Gideon's Jumpy Party

The younger three attended Gideon's jumpy-place birthday party, where they did lots of jumping, dodging, and obstacle-course-maneuvering. They hung out with cousins, had their fill of chips, marveled at the amazing labyrinth cake, and had a great time. (Meanwhile, Cat was working, and Ben was helping to paint the sets for the school play that was 2 weeks later.)

I think Malachi is saying something like,
"Look at your mom, Jack!"

Gideon (r) is now NINE!

Everyone tried out the punching bag arcade game right before we left.

Liza didn't have the best score, but she did have the best face.

My Birthday

I had a great birthday! Even though it fell on a Friday Ben took care of the kids in the morning so I got to SLEEP IN which was so nice. It's hard to beat that.

When I picked Luke up from school, he was anxious to go to the brand new Swig that opened up the street from his school. They were giving out a free cup of mini chocolate chip cookies and a free drink to each person in the car, so naturally, it was a pretty long line. It moved quickly though and I was glad I could make Luke's on-my-birthday wish come true!

That evening, the kids had their piano recital! (I'll post about that separately.) Since it was later in the evening, we all enjoyed a yummy dinner together before going to the recital.

Cat tried in vain to keep the desserts to herself.

When we got home I opened presents! I loved the new cookbook my friend sent me, and Ben and Cleo conspired to get me a pizza oven, peel, and turner. Awesome!

We had my traditional cake for dinner, then taught Robert how to play Up and Down the River. Cat explained that there are people in our family who get super competitive and sometimes make it not so fun to play this (and other) games. Then we played, and after 4 hands Robert was in the lead and Cat got so upset that we had to stop playing. (Cue Alanis Morisette.) We wrapped up the evening by watching an episode of The Office.

Birthday Love

January Miscellany

I was craving Christmas-y cookies that I didn't have time to make at
Christmas time, and the kids were kind enough to help on a Sunday afternoon.

We tried out a fun new game we got for Christmas called Rack-O.

Cat helped us finish up the tube of charcoal face mask goo.

When I walked downstairs to go to Choir rehearsal...
Liza: (With a touch of pre-teen snarkiness) Nice pantsuit.
Me: It's not a pantsuit. It's pants and a sweater.
Liza: Half a pantsuit.
Me: That's pants.

Jack finally started getting scheduled regularly in mid-January!

Why rake leaves when you can stage a battle?

They helped too though :-)

Battleship Showdown

Jack was in a Winterim that focused on music in film, and he loved it!
Over 2.5 weeks, the class watched a variety of movies starting with The Kid (1921)
and ending with Inception. For the final project, he worked with a small
group to make a 5-minute film and add music to it. Their film was about
a pair of inept detectives trying to solve a crime.

More Rack-O

For breakfast on Winnie-the-Pooh day, I attempted "Popovers for Piglet" from this
adorable Winnie-the-Pooh cookbook my good friend gave me but the popovers didn't,
ahem, pop over. So basically they were biscuits, but they still tasted pretty good.

When I requested Luke read some Winnie-the-Pooh out loud
that afternoon, he obliged.

Cat had a random day off of school during Winterim,
so she and I tried out a new Mexican place for lunch.

I love our nerd school!

I helped with Winterfest, which is where students showcase their Winterim
projects. It is also the time when the school celebrates Karl G. Maeser's
birthday. I felt some birthday decorations were in order in the front hall.

I got a kick out of seeing the Dean help Jack with his tie when he arrived
at Winterfest. Jack didn't think he needed help...

We had a very winter-y January. One morning I walked out on the driveway
to see little melted spots in the thin layer of snow. Before I got close to it,
I wasn't sure what caused the spots. A bit of morning rain maybe? I liked Luke's guess:
small rays of sunshine. It turned out to be salt Ben had spread out the night before.

I'm trying to get these guys to the temple 12 times this year.
Our first temple trip was to Draper and it was a great experience.

Cool balloons at the mall in Orem!

Gong xi fa cai

I love catching the kids reading, especially when they're
reading the scriptures. This year, Jack is making more of an effort
to read the Book of Mormon daily.

My new favorite picture of Eliza.
She got the spacer out from her top teeth,
but she had to get a mold taken so that the ortho
could give her a new device to maintain the space
that had been created.

Chicken tracks through the snow!

Visiting Cat on her last day working at our favorite Thai place!

We already miss her bringing leftovers home after every shift.
I guess we can just go eat there and that would be good too, but not as free.

Liza's first club volleyball tournament!

We were in and out all day but for a short time,
we were all there together cheering her on.

Is it possible to have too much fun at dinner? Perhaps...

We are trying to do more service as a family year-round.
In January, we assembled some winter kits to be sent to Ukraine, and
enlisted Raeya and Blake to help after a Feed the Freshmen Sunday dinner.

MLK Day

It was nice to have a day off with nothing planned. Ben and the girls tried to go skiing in the morning, but ended up getting turned away because the lot was full. While they were gone, the boys and I used Luke's fort kit to make a puppet theater.

Once Ben and the girls got home, we debated about what we should do in the next few hours before Cat was going out with her friends. We decided go to Tibble Fork for sledding. We didn't have very much time, but we had a lot of fun. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and there was so much snow that you couldn't sled on the fresh powder, because the snow would stop you. We had to just sled where people had already been sledding so the snow was smoothed out. It was also a little crowded - we weren't sure if we'd be able to park - but thank goodness we found a parking spot. Cat tried to get us to walk across the (almost completely frozen) reservoir to the really good sledding on the other side, but after attempting to wade through over a foot of powder and stepping on slushy ice underneath, Ben and I vetoed the idea. (We kept sledding out onto the surface of the reservoir, though, and felt safe about that...)

We got some lunch on the way home, then Cat and her friends actually turned around and went right back to the same place for sledding - trekking across the reservoir for the kind of high-intensity sledding teenagers love.