If February went quickly, then March and most of April has zoomed by. . . either that or I'm just finding it harder to update this blog of all of our happenings. So here's our March and most of April in a nut-Schnell. After we celebrated Amelia's birthday, we went to get her ear's pierced. I was hesitant, but she was so excited and brave!
We also went to Boomshaka to celebrate Amelia's birthday, rather than having a birthday party. So fun and so much easier!
I help out in Sophie's class every week and was able to go with them on their field trip to the Children's Museum. Gratefully, the four kids I had mostly stuck together, making my job much easier.
Our Relief Society had a "formal attire" event to celebrate the Relief Society's birthday. I wore this outfit that one of my employees from Africa gave me over 10 years ago and I've never had anywhere appropriate to wear it. Yeah for fun events!
March 24th was a great day - Amelia chose to be baptized.
It was a small family affair, with only 2 other couples there, but the Spirit was there, and that's the most important part.
I'm proud of Amelia for doing something she knew was right, even with her small testimony.
When you take out your earrings at night, after your ears have only been pierced for 3-weeks, and you have a young, healthy body, the result is closed in holes the next morning 😞 Amelia was brave and got her ears re-pierced . . . and put up with another 3-weeks of maintaining newly pierced ears.
For Spring Break, we headed to UT to spend some time with my Dad. Since we were traveling over Easter weekend, we had an Easter egg hunt and dyed Easter eggs while we were at Grandpa's house.
And of course we got ice cream (at least once). This time was with cousin Richelle, in the snow!
We spent a day doing "UT" things. We toured the newly renovated Jordan River temple. The girls were excited to go inside a temple, but I think Amelia was a bit disappointed that it didn't look like a palace inside, ha-ha.
We went to This is the Place Heritage Park and had fun being a pioneer.
And we ended the day by doing a quick tour of the Conference Center in Salt Lake. By that time, the girls were tired and not so excited to have their pictures taken, ha-ha.
One day my Dad showed the girls how he used to dye Easter eggs - with onion skins. I've seen the finished product many times, but I've never seen how it was done . . . so we all thought it was cool.
We had a play date with friends who used to live on our street in WA, who now live in Layton. How we've missed them!
But the best part of the whole week was spending time with my Dad - visiting, working together, and watching him play with my girls. It's hard being so far away from my Dad, so the time we spend together is precious.
Ken had a birthday this month, but I realized we didn't get a single picture - happy birthday to him anyway! I'm sure there was more for April, but that's it in a nut-Schnell for now!
February went by too quickly . . . and we weren't even that busy. I'm participating in a #bebetter52 challenge this year, and each week we get an assignment to help us become better people. The week of Valentine's Day, we were challenged to write love notes to random strangers. I stuck a note in the mail slot for the mailman, put up notes in the teacher's lounges at the Elementary school, and put hearts on random neighbor's houses. I have no idea what anyone's reactions were, but I hope at least one heart made someone's day - I know it made mine.
This year Ken and I are putting more of a specific focus on Family Home Evening, to help Amelia prepare for baptism. These are snap-shots of my lesson on preventing "spiritual eclipses". Moon pies and Capri Sun drinks were the treats that evening :) I wish I had the mental energy to always plan such fun FHEs . . . they definitely go over much better with the kids . . . but life goes on and we do the best we can.
Both girls love playing music with Daddy . . . and that often takes many forms. More cowbell Sophie! And don't mind the photo-bomb at the end ;)
Sophie LOVES helping Ken work out in the yard . . . even when equipment and/or tools are too heavy/ hard for her to use. We'll thank her this summer for our green, moss-free lawn ;)
Ken and the girls had President's Day off, so we headed up the mountain for a little fun in the snow.
We had sleds, but Sophie wanted to try her own way of doing things . . . and had just as much fun.
When the girls tired of sledding, there was always snow to play in. They started digging this hole and were using it for their "house" by the time we left.
I love how their different personalties come out, how they each chose to be when they asked me to take a picture of them in their "house".
A few days later, we got snow at our house! I caught this sunrise at the end of our street.
And with the snow, of course comes a snow day. And playing outside as much and as long as possible.
Sometimes, the snowball is just a bit too big to push, but that doesn't stop Sophie!
The last week of February, I had the opportunity to do a business trip in Milpitas, CA, which put me 15 min. away from one of my dear friends. We got together for dinner and catching up like old friends do.
And suddenly we're into March, and celebrating Amelia's 8th birthday! I can not believe this sweet girl is already 8. She helped me make her lemon blueberry birthday cake, including decorating it, and loved every minute of eating it. She loved the cake so much, she wanted to share it, so we delivered chunks of cake to a few of her friends! Love her generous spirit!
Here I go, getting all caught up again. December was not the crazy month it usually is, and we enjoyed many fun activities. When you live in the Pacific NW, you often have to get your Christmas tree in the rain . . .
. . . and find one we did! 11 ft tall . . . thank goodness for a big car and vaulted ceilings at home.
Meanwhile, when your children are bored, but creative, they find new ways to entertain themselves.
The elementary hosted another Math night - this one themed around cookies and decorations . . so of course they got to decorate a sugar cookie girl. So fun!
Next came the gingerbread house making. Some day, perhaps, I'll be brave/ adventurous enough to make my gingerbread from scratch, but for now, the kits are cheap and easy to assemble.
And the girls only needed minimal help from me.
Sophie was in a tap dance class through the city of Lacey's Park & Rec. Her teacher arranged for the 6 little tappers to dance to "live music" as part of the American Legion's Christmas concert band.
