February/March

We have done a lot of stuff lately.   So I had better put it down before I forget it.

First thing was that I got a message from someone in my sister Joanna's ward. She asked if someone could draw a picture about why Joanna is amazing. I had my boys who were home draw pictures. I thought they were cute. 

It's about this time of year when I start wanting to clean things or organize stuff. We have lived here for 14 years! And we keep getting more and more stuff. 

I don't have a before picture- But here is a during picture. My pantry was SOOO dirty. I usually keep it fairly organized, but the shelves just get lots of junk on them over the years.

Here is all the junk- well, some of it. 

And... back in. This took a lot of time. Especially scrubbing the shelves. It's a good thing that we had Tanner's "after dinner job" be to take everything out. That helped a lot. 

Every morning at 6:30 this is the scene. The older boys are ready to leave. The younger boys are dragging themselves out of bed and collapsing on the couches. Then we read the Book of Mormon. 

It is really early for them. 

Sunday evening shinanigans. 

Check out Jaxon in the background. He is always singing. You can always tell if he is happy by if he is singing. 

Practicing the piano. The boys always to so much better if Andre helps them. 

More sunday night shinanigans. 

There was a koosh ball and a Frisbee thing and a trick that they were trying to complete for 20 minutes. They finally did it! 

All of my boys tried to run for Elementary student government. Chase hit 4th grade and he went for it also. Here he is, working hard on his posters. 

He had 2 each of these designs. 

We got the ideas from pinterest (what would I do without pinterest) and they were easy and a hit with the fourth graders. Also- it helps that his name is a verb. "Chase me to the voting booth"

Chase actually WON! Congrats to the new 5th grade senator. 

We have lots of Young Women activities. I get lots of pictures of those. 

Young men have been doing some trek activities lately. And they always work on service projects. I'm proud of my boys for working hard. 

It was Pie day! March 14th or 3.14

I usually make an ice cream pie for this day. It is as easy as letting ice cream melt, putting it is a pre-made graham cracker pie shell and then letting it freeze. I forgot to take a picture of the pie- just got one of it being scarfed up. 

This kid is starting high school. I wanted to remember this so I took a clandestine picture of him. 

February/March have lots of random days off of school. With random holidays and end of quarters and parent teacher conference days. On one of the days off, I took the kids swimming.  

Chase had a gift card and he bought goggles. So he spent  the whole time enjoying swimming with goggles. 

 Chase was an alien in a Webelos skit for the blue and gold banquet.

St,. Patricks day! Dinner was rainbow pancakes with clouds. And other yummies. 

It was our anniversary on Monday. We had lots of stuff going on but we played a few games for FHE. 

Andre and I went out last night to celebrate. But I didn't take any pictures of that. 

But there were random ducks in our front yard this week. 

Other stuff from this time period:

Jaxon decided to go to Snow College! So we are super excited for him. He even got a scholarship so that is great.

Andre and I have been asked to help with Trek this year as cooks. We have had a few meetings already for this.

After this quarter- we have two honor roll kids. Great work to Tanner and Alex.

We are continuing our FHE's about church history. I am learning a lot and I hope the kids are. They were amazed at the persecutions the church went through in Missouri. Chase said,  "I thought we lived in a country where we have freedom of religion". Yup, so did they. I am trying to find all the details and teaching them everything I can. (as much as they can stand) I want them to know that people in the church made mistakes too. Some of those mistakes led to greater persecution. People are not perfect- but the gospel is perfect. I want them to understand repentance and fixing mistakes. That those are gifts from Jesus Christ. We can repent. So many of Joseph Smith's "friends" betrayed him. But if they came to him and asked forgiveness- he forgave them immediately. What a great example.

Up with Kids for Alex is ramping up. They have long practices. Alex has a bigger part so he has extra practices. He has to go to the 4:00 class and the 6:00 class. So He just reads from 5-6. So it seems to him like a three hour practice.

We have a fun group of people that we get together with each year around valentines day. Our friends Kori and Eric invite their friends. So, at first the only people that we knew were Kori and Eric- but over the years, we have gotten to know the other couples.

My boys have been waking up early on Saturdays to help with Scouting for food, and a yard work fund raiser to help with scout camp payments. They have had fairly good attitudes- but they really hate dog poo. (especially other people's dog poo.)

Stake conference!  We had a special stake conference last week. President M Russell Ballard came to our stake conference. It was great for us all to hear from an Apostle. We were in the same room as him. It was a rather large room. I really felt uplifted after listening to his talks.

I had to teach the beehives how to make bread this week. So, I had to learn how to make bread. After a few fails, I got a good recipe and new yeast- and it worked out great. But it sure took a lot of time. I made about 6 batches of bread.

We've been looking around at getting a new car. We have had our van for more than 11 years.

Andre starts soccer practice today. Last year he just could not play because of his knee. We are really hoping that his knee is healed. He loves soccer so much.