Lots 'o' Love and an Impromptu Winter Break

As we moved into February, much love was in the air.  What does that mean?  Cookies!  This time we tried to be a little more coordinated with the Sprinkle colors.  Look!  We even made little roses on our cookies!

Here are Kylie and Kate's Valentine's day boxes, respectively.  (Kate's class mascot is frogs).

I also did my usual chocolate box and book for the kids.  This year Kate said we were having a "boring" Valentine's, so Kate helped me turn it into a treasure hunt to find your valentine.  

(Also, on a side note, we were able to go to the Primary's "Great to Be 8" night for Kate.  I can't believe she's going to be getting baptized this summer!)

And as for Chris and I?  Well, for Valentine's Chris took me shooting.  Can you feel the love?!?  We had a lot of fun, although it was Freezing and a snow storm was moving in.  Afterwards we went out to lunch.  Other fun dates with my hubby this month included going to a play (about the making of "Gone With the Wind", a temple trip, and a spur of the moment breakfast at IHOP.  Love, love, love going on dates with my best friend!

And speaking of dates, this month was Kylie's turn for her Daddy-daughter date.  Where did they go?  The circus!  And boy was it a hit.  Chris was a sucker and bought cotton candy, popcorn, AND a star, glow wand.  Kylie can't stop talking about it!  

And speaking of Chris and Kylie, this morning as I came down the stairs they were watching some Star Wars Cartoon.  Kylie was doing her usual "asking a million questions" and must have said something about Darth Vader having a sister.  Chris said something like, "Kylie, I love hearing about the world you live in, where everybody has a sister that is their favoritest in the world and a pet bunny."  Later on I said to Kylie, "Hey, you've got a boogie in your eye."  She said to me, "Oh!  I want to see how cute it is!"  Yep, it's all rainbows and unicorns for that kid.  

Kylie consumed the cotton candy within 10 minutes!

So, fun for us, we had a 4 day weekend that included Valentine's and President's day.  Well, Monday it started to snow, and snow, and snow.  We got a good 12 - 14 inches, which was apparently way more than normal for Kentucky.

It was beautiful and we were very excited to get out and play in it and try out our new sleds!!  I did feel bad that we didn't have snow pants or real boots, but the kids put bread sacks over their socks and so their rain boots worked pretty well.  

Lise and her friend Lena were the ones to initiate sledding down the stairs.  We all gave it a go and had a great time.  Hooray for having a sloped backyard to sled on and for hot chocolate when we came in!

Oh, and one funny thing about Kate.  I was talking to my neighbor on the phone and she told me she saw Kate falling into the snow face first on purpose.  I asked Kate about it and she confirmed that yes, she was face planting into the snow because, "it was so much fun!"

This record snow was followed by a week of record lows (highs in the single digits) and freezing rain, which led to the kids getting a week off of school.  (Chris even got an extra day off of work!)  After a couple of days it just got too cold to play in the snow.  However, we found other ways to keep busy . . .

We played games, had family movie nights, slept in (never got up before 9 all week!), baked more cookies (chocolate chip and peanut butter blossoms this time - I think we're becoming cookie obsessed),  did insanity workouts and "Just Dance" videos, Skyped with my sister-in-law and nephew in Japan, read and painted.  Thankfully we also had some friends to play with, which helped to mix things up.  Aly was the most bored and actually said she wanted to go back to school!!!  But she ended up going roller skating with a friend later in the week, so that helped her out a ton.  And, on a personal note for my own sanity, I also need to give a shout out to freezer meals.  I wanted to be able to spend time with the kids and play on the days off, instead of cooking and cleaning the whole time.  So every day I would pull out a different meal to thaw and then pop it in the oven/heat it up.  We had Fagioli soup, Chicken Cordon Bleau (aka "Chicken Corn Dog Blue"), Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas, Sweet Asian Chicken, and BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches.  It was awesome because it actually felt like I got some time off too.  I love freezer meals!!!

Analise's version of the Mona Lisa.  Pretty good!

Above is a picture of Aly from a few weeks ago when she went to a party and had to dress up from a decade.  She chose the 80's.  Was there any decade better?!?   (Sidenote - we went to New Beginnings last week and they did a skit on the 10 virgins.  Aly was the money obsessed one who always had to be first in everything.  It was very disturbing to watch!!)   Also, during our week off Aly decided to take the snow challenge.  Enjoy!

So, I came to Kentucky hoping for seasons - and I got them!!  We had an awesome fall with all the beautiful colors, and now we've had an awesome winter with all the snow to play in, build snowmen with,  and sled in that they aren't supposed to get in Kentucky.  Now all I need is an awesome Spring with the beautiful flowers and the bringing back of life!  I am ready for March to bring in some warm weather!  (Funny how even days in the 40's would seem warm now!)    

