February Blog

The kids decided that they needed to build tunnels in the snow dunes from the plow trucks on the cul-de-sac island. 

Here they are hard at work.

They were able to tunnel through, Evan can be seen at the end of one of the tunnels. 

Then Alex joined in the fun and they were able to tunnel it into a "L" with a periscope look out between Evan and Alex's exit.

Mike and I had a nice lunch date at our favorite Chinese place in Farmington. We got giant bowls of hot and sour soup, just what we wanted.

I took Evan and Eliza to an allergist to discuss Eliza and see if Evan had any allergies. Turns out Eliza doesn't need to change anything in her eating habits (hooray!!), and we just need to manage her allergies when they get bad from cat, trees, dust, and grass. 

Evan got tested for allergies, turns out he's only allergic to two things and they bloom in the spring and fall, so he should be good to go.

We passed the time by playing Railroad Ink while Evans back was reacting to the allergens. The doctor even mentioned how pleased she was to see people playing games rather than just watching a device. 

My lettuce has taken off. I was able to harvest once and I'll do it again this week I think. 

Evan has been working to earn this RC car for a while. He hasn't earned it yet, but it was on sale and we were in the store so we purchased it to keep his interest up in earning points for good behavior.

Evan checking it out the RC car before packing it away again to put it in my bedroom. He is a happy kid.

I traveled down to spend time with my Dad and Jodi and look through my grandmothers photo albums with my dad. It was really nice to be with him and having him remember and tell me about his childhood places and friends. I look forward to going through more books with him in the near future. After looking through a few books we headed to dinner and then I saw my friend in a show she was singing in.

Eliza being silly with all the sunglasses she has in the car.

We headed to the library to pick out some free books from the winter reading program. All the kids earned free books and when I got back from looking at CDs I saw my family reading away at one of the tables. It was a beautiful sight.

One of the keys on the piano wasn't working anymore, so we had a gentleman come over and try and fix it. He had to take the entire player part out of the piano to fix the key (something came unglued), so that was interesting. I got to look at all the parts and he taught me a few things about the piano. Very nice guy. He tuned the piano up and she's back up and running and the player is still working (it was his first time taking apart a player). He left us with a number for a guy that fixes player pianos in the area that can help me repair it if needed.

We headed to a STEAM night at Evan's school. The boys helped set up the Robotics area and kids K-5 were able to drive and shoot the robots. The night was really nice and Eliza loved seeing all her buddies again.

The boys decided to start climbing our neighbors pine tree.

They are all the say up the tree where the green arrow is. They are above the rooves of the large houses in the cul-de-sec. They used my gardening gloves to climb so they don't get sticky hands. 

We headed downtown from church to see The Blue Man Group and the kids wanted to climb from the 2nd floor of the parking structure to the 8th so they could look out over the skyline. 

Then we headed into the show at the Fox theater. 

It was a fun show and the kids enjoyed going to the Fox for the first time. We read some history about it while we waited for the show. There is a glass ball that hangs in the middle of the sitting area that is 13' across and weighs 2000lbs and is lit by 100 bulbs, but from our seats it does not look that big. We all enjoyed looking around and seeing the ornate decorations. 

Eliza did a painting with whales when she was in 2nd grade, her teacher liked it so much that she held on to it so she could put it in the art show this year. Her teacher is also entering it into a contest in California to win a free whale watching trip. I really love that Eliza put the whale tail under the water. I can't wait to frame it and put it in her room. 

We headed to a volleyball game at the Middle School to see the elementary staff of all four schools compete. It was so much fun. At one point the ball was hit so high it hit a fan on the ceiling then bounced off onto the wall and then bounced from there and hit a ref.

Whip cream fun at breakfast. :)

Eliza and I headed to English Gardens to buy seeds while the boys were volunteering at DRAW ( Disaster Relief at Work - a place that helps areas that have been hit with a natural disaster). The seeds were half off so I got onion seeds that I'll need for next winter, and Eliza picked out some flowers that she liked that I haven't grown before. I made a spread sheet when I got home to try and have an easy access sheet in my seed starting area of when to plant what and how deep. 

Here is my little grow area. I think I need to up pot my snapdragons and then move them to a window because they are just taking up wayyyyy toooo much space. I'll be starting some more flowers and tomatoes and peppers this month.

Jan blog

I'm sure I've mentioned how much we love our library. The kids go once a month to a Coding Club and once a month to Tween Crafting, and they make super fun things. This month they were using 3D pens to make things. 

Alex made a light house. Evan has asked for one of these for his birthday.

I started onions.....

and ran a lettuce experiment to see what seeds were still good.

