catch up week

I have not kept this blog up to date like I had hoped, and every day I have something to post that I don't get to is driving me more crazy. So, I'm just going to have to do a quick update of the last week:

Tuesday, Chloe got to go to a sheep demonstration with her Liberty Girls group. There are obviously a few siblings that attended who snuck into the group photo. You're going to have to squint pretty hard to see the sheep in the background, but they are there. The girls learned all about the history of clothing, and we saw how they wool goes from the back of sheep to something we can wear. It was very informative, and they even got to spin their own little piece of wool to take home.

Our weather this week is trying to play tricks on us. We thought spring was here, but mother nature was only joking. We've had snow three days in the last week, with nice sunny days in between. One day it was so nice Chloe and I just played outside, and then today we went sledding. Sophie and Brandon made this sled on one of their dates, but we haven't had much use for it. Today we got to give it a real test. It failed, but that's ok. Sophie will remember how much fun she had making it with her dad more than sliding down the hill on it.

Friday was my chaotic day. We have to get these green stickers put on our furnaces because of some changes the gas company is making, so I had scheduled an appointment to get mine done. As luck would have it, they came in and told me my furnace had cracks in it and had to be replaced. Had we been given some notice we could have prepared, shopped around a bit and make a sound decision, but since these guys knew we had the potential for a gas leak they couldn't leave our gas on. They shut it off and left us in the cold to make a decision. We had company coming to spend the night (I was able to warn them so they could bring some extra blankets), but we weren't very good hosts in this state. Brandon and I were able to talk it over and pick out a new furnace. They came and installed it on Saturday -- which took up our whole day, but we now have heat, and hopefully an efficient running furnace. Between this and the new windows I'm thinking we should see some VERY low gas bills. But, of course, we have warmer weather upon us (right???) so we'll have to wait several months to actually see a reflection of it.

And my last story for the day is about BANGS. My girls have decided that bangs are the coolest thing (along with "high ponytails.") Being the "good" mother that I am, I am trying as hard as I can not to say anything negative about their choice in hairstyle, to be supportive and let them make their own choices. However, for anyone reading this you must know that inside it is killing me. Chloe cut her own bangs several weeks ago. To avoid the same situation, once I picked up on Sophie's interest in bangs I offered to cut them for her myself. I'm not sure I did any better of a job than she could have, but I couldn't stand the thought of paying someone to butcher my daughter's beautiful hair.

Easter festivites

My visiting teacher gave us some free tickets to go down to Thanksgiving Point (in Lehi, about 45 minutes away) to this big Easter egg hunt. It was way to crowded, which made it hard to get any eggs and the lines for the games were insane. We decided to ditch that party and go to the egg hunt in Bountiful later that afternoon. It was a lot more fun.



After the egg hunt we dyed our own eggs.




The girls got new spring dresses a few weeks ago when we went to Park City. I was talking to a friend about this tradition yesterday. We're not really sure where it came from, but since the girls are constantly needing new clothes anyway, I think it's a fun way to make Easter a little more special for them.


I'm not much of a cook (we all know that), but Easter is one holiday we seem to have found a tradition. We have had the same meal for 3 or 4 years in a row now. It's just an easy pineapple and ham dish served over rice and I make deviled eggs -- because I got this really cute dish to serve them in. I also have some egg shaped jell-o molds, but I forgot to make them this year. Sophie was such a big help in the kitchen. Chloe is usually my cook, but she was busy with dad, and Sophie was more than eager to do all she could. It was a lot of fun working together with her.

Hogle Zoo

We made it to the zoo yesterday for home school day. The weather was really nice. We saw a ton of people we know. There must be a lot more homeschoolers out there than we thought, though, because that parking lot was packed. We went a few weeks ago when they had one of their free "Wild Wednesdays" and we were still able to find a parking space out on the street -- and that's open to anyone. After driving up and down through all the aisles, checking the street, and talking to someone they had on staff (who recommended we pay to park over at "This is the Place Heritage Park") we finally found a little park next door to park at. The parking was a mess, but the rest of the afternoon was fun. We couldn't find the kangaroos, though. We missed them the last time we were there, so we made it our goal to visit them first thing. I think the kangaroos are gone, or just not accessible because there cage is blocked off on both sides by the construction they're doing for this new plaza.

