FEBRUARY

SUPERBOWL - I can't believe it's already February!  Right away we were able to celebrate the Superbowl.  In preparation for all the toughness involved in the game, Dallin went into tough mode too.  As soon as it was February 1st, he started doing all these new physical things.  Although they look more like yoga poses (plank, downward dog) Kasen thought for sure he was starting his football training early.  :)  We went over to the Balls to watch the game.  Tresa made pizza and Ava made some heart cookies from her Raddish recipe collection.  She is getting to be quite the little chef.  Kasen made a Ravens sign since he and Jed hate the Patriots.  Unfortunately the Patriots still won the Superbowl and Kasen was so upset about it he ripped his sign in half and swore he would never watch football again. One thing about Kasen is that he is very passionate about rooting for the teams he picks!

DALLIN 9 MONTHS OLD - Another month older, this boy is growing like a weed!  This was an exciting month for Dallin.  He really got good at army crawling.  He was really funny about it.  He would go for a minute then pause and lean on one side with his arm resting on his leg like a model pose.  It was really cute.  I was never fast enough to get any pictures of it though.  Dallin is a pretty good little eater.  He eats pretty much every flavor of baby food and other "baby" snacks, but doesn't really like any sort of real food.  He will eat small pieces of bread and Cheerios but that is about it.  He has gotten really good at drinking from his two handled sippy cup as well.  Dallin got his 2nd tooth this month.  This one came in a lot quicker than the last one. Although, he has started to wake up at least once a night hungry or fussy.  For about a week every night he would wake up and be soaking wet through his diapers.  Those were always really fun nights!  When he wakes up at night he will drink 8 oz of formula and go straight back to bed.  I'm hoping he is just going through a growth spurt because it isn't fun waking up at 3 or 4 am everynight!

As the above pictures show, Dallin is a smiley, happy boy!  He laughs a lot and it is pretty easy to get a smile out of him if he knows you.  He really likes singing and gets a lot of it from Kinsley and I.  His favorite songs are BINGO, Patty-Cake, Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Skidamarinky Dinky Dink, and a song Kasen made up to the tune of Ring-a-round the Rosies.  It goes: Little Blue-Eyed Dallin, woke up all a growlin', Dallin Dallin, soft chubby cheeks. He is still making lots of noise.  He seems to know when he is saying Mama or Dadda, but who knows.  He has started sucking in his lips which is pretty cute.  He will often close his eyes and suck in his lips and make humming noises like in the top left picture below.  I think it is really adorable.  He loves bath-time and some nights wants to sit up and other nights wants to lay on his back in the tub. So I always have to have my hand ready because he just falls backward without any warning - like he is doing a trust fall or something! Some of his other favorite things are phone cords and shoes. He gets a bath everynight (most of the time) and gets so excited when he hears the water going.  The kids think his little bum is so cute.  If Jed leaves his shoes out (which is every day!) that is the first thing Dallin crawls to in the morning.  He loves holding them and turning them and he tries to suck on them.  It grosses me out and I'm constantly taking cords and shoes away from him!  He still loves his Baby Einstein movies and watches one every morning right at 9am.  He usually watches it in his bouncer and I can put him in and start buckling and he gets so happy.  The other day he sat and watched one in the bean bag chair.  I'm pretty sure - aside from when he is asleep or in his carseat - that when he is watching his movie it is the only time of the entire day when he holds still. 

Dallin must have gone through a growth spurt this past month because all of a sudden I noticed he was like a giant everywhere!  All of a sudden his crib was too high and we had to lower not just one level but three levels so he wouldn't fall over the edge.  He looked so hilarious in his bouncer with his legs hanging a foot off the edge.  All his clothes were too small and I had to get Kasen's 18 month clothes out.  Every week at church people ask me, "What are you feeding this kid?!"  One guy asked me if I was grinding up cheeseburgers into his formula.  Gross. lol

The kid never stops going, going, going!  He wants to keep up with the older three so bad.  You can just see him watching them run here and there and it's like the little wheels are turning and he is wondering how in the world they are moving so fast. :)  He doesn't get into cupboards or anything yet, but I give him kitchen things a lot to play with.  And of course, Jed includes him while he wrestles the other kids.  I swear the rough-housing doesn't even phase Dallin, he just gets bored after a few minutes and wants to be moving in the other direction. 