Feb with Deb

. . . Debbie Downer, that is.  Okay, so technically I'm blogging about January, but Jan isn't a downer, only Deb(bie) is, so . . . ANYWAY, lately I have just been feeling a little off.  Like there's something I should be doing that I'm not but I don't know what it is, and at the same time I don't feel like doing anything, but then I feel like a slug and I just want to do SOMETHING, and around and around it goes.  Is it that after Christmas let down after all the holiday craziness and festivities?  Am I lonely now that Chris and the girls have gone back to work and school?  Is it because I'm realizing that Kylie is going to Kindergarten next year and now I have to figure out my nitch again now that I am no longer a mother of preschoolers?  Is it the cruddy weather outside - a wintry mix is what they call it - not exactly snow, but not really raining either - a kind of  sleety, windy, nasty mess and lack of sunshine -  that's making me blue?  Or is it that Heavenly Father is just letting my Spirit hunger a little more, so that I will stretch myself to know of His will and grow?  I'm feeling the desire to do something with meaning, with purpose, but what?  Obviously I still need to take care of my family and that's extremely purposeful.  But it's during the day, when the kids are at school and I'm no longer going to be going to story times and play groups, what then?  Anyhoo, enough rambling about Deb.  Let's talk about Jan . . .

First of all, we had an awesome freak snowstorm!  It was predicted to be a "dusting", but we got like 5 inches of snow.  And it was the beautiful, huge flakes coming down that you can catch on your tongue kind of snow.  Perfect for building a snowman or having a snowball fight.

And look at how beautiful it was!  I love snow on the trees.  I would have loved for this snow to stay around for us to enjoy for a few days, but alas, it was not meant to be.  The snow hit on a Friday night.  Saturday morning we had to clean the church.  By the time we were done it was already melting outside (high in the upper 40's that day).  We didn't even get a chance to go sledding (*sigh*). . . next time.

The January theme for music makers was fairy tales.  Look at all those chivalrous knights and beautiful princesses!  Kylie continues to be her bubbly, bouncy self by skipping everywhere she goes.  She is incapable of walking - it must be skipping!  (It reminds me of when I was little and my best friend and I practiced "synchronized skipping".  My 1st grade teacher told my mom that's all I did!)  Kylie is also getting excited about being a big girl and not a baby any more.  She likes learning her letters and practicing her name, which is awesome.

Kate continues to be our "make the most of every holiday" girl.   Her teacher said she could "make a shirt or hat for the 100th day of school."  I think she meant paint one, but as my crafty skills are way below par I let that slide.  Never fear!  Kate made herself a sign out of her glitter glue and had me pin it to her shirt for the day.  One day, while I thought Kate was picking out her clothes for the next day, she was actually making a solar system in her room out of our bouncy balls.  She even placed a headband around Saturn.  Love it!  Unfortunately she cleaned it up before I could get a picture.

And what's up with Kate's teachers being the most creative ever with their art projects?  We already had a picture of Kate on a reindeer and now we've got her in a snow globe having a snowball fight.  Love it!

Below is a picture from Kate trying to write her name with the marker in her mouth.  This came about after Kate watched a My Little Pony movie where a pony was turned into a human and was trying to write with a pen in her mouth instead of her hand because she didn't know how to use her hands - she was used to hooves - duh!  So anyway, leave it to Kate to experiment with that in the real world.   

And finally, another lovely quote from Kate.  We were driving to the store and the following conversation occcurred:

Me - Guys, I need you to show me you know how to act in the store.

(silence)

Me - Guys, what did I just say?

Lise - Show you we know how to act in the store

Me - Kate, what did I just say?

Kate - I don't know! Lise was talking.

Lise has had a  great time jumping into dance, she joined the Beta Club at school, and works hard on all her homework, as she has the most of anybody.  In her free time, however, she likes doing crazy stuff with friends . . . like taking a selfie as a boy.  Um, yeah, we'll just leave it at that.

Lise's other funnyism is that lately she's been misreading labels because she's not paying attention.  So we'll have conversations like this:
Lise - Mom, what does "chilled hamburger ends here" mean?
Me - What?!?
Lise - right here on the whip cream bottle, it says "chilled hamburger ends here".
Me - It says "child hunger ends here."
Lise - OH! yeah.
(I guess if there's ever a strike against refrigerated meat, we'll be the first on board.)

Aly has kept busy doing service hours for Beta Club, going on a youth temple trip, and going rock climbing with Chris on a Daddy Daughter date (sorry no pictures).  She and Chris are also training for a 10k in March to get her ready for Spring soccer season.  On top of all this, Aly has discovered the mall.  Scary.  So far all she does is buy candy and apparently a bunch of other weird stuff.

You know, I thought that as my girls got older that they wouldn't say as many cute things or do as many silly things and so my blog would get a lot more boring.  But, oh no! - they continue to give me plenty of great material to work with.  (I guess now the difference is that they're doing it on purpose.)

Oh, and here's Aly at her Young Women's book Club with a friend she invited from school.  Way to be a missionary Aly!

And while we're giving shout outs, I'd like to send out a huge "CONGRATULATIONS!" to my hubby for making the Battalion Commander's List.  You totally deserve it and I'm grateful to be supporting you in all these grand adventures.  You're just awesome!! :)