February in a really big nutshell

Remember the paper snowflakes on Saturday January 30th?  Well, that night we were forecasted to get a "light dusting" of snow before a big storm moved in on Monday afternoon.  Our light dusting started early Saturday evening and continued through to Sunday night.  By Monday morning it was sunny and there was a good 4-6 inches on the ground.  So much for "light dusting".  School was closed and I was a bit baffled, honestly.  A lot of times "big storms" around here turn out to be a bust because the storm will change paths over the mountains and end up somewhere else.  I thought that was turning out to be the case.  The snow on the ground confused me and I was sure we were all going to regret using the snow day.  That is, I thought that until Monday afternoon when the snow started.  Holy hannah, it snowed for nearly 48 hours straight.  Now, I've been spoiled in Colorado for 8 years.  We are one of the sunniest states and have over 300 days of sunlight.  There can be snow and sun, rain and sun (hence all of the rainbows we get which are amazing), anything AND sun.  But this storm blocked out the light for nearly 48 hours.  It was really depressing.

Here was our snow total for the storm.  That is in addition to the snow that was on the ground when the storm started.  Yep, 2 feet of snow! 

The kids got 3 snow days for the weather and then a 2 hour delay.  And then on Thursday night it snowed another 2 inches.  Just to make sure we all remembered it is winter!  

After staring at our walls for so long, on Wednesday morning Bree asked me to paint her room purple.  I had been planning on redesigning her room at some point this year as she will eventually transition out of her crib and with being stuck inside the house all day I thought, "Why not?!"  I't's not like we had anything else to do.

Here's the before shot of one corner of her room.

First I started with rearranging her furniture to see what she thought and how much room we would have for the things I was planning.  She likes her crib moved to this wall, but won't sleep with it this way.  So, we have moved it back on that far wall for now and will plan on setting her bed up on this wall.  I also plan on painting that nightstand for her.  Just as soon as I figure out what color we want it.

Next we went to Home Depot to get some color chips.  It was Wednesday during the last of the snow days and the store was desserted!  I had at least three Home Depot employees standing with us at the paint section offering their opinions.  It was really funny.  We only live a mile from the store but the roads weren't that bad getting there.  I was really surprised we were some of the only ones out that day.  But considering the weather I had no plans to actually start painting that day.  I thought we'd just dream of what we wanted to do.  Bree had other plans that day, though.

That afternoon Kai had piano lessons and Bree had fallen asleep in the car on the way there.  She woke up as we were driving away at the end of the lesson and she said something along the lines of now that she had taken her nap, could we please go buy her purple paint?  Oh, the cuteness.  We made a detour on the way home from piano to pick up a small paint sample and these awesome transparent paint pages.  While I cooked dinner Bree painted her purple paint on this page which we could then take off and stick to the wall and see how it looked and how many coats of paint we would need to cover up the current beige on her wall.

Thursday morning we put her paint sample up and loved it.  It was definitely the right color.  So, then she wanted a lot of paint to paint the rest of the wall.  So, back to Home Depot we went.  It was a lot more crowded this time but we managed to get everything we needed to start painting her walls purple.

She could not wait to get started!

She got cold painting like this after a while so I found some jammies and we now call them her painting jammies.  She loved using the little roller and helping me out.  She even sang a song while painting about how much she loved to paint her room purple.

Yep, paint in the hair!

Thursday we just did one wall.  On Friday we worked on two other walls.  The plan was to paint 3 of the walls purple and then paint the wall with the closet an accent color.  We have since decided that the other color will be white.

With some influence from her brother Bree was not as patient of a painter on Friday.  She got a bit more rowdy with him around and so eventually I sent them down to watch TV while I worked on the walls.  I got all done but one small spot on the last wall.  I ended up going back to the store a week later to get a little more to cover up the last spot.  

We had to take a break from painting because this happened.  Poor girl was running a high fever Friday night.  I had heard a wet cough starting while I was painting on Friday afternoon but it was so infrequent I hoped it would blow over.  But by the evening she was at 102 and climbing.  The next morning I was exhausted as she did not sleep well.  The boys had both been fighting colds that included stuffy noses.  I had a moment of "epiphany" on Saturday in the shower and decided to try to run her into the pediatrician's weekend clinic.  I called and easily got a time with our primary care which was a sign to me that I really needed to take her in.  (We never get into our primary care for sick appointments and on Saturday when there is only one doctor--it was meant to be!)  I took her in and they got her fever at 102.6.  I told the doctor I was suspecting an ear infection (based on the boys' stuffy noses I had a feeling she might have had one as well).  One ear looked great but the other one was in the early stages of infection.  I was right and we had cuaght it super early and were able to start her on antibiotics quickly  She ended up running a high fever for another 2 days and then slowly it tapered off.  Her last fever was on Wednesday morning (which was key because I needed to be at school for the Valentine's parties the next day and she needed to be fever free for 24 hours).  Thankfully she made the 24-hour period and had 5 days of antibiotics in her so she was doing better by the time class parties rolled around.

