At the beginning of the month we got invited to go to Island Park and stay with my parents for a few days. It wasn't on a weekend, so Rusty wan't able to go, but I took the kids and went! It was a fun time! It really is beautiful there, and I couldn't believe how much snow they had!
Day 1: Was a travel day. The kids did really well and it was not as bad as I thought it would be! We got there and had dinner and then went to bed.
A gummy worm stuck on Lia's chin haha
Day 2: Today was a busy day! The kids were really wanting to play in the snow, but the temperatures were so low that I was nervous about it. It was negative almost the entire time we were there. But in the morning they were rearing to go, so we just had them go out for short bits of time and then come in to warm up. They built forts, complete with cup holders for their hot chocolate. They were so proud of themselves!
Inside, Della liked to play doctor.
For something warm and inside to do, we headed over to Yellowstone to the Bear and Wolf Sanctuary. I didn't know what to expect, and I had never heard of it, but it was a really cool place! It's small, but the exhibits are really huge and you can see the animals pretty close up. While we were in the warming hut to watch the grizzly bears, a worker came in and got to ask her a ton of questions. Then with the wolves, they were walking right past the glass! I had to take Della to the bathroom and when I came back Amelia was crying. Mom and Dad said that she was standing at the glass and a big wolf came up and stared her down and made her cry haha.
That night we did stories for Lia and swimming for big kids with Papa.
To end the night we watched a movie! We watched Ice Age with popcorn and M&Ms.
Day 3: The days always start with morning snuggles with Grandma!
Then we went sledding on the hill behind the condo. After a few times, Dad brought a snowmobile around for us so that we could ride it up after we went down on the sled. We did that for quite a while before we went inside to warm up and play games! Then Mom watched the kids so Dad and I could go on a short snowmobile ride.
We went swimming that night and then watched the next Ice Age!
Right at bed time, Amelia started to cry and be really fussy. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and then she threw up all over me. Three times that night. Then we finally all got to go to sleep.
She threw up on all of her clothes and ran out of clean ones, so she had to sleep in my shirt.
Day 4: The drive home was broken up because we stopped in Rigby to go see Oliver's basketball game and have lunch at Angie's! It was so fun to see them and get to talk to them, and my kids had a blast playing with her kids. Nobody threw up on the drive home and we made it there safely!
Story time this month was with Belle! Della was pretty excited about that and couldn't wait to take a picture with her.
Amelia looks so old!
We started in January and didn't do it so then we actually started in February haha. Rusty and Henry went to the Nickelcade and played Laser tag, but they didn't take any pictures. They had a blast though! I took Della out to ice cream and to see a play made for kids at the Scera theater. It was excellent! And she felt so fancy. I loved spending one on one time with her.
We started by getting unicorn ice cream
Then had popcorn and Root Beer at the show
Afte rthe show, Della was the first person in line to meet the cast. She took a picture with every single cast member except teh two main boy characters...s he just walked straight past them haha. She was so excited to meet Rapunzel!
Bailey came home! In January she bit me twice and Della once, and after she bit Della we knew we had to do something serious. So we sent Bailey to a training program where they kept her for four weeks. We missed her, but she needed to have more help than we could give her. Everyone was so excited to get her back home! Amelia followed her around laughing maniacally the whole day haha.
February was a big month for me! I got new color in my hair, cut it short and started parting it down the middle like the young kids. And I also got LASIK! HOORAY! It was fantastic. Well, actually I got sick the night before and was throwing up and Della was too, but it worked out. Rusty had to stay home with the sick kids so I asked Jess to go with me. I was so nervous because Bryndee said it was a really awful experience, but I had a really easy time with it. My body reacted well to the medicine they gave me, the procedure was quick and painless, and the recovery was not the bad. AND NOW I CAN SEE!!
A walk with my special glasses on haha
Valentine's Day! Henry had decided he wanted to keep Valentine's Day and his birthday separate, so he wanted to open all of his presents on the day of his birthday. But then the morning of he changed his mind, which was not great because nothing was wrapped yet because I had surgery two days before haha. But he just took them out of the grocery bags and seemed happy!
My giant card to Rusty
Us at Rusty's new office
Rusty took me out to Maria Bonita the next day for our Valentin'es Date. We got a huge mango drink that was absolutely delicious, and Amelia was enthralled with it haha
Young Women's is going well! I got called as President in November and have spent the last few months trying to get to know the girls. One of our activities this month was ice skating so I snapped a few pictures to hopefully put on a bulletin board.
Haley, Jocelyn, Dionasys
Jasmin and McKayala
Athena
Eva and Haley
I got a spot for the BYU MOA preschool class this month! They are hard to get, and I usually forget about them haha but we went this month and it was really fun! It was about landscape photography, so they gave each kid a little cardboard camera and showed them old slides and pictures of old cameras. Then they made their own landscape picture.
Amelia is just like a big kid!
She's so pleased
Henry turned 7! To celebrate we had a birthday party with his friends that was all about Pokemon. They colored their own poke balls, played pokemon bingo, caught pokemon, did wars, and a pinata. They had a great time, and Henry was so please with it! He particularly loved the deocrations, food names, and games. It's fun to do something fun like this for him, and it was his first party with friends from school!