SCOUTS & COOKING - Ava decided this month that she doesn't really need my help with her cooking boxes anymore.  So this month she did it all on her own.  One night Ava came home from Activity Days and no one was home, so she started fixing dinner.  She made pasta with a Bolognese sauce.  She did mix up garlic for ginger and added the latter in place of the first, but other than that it was very delicious.  We did have to talk to her about not using the gas unless we were home though.  She also made us a delicious Valentine's Day breakfast.  Heart cut-out toast with an egg cooked on the inside and heart-shaped bacon.  She is developing quite the talent!  Kasen has also been working hard this month on something.  He has been doing extra projects for more scout belt loops.  This month he got 3 belt loops at Pack Meeting.  His favorite was finishing the dinosaur belt loop he started in January.  His den also went on a 1 mile winter hike.  It wasn't supposed to be in the snow, but that day it ended up snowing all morning!  Jed and Kinsley went with them.

VALENTINE'S DAY - Speaking of Valentine's Day, we had a great one!  Jed brought home the most gorgeous flowers he has ever given me.  They were so pretty and smelled divine!  They lasted for about 10 days and I found every excuse to sit at the table during the day so that I could smell them.  He also bought a little rose bouquet for both Ava & Kinsley which was very sweet and they loved them.  They wanted to keep them in their rooms.  He brought a big bouquet of heart balloons too.  I gave Jed a big bag of Peanut Butter M&M's which wasn't quite as romantic, but he seemed perfectly happy with them. 

Kinsley made a very pretty Valentine for our entire family at school.  She is a sweet little girl and has the best handwriting for a kindergartner.  This year she wanted to make homemade valentines for her class.  I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't budge.  She had drawn on a piece of paper exactly what she wanted them to look like.  After a few days of me trying to talk her in to just buying some valentines, I finally gave up and we went and picked up supplies for her valentines.  It took a couple of hours to get them all done, but Kinsley was so excited and happy that it was worth it.  She had hers done about two weeks before Valentine's day.  Kasen and Ava did theirs the night before.  :)  One of my favorite Valentine presents was seeing all three of these monkeys drinking their green smoothies without complaining!

STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS -The end of February marks the beginning of all the state championships for Idaho high school sports.  It always starts with girls basketball.  My parents came over to watch Ririe (who ended up winning the championship.)  Jed's sister Susan also came over with her kids.  Samantha plays on the Teton team even though she was hurt and hasn't played this season.  So Samantha didn't play at all, but they still came over.  Coleen came over with them also.  Dallin had fun seeing Mason again, and the other kids really liked playing with Morgan.  Mason is walking around and pulling himself up to standing.  It was like it clicked in Dallin's little mind that there was a better way to get around than army crawling!  After they left, he started crawling up on his hands and knees and pulling himself up to standing on everything.  Mason is not quite as animated as Dallin, he barely makes any noise at all.  Occasionally he says mama but not a lot of other sounds.  He definitely doesn't jabber like Dallin.  Mason does say "mantha" when he sees Samantha which is really cute.  One other thing that was really cute was the two boys would get right up face to face on their hands and knees and then Mason would pat Dallin on the head really softly.  Then he would use Dallin's shoulders to stand up and walk away.  Dallin was like "hey where you going?" everytime.  Mason is only a few weeks away from turning 1 year old.  It is pretty crazy these boys are growing up so fast!

