note, Rachel is so compassionate and completely obsessed with dolls - big, small, girl, boy - doesn't matter. But, it seems that if they're fully clothed she wants their clothes off, and if they're naked, she wants to get them dressed. Go figure! I guess she wanted to make sure her naked little doll was all taken care of during nap time. This is what I found when Rachel woke up from her nap one day...

The doll is wearing a pair of Rachel's pants - with both legs stuck into one leg of the pants! Which is the way Rachel frequently dresses herself! Consequently, this was a day that Rachel took her pants and pull-up off and changed into a different pair of pants (with no undies on) because she knew she shouldn't poop in her pull-up! Yeah, that was a fun one! Sheesh!