She did great and was thrilled that her Kindergarten teacher even came to see it :)
Meanwhile, my oven stopped working, due to an electrical short in the control panel. So we were all excited to be invited to our friend's house to decorate sugar cookies before Christmas since we couldn't do it at home.
On our way home from church on Christmas Eve, it started to snow.
And even though it didn't snow a lot, the girls managed to get enough together to make a snowman!
The week after Christmas, we hired a company to trim some of our oak trees out front. I am so glad that is not my job!
But we all had fun sitting in our driveway watching the "tree monkeys" (as Sophie called them) do their job. Pretty impressive!
The best present the girls got for Christmas was the swing set that Ken built for them - and he got it done on New Year's Day. If it's not raining or dark outside, the girls are on the swing!
45 only comes once and I celebrated my birthday over a few days with my friends and family. A few of us went to the Painted Plate in Olympia - it was so much fun.
The finished product.
Ken and the girls got me a new USU t-shirt - go Aggies!
And because the girls didn't have school on Jan. 15, we decorated sugar cookies, since we didn't get to do them at Christmas. I was without my oven for 3 weeks and I've never been happier to bake and bake and bake!
We celebrated as a family for my birthday by going out to eat. The girls ate just as much sushi as Ken and I did! Happy Birthday to me!
Is anyone else thankful that their November wasn't as crazy as their October? No? Just me? It was so uneventful, we hardly have any pictures from the month's activities. On Nov. 4, I took the girls to Disney on Ice - an early Christmas present from their Grandma Diane. The girls loved seeing the princesses skating around on the ice, but there were a few princesses the girls didn't recognize . . . oh well, there are worse things, right?
Then the next weekend was Providence Night at the Children's Museum. Here are the girls doing their best to look tough, ha-ha. We love the Children's Museum and even more when it is free and sparsely populated.
And for Thanksgiving, we went to Ken's dad's house in Montana. We were able to drive there and back without incident and enjoyed a few days hanging out with Grandpa. I convinced Grandpa to play a game with the girls . . . and he taught them that shaking the dice under their armpits was lucky 😂 It worked for Sophie - she was the winner!
While we were in MT, we raced to the carousel in Missoula and made it on the last ride of the night. Who knew the carousel went 7.8 mi/hr? Hold on tight girls!
And that's it . . . . can you believe it? I am grateful that I had a month to focus on things we were grateful for. I am ready for December . . . and hoping that we can #LighttheWorld.
I've heard more than one person say it, but the last week of October was crazy! And it didn't help that it was half-day at school all week, due to Parent Teacher Conferences. Amelia had her gymnastics class on Wed. and climbed the rope, not once, but TWICE. That girl has some strong arms . . . probably from her repetitive monkey bars and handstands!
Then it was Sophie's 6th birthday! Can you believe this sweet thing is 6? I can't. For her birthday, she chose a sushi place for dinner. Sophie and Amelia gobbled up the sushi so fast, I didn't even get to take a picture of our yummy dinner . . . but I did get this "great" family picture . . . his side and her side of the booth, ha-ha.
The next night was the elementary school's Harvest Carnival and the girls got to wear their Halloween costumes. I have fond memories of Halloween carnivals at my school when I was their age, unfortunately, this was nothing like that. There were lots of fun activities for the kids, but no one had taken into account that many people would be standing in line for these events and they had 90% of them crammed in the gym. But . . . the girls had fun, and that's the important part.
And then on Saturday was Sophie's birthday party . . . at Skateland. It was so fun to watch everyone skate and to watch them helping each other out.
Sophie doesn't like cake, so I figured an ice cream "cake/ pie" would be perfect. Plus it is super easy to make, and a whole lot cheaper than buying one. I didn't take into consideration, however, that we weren't going to be out our house, which would make it a bit tricky when it came to serving. Let's just say that it tasted delicious, was super messy, and as for the crust? What crust? (I may or may not have eaten the crust at home since it was the only part leftover.)
.
Sophie was excited to get not one, but two musical instruments for her birthday - a guitar and a harmonica. . . . and maybe someday she'll learn how to play them both at the same time :)
On Monday, it "rained" leaves all day long, and with it being so sunny and dry, the girls and I thought we'd help Ken rake up the leaves before the rains came in. I am thankful that my girls like to help . . . even if their help didn't last long, they actually were quite helpful.
Ken carved pumpkins with the girls on Sunday night while I was at choir practice, so the only picture I have of them and their pumpkins is this one I took on Halloween after school prior to trick-or-treating. The weather was so warm, Amelia ended up in shorts that day.
And with that, October is over . . . phew! I'm thankful that November is looking less busy!
So, I'm trying a new thing . . . it's called "posting a bit at a time" instead of "posting an overload of pictures and tidbits". We'll see if I can keep this up!
I was lucky to go on Sophie's field trip to Hunter Farm to the pumpkin patch, and even luckier that it was not only dry, but warm too!
The first weekend of Oct. was Lacey's "Children's Day". I've never taken the girls because it usually falls on the weekend of General Conference, but this year they didn't conflict, so off we went to spend a few hours doing crafts, winning prizes, and enjoying that it wasn't raining . . . and when it started to rain, we headed home.
Oct. 14 was Utah State University's Homecoming . . . and the game was being shown for free on Facebook. I put on my game shirt and spent a few hours watching my Aggies come from ahead to lose. Oh well, not everyone can be a winner, right? ;)
The year is coming to a close, and with it, the joy of sleeping in and playing around on Sunday mornings before church. Sophie built this cute play dough monster . . .
while Amelia zoomed back and forth on this block base with wheels. I'm surprised she didn't break it . . . and even more surprised that I didn't stop her from doing it. For better or worse, my "I don't care" portion of my brain is getting bigger. :)