The next weekend family was back again.  My dad came back for state wrestling.  John and Coleen came for Republican meetings.  Dallin had fun playing with Grandpa John.  Grandpa wanted him down to his diaper so he could "see what his build is like."  haha  John couldn't believe how much Dallin moves.  In just one week Dallin had gotten really pretty fast at crawling on his hands and knees and pretty tough at pulling himself up to stand.  If he was headed somewhere rather than go around something he'd just barrel through or over... including his own grandpa.  John got a pretty big kick out of it and said he'd never seen anything like it.  He was also really proud of how big Dallin's hands were and his shoulder muscles too. lol

SCHOOL & ACTIVITIES - Kinsley has been an A+ student at homeschool.  She is plugging away each week and this month really turned a corner in her reading abilities.  She is pretty fun to teach.  She always gives this big dramatic whine when I tell her each morning it is time for homeschool, but once we get going she gets really into it.  One thing about Kinsley that is different than Ava & Kasen with homeschool is she isn't really afraid to make mistakes.  The other two hated to.  Kinsley will mess up on something and just start chuckling to herself.  This month she got 3 awards: 2 for her reading program and 1 for math.  She also read 25 books and was able to pick out her first reading reward!  She chose an American Girl lego set - Lea's beach hut (the same doll she got for Christmas.)  At "real school", as she calls it, her class celebrated their 100 days in school.  Kinsley decided last minute to dress up as if she were 100 years old and looked so adorable.  I hope I look that cute when I am old.  She also had to bring in 100 items of something (she chose marshmallows) and fill out a paper about when she is 100.  It said:  When I am 100, I will be very very old!  I will probably eat lots of doughnut holes.  When I'm at home in Brazil, I'll spend my time swinging in my hammock.  When I go out with my friends, we will go to the rainforest and look at nature.  Finally, let me tell you what I might look like - I will have wrinkles and I will wear lipstick.  I will wear pretty clothes.  :)

We had quite a few rainy days in February which melted all of our snow.  It is funny that we had so much snow and a day of raining it could be completely gone.  The last week of February was actually quite beautiful.  It was sunny so the kids thought that must mean it was warm outside.  They wanted to go to parks and on bike rides.  In reality it was still really chilly.  They finally convinced me one Saturday that they could play outside.  So they took all their art supplies outside and painted in the backyard.  Later that evening we went to Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt.  It is a new place near our house that just opened. Earlier that day I had been at a stake Relief Society event from 9-2.  Jed had to go check on a patient so he had taken the kids that morning out to the hospital.  This particular week was really busy for me with YW's and it ended up happening that I had something every single night.  It was just one of those weird weeks.   It has been interesting to navigate and keep the proper balance.  I have appreciated Jed so much as he has taken on more responsibility with the kids - especially on Sundays.  If I'm being honest, it has been a bit enjoyable to watch Jed have to be the one to get all 4 kids dressed and to church on time, entertain them on Sundays, and put them to bed on his own on Wednesdays.  I like to think it makes him appreciate me a little bit more and all that I have done the last 13 years - especially the 7 yrs we were away and he had leadership callings.  He is a good man.

Never seems to be a dull moment with our kids!  Stake Conference Sunday I didn't have any meetings, so Kasen created a restaurant for dinner.  He made menus and was our waiter.  I was the chef.  Later that day he pulled out his own tooth.  He is definitely getting tougher in teeth pulling!  Ava started a new volleyball club in January.  I didn't feel like she was progressing at all at the old club.  This new one is smaller and more technic based which is good for Ava.  She performs better when she understands the why behind what she is being asked to do.  She is such a hustler and gets that from her dad.  I like watching her practices because she gives 100% every single time. 

Uncle Jeff had a birthday this month!  They came over for FHE and dinner and Tresa made a yummy sheet cake for his birthday.  We sure do love the Ball family.

These are two of my favorite pictures of the month.  The first is how Dallin likes to ride in the shopping carts.  I took this one day so I won't forget.  This boy hates being backwards so he pulls one leg through and looks out towards the front.  Dallin has what all the young women call FOMO - fear of missing out.  He has never liked not seeing ahead of him.  I think that's why he never wanted to cuddle even as a baby.  He always hated his baby carrier - he just wants to look out and see.  The other picture is funny to me too.  He has gotten so good at pulling himself up to standing position in only 1 wk (since Mason was here to end of month).  He saw the kids go outside and he crawled as fast as he could to the front window and started yelling for them.  I wonder if his first full sentence will be something like, "Wait, don't leave me behind - I promise I'll keep up!"