I was super surprised to see some of the lettuce germinated in one day. 

I was walking by the boys room when I saw Evan's feet sticking out of their animal bin. He said this was comfortable... I didn't believe him. Listening to his MP3 player in the most comfortable spot in the house. 

Kids.... :) 

Eliza and I painted tiny canvas's for the library art display in February. Eliza made an awesome snowman and I made the Northern Lights. 

Evan all ready to go to church.

Eliza set up a store in the hallway at church for me to come and order food from. 

We just keep getting snow. This is 4" of new snow.

We just said yesterday this is the first winter I can remember that it stays white outside. The snow hasn't turned gray or dirty, it still sparkles in the sunlight.

Family puzzle with a D&D theme. 

The kids convinced us we needed to head to the library sledding hill. Mike decided to join the kids on a run down the hill. 

Eliza maxing and relaxing.

Evan is continuing to take piano. He knows all of Fur Else and is learning Moon Night Sonata.  

We got to hear Uncle Geoff play at his church event. We were not aware that there was a play as well as the performance. It was very cold in the church, but the 'play' was really well done. I could not believe the actors weren't wearing anything on their feet! We really enjoyed a skit that had someone getting a little can of coke and being so happy about it, but the next person got a bigger one from Jesus... and the first person was not happy they didn't get the same thing from Jesus and just got what they needed. There was a skit on how to pray with all kinds of people teaching this guy how to do it correctly. It was fun.

Eliza needed to get some blood work to see if the dark circles under her eyes is just an Eliza feature, or if it is something else. 

The boys joined her for support while getting the 9 vials filled, but it turns out Alex wasn't much help and Evan almost fainted again. 

 After the blood work we took the kids to Starbucks to use up some of my super old gift cards and got cocoa... which Eliza didn't like (because she doesn't like whip cream, she's crazy!) and it was her special treat for doing the blood work so she got a cake pop as well. 

From the initial blood tests we found that nothing was wrong with her, she just has lots and lots of allergies. She's allergic to every tree, every grass, hazelnuts, cats, dogs, almonds, dust. We are getting more tests this week and also taking Evan to see if he has any allergies.

We made 'dragon eggs' again this year with balloons and food coloring.

After a few days this is what we got.

Eliza looking cozy one cold winter day.

Mike and I found some time to do a puzzle a friend of ours let us borrow. I'm getting better at them.

We had our monthly Degan game night. The kids spent some time outside sledding and then got to reading.

While the adults played games..... they are invisible. :)

We were visiting the Douglass family and playing on their frozen canal and the kids brought up how somehow ALL of them have destroyed their gloves and needed new ones. So I said, ok on the way home we'll stop at Dunams and get some gloves and a few new saucer sleds because we are down to two. So on the way there Evan says "Mom, if there's a metal saucer sled at the store can we get one?" and to that I said "Honey, they don't make metal sleds anymore, everything is plastic." Well she showed me, they had a metal saucer sled, so of course we had to get it along with the new gloves. The boys have confirmed they go faster on it, but it's harder to jump with.

Evan had his first concert playing trumpet. He did a wonderful job!

All dressed up and proud.

We all had a nice evening.

Boys getting ready to head to school. Meijer had coats 50% off so I picked up a coat that can be squished into a ball that's about 7" for Alex so he might wear a coat to school and stuff it in his backpack. Turns out he will get a demerit if he puts a coat in his backpack, so he has been putting it in his trombone locker because it fits. I'm just thankful I've got this kid in more than a hoodie this winter. 

Got some pretty good snow dunes in the sub this year.

Eliza and Evan did spelling Bee's this month. Eliza made it to the 4th round at her class and Evan made it to runner up in his class. If the person doesn't make it to school on the school spelling bee day Evan will need to spell. 

Alex is doing a STEM Science class after school this semester. He also has been in a Reading Club put on by the library and the school and he's still doing Robotics which Evan has started as well.

Evan is working on a pretty awesome diamond art of the universe. 

My snapdragons all came up, so I had to make some sacrifices and thin them out. Lettuce needed to be put into a bigger pot and my onions and basil are off and going.

Evan headed out to take some more pictures of the moon. We are having focusing issues, but we haven't had enough clear night to do more tests.

The moon

Jupiter and it's 4 moons.

The Douglass family introduced us to Bischoff spread, and it's amazing on pancakes... Evan thinks its even better with strawberries mixed in. The spread tastes just like the cookies and it's nut free. 

Another visit with Uncle Geoff and Steve.

It's amazing how fast time goes by and how fast the kids grow.