Catching Up

I have a love/hate relationship with the month of February. Jeff is gone for 3 of the 4 weeks, which I hate, but this gives me the opportunity to go stay with my family for a few days which I love.



Grandpa playing with K and Van.

Girls were invited to a cousins house for a sleepover.

We celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by reading his books before bed. These books are perfect for London who is a beginner reader.


Here's my K...
She's a great student, very smart, wants to please. I've noticed that when she does her math she sometimes needs to use her fingers. I find nothing wrong with this, especially since I use my fingers to calculate at times too. She doesn't like anyone to see her using her fingers though, so she hides them underneath the table. She has also been into numbers a lot lately and has been using the calculator as entertainment. She adds up odd numbers that she finds on cereal boxes, clothing tags and other things. She has also asked my weight, height in inches and my age and showed me the final number, good thing I fudged a bit. If she asks you how much you weigh, please don't be offended.


We get 4 eggs a day from our chickens. That means we get more than 2 dozen eggs in a week. At one point a shelf in our fridge was devoted to all eggs. I would make scrambled eggs for breakfast and have deviled eggs as a side dish for dinner. It was just too much eggs for us in one day. Jeff was inspired and started making us breakfast in the mornings and since then we now have our egg population to a minimum. He's made the usual pancakes, waffles and french toast, but started researching different breakfast recipes that use eggs and now he makes us breakfast burritos, strussel cake and donuts. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to wake up to a warm breakfast that I didn't make.

The girls cleaned the bathroom and bedroom without complaining or fighting...that deserved a reward and they chose to have a playdate with friends the next day.


Sullivan reminds me of that scene in Lilo and Stitch where Stitch builds a mini San Francisco and pulls a Godzilla on it, destroying everything while growling. And, though he makes messes like a normal toddler boy/girl does, he happens to also be my only child that has helped me clean at that age. He loves to unload the dishes (not in the right spot yet, but we are working on that), throws all of his diapers in the garbage, loves mopping and sweeping and helping me pick up and put away toys. I can ask him simple tasks and he's eager to complete them. I'm sure at some age he will hate chores, but right now I am just grateful he's so helpful.

We made a trip to Utah for the blessing of our new nephew Jakob. We are slowly trying to decorate our home, so we tried out Tai Pan. I got lost a few times in this store. We ended up buying one thing, but wanting a thousand more.

Melanie holding her new nephew Jakob.

Ashley with baby Lexi and Sullivan.


Hot Beef Sundaes for dinner. Jeff gets to eat these when he attends a show in NY so we tried recreating them and they were so good and easy. First, I made mashed potatoes from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook (stick of butter, brick of cream cheese, half and half...yummy) and then topped them with top sirloin beef tips in gravy (or, use left over roast like me), then sour cream, shredded cheese and a cherry tomato on top.


Van cleaning the outside of my windows for me.

For family night we had a short lesson on fasting. I can't believe that Kamryn is almost 8 (June) and that she will be experiencing fasting for her first time after her baptism. After our lesson we played this game called Knock your socks off. Basically you set out a sheet or blanket and you have to be touching it at all times. You start by saying all together "Knock, Knock, Knock your socks off." Then it is a free for all and you try to get each others socks off...no kicking though! It was a blast! The girls and I usually had to gang up on Jeff, he can really tuck those legs under his bum which made it nearly impossible to get his socks off.


Sullivan was an easy target and usually was the first one out. He also didn't like watching everyone gang up on me, he'd crawl into my lap and start crying and cling to me. I loved it! Maybe he is a Mamma's boy after all ;).