JANUARY

NEW YEAR'S DAY - On New Year's day we attended a couple wards.  It was pretty cool that the first day of the year was on a Sunday.  First we attended Jed's home ward with all his family for our nephew Jordan and his family.  They blessed their new daughter Peyton.  Then we went out to a ward in Labelle for a missionary farewell of Hayden Livingston - my cousin's son.  Both were great experiences and brought a confirmation of peace to me that these moments in life are what it's all about.  Life is about doing little things each day to better ourselves and draw closer to our Heavenly Father so that when the day comes along we are ready and worthy for the big moments.  On Monday we had to head back to Boise, but first we stopped at Jake/Megan's house for breakfast and family time.  It was John's birthday so we got to celebrate with a donut tower.  John turned 76 years old.  It was fun to celebrate him.  On the way home, Dallin said his first word "dada."  It was the cutest thing.  He would say it and then laugh at himself and say it again and laugh harder.  It was like he was so proud of himself he didn't know what to do!

SNOW DAYS - The craziest weather occurred when we got back home.  The kids went to school on January 3rd, very excited to get back into the swing of things.  They had a great day back and then that night it started snowing.  Long story short, it snowed so much and got cold enough that school was cancelled for the next 5 consecutive days!  It was crazy.  The kids were a little excited the first day and with each progressive day it was cancelled they got less excited and more mad about it.  So we basically had a 3 wk Christmas break this year.  There was so much snow that people were just digging out little pathways down the sidewalks. 

I think total there were 6 or 7 snow days in the first half of January.  It was crazy.  Equally crazy were the roads throughout the subdivision.  Because they don't plow roads here it would snow, get driven on, melt a little, freeze... creating these huge divots and ruts down each road.  One Sunday I was taking some youth home from BYC and driving around the subdivision felt like a roller coaster ride.  I think I scared them a little!  For about a week I couldn't even get out of the driveway in the van because I would get stuck.  So I stayed home.  To get Kinsley to school we had to walk.  One day she strapped on her baby doll like I had Dallin strapped on to me. :)

SAN FRANCISCO - On January 6th (Friday) Jed, Dallin, and I flew to San Francisco for the weekend.  My dad was receiving the Environmental Stewardship Award at the National Potato meeting.  He was notified about the award in the summertime and they flew people out to Ririe to film a 10 minute segment on him.  He was pretty humble about it and kept blowing it off like it wasn't a big deal, but we wanted to make it a big deal (because it was!) so all my siblings and their spouses decided to fly out and be there at the banquet to show our support.  I didn't feel comfortable leaving Dallin quite yet overnight with anyone so we decided to take him.  That turned out to be a bit more exhausting than I had hoped!  On the airplane there he cried and screamed nearly the entire time.  I felt so bad for all the other passengers.  He screamed in ways we had never even heard before. Dallin never sits still so he hated being in the tiny area on our lap, but the air pressure must have bothered him pretty bad too. It was pretty much a nightmare.  These pictures were right before we took off. Happy baby soon to become crazy baby...

When we got to San Francisco, we met Mal and Trevor at the airport and headed to our hotel which was right downtown.  San Francisco as a whole isn't the prettiest place I've ever been.  It's a lot more hilly than I thought it would be and the houses/buildings all have flat roofs.  They were all mostly a white-ish color that looked dirty so I felt like I was looking at a 3rd world country really.  It definitely wasn't what I expected.  Downtown area was nicer. We got to our hotel and then with Deatre and Katie, Mal & Trevor we went down to Fisherman's Wharf before the banquet.  It was a very unique area.  We saw Alcatraz out in the water.  It didn't look that far away, but I bet it would be really hard to swim from... and cold!  We were told the water is never warm here.  Most people wear wetsuits year-round if they boat/kayak/etc. 

All along the pier were little shops and eateries.  All served seafood. The air had a very pungent fishy smell!  A lot of lobster/crab type sandwiches, clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, etc.  Also down at Fisherman's Wharf are the famous seals.  They love the water here and live on these docks.  They were pretty fun to watch.  They would start fighting each other and before long one would get pushed off the dock into the water by the other one.  The loser would swim around to another dock or to the other side of the same dock and then just pop out of the water back up. 

Per recommendation from a friend, we found a good place to eat called The Codmother.  The cod was actually really good, probably because it was deep fried in batter!  I'm not a huge fish eater. 

