January and February Fun

Dexter and Ellie have really started to like playing games.  We play Go Fish, War, Chump, and their board games a lot.  There's even a few grown up games they like to play with us, and their cooperative.

Oreo's are a favorite treat for FHE - we tried the cinnamon kind here

It is winter time, which my least favorite month up here.  This year January ended up being beautiful with only a day or two of inversion, in the past it has lasted a whole month.  February though we ended up with a moderate inversion for a few weeks.  Since it's hard to describe the grossness this is, I took pictures from my back porch.

Most days, seeing the mountains all around, and the gorgeous blue skies

Inversion days - this view can last many days,Where's the sun...supposed to be out since it's noon.

One of my favorite Christmas gifts, is also a big hit with the kids.  This vacuum is awesome.

Handsome boy who sits up by himself now

Somebody was tired, but just wanted to be held

 Flynn has started eating solid foods.  We started off with number ones, but loved eating our table scraps and rice rusks.  So he quickly adjusted and now eats anything and everything.

My least favorite stage has begun - solid foods

 Kyle's cousin Tracy was in Utah momentarily, so we met up with her at Farmington Station.  It had been nicer during the day, then turned cold once we got there.  Afterwards the kids explored the area a bit, and found all the swan statues.

It wasn't as fun as they thought to hop on it since the statue was freezing cold

 We had a fun Valentine's day.  Nub Nub sent them a package with some goodies.

Conversation hearts!

Playing with one of the gifts

 On actual V-Day I tried to be fancy with Ellie's hair, and do a heart in it.

Can you see the braided heart?

 Dexter had a fun time with his preschool's class party, and here's the mailbox they made while there. 

He decorated the box all by himself

The day after, President's Day, was a beautiful day.  Kyle and I took the kids out to a restaurant to have a family v-day date together.  The kids liked going to a real restaurant.  It was also a gorgeous day outside, and so we played out there as well.

Finally got some bike riding in

He can roll all over the house.

Roly Poly

Another nice-ish day, so we went rollin' through the hood

 Sometimes on those gorgeous days, it's hard to remember that it's still winter.  We had gone to the treehouse for some fun, and while there the weather dramatically changed.  Suddenly it was snowing.  I'm pretty sure I heard many groans that day when parents looked out the window to see snow coming down in the strong wind.

That snow in the top right was new

Dexter used to not care about this station, and now we always stop here

An inch or two of slush, and lots pelting us in the face

 I've been working on getting my piano skills back.  I'm still decent at sight reading, but never really stick to a song to truly get it perfect.  Our YW were singing one called "Press Forward" and I'd thought I'd try to learn the accompanient.  It was a really tough one for me, and I practiced lots.  I even counted the timing out!  I didn't get as good as I needed to be for the performance of it, but I felt proud that I had gotten far on it anyways.

My piano is a little worn and has 5 keys eternally stuck

 One of my best friends from college, Caryn, works up in Ogden near the Treehouse.  So one day we met up with her for lunch at Kneader's.  It was quick, but fun to see her again.

Grilled cheese, potato chips and chocolate milk was my bargaining power for the visit

 Ellie is starting to like me to do her hair, as long as she gets a say in it.

Bun in her hair

Just like Mom

 There was another gorgeous weekend.  I had bought some passes via a deal's site for the Ogden Dinosaur Park.  We had packed up for the USAF museum, but when I reminded Kyle we should use those passes another time, the kids heard.  And they only wanted the dino park.  They had gone with my parents before, and apparently liked it.

Trying to eat grass while the big kids played on the playground

 I am working with Dexter almost every weekday on reading.  He is progressing great, and is excited to read.  He even sneaks peeks at future lessons to see what sounds are coming up.  It's a great lesson book I'm using, and tells me exactly what to say during our lessons and the lessons have only been like 10 minutes.

Sneak peak into a future lesson

 He played with one of his Christmas presents, Bunch'Ems while Ellie and I were gone.  When we got back Ellie wanted to join.  We pulled her hair back great so that there wouldn't be an easy way for these velcro balls to get stuck in her hair.

His dragonfly

 No inversion, just a cool picture of fog below, rain clouds, and a new front coming and pushing them away.

Fog below and blue sky above

 In preschool Dexter has passed off his address, my cell phone number, and this snake is the treasure he picked for counting to 100 by 1's.

Practiced really hard to earn that snake

 Ellie is our crazy face girl.  She always loves to take pictures with people or by herself and just do some silly faces.  Here I was trying to get photos of our family, when she jumped to be in front of it.  There were many, many more of these.

We finally got a group one