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.