Piano Recital, Date Night, Crazy Hair Day

 Walmart started selling a Lara Bar cereal! It only has 6-9 ingredients and no refined sugar! I especially like the cashew cookie flavor. 

Scott and I look forward to our date nights each week. They usually happen Friday or Saturday night...though lately Charles has Friday baseball practice so we've moved to mostly Saturday night, and sometimes a Saturday afternoon lunch date if we have other things going.  We have several favorite places to eat including Cafe Rio and Costa Vida, Himalayan Kitchen, Thai Basil, Cubbys, Zao Asian Cafe, Mi Ranchito, Kneaders and a newer place called Vessel Kitchen which is pictured below. They have the best roasted brussel sprouts. 

We had a crazy hair day at school. Nora wanted me to do something fun so we browsed pinterest and came up with this. 

Jane and Annabelle had another piano recital. They had to memorize their pieces for this rectial. Elisabeth always had to memorize her pieces. I love when they do this because they get to know the song so much better when they have it memorized and then can play with more feeling. Both girls played beautifully. 

Cake Wars Double Date Night

 

Visit to Idaho, Stevia sweetened Lemonade recipe, 2nd dose Moderna

Scott's best friend growing up, Kevin, moved to Idaho last year and he recently asked if Scott would want to come out for his 40th birthday and go skiing together. He knew my sister Becca lived out there and thought maybe we'd be going out for a visit sometime soon so we could combine the trip. We weren't planning to trip out soon, but decided to so they could ski together. 

We took off Thursday once school was out (I really like that they don't have school on Fridays). We got dinner in Logan (Costa Vida), and got to Becca's around 9pm after I dropped Scott off at Eric's house where he was hosting a bookclub meeting that Scott wanted to attend. 

Friday morning the guys picked up Scott and they went skiing all day. It was snowy and sometimes hard to see, but they had a good time. 

I went for a run that morning, and then we hung out at the house, dropped by Hobby Lobby and got some items to make Pura Vida bracelets, did some shopping at Uptown Cheapskate and CosmoProf, and then once Scott was home we took our family and went to Kevin's for dinner with both Kevin and Erik's families. 

Saturday afternoon Becca, Blake, Scott and I went on a double date to a Thai restaurant. It was delicious. 

This is the mango sticky rice. It was a purple sticky rice and looked different, but it still tasted good, though not my favorite consistency with the rice in a block and I would have preffered more coconut milk. 

Showing off our Pura Vida bracelets we made. I burned my finger. 

My girls wanted to wax their eyebrows while they were there since Becca has it out in her salon. So Becca did it for Jane, Annabelle and Elisabeth. Elisabeth had a bad reaction and the area above her eyebrows was red and bumpy for a couple of days. 

Day 2 above her eyebrows. Still bumpy and pinkish. 

This is our favorite drink right now. We meaning me, Charles, Jane and Nora. It's a homemade lemonade that is sweetened with liquid stevia. 

I got my second dose of Moderna, the Covid19 vaccine. I had a sore arm again and the next day, Saturday, I did not feel my best. I had some body aches and a low grade fever (99.9) which made me tired so I took a two hour nap in the afternoon which is something I never do. Sunday I felt normal again. 

 

A 3rd teenager in the house! And a few random pics

Annabelle turned 13! Which  means we have three teenagers in the house! For the most part, I actually quite like it. They are fun to talk to and hang out with, they get our jokes, they beat us at our games, they  make physical activities more challenging (or they at least can keep up) and they can carry on interesting discussions. I guess we'll keep them :). 

Annabelle works hard, she always has the cleanest bedroom in the house and she helps me keep other rooms tidy and organized (although she doesn't say it, she's probably sometimes annoyed by the rest of the families lack of keeping things in order), she's compassionate, she loves the 'Keeper of the Lost Cities' book series, and she is one of Penny's favorites, which says something about her heart. 

To celebrate her birthday she invited a few friends to do an escape room with her (and elisabeth since she was their driver) and then they came back and hung out and ate food. 

Here are a few random pictures from mid February. 

It snowed a few inches (we haven't gotten very much this year) and Penny enjoys playing in it. 

The girls and I watched the Primary "friend to friend" Saturday morning...or was it friday? I can't remember. But it was very well done. I loved how they used children to 'host' which made it more interesting for my kids, and that they used a sing a long page with a dot that jumps from word to word like in those old sing-a-long disney movies, which I thought was a great idea. 

While working at the school, I noticed this displayed on Jane's 5th grade teacher's bulletin board...it's an old picture since we haven't been in this school district for a few years, but I also enjoyed all the pictures in Jane's name that describe her. 

We got these blue-light blocking glasses for Annabelle for Christmas (3 pair) and I like to borrow them sometimes. 

 Elisabeth will occasionally bribe her siblings with mcdonalds or some other treat for helping her pick up Penny's poop when it's her turn to take her for a walk, or to clean her room etc. They think it's fun to have an older sister that drives and does these things for them. 

Gina my visiting teacher, Valentine's Day, Sweethearts, Pepa's visit

Scott and I had a double date with Ben and Gina. We got dinner at Costa Vida and visited for awhile. We always love seeing them. They were one of our first friends as a married couple. We all lived in Wymount family housing at BYU. Shortly after we moved in, Elisabeth was born, and Gina was my visiting teacher and dropped off a welcome baby poster and her phone number in case we needed anything. Turns out I did. A week later I called this person I never met to see if she could possibly give me a ride to my dentist since our car was not working and I had some work that needed to be done. She dropped me, my mom and newborn Elisabeth off at the dentist (mom didn