Everyday With The Ericksons: February 2020

WEEK 1 (February 1st - 8th) - The first day of February was a Saturday and Kinsley had a dance performance. She did her jazz dance to "Try Everything" and her team did a great job on the big stage. It is really fun for her to be involved in dance with her cousin Raleigh.

Groundhog Day & Superbowl LIV - These two events fell on the same day this year. I had completely forgotten, so Kinsley and I couldn't make our annual Groundhog day cookies because we didn't have any teddy grahams. Then Kinsley saved the day by finding some animal crackers. So we had some very interesting looking groundhogs that looked more like rhinos and camels and gorillas and tigers coming out of the dirt. They still tasted yummy though. The kids also got to pick out their Superbowl cereals for their super bowls.

This year for the superbowl, it was the 49ers vs the Chiefs. Dallin's favorite football team has been the Chiefs since he was a baby. Even when Jed tries to tell him he only can love the Broncos, Dallin refuses and says "I love the Chiefs first and then the Broncos." Ironically, the year Grandpa Foster is gone his beloved 49ers go to the Superbowl. They lost too. During the long football game, the kids got out the legos and Kasen tried to build the Tree of Life dream. He did a pretty good job with the tree and Kinsley built the great and spacious building under Kasen's direction. I liked her interpretation of the building being similar to a pink princess castle. You work with what you've got right?!

The second Saturday of February, Kinsley had another dance performance and Ava had her Math Counts chapter (district) competition. Ava had won first place in the school and she was pretty excited about competing. She didn't place individually in the top ten, but her team placed in the top 4 so as a team they will get to go to the state competition at the end of March. It is pretty amazing how awesome Ava is at math. I can guarantee if I was in a math competition with a 4th grader I would probably lose in the first round!

WEEK 2 (February 9th - 15th) - Kasen had his last basketball game in the Rexburg league so we decided to have a family Valentine's date beforehand. We went up to Pizza Pie Cafe. I'm slightly obsessed with their potato pizza. Dallin became especially possessive of the lemonade and Kinsley would only eat oreo pizza and green peas from the salad bar. We are quite the foodies. Then we watched Kasen play his first game. The other kids and I came home after that because he still had another game and everyone had school the next day. This was his last game in the Rexburg league. His team won all the other teams except another team called Hustle.

Just some fun pictures throughout the week. Ava is still my cookie dough girl. She started making cookie dough when she was 9 years old. After 5 years we've updated to silicone baking mats and she listens to music now when she bakes. We all still love her cookies though.

Dallin & Kinsley have been pretty good buddies this week. Since they are both in gymnastics they want to practice together all the time. Kinsley will set up obstacle courses and they race around. They practice flipping on the big bean bag downstairs. I'm glad Kinsley is still young enough Dallin has someone to play with. Dallin got a weird rash all over his body this last week and I couldn't figure out what to do. It spread all over his torso, arms, feet, and even up around his eyes. He was a little sad a couple of days.

Dallin started potty training this week. I had no pre-conceived plan to do that. I just thought Monday morning "ok it's time". It might have been the fact that over the weekend I had bought pullups and they were $40 a box. Ugh! So I put him in underwear and took him every 30-45 minutes. He did great the first day - no accidents. The second day he had an accident both 1 & 2. The third day he had some skid marks in his underwear but made it in the bathroom. The fourth day I was on a call for school and I forgot to take him on schedule and he went in and did it all himself. After that he would just yell when he needed to go and get in there by himself. He's had one accident since then but he's been super easy and even wakes up completely dry in the morning. I think waiting until he was so old was the smartest thing I've ever done!

VALENTINES DAY was on a Friday this year. I bought the kids some sugar cookies and heart shaped pizzas and a soda from the Sip Shop. It was a love gesture, but after typing that it seems more like I was trying to kill them with those food choices! The younger kids got valentines from school and had parties. Kinsley made this little cupid's bow at her party so she could shoot love arrows at us when she got home. Kasen got a real Valentine gift from a girl in his class - a stuffed animal and bottle of candy. He was nervous we would be mad at him so he hid it under his bed, but Dallin saw it and brought it out for everyone to see. Kasen was pretty embarrassed. I asked him what he said when she gave it to him. He said he just tried to avoid eye contact and couldn't remember if he said thanks or not. I got my first feeling of what I will be like when girls start liking my boys. Let's just say "good luck girls - the odds are not in your favor." Jed brought home pretty flowers for me and pretty flowers for Ava & Kinsley. He also surprised me with a new Iphone 11. I got him nothing - haha - but luckily when I had taken Kinsley in to her eye appointment she entered into a contest to win really expensive sunglasses by guessing how many candy hearts were in a jar and she won! So she won me some sunglasses for Jed and for myself so I really scored this Valentine's day. :)

This week the NBA was having their annual dunk contest and all-star game. It really got Kasen inspired and he was asking people all week who wanted to have a dunk contest with him. Mostly he was asking me because he knew he would beat me. Kasen had a whole list of dunks and he watched each one on youtube about 300x and then he spent the entire evening for a few nights in a row practicing. He got really good at them. We were finally able to have a dunk contest one night before bed. One dunk that almost went south was Jed's as he fell full force into the wall and nearly broke our clock. Other than that, I would definitely say it went flawless and for sure Kasen won.