The view from our hotel room and my parent's hotel room across the hall.  I think we were on the 26th floor.

The banquet and awards presentation was very nice.  It was the last event for the National Potato Conference so there was a nice dinner beforehand.  They announced Vista Valley Ag as the recipient of the Environmental Stewardship Award and then showed the 10 minute video made all about the farm.  It was very well done and had great interview segments from my mom and dad.  Afterward, my dad shared a little speech which he did a great job on.  I'm sure I speak for everyone, but I was very proud of him and my mom too.  They have done so much in the potato community and industry and I know I'm biased, but I just think they are really great people!

Dallin was a little bit more high maintenance this trip than our trip to San Diego.  He turned 8 months old while we were there and was more whiny and demanded more attention.  When we were out strolling he did fine.  Overall, he was great, but definitely brought his drama attitude with him.

For example, he didn't sleep that great.  He would fuss on and off all through the night.  My sister was convinced he would have a tooth pop out at any moment and that was why he was so fussy.  One night at 3am he was whining so I got up to check on him and he was soaking wet.  So I stripped him down and put him in bed with us.  I have to admit I wasn't terribly mad that I got to cuddle with him the rest of the night.  He is still so squishy and that baby skin is soooo soft. 

Saturday morning we all gathered and decided to go on a double-decker bus tour of the city. 

We learned on the tour that in San Francisco there are more dogs than children.  There were big, beautiful parks only to find out they were dog parks - the playgrounds for schools or buildings were on the roofs.  So the dogs get the grass and the kids get the cement.  I'm sure we were quite the crew for many people with our two babies and two pregnant ladies.  I can only imagine if we all would have brought our kids!  haha.  The bus took us around where our hotel was and past the place where the windiest road is in San Francisco.  Another ironic thing is that it actually isn't the windiest or steepest in the city, but for whatever reason it is the most famous one.  It was fun watching all the cable cars/trolleys zoom by.  They would zoom up and down the streets that were really hilly and actually looked like a fun ride to go on!  All the cables above the streets reminded me so much of Ukraine with their tramvise.

Our first stop was Chinatown.  Our guide told us that Chinatown is the oldest chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.  It is only a little over 1 square mile, but more than 100,000 people live there.  He said they don't have fridges or freezers so they only buy enough food they can cook/eat that day.  There are also no washers/dryers because they live with so many people in one small apartment.  I think in that square mile there are 4 zip codes.  It is pretty crazy.  It was really quiet when we were there.  A very cool little area.

With this group there was a lot of picture taking and a lot of random pictures resulted from it!

We saw lots of other very interesting areas.  I can't remember what any of them are called now though!  I liked the old mansions.  We kept seeing these little lines sticking up on quite a few of the houses.  We learned that they were large nails/spikes so the pigeons wouldn't land and perch on their houses.  Our guide told us that most of these homes have been remodeled so each level is a separate living space. I saw a sign posted for a room for rent in one of the houses for only $4000/month.  Apparently San Francisco and NYC go back and forth with each other on which city has the most expensive rent and gas prices.

One of the highlights of the tour was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge... which is ironic because it is red!  The rain came and went throughout the day, but when we got here it started storming again.  Driving across the bridge was like driving through a hurricane.  I'm sure it would be a really great view of the city on the bridge, but it was too stormy we could barely see the city-scape. 

We finished our tour back at Fisherman's Wharf.  Some of our family hadn't been there yet, so we walked around some more and visited the seals again.  They really were close to the pier! We watched sourdough bread being made at Boudin and ate fresh chocolate at Ghirardelli Square.

These are my favorite pictures of the day.  Jed & I in Chinatown and by the big ship wheel at Fisherman's Wharf.  I also love the picture of the trolley zooming towards the Golden Gate Bridge. So quintessentially how I pictured San Francisco in my mind.

That night we had a very fancy dinner down at a restaurant my dad had been to about 10 years prior called Scoma's.  It was all seafood and very fresh seafood. We were a big group at two tables, but in the same little room together.  We also celebrated Katie's birthday which was the next day.  Everyone went around and said one word they thought described Katie.  She is such a fun, talented, uninhibited, and kind person.  She is a great sister!

