Wednesday, September 7, 2016

January and February 2015

After the excitement of moving to Utah right before Christmas (of 2014), and then the excitement of Christmas, we settled into January.  And January in Utah looked like this:                                                                           IMG_2791

It was a little bit hard to get used to.  I think living in Texas for the last 9 years had made me really wimpy with cold weather.  I had forgotten that for lots of months in a row you just have to wear a coat all the time.  Even inside!  After I figured that out it wasn’t so bad. 

Another thing I had to figure out: how in the world to manage all the snow clothes!  Six sets of snow pants and boots and gloves and hats and other things just sitting around in big wet piles all the time.  So we did a hook rack for the snow pants and some cubby things for boots and that kind of worked.                                        IMG_2803

Then Christmas break was over and it was time to be brave and go start the second semester at new schools.  Oliver, who was in the middle of 6th grade, which was in middle school in Texas, had to go back to elementary school.  He was bummed about this at first (But Mom!  Everything looks so tiny!), but he ended up having a great time and making lots of friends, which I think would have been harder going straight into a new junior high.  Henry also got to take it easy for second semester – in Texas he had been in all-day kindergarten, and here it was less than 3 hours.  Tristan was in 8th, and Cindy was home with me.  Cindy loved Henry’s new half-day schedule because it meant she had a built-in friend again.  IMG_2838

Sledding down a little “hill” in our backyard for hours.                                          2015 01 08_59472015 01 08_5950

BYU basketball!  One of the fun things about being back in Utah.  IMG_2850

When Henry was not home to play with Cindy, she had to make do with me.  She made me lots of fancy rings and bracelets.  She named all of the bracelets she made, and they were such fantastic names I wrote some of them down on a note in my phone:

1.  Queen Anna Pretty Pretty Princess Queen

2.  Awesome Alien Pretty Queen That Is A Girl And It Could Fly

3.  Schlitterbahn Ride Bracelet Queen (Schlitterbahn is a waterpark in Texas)

4.  Alien Pretty Princess Queen Anna Elsa Pretty Princess

So basically, if you are having a hard time coming up with super awesome names for your children, you know who to come to.IMG_2979

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Other fun things in January:

Skiing with the Young Men in our ward, a first for both Tristan and Oliver.  They loved it.  !cid_287844B3-E02E-45BC-9FAA-F9B8467B39A7

Getting to see so many animals.  The big hill behind our rental house was home to tons of deer and also a fox.  There were exciting animal things going on almost every time we looked out the windows.  2015 01 27_5892

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Rachel and Lizza also played several hundred games of Dutch Blitz:IMG_2976

And Henry did several hundred puzzles:2015 01 21_5919

And there were lots of cozy evenings by the fire:2015 01 25_5897

FEBRUARY

February was actually a lot warmer.  After a few weeks of snow and cold in January, it turned into a really mild winter.  Which was nice for swinging outside in shorts and bare feet.

Cousin Maximus, Henry, Cynthia:2015 02 05_6047     

My kids were seriously in heaven with our backyard. It was the complete opposite of our yard in Texas.  All these pictures are just from one day of backyard adventure:

Early Saturday morning.  Kids in pajamas outside.  Some sort of sign with arrows has been constructed, and there are snacks involved.                                                            2015 02 07_5977

Balancing on rocks in a nightgown:                          2015 02 07_5984

Attempting a little basketball:                            2015 02 07_5990

More snacks:2015 02 07_5999

Underdogs:                                                   2015 02 07_6005

Monkey bar training:2015 02 07_6009

Joined by the older boys for some more basketball:IMG_3013

Digging a giant hole for no reason.  I love how all the kids except Cindy have changed out of pajamas by this point in the day; She just threw a cardigan over her nightgown and called it good:IMG_3009

The proud hole digger.  I think they took apart the sign they had made earlier to measure the digging progress:                                                         2015 02 07_6037

“Mom, look out the window because this is a really deep hole!”IMG_3017

Anyway, that kind of day was on repeat all year long. 

Other February things:

Reading inside by the fire:IMG_3026

When we first moved in I didn’t unpack most of our books – I was hoping that it would make our next move easier if I kept some stuff in boxes, and I figured we could get by on lots of library books.  Little by little I started bringing in some of the book boxes, and it was like Christmas for Cynthia every time.  A new box brought in meant at least an hour of her sitting quietly surrounded by stacks and stacks of books.  Probably worth having to re-pack them up at the end of the year.  IMG_3030

Daniel had a long work trip for Dell that involved going to both Bangalore, India, and Shanghai, China:IMG_1298

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Meanwhile, back at home we were getting ready for Valentine’s Day.  This year it was chocolate drizzled pretzels.  Times a billion.                               IMG_3077

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And Tristan got up early to make everyone french toast with strawberry sauce.  I love having kids who think it’s fun to take over the cooking once in awhile.  I also love how in this picture Oliver is trying to figure out how to tie a tie by watching a tutorial on youtube or something.  He had to dress fancy for the 6th grade Valentine’s dance.  IMG_3082

Henry and Cindy at the Hogle Zoo with my sister and her kids.  IMG_3093IMG_3111

Daniel sharing all the treasures he brought home from India and China:2015 02 14_5968

A little bit more snow:2015 02 16_5957

Lizza and a pretty small snowman.  She must have gathered up all of the snow in the yard to make this.IMG_3158

A Taco Time picnic in the front yard under warm February sun.  Cindy and I had to go pick up Henry from school every day right at lunch time, so somethimes this happened.  IMG_3172

Triple spider swinging.  With varying amounts of footwear.                                      2015 02 19_61912015 02 19_6194

Another BYU basketball game:IMG_3179

Campout for Tristan and Oliver:IMG_3185

A hike with the family near Dry Creek, just a few minutes away from our house. IMG_3187

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Mid-hike, Daniel took the older kids on a little off-trail adventure:IMG_1367

I stayed back on the trail with Cindy and we took hundreds of slow-motion jumping off rock pictures:IMG_3210

Pretty soon we got high enough that the trail turned to snow:IMG_3226

Playing around in a snowy meadow:IMG_3229

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On the way back, looking down at Alpine.  I can’t believe we live in such a pretty place.  When we first moved back to Utah, we thought we would build or buy anywhere in Utah County, but after living in our rental house for only a few months we were pretty sure we didn’t want to leave Alpine (and we didn’t).  IMG_1373

A typical day’s set-up for Cindy while she waits for Henry to get home from kindergarten: some toy buckets, lots of puzzles, and stacks of books:                          IMG_3308

More triple spider swinging.  This time with a stander!2015 02 26_61842015 02 26_6190

Cinnamon-sugar french toast made by one of the kids and brought to me in bed.  I can’t remember why this happened.  Just for fun, I guess.                                                                                          IMG_3311

Also just for fun:  Henry sweeping the floor in his spiderman suit.  We had reached a point where I realized that my younger kids were never going to advance past the “put away the silverware and that’s your only job” stage unless I actually taught them how to do the jobs all the older kids were doing.  So we made a weekly rotation and Henry started learning.  Kind of painful, but still mostly a good thing.                        IMG_3319

The end.