FEBRUARY 2019

FEBRUARY - Groundhog day and the Superbowl both fell on the same day this year.  It was pretty anticlimatic.  It was cold and the groundhog saw his shadow so six more weeks of winter for us.  Also the Superbowl wasn't that exciting.  I can't remember who played or who performed at halftime.  Of course it had to be on though.  Luckily, the cookies are always good.

KASEN DAY - It was Kasen's turn for his special day this month and since he had basketball games every weekend that became his activity.  Jed was gone somewhere when we went, but Kasen and I went to his tournament and then to brunch at Cracker Barrel.  That place is so fun during the winter because they have the big fireplace going.  We were lucky enough to get a table close to it and we had a lot of fun playing Chinese checkers and eating yummy food.

CHURCH - After the recent changes to the youth ages and all of that craziness, wouldn't it just be a shock to know that the Beehives were in charge of the combined youth activity for the month??  I'm not sure how I always get so lucky. :) Coming up with an activity in winter for over 100 youth was exciting to say the least!!  We decided to go with some minute to win it type games and centered the whole thing around chocolate.  I told a quick story at the beginning about the invention of the chocolate chip cookie and how we all need to learn to be like chocolate chips.  When things get hot and there are changes going on all around us we stay true to what we are and make everything around us better.  I would say it turned out to be a success - a messy success.  Weekly activities just for beehives are so crazy too now.  We had 12 or 13 new girls join the class.  

TRIP TO REXBURG - When Jed was at his state podiatry conference in January he was approached by a doctor in Idaho Falls that he had talked with in the past about working with.  The doctor told him he was interested in bringing in an associate and wondered if Jed would like to come over and check out his offices and facilities and talk some numbers.  It was a bit of a surprise, but couldn't have come at a better time as right before Christmas we realized Jed working at Rocky Mountain Foot & Ankle wasn't going to last for too much longer.  Roman hasn't been paying Jed what Jed has calculated he should be getting on his bonuses - he keeps adding expenses and so Jed hasn't been able to count on any stable way to figure out what he would get for bonuses. So we'd decided at the end of the year that we would need to start exploring different options quietly to see what we could do for another job option moving forward.  Then this doctor approached Jed in late January so we thought we would come check out the option here.  I wasn't very excited about the potential of moving to eastern Idaho, but we came over for a day and brought Dallin with us.  It was just an overnight trip so it was quick.  When Jed went to check out the Rexburg facilities Dallin and I went to one of my favorite little eateries - Millhollow.  I loved and still love the sandwiches and Dallin loved the ice cream.

VALENTINE'S DAY - I got the kids a little surprise for Valentine's day.  The boys got a pack of cards and the girls got stuffed animals.  Jed brought home beautiful flowers as usual.  Kinsley had to make a Valentine's box for school.  I'm really glad my kids like to make their own stuff and I've never been one of those moms that goes out of control on Valentine's boxes.

SCHOOL - Another busy month with school.  Kasen finished another unit in GT where they did a research project on a famous scientist.  He had Daniel Hale Williams who was a surgeon that performed the first heart surgery.  Kasen had a display that showed how the heart valve would work using some straws, balloon, and a jar of water.  Kasen also had the chance to sign up to help in the lunchroom at school this month.  He was very excited about it!  He has really enjoyed his class this year and his teacher Mr. Fisher has been awesome and has helped Kasen continue to get better at his fear of being in front of the class. 

At Kindness Club the group was busy making Valentine's for all the students and teachers for the whole school.

The 4th & 5th graders had a ski night at Bogus and Kasen really wanted to go because his friends were going.  Luckily we had a big snow storm right before the ski trip so there lots of great snow.  The kids had fun playing in it at home.  Kinsley and I went up for the ski night as well.  Kasen got to take a ski lesson and then had free time to ski.  It was only his second time and he did pretty good.  I put him in the beginner class, but he could have gone in the intermediate class.  Kinsley and I had fun skiing together.  It was her first "real" time since the last time we took the kids to Bogus Kinsley wouldn't ski.  She did really well.  It was really snowy and cold so not the most fun night to ski but any chance to ski is worth it.  I did decide though that something that would make it lots more fun would be to not have to rent skis everytime we go skiing!

Kasen wanted to try out for the speed jump team at the school like Ava did.  The problem was that he never practiced for it until a few days before tryouts.  He worked hard for those two days, but he didn't make the team.  He was a bit disappointed, but understood why. 

Basketball continues nearly every weekend.  The boys won their first tournament this month so they were excited about that.

OTHER PICTURES - Some other things that happened this month... Dallin has continued to be a good helper with Johnny.  He loves to play by him and rub his head.  haha.  Johnny is pretty mellow, but because he is the only child and his parents are our age he gets held every second so he wants to be held and entertained every minute.  Some days I just had to let him fuss a little bit in his bouncer or excersaucer since I won't hold him for 8 hours straight. 

Kinsley continues to lose teeth and take selfies of herself when I put my phone down.  She also doesn't mind taking random pictures of others when they least expect it either.

Ava had an old calendar that she was going to throw away when she found a way to recycle it.  She took all the tropical pictures and taped them up around the outside of Darwin's tank.  He is always just running into the side like he is trying to escape so now at least he thinks he is escaping to somewhere tropical.  Kinsley has been drawing a lot and loved sneaking some pictures on to people's doors that she thought they would like.  Here are two pictures she put on Ava's door.  Also our cat continues to be as creepy as possible.  I will just find it randomly looking in the window at me throughout the day.  I'm pretty sure it is plotting my death and takeover of the world with those eyes.

Here are some thoughts that stuck out to me this month.