An Early Spring?

And then one day it started to warm up.

I'm not a cold weather person.  At all.  Going to college in Utah was my first experience owning a coat let alone living in the cold.  That was many years ago now, but even in my post college life I've only lived two places where it got really cold.  Illinois and Colorado.  And now we are in Utah.  Spring (or warmer weather) came a lot sooner than I remember it coming in college...or other cold places we lived.  This is February!!  Maybe it's only a brief respite before Winter Part II kicks in.  We'll see.  I took the kids to the park last weekend 'cause it wasn't that cold.  Maybe mid-50s.

Anna was convinced that this was the natural result of the groundhog not seeing his shadow.

It's so great to be out in the sun.  Even if it was a little chilly still.

We played basketball and played on the toys for a while.

Then we had to head home when someone had to use the bathroom.

That or injuries is how many park visits end.

And then today I took the three youngest to the park while the others were at school.  On the way there Emma managed to disassemble a water bottle and dump it on herself.  So she was cold and miserable.  I put every extra coat I could on her, but she was still cold.  So that limited our park time.

   Poor Emma!

She had some good moments and played on some of the toys.

John and Grant ran around like crazy people...or like the small, energetic boys that they are.

I tried to warm Emma while they did laps.

Later, after lunch and a few long story books they fell asleep.

Ah, the sweet post-park nap time.  Love it.  And love the warmer weather.  Keep it coming.

February Holidays

I really love holidays.  And in my mind I'd like to celebrate them all with perfect dinners and kid activities.  Of course, it doesn't always work out that way.  But we do manage some fun here and there.  February is always fun 'cause there are several smaller holidays all together.  Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year and President's Day are all pretty close together.  On Chinese New Year we have to have Chinese food.  And on Groundhog Day I always make something round and ground hog shaped.  Chicken Cordon Bleu with broccoli trees and mashed potatoes.  I know.  I need help.  Anyway, here are some pictures from our February activities.

Anna made this cute V-Day box for school.  I thought it was so wonderful.  A lot of the kids at school made super elaborate pinterest worthy boxes shaped like all sort of things.  Some of them involved batteries.  It was over the top!  Is that a Utah effect?  I don't know.  But the kids had fun.

Groundhog Day.  One of my favorite movies of all time is Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.  And since my kids are too young for that one we celebrate in other ways.  Scott and I usually watch the movie and then quote is mercilessly (or I do) for weeks after ("...WHAT-A-WASTE-OF-TIME!!  I mean...for someone else that would be an incredible waste of time...so bold of you to choose that...")  Last year I made a groundhog scavenger hunt.  This is the prize at the end - a groundhog shaped goodie bag.  Along the way they learn interesting facts about Groundhog Day.  This year the kids requested an encore performance (of the groundhog scavenger hunt).  So here it is again.  

They probably just wanted the candy.

This was our Groundhog Day meal this year - Chicken Pillows with Parmesan Sauce.  They were actually really tasty but a lot of work since I made them (bread dough and all) from scratch.  Does it look like a groundhog with a blanket?  It needs a head or something.

And my sister came into town for a week.  Here we are having Cajun Pasta for our Mardi Gras dinner.  Have I mentioned my crazy themed-meals-for-holidays obsession?  I was too lazy to make beignets or King Cake this year and made Mardi Gras cupcakes instead.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

I started celebrating Mardi Gras when I lived in the Florida panhandle.  It's bigger there than in the west.   They sell moon pies and king cakes in the grocery stores at Mardi Gras time.  It's also pretty big in St. Louis.  We have a very mild Mardi Gras celebration.

It involved a lot of frosting eating.

And then my family hosted the party of the century!  My sister invited some of our friends from Fullerton (who have since moved to Utah) over.  They are like our family - almost like cousins.  We grew up together and yadda yadda.  So it was fun and crazy.  I think we had 33 people in the house.  It seemed like a lot.  And this was the only picture I took.  Anna and one of my friend's daughters.  This was before we reached critical mass with tons of kids running around.

And here is my nephew, Gideon.  We decorated some Valentine cookies on V-Day.  I think he got his cast off shortly after this.  Poor guy!

Decorating cookies.  Ruth's other son, Magnus in the background.  He is Grant's age.

Grant was sad when he woke up from a nap.  

He poured copious amounts of sprinkles over his sadness.

I think it helped.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Cabela's

We went to Cabela's on Martin Luther King Day since the kids had the day off school.  It's a big sporting good/outdoor gear store like Bass Pro Shop.    There were a lot of animal displays.  Here are the kids by the African animals.  I think Grant was acting like a lion?