After the zoo, we went for a little hike up Ensign Peak to get some pictures for Julie. It was a nice hike, but that Wyoming wind followed us up there.

I love you, too

We had Family Home Evening tonight (like every Monday). Chloe was in charge of the activity, and she basically made it a smorgasbord -- told us to all go outside and choose the activity of our choice. Brandon pruned the grape vine, Chloe rollerbladed, and Sophie and I went for a walk.

On our walk Sophie says "I love you" out of the blue. You can never hear it too many times, but I was still caught a little off guard, but so happy to hear it and told her "I love you, too." She got a weird look on her face and started to stutter, just as I looked over and realized we were walking right past Mrs. Connors house (her teacher). I said, "Oh, you were telling Mrs. Connors you love her." She said, "Yeah, but I tell you I love you a lot too, right?" I answered her truthfully: I told her that she SHOWS me her love often (she uses sign language a lot), but she doesn't SAY the words all that often. So, as we continue on our walk a lightbulb comes on and she suddenly tells me she came up with a great plan! She's going to tell me she loves me every morning right when she wakes up. I told her that sounded like a great idea.

Then she started thinking about what it would be like if I wasn't there in the mornings, and I pointed out that that's not very likely. We decided sleepovers at Aunt Lark's are about the only time I don't see her in the morning, and then I got to hear some reminiscing about previous sleepovers and how Kaliegh was being noisy during the movie so Lark had to turn it off.

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I kind of forgot to make a big deal of the holiday this year. I'll blame it on Easter being less than a week away -- it kind of overshadows St. Patrick's Day, but luckily they take care of things at school. Sophie came home with green frosting on her face and in her hair. She was so kind to model her leprechaun costume she made at school so I could post it. This was her exciting story she had to tell on her way home from school: "When we were sleeping, a leprechaun came in our classroom who got into the green paint. Then he stepped on the tables and he left us chocolate gold coins."



I also wanted to show you the sarape that Chloe made at Liberty Girls last week. I think we still need to hem the edges or they're going to fray the thing to death, but it looks so cute on her. I'm not sure how often she'll be sporting her new apparell, but she sure had fun making it.

1 Nephi 3:7

Our family scripture study often needs reevaluation. We like to shake things up a bit when it seems like the girls are getting a little tired of the same routine. Recently Brandon came up with the plan to just focus on one verse at a time (from a recent Ensign article). We decided to start with the Book of Mormon scripture mastery list. The family all had it memorized in a little over a week. I thought it would be a good thing to document on film, so I sat down to videotape the girls reciting the scripture. I think this will give you a little insight into the differences in their personalities. As you can see, Sophie stumbled in a few places, but I was amazed that she could keep anything straight while doing all her "actions."

Let's get this thing started

Well, I've been pondering this idea for several days now. I guess I shall just take the plunge! I don't have a clue what to write about (hence, the excuse for not doing this sooner). My goal in starting this blog is 1. to document the little things that happen on a daily basis, that just don't ever seem to make it into my weekly synopsis, and 2. to help me take more pictures. I guess that goes along with #1. I'm pretty good at taking pictures of all the BIG events, but rarely do I pull out the camera when the kids are doing something cute, or I see something that makes me smile. I want to remember those things too. So, this blog may be just for me, but rather than sending out emails about every little thing YOU get to choose if you want to read it.

The picture of the flower was taken on Sunday. Brandon spotted flowers in our garden! We've had such a long winter, that this was a welcoming sign of spring. We had cleared this flower bed out last year (or so we thought) and spread it with mulch, so it was an even greater surprise to see all these flowers we thought we had dug up. Who knows what else might be lurking inside there? I think I spotted a tulip we missed. That will make me happy!