Our neighbors are getting a large addition put on their home.  During the week we were home sick we saw this.  It was fun to see such a super tall crane right outside the boys' room window.  It was putting on the roof for them.  This construction has been going on for three months now and it still looks like there is another month or so to go.

While we were home sick we had lots to do to get ready for class parties.  First up was to make the boys' Valentine's to pass out.  Both boys wanted Lego Star Wars this year, so this was super simple and fun.  (I don't know why Blogger turned this picture upside down.)

Kai wanted an x-wing fighter for his Valentine  box.  Reid spent Tuesday night building it out of a shoe box, extra cardboard, empty water bottles, pencils, and tape and then on Wednesday I spray painted it.

Also on Wednesday Bree and I made over 40 "Love Bug" fruit cups for party refreshments.

The x-wing was ready to go by Thursday morning.

As were teacher treats.

Class parties were held on Thursday February 11th as the district had the 12th off as part of a long weekend for President's Day.  We took advantage of the Friday off and went to the zoo.  It wasn't too cold and we all had a great time.  Kai is finally consistently brave enough to feed the giraffes.

Not long after we got there it was lunch time.  We found ourselves a picnic table and sat down for our lunch.  Finn had tostitos, Bree had cheese and an apple, and Kai had Vienna sausages and Go-gurt.  I had crackers and humus.  It was a fantastic picnic!  I was only going to post one picture but these 5 pictures tell a story of what was really happening as I tried to get a picture.  Flip through them real fast and you will see.

I finally got back to painting and managed to finish all 3 purple walls.  Here's a close up of the color afterward compared to the before.

The bedroom project continues as does another project that I will mention later.  I have been doing a lot of research and shopping and Bree has been patient running form store to store with me.  Last week we sat down to play for just a bit and she wanted to do playdough.  We made a bird family.  At least I was able to convince her they were birds.  :)

Finn has lost two bottom teeth.  I was concerned that the right front tooth was coming in behind his other teeth, but at his dentist appointment this week the dentist was not at all concerned.  He said that the tongue would push the tooth forward.  He did, however, ask if Finn had any trauma to his two upper front teeth.  Apparently there are no roots at all on those teeth and he is just one fall away from knocking them out "too soon". There is a large gap between the baby teeth and the adult teeth so when those baby teeth fall out he is going to be toothless for quite a while.  Yikes!  I don't remember any specific trauma, but with Finn you just never know.  He's my adventure-loving, active kid.  Anything is possible.  He did great at the dentist this week, though.  He got all of his teeth fully cleaned for the first time and he got x-rays for the first time.  They have been trying to get all of that done for three years and we finally got him to let them do it.  Wahoo!  All of the kids saw the dentist this week and all of them are cavity-free.

We had one busy night on Tuesday the 23rd.  Kai had his Blue and Gold Banquet (Star Wars themed) at 5pm.  There was a hot dog bar and some great desserts and the boys made some light sabers.  Then from there we went straight to the Science Fair at school.  I'm so glad that the Science Fair isn't required at our school.  We always opt-out, but this year they had some really interesting displays that I thought the kids would enjoy so we made plans to stop in.  This was one of the stations.  The kids got to put on masks and stand in front of this backdrop of the moon.  The kid in the middle is a little guy from our ward that was just way too excited to wait for me to finish taking pictures of my kids!  :)  

The rest of February has been filled with shopping and searching for ideas for a master bathroom remodel.  Home Depot is a frequent stop and I've made friends at the local tile store.  I'm hoping to have some decisions made soon so that we can get started on remodeling the bathroom and I'm also hoping to be done painting Bree's room soon.  Because after that I am moving on to trim....yikes!

January at a glance

On New Year's Day we finally got around to building Kai's volcano from his volcano kit that he had received for his birthday last year.  The kids had fun learning about plaster of paris and paper mache.  It took a few days to dry and then Kai painted it.  It is all done but we still haven't set off an eruption yet.  

I made Kai take off his shirt for this mess.  I had no idea what it would do to clothing and didn't want to find out.

On January 2nd it was one of Reid's last days off of work so we headed up to the temple together.  Bree fell asleep in the car on the way there so Reid took the boys out and walked around the temple and talked.  When they got back to the car, Bree woke up and wanted to go on the walk, too.  So, I got to walk with all 3 kids while Reid sat in the car.  Reid took this picture for us as we were getting ready to leave.  (Kai needed to visit a religious monument for scouts and make a visual, so we needed the picture.)

I love my time with this girl.  One morning while I was talking on the phone Bree was helping me take the last of the ornaments off of the tree.  Too bad she couldn't use her magical fairy dust to also get the tree into the garage!