We were hoping we could take a trolley back to our hotel after dinner, but they were all done running.  So we took a hybrid of a trolley and a subway car thing.  Some homeless man got on and sang the whole way back to our hotel.  Jed loved it.  haha  Our little boys were wiped out from a full day of fun!

Back home our kids had so much fun staying with Tresa, Jeff, and Tyler!  They went sledding and played in the snow.  While we were gone we started getting notifications that church was cancelled and there was a monster storm coming and hitting Boise on Sunday.  In San Francisco there were warnings that a monster storm was coming there too.  We were worried we wouldn't be able to get home!  Luckily we didn't have any problems taking off or landing.  Dallin did better on the plane and even slept for awhile, but I have no desire to fly with him again for a long time!  Tresa sent us some fun pictures.  She said the kids thought it was so funny that Jeff fell asleep sitting up on the couch and he was snoring too.  :)  Not sure why they were so surprised by that, Jed literally does it every single night.  We really appreciated them taking care of our children while we were gone.

The same day my dad got his award, Jed's dad also got a special award - Republican Lifetime Achievement Award.  We were equally proud of him!  Pretty cool that both our fathers got awarded for some of their contributions. 

DALLIN 8 MONTHS - WOW! It is so hard to believe that Dallin is this old.  He is such a funny little boy.  He is really sturdy at sitting up now.  He loves attention from everyone.  He gets really excited when he sees his siblings and Jed or I.  He is starting to develop a little stranger-danger and has cried a few times when people try taking him out of my arms. 

See how good this little guy does at sitting!  He was pretty interested in the tub his first time sitting up.  He doesn't splash in the water as much as I anticipated considering he never stops moving outside of the tub. 

Dallin is always so excited to see me after his naps.  He is taking some nice naps now.  His morning nap is always consistent at 10-12pm.  He will usually start jabbering and so I'll go in and say, "I hear a baby! Where's my baby?!" in a sing-songy voice and he just starts laughing.  He gets so excited.  I love it.  I bought an a noise fan this month to help him sleep more soundly.  There were a few nights this month that Jed woke Dallin up with his snoring, which in turn wakes me up and I am not really a fan of not getting any sleep.  I think it has helped all three of us sleep better!  Dallin is still growing like crazy.  People are just in awe that he is so big for 8 months old.  He is looking a little big for his bouncer. lol  In fact, he is wearing size 12 mos clothes already.

10 days after Dallin turned 8 months old his first little tooth popped through!  Abby was right after all.  Kinsley also had her first tooth break through at 8 months, but Ava & Kasen got theirs a little later. 

As I said earlier, Dallin loves his siblings so much!  He definitely likes to be in charge when they interact with him though.  One day Kasen was trying to play with him and Dallin just kept kicking Kasen in the face when he got too close.  Luckily all the kids just laugh and think he is funny.  Kinsley has started helping me feed him and took these pictures of him one day at lunch.  A pretty happy little boy!

One evening I wasn't home and I got a picture from Jed of Dallin asleep on the floor.  It is entirely not in his typical nature for this to happen that at first I was worried.  Normally Dallin doesn't stop moving the entire day unless he is in his crib napping.  Poor little guy was obviously worn out.  Dallin is such a fun little guy.  Life with him is great.  When we got back from San Francisco he really figured out army crawling.  I'm so glad he didn't do it before our trip!  He gets going pretty good.  It looks like it is exhausting, but he has it figured out.  It is so interesting to me that one day they just start doing something new.

FUNNY KIDS - Just a couple of fun pictures of the kids.  Snuggling with Dallin one morning before I got him dressed.  When he gets giggling the kids can't be away, he is just the cutest little baby.  Kinsley and I got back to business with homeschool.  With the holidays I slacked being as committed to it, but we got back on track.  I try to do something everyday with her, but it usually ends up being 3 or 4 days.  We talked about plants this month and so one day we did a science experiment to see which color the flowers would soak up into their petals first.  I will miss Kinsley when she is gone all day next year.  She doesn't always like to get started with homeschool, but once we get going she is always so fun and happy. 