WEEK 3 (February 16th - 22nd) - The kids had President's day off from school. I can't wait until I'm done with school! All these times off and things I am just always catching up and we can never really do anything fun. The kids just do their own thing and I'm on the computer. Our basement is still torn apart and I swear some days I feel like I am going to lose my freaking mind. I am having such a hard time being happy in Rigby and in our little house. I feel so claustrophobic and this week was especially bad. Somedays I just feel like we made every wrong decision since leaving Eagle with everything we've tried to do here! January I did really good with personal development and my attitude, but this month it has not been going great. AGH! I understand why Groundhog day is in February because every week in February just feels like groundhog week over and over... The biggest highlight of my week were talking to my sisters at gymnastics. The kids had a positive week though so that was good. Ava was chosen by her science teacher as one of 9 girls in the school to spend the day out at the INL for a STEM day. She loved it and learned about all sorts of stuff. They did rotations learning about water turpidity and biology. Ava said her favorite was a room sponsored by the Fish & Game where you got to dissect salmon.

Kasen had what we hope was his last basketball tournament in Pocatello. I'm not sure Jed can handle watching anymore of his games because he thinks the coaches are so bad and don't know what they are doing. I'm not sure I can take listening to Jed talk about it anymore. Kasen played great and he actually got to play his old team from Boise. It was fun to see some of those parents and catch up with them. We also saw an old friend from high school, Brian Bunderson, and talked to him for a good part of the day. Jake and Megan and part of their family came down to watch Kasen and that was really nice of them to support Kasen. Jed and Kasen have been going to all of Jace's high school games. It's nice to have family support. Ava spent the day with her friend Avery Ricks. It was really nice for her to have a day to spend with a friend. They went to a Star Wars movie at the cheap theatres and hung out and had pizza. Ava said she had a great time. Kinsley drew this very life-like portrait of Jed as a kid after he told the kids this was how he used to sign his school papers because he wanted to be just like Michael "Air" Jordan.

Some of the cows started calving this week. It has been so cold, but Jed says it is actually better for it to be cold vs muddy and sloppy for little calves. We went over to see how it was going. When we went over there was a calf that was breach and Jed & Kent had to pull it out. The kids got their first taste of biology and cow obgyn all in one. Everyone thought it was pretty cool except Kasen. He got a little queasy. The kids also got their first taste of post pregnancy hormonal mothers as about every other cow tried to charge the fence when we would stop to look at their babies.

This week I decided to try my hand at food photography. It was my first time shooting in raw manual mode and it was hard! I didn't really understand how to adjust my settings, so I ended up going back to automatic mode. I think they turned out great as far as lighting and color. I'm not sure how professional they look. I also did a banana bread photoshoot.

This week Ava had to write some poetry for her English class. In her research she found this funny poem about a boy. She said, "Doesn't this sound just like Dallin to you mom? Don't worry one day he will be a prince after all."

This was a long week. It was cold and I felt like I got nothing done. Last month I had so much motivation and this month it just disappeared. These two thoughts helped me put things into perspective and realize that not every moment is going to be rainbows and unicorns and that's ok. You just have to keep moving forward - even if it is only little tiny baby steps. Forward is still progress no matter how fast it comes.

WEEK 4 (February 23rd - 29th) - We have been having weekly family discussions before church in regards to the Come Follow Me lessons. It has been a good way to pass the time before church. Dallin made us sit in designated spots - the boy couch and the girl couch. The kids have had great insights and are learning a lot during the week. I'm so glad I bought them the study guides I did. I love the one I use too - I have learned so much. Each morning we study personally from 7-7:30 am, but we are all sitting around the kitchen table. We are also trying to listen to a talk or watch a video each night pertaining to the Restoration like our prophet has counseled us to prepare for conference. As the mom I've really been trying to be more intentional about making studying and learning the gospel a part of everyday life in our home. A scripture really stuck out to me towards the end of last year - "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lost his soul?" Matthew 16:26 - as I've been thinking about all the things I do and choose to spend my time doing I've realized that if I'm not doing the essentials then what I'm doing even if it is good profiteth me nothing...

The cows have started calving and the little babies are super cute. A few of our cows have babies. One came super early and was tiny. Kinsley has been naming all the calves. Our little, tiny one she named Brownie so we have started praying for Brownie to be healthy.

Here are a few random pictures taken this week. Kinsley finally got her new glasses, Dallin is continuing to do so awesome on his potty chart - he hasn't had a wet pull-up once when he wakes up, Dallin came with me to an appointment, Jed's office posted some new social media posts, Jaxon and Stockton came over for a dance party, and Dallin continues to impress us all with his matching abilities. One thing I love about him is he calls anything he wears aside from pjs his "morning clothes". It cracks me up. He will say, "Mom I got my morning clothes on - do they match?" We were watching our Sunday church movie about the restoration when Dallin fell asleep curled up by his brother. I hope they always stay such good buddies.

The last Saturday (LEAP DAY) Ava had her first volleyball tournament in Utah with her Rigby club team. We made into a girls only trip. It was so fun. We went out to Olive Garden when we got to Utah and the girls tried calamari for the first time. Ava said it was good, but her face told a different story! 😂 Her team didn't have any extra players so everyone played the entire games all day long Saturday morning. It was great and I loved that she got so much good playing. Ava had tons of good blocks. She played middle which she really likes. The team won all their games and went into the tournament 1st. However, they played a team that was super tough and lost so they were out. Kinsley was a rock-star reader during the tournament. Meanwhile, the boys went to watch Jace's basketball team play in their last chance game to go to state. They rode with Jessica and G&G Erickson. While there they were so excited to see Tresa and Jeff!!! Jace's team lost and it was very sad especially for Kasen. We were getting back to Idaho Falls the same time they were getting back so we stopped and got some cookies to end the weekend.