It had been a very long time since I had planned a country date for Rusty, so I decided this month it would be fun to do that! But then I decided I'd start doing the Paleo diet and so we had to get it done before that, which meant that I did this Sunday night after we did Henry's party on Saturday haha. It was crazy and a lot was going on, but it was really fun! This time I got us some costumes to switch things up and it was hilarious. We watched The Mummy, ate yummy food, and wrapped each other up with toilet paper like mummies. We also wrote each other secret messages with hieroglyphics. It was a fun date!
Henry didn't have school on a Friday and Monday one week this month, and we hadn't been up to where we went weekly in a really long time. So we headed up to South Fork Park with all of our snow gear and spent an hour or two up there playing. It really is beautiful up there, and so peaceful. I love that area. Henry crossed over the bridge and enjoyed climbing up the hill as high as he could with Bailey, and everyone liked sledding on the hills.
Craft time! I got some paints out for the kids which I hadn't done in a really long time, and they loved it! And then Amelia started eating it.
We went out on a date! And we went snowboarding! I was trying to remember the last time I had gone, and I think it was when we went to Whistler when I was just brand new pregnant with Della. I was really nervous and the first run it took me a few minutes to remember how to switch edges, but then it got really fun! I enjoyed myself more than I remember ever doing before. It could be because the snow was amazing! At Bogus it was normally just ice with a little snow on top haha. This was awesome! We met up with Steve and his son Luke for a little, and then even did some runs just with Steve. It was a good time! Afterwards we went out to dinner just us and it was relaxing and delicious.
The next day we kept with the winter theme and went snowshoeing in the Unitas! Honestly, I was so depressed because the weather had gotten cold again that I had to get out and do fun snow things or I was going to be mad about it haha. But after this weekend I'm glad the snow stuck around! We drove over to a trail and it was only private access, so then we drove around until we found a good place. We ended up just kind of wandering around for a little while and then we went on the highway that is blocked off during the winter and just walked along there for a while. To end, we went sledding on a pretty good sized hill!
We had a little picnic
The highway. It was beautiful!
Amelia just wanted to hold Rusty's hand the whole time. She'd get so jealous if I held his hand.
I had been thinking about how I haven't used the Thanksgiving Point membership to go to the Children's Museum in a long time, so one day after I picked Henry up from school we headed straight there. I was very happy with how uncrowded it was! Henry loved playing with the big legos and climbing in the ropes, Della loved being in the vet clinic and climbing too, and Amelia loved carrying this one dog around and playing with the balls. And they all loved the water!
Henry's Highlights:
- Still obsessed with Pokemon! He can cite off facts about them like crazy.
- He is really excited about reading, and is doing a great job!
- When we were driving to Island Park they have these groves of trees on the side of the road with signs that say when they were planted. One of them was planted in 1991. I wanted them to understand that that was a long time ago, it was when I was born so I told them that. Henry said, "Mom, does that make you happy? Now you can have some tree friends!" Haha
- We were watching a video about bears at the wolf sanctuary and it showed a mama bear nursing her cubs. She was nursing three cubs and one nipple was left open. Henry said, "Wow a mom bear only has one of those things like you used to feed Lia!" I said, "No she actually has four, you just can't see the other three." He doesn't miss a beat and says, "Oh. I must have been looking at its penis then."
Adeline's Adventures:
- She dresses herself every day, and it is always a sight to behold.
- Della is doing great with preschool!
- She says, "Get it girl!" and "Boom, baby!" all of the time!
- She says, "CAN YOU BELIEVE?!?" when she's excited
Amelia's Updates:
- Talking up a storm! She says, mama, dada, hi, bum bum, and nose
- She shows us where her belly button is, and it is so cute!
- Lia is a Daddy's girl through and through! She gets so jealous if I hold his hand
- Loves the "Shivers" song by Ed Sheeran
- Loves One Sheep, Blue Sheep book
Extra Pictures:
Checks finally started coming in for ERC Specialists!
I did a celebrity twin Instagram thing and it gave me the Rock! HAHA
Then Kim Kardashian
Della was Barrack Obama HA!
We are starting to talk about moving to Heber now, but I will miss the view from our house of Mt. Timpanogos.
Amelia found this Jasmine crown and loved wearing it. Also, note Henry in his natural habitat: looing at his Pokemon cards.
Della loves to take pictures on my phone
Look at that cheeser
One morning I just wanted to remember what my view is like most mornings during this phase of my life. I love these three faces.
My baby's curly hair
Photo cred: Della
Della did her own make up!
Bundling up to go to the park
Della did not want to be in their picture haha
Rusty and Justin being bros
I guess Henry felt like it was unfair that Lia didn't have a chore on a chore chart so he wrote her one haha
Henry wrote us the sweetest Valentine's Day message on our mirror. I asked him to write it on paper so I could keep it. It said: "From Henry. I lov you Mom and Dad. Hapee Valentimes Day." And all the o's were hearts. Stop it.
I love these snuggles with my baby girl!
Amelia fell asleep like this one day
Lia's famous grumpy face
Photo cred: Della again
Della doing online preschool
She was so mad I put her down
I don't know where Rusty is, but he is handsome
We did this puzzle. It was incredibly difficult and took forever to finish. 1,000 pieces. I spent at least an hour looking for a few pieces that had a specific color and shape and I couldn't find them. Eventually i found them hidden under a cup and asked Della if she hid them and she LAUGHED and said yes! WHAT?!
This is the face she madea fter she hung up on the phone on my mom
And then she tipped over
This is how sshe likes to sit with Rusty, and sleep in our bed haha