We all liked the big fish tank

Lots to see in the fish tank

Inside one of the ice fishing tents (or whatever they are called).

Ice fishing sounds like something I would not like to do as it involves being cold.

John sitting on the 4 wheeler

Some animatronics woodsmen.  In my mind I took a lot more pictures, 'cause there were a lot more animal displays.  But I guess I was too busy enjoying them and forgot the picture taking.

Riding horses   We also got fudge and some old fashioned (and new fashioned) candy.  And the boys had fun shooting guns at the shooting gallery.  Anna didn't want to try shooting and sat on the soft chairs instead.

We had a good time at Cabela's and then went to get frozen yogurt.

Frozen yogurt is always ok, even on cold slushy days.

We'll probably go back to Cabela's again.  It's a good winter activity when you just need to get out of the house.  And I'll take more pictures next time.

LDS Church History Museum

A few weeks ago we went to the LDS Church History Museum right by Temple Square.  It wasn't very big, but it was free and had some fun displays and things for the kids to see and do.  Here is John by a model of the gold plates.  The kids got to lift some up to see how heavy they would have been.

Anna practices her transcribing

Anna sweeps up in Liberty Jail.  For some reason the kids were obsessed with sweeping up the straw in this little mock up of the Liberty Jail.  If only I could harness that cleaning enthusiasm at home.

Grant the builder/arranger liked any of the hands on/building displays

There was a art room at the end where the kids could do a lot of hands on things.

Grant built some different structures out of these blocks and wanted them all to be documented

More of his creations

More Grant creations

These translucent tangrams on a light table were pretty fun

Then everyone wanted to let off a little steam in the kids play area

Emma was happy she could get on a chair  We had a fun time at the museum and stopped at Chick-Fil-A on the way home to let the kids play and eat a bunch of chicken nuggets.

Our House

in the middle of our street

Although it's still several months away, I'm getting excited for our house to be finished.  Here is an update.  This is the concrete pad for our house, finally poured.  So something is happening.  That's good.  We did find out this week that because of all the rain, our house, originally scheduled to be done in April, now won't be done until June.  Blame it on El Niño.  :(   The kids and I weren't planning to move in until after school gets out (Memorial Day) anyway, so we think we can still make this change of plans work for us.

Slightly different view of our very exciting slab.  It's only exciting to us.

Here's our house a few weeks earlier.  So progress is being made.

Our street is finally paved, and part of it shows up on google maps now.   It's a real street!  Scott and I both like the location of our development.  It's in a little valley with hills on both sides.  You can see one side of the hills here beneath the clouds.

Here are the hills on the other side.  

This picture was taken last summer, before our street was a street.

Here's that look down the street now.  Notice the hills are green now.

And more houses.

Here is a picture of the interior of the model house for our floorpan.    Our house will look different of course, but this is the same floor plan.  We got mid tone flooring (lighter than this), cream countertops, and slightly lighter cabinets.  Our walls will be a little lighter too.

A little dining area.  Our dining table will have to squeeze in here.  

I think we can make it work.  I won't have to walk far to get back to the fridge.

And a living room area next to the kitchen.  There are two levels and most of the bedrooms are upstairs.  There is a guest bedroom and den downstairs.  And a loft space plus three bedrooms upstairs.

And this is the backyard from the model home - the same size as our yard will be.

It's tiny, but think of how little yard work we will have to do! And there is a community park half a block from the house (part of the complex) and a walking/biking path also half a block away.  So I'm sure we will take advantage of those to offset our small space.  And we won't go broke watering the lawn.  :)  The back yard will be dirt when we move in, so I need to figure out if we want a concrete pad poured (yes), where to put grass and landscaping.   But its not huge, so we should be able to figure it out.

We also have this side yard - we're thinking about having a garden in this space.  We'll see.

When Scott got his job offer in NorCal we both felt like it was the job he should take, although we knew the housing market there would be quite challenging.   We had to make compromises of course.  We could have had a small older house with a larger yard or a newer bigger house with a small yard.  We chose the second option.  And although Scott has to commute 40 miles to work - there is a train that goes right to his office (with WiFi and he can work on the train if needed) and being out of Silicon Valley a little way allows us to not live in a 1 bedroom hovel.  So that's a bonus.  Scott and I are actually really excited about our new town.  We visited it lots when we lived in Monterey (45 minutes from Monterey/beaches/Santa Cruz is a plus for me).  It's out in the country surrounded by hills, mountains, farmland, open space, which I love.  But still just a short 30 minute drive back into San Jose.  So I'm happy.  

I got fortune cookies for our Chinese New Year dinner a few days ago and this was my fortune.  So things are definitely going to work out.  The fortune cookie said so.