A lot of January was spent getting settled in our new house and finding a spot for everything. Luckily, one of the best things about the new house is that is has a spot for everything. Including this little extra room in an upstairs loft that was just perfect for games and puzzles – now when Henry wants to start a 1,000 piece puzzle right before dinner it’s no problem.
We also organized a wall in the garage just for fishing gear:
And an extra bedroom downstairs just for Legos – dreams coming true right here.
Finishing the paint in the garage wasn’t quite as fun as organizing Legos, but it was just as satisfying when it was done:
January was also for playing in the snow. So much snow!
Daniel took the kids on an adventure/exploring walk out behind our house. They found this owl and this fort.
And here’s a picture I sent Daniel when he was out of town and I couldn’t get our van up the driveway into the garage:
At least it is pretty to look at. This is the view from my bedroom window.
More January things:
Nerf weapon target practice:
Tristan in the kitchen. He loves cooking and finding new recipes online. Here is is making two of his specialties, crepes and fried rice:
Winter fly-fishing – so pretty, but really hard to tie the flies with frozen hands:
Three little monkeys in Rachel’s bed. They always start out in their own room, but generally end up in with her before the night is over. She is a good sport, always.
Six dentist appointments. Nothing like having a nice long wait in the waiting room with a good book:
Foosball with cousins:
Here’s a fun January video of Cynthia playing one of her favorite “Let’s Pretend” games. This version worked like this: whatever age you are, you get to pick that number of things from a store (whatever you want, mom!) and keep them for free. She was five, so she lists the five things she would pick:
1) Treats (skittles, specifically)
2) A Littlest Pet Shop toy
3) A Strider bike (I pointed out to her that she already had a bike, and she looked at me like I was stupid and explained that in the game you don’t have anything when you start. It makes her list even funnier to think that these are the five things she’d pick if she was starting completely from scratch)
4) A tool (we had just been to a hardware store and she had seen the cutest little mini hammers and I guess decided that would be among her top five things. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m realizing that’s what gave her the idea for her little game – she really wanted that hammer).
5) A whole bag of every kind of fruit except not durian (I love that she made sure to not include durian in her special bag of every kind of fruit. Durian is a super nasty smelly fruit that grows in Malaysia. She’s never even tried it, but she’s heard Daniel talk about it from his mission days, and she for sure knows she never wants it. Even in pretend games.)
Other things I love about this video:
-how she is wearing a fancy formal gown with rain boots. She was going through a “wear a dress every single day phase”.
-the look of happiness on her face at the end when she imagines being able to help me pick out my 35 free things
February
Then it was February.
Here we are at the Provo City Center Temple Open House. The only thing that makes me sad about these pictures is remembering that Cynthia was sooo excited to go to the temple, and she really wanted to wear all white to pretend she was a bride, and when she got ready to go she had put on a white cardigan over her dress, and I can’t remember if it was too small or dirty or what, but for some reason I made her go change, and she didn’t have another white one, so she put on this green one, but was really devastated about not being in all white. When I see her posing in her fancy white dress, I wish I would have just let her wear what she wanted, like I usually do.
The rest of February she clearly did wear whatever she wanted. Here she is in a Seahawks t-shirt paired with a fancy skirt and green star pants. She was a really big fan of loading up her stroller with all the babies and pets in the house. Now that she is in first grade and gone a lot of the day, it’s fun to look back on these pictures and remember how great it was to hang out with her while the older kids were all at school. Every single day was an adventure, but in an easy way – she was really good at entertaining herself. She’d just load up all her stuff and come hang out in whatever room I was in.
I have a video clip of her on this day. I was asking her about all the many children in her stroller (there are five – you can’t see them, but four are stuffed into the back). She told me that she was an 8-year old child but her mom went to another country and left her in charge of all the little children. Their names were Sarah, Summer & Spring (twins), Ella, and Tiny (I guess after naming four girls she was too exhausted to come up with anything decent for the fifth).
Just a busy mom waiting on a bench at the junior high with her slippers and her baby in a pack:
On this day she told me she was about to go to a rainforest in Brazil to do some exploring. She was 8 years old (again), and taking care of her mother’s children (again – where the heck is her mother, I wonder?) This time she was taking a few bunnies with her, and she told me the girl bunnies have wings and they can fly. They help her find other animals to collect while she’s exploring (so I guess they’re like tracker bunnies?). Love her exploring outfit.
When she wasn’t exploring in rainforests or looking after all her mother’s children, she would bring buckets of toys to wherever I was and work on setups.
Different day, same dress. It was a favorite of hers.
She also did a lot of reading. Here she is all tucked in on the couch with a couple of pillows to keep her warm.
When she was done doing all those things, she would go wait outside for the kids to get home from school. She loved to watch the clock all day long, and she always would tell me when it was time for snack or lunch, and she knew exactly when the bus was going to drop the kids off.
Other February things:
More wintery fly-fishing on the Provo River:
Banana splits:
Deer in the front yard. There are so many deer that live around our house and we love it. I guess if I had a garden I wouldn’t, but for now we always think it’s fun to see them.
Rachel with the castle she made for her Valentines box:
Henry doing puzzles:
Henry and Rachel climbing a tree in the backyard:
Lizza working on making cute little things out of rubber bands:
And then defending her room from trespassers:
I love the signs that she and Rachel made. They weren’t messing around.
Me and Daniel up at Sundance on our 16th wedding anniversary:
Riding bikes:
Playing Bocce ball:
And hiking up to the top of the hill behind our house. We really love where we live.
Last February thing: Henry doing his best to start another band. He’s always trying to start bands.
No comments:
Post a Comment