I challenged Ava & Kasen to not just complete their Faith in God requirements as written, but to try and do a few extra as well.  Ava completed every single activity and finished the entire book this month.  She is so amazing!  Kasen hasn't started yet, (haha) but has really been focusing on scouts and doing extra belt loops than required.  He has been working hard and decided this month he would do Digging In The Past belt loop which is all about dinosaurs.  One activity in that one is to create your own dinosaur and name it.  He created the Kasensaurus - "carnivore and very ferocious." Speaking of church stuff, in YW we had scheduled our New Beginnings program for the middle of January.  It was a week with pretty bad storms, so we almost had to cancel because of weather, but we decided to go ahead with the program.  We had set up the night before and were really excited about everything.  The day of a group of advisers got together to make sugar cookies for refreshments and we had set up the gym the night before.  So even with the bad weather we decided to hold the program.  However, when we were driving over we could see flashing lights at the church and as we got closer we realized it was fire trucks??  When we got inside we found the whole south side of the building flooded - like a foot of water standing on the ground.  Apparently a pipe had frozen and burst.  So we had to cancel New Beginnings and helped clean up some water.  It caused quite a bit of damage and some of the girls there got to take home water damaged hymn books.  It was crazy!

One night Kinsley and Kasen started playing with the keyboard.  They put together a whole routine to the Star Wars theme song.  Kasen fought bad guys - including jumping off chairs and intense light saber fighting - whiled Kinsley played notes throughout the song in the tone of  "gunshot."  Dallin and I were the audience... well, Dallin, myself, and the steer I should say.  It was very original and entertaining, as well as was Kinsley's outfit that day.

I'm not really sure what prompted this one day, but Kasen decided to make a will.  He said Ava would get all his seashells and pictures (art work), Kinsley would get his notebooks, utensils, and other artwork, and Dallin would get all his toys and games.  He left Jed his scriptures and I got his clothes. haha  He added a PS that "dad would get my sports stuff."  At the bottom of his page he wrote his testimony which was sweet.  He is a good boy and a great example for his little brother to look up to.  

One night Kasen and Kinsley decided to go camping.  They set up their tents and made a little campfire out of a flashlight and a see through orange block.  They are pretty clever.  I liked how they set their slippers out by the entrance to their tents so they could get them on first thing when they woke up.  

While at the Balls one evening they were playing games.  Ava started making words with the Jenga blocks.  Before long they had made "I Am A Child of God" out of blocks.  We were all impressed. One funny event that happened this month was we finally decided to use the gift card to Golden Corral Jed got last year for coaching Ava's bball team.  When we walked in our kids' eyes got big as quarters as we explained they could eat as much as they wanted from all the different buffets.  At one point while eating Kasen leaned back in his chair and said, "This is the life dreams are made of right here!" 

 Just two more of these monkeys:  Kinsley drinking out of a chocolate milk gallon with a straw & our little Dally.

RADDISH COOKING - Ava got her 2nd cooking box this month and it was all about the Chinese New Year.  She made us pork dumplings, egg drop soup, & broccoli/beef stir-fry.  I helped a little less this time.  She has caught on really well and is a pretty good student when there is something I need to teach her.  She is such a go-getter and isn't afraid to try new things.  I'm always really proud of that quality of hers.  She mentioned that cooking was really starting to become fun for her which I'm thrilled about.  She and Kinsley dressed in their new clothes from Chinatown SF for dinner.  Jed taught everyone how to use chopsticks - except I gave up and ate regularly.  Momma don't have time for that!  One thing I really like about the cooking boxes is that not only does Ava prepare food, but I really like going to the store together and teaching her where to find stuff and how to compare prices.  This month included a scavenger hunt of different items in the store which was fun.

FUNNY STORY - So I got a kick out of Kasen one day.  He had been playing around with his bow and arrow and after awhile came up to me and said:
Kasen: Heavenly Father gave me the special talent of archery.
Me: Oh really?
Kasen: Ya watch.  (He shoots and misses the target.) See mom special talent!
Me: Umm you missed.
Kasen: Ya but I was so close!

He has such confidence!  I hope he stays like that forever.  Love that kid. :)