Just a few days after going back to school from the break we had weather like this.  It was January 9th and so I'm sure they didn't want to close schools.  Plus our district was already getting nervous about all of the snow days we had used in November (!) that we were already starting to make them up.  (The kids had an extra day of school before winter break even began.)  It turned out not to be too horrible at the bus stop times (8:30am and 4pm) but this was what the roads looked like we had to take Finn at 12:45pm.  I was sliding everywhere and was very nervous.  But it turned out ok.

She is my shadow and I love it.  She loves to "spin" the apples and then eat them.  

She also loves dress up.  :)

Nothing like spending an entire Saturday with your dad building a Lego Millenium Falcon.  This honestly took them nearly the whole day the Saturday before MLK Day.

For the MLK holiday we decided to go ice skating.  And apparently so did the rest of the town!  I have never seen the Air Force Academy Ice Arena this crowded.  There was a 20 minute line just to pay and rent our skates.  And then they were all out of the walkers.  My kids were upset (read that as the boys were upset!) and were not wanting to go out on the ice without a walker.  Bree on the other hand had no fear and wanted to get out there.  So, I was left with two boys whining/crying clinging to the edge of the rink and me skating right behind a two year old who had no patience and wouldn't stop.  Thankfully, we had invited some friends from the ward to join us and just a couple of them took us up on the offer.  One of my older senior Primary girls was there and she saw me struggling with the kids and jumped in to help.  She took it upon herself to watch the walkers and see when one became available.  With the help of a walker the boys could take turns skating and then the remaining boy could hold onto her hand and the hand of her friend and skate in between them.  This left me free to chase after Bree.  Eventually the crowd started thinning out and there were walkers available for all 3 kids and my kids were heaven.  I was so glad that our senior primary friend was there to help us get through that first hour or so because I'm not sure we would have been able to stick it out on our own.  Once the crowds thinned out on the ice my kids were having a blast and after having spent an hour on the ice both boys were brave enough to try to skate by themselves with out the walkers and they both could do it.  The public skate time is only 2 1/2 hours.  With being a little late and the line to even get started we got in about an hour and 45 minutes of skating and it was a lot of fun!  It wiped out Bree who fell asleep as soon as she hit her carseat and my boys were also pretty mellow and happy the rest of the afternoon.  I'm sure bringing a friend home from the ice arena for a playdate afterward also helped.  

A graham cracker snack break before hitting the ice again.

The BEST picture ever.  She fell a lot but always got up and kept going.  She keeps begging to go back.

Look Mom!  No hands!

On the right of this picture you see Bree and Tate skating.  On the left is Finn.  Tate is the friend that we brought home with us from the rink.

Finn working up speed.  I don't have any pictures of Kai but I do have video of him skating without any help.  I was proud of him from giving it a try.

Just a few days later, this randomly happened.  Poor Bree was warm one night.  Luckily she got over it really quickly.

One of Kai's writing assignments.  I emailed a picture of this paper to Mrs. Pierce (his second grade teacher who is retiring this year).  I'll admit, she has been my favorite, too.  I miss her!

My birthday fell on a Saturday this year.  Unfortunately, Reid had to work that day to meet an upcoming deadline.  I spent the day at home with the 3 kids who were being difficult.  I've been using Saturday for my major grocery shop day and the kids were not very cooperative that day.  Around 2pm is when Kai realized it was my birthday and decided to shape up/kiss up.  Ahhh....I love them but really sometimes!  Anyway, around 5pm we picked Reid up from work and went to Olive Garden for dinner.  We haven't eater there in a really long time and it was really nice.  The kids even liked it.  We then came home for some cake and called it a night.  For my gift, Reid snuck some cash under each kid's cake plate and had them give it to me.  It was pretty funny because they didn't even notice him putting it there.  Everyone thought daddy was quite the magician.

The next Friday (yes, one week later) Reid was off of work and so Bree and I took advantage of an extra adult on hand to get the kids off of the school bus.  We went shopping at the outlets while daddy held down the house.  It was nice to not be in a hurry and to not have the boys with me.  Bree is an amazing and patient shopper.  I can't even say enough how easy she is to take out with me.  She loves doing errands and being with mom, even if it means she doesn't get my attention.  We found some great sales and got her several things, the boys some things, and even a few things for me.  Her favorite item, though, was this princess umbrella.  I have no idea what the fascination is with umbrellas but all of my kids have begged for them.  Bree was the first to get one and now everyone fights over it.  Yep, the Easter Bunny is going to have to bring another umbrella or two.

With all of the snow and the school snow-themed winter parties my kids have really gotten into making paper snowflakes.  This was my kitchen table the last Saturday in January.  Lots of paper snowflakes!

Finn made this snowflake and wanted me to send a picture of it to his cousin Isaac.

Of course, then Bree had to get in on the action and send this picture to her cousin Maci.