February

 Lots of stuff has happened this month. Here are a few of the things I took pictures of:

Alex was sooo excited. He had these braces for a year as "phase one". He kind of has a mess for teeth and hopefully we have a good handle on it.

This is what happened after his orthodontist appointment. No braces!

 So exciting!

and he has a rainbow retainer that he actually remembers to wear at night! yea for Alex

Alex won 2nd place in the school's inspirations contest. (this is like the reflections contest). He wrote a song for the piano. It is called March of Heros. He did this all on his own with no encouragement or help from his mom. Well. I did show him how he can print out blank music sheets from the internet.
Great Job!  I tried to put the video on here. But it is too long for a blog I guess.

There is a lot of basketball happening in my life lately including Young Women basketball in the stake- every Thursday. 

After Chase's baptism we went down to see the Provo temple open house. I had tried to get tickets for weeks. The website kept telling me that "there were no more tickets available, try again next Monday". I would try again... and get the same message. So, we got in the standby line. It took a long time to get in. But it was worth it. Such a pretty temple. 

We were in the underground parking garage so it was still pretty cold. They had these heating things that we would hover around. 

 And we tried to occupy ourselves with games and stuff.

 Here are my boys by the temple.

Here is our whole family by the temple

 Here is Gordon and Carol with everyone.

 Here is Chase on his special baptism day

It is my Mom's birthday in February. But I didn't take any pictures of our festivities. It was great to spend some time with my parents and sister. My mom is my best friend. We talk all the time. And sometimes I drive her crazy but she still likes me! Happy Birthday! 

This is me and my big brother and my mom. I love this picture.

 The super bowl! It is the only football game we watch all year. I almost want to stop watching it- but its good for my boys to understand the game I guess.

 Thanks to Joanna for providing her TV and throwing a great party.

 The boys had pictures of the Broncos and Panthers. And Jaxon had his Buccaneers picture. Because the Buccaneers are his favorite team- of course.

My awesome nephew is on a mission in The Netherlands/Belgium. We love his letters and the pictures that he sends.

To make his mission seem more real to us I got the movie "the Best Two Years". This is a church movie about missionaries in Holland. The boys loved it so much. I was surprised that they liked it so much. Do you remember seeing it? You should see it again. It is good.

I think it is helping my cute boys know more about what a mission is like.

Chase started piano lessons! 

 He is pretty excited about it.

 Valentines day! The boys made their own boxes. I had nothing to do with it except helping with the hot glue gun.

  The boys had their last basketball games on the day before Valentines day.

Alex shooting a basket.

I wanted to do some valentine-y things with the boys. We made sugar cookies and the boys didn't want to do hearts. They wanted to do ninjas. You know -ninja bread cookies.

We had crepes for dinner on valentines day. I didn't take pictures- but just know that crepes are too yummy and fabulous to take pictures of. They are the perfect valentines food. 

Presidents Day we got out and tried to enjoy the kind of warm weather (it was in the 50's! But can you see the snow everywhere). We went to the zoo. We got there at the time of the elephant show.

 Elephants playing harmonicas are awesome.

 Alex had a request that we spend a lot of time inside the small animal building. He said that we always run through it and that he never gets to see everything that he wants to. So we spent as long as he wanted. It was about a half hour longer than I liked. It always stinks and is too hot in that building. I do love the animals though. They are cool.

 Chase spent a long time staring at this crocodile lizard thing.

It was cool watching the tigers. 

 I love watching the sea lions

 On our way out we got to be amazed by the peacocks.

We bought a new ladder and got our new picture up on the wall. 

Alex's class was on the news. The weatherman came and talked to them. Here is a picture of him and you can't really see the screen but he is on it!

Tanner was the first one to finish his color by number. It looks awesome!

Tanner also has snowboarding this month. He loves it so much. Jaxon had it last month. I don't have pictures because I don't go up there to watch all the snowboarding happening. But they go and they love it.

We started a project that involves this:

Do you recognize it? More information on it later.

The Webelos went on a field trip for their science badge. I think it was fun. 

Alex is almost  Webelos age and his friends are in the den- so he has started coming to Webelos. I like it. I brought Chase because he can't be home alone and he loves scouting things. 

Tanner and Jaxon went on a winter camp with the scouts. Here are a few pictures I took from facebook. Thanks Rich! Here is a big cave that a lot of the boys slept in. That could be Tanner kneeling in the cave.

Tanner dug out his own cave that was barely big enough to fit himself. He loved it. This could be a picture of it. I will have to ask him when he gets home from school. But this also shows the tree house in the background. Jaxon went in the group that got there at 7:00 at night so they didn't have time to dig out caves. He slept in the tree house. 

 They had so much fun sledding and playing in the snow. Scouting has made a big difference in my kid's lives. There are a lot of things that they do in scouting that teaches them and gives them opportunities that I would not be able to give them. Thanks to the leaders who do really sacrifice for them.

The rest of the weekend was kind of mellow. I cut hair, worked on house projects, Andre worked in the yard! The kids played outside- it is almost warm! Choir is getting busy. We are practicing for the Easter program and Stake conference coming up so 2 practices on Sundays. Young Women basketball finished up last week, but this week and next is the "region" games. Lots of unexpected stress came from that at our meeting last night. But whatever.  It is almost over!

Today is Leap Day! It's a whole "extra" day to do something. I know that my younger kids want to make it a special holiday. But I don't see that happening. We will have treats as part of Family Home Evening and call it good. Maybe we will play leap frog?