February, so far

I really should back up to January, but I'm moving forward. Ash and Nate both were part of a Lego League team that Gwen put together -- The Robotic Peacocks. I've always loved the Lego teams my kids have been a part of. They learn about teamwork, commitment, dedication, strengths, weaknesses, and a whole myriad of other character building traits in addition to learning how to program and make robots perform how they'd like them to.

Photo courtesy of Jerry Winters

Photo courtesy of Jerry Winters

Photo courtesy of Jerry Winters

I also love the fact that they love each other.

This winter has been unseasonably warm. Like 60, almost 70 degrees some days. It's been warm enough that Alex decided to throw on his swim suit and try out the stream. This was February 7th and we should have several inches of snow on the ground.

Nate's science fair project made it to the district level which made for a few crazy days as I shuttled him back and forth to the Community Learning Center in Tooele. Unfortunately, his project was not chosen to go on. I love seeing my kids excel at different things but sometimes I'm frankly quite relieved to not have one more event to go to.

Ash and her friend Allie decided to try out their brave and tackle a steep decline on their bikes.

Actually, Allie backed out and Ash went ahead without her and used her face for brakes as she hit a rock and tumbled. She's been miserable for a few days.

Valentines arrived and our kitchen became heart-attack grand central.

There was one particular Valentine that became War of the Mothers. I secretly hope I'm one of those warring mothers whose vying for Best Mom in the World. :)

A little late Valentines update

We are trying to refinance . . . again. So this week I have been vigilant in keeping my house spotless, waiting for an appraiser to show up, which he finally did (turns out he was having a hard time getting a hold of us). It's a lot of work trying to keep a house looking like a Parade of Homes home with five kids and all their stuff. I think I vacuumed and dusted every day and made sure all the bathrooms were clean. But it paid off. That appraisal came in SO much better than the last one did a couple of months ago. I will never understand how one appraisal can be so much better/worse than another. It is such a biased job even if they don't think so.

The week before Valentine's we "heart-attacked" our kitchen with love notes. Some were serious, some not-so-serious. Apparently my nephew even got in on the action. I found a note he had secretly stashed under the cabinet :)

Tyler and I rarely go out for Valentine's, so every year I make his favorite dinner of lasagna, garlic bread, salad. This year I even made what he calls his Mt. Dew drink and an Oreo ice cream dessert. The kids usually get some goodies, but this year I threw in an extra present.

Every year their elementary school hosts a book battle where the contestants have a buzzer to ring in to answer the question. I found the same buzzer online and thought we could have some fun with it at home doing our own trivia games. I think we might even be able to use it in the car.

My favorite valentine: Nate's. He actually took the 100 Grand I had given him and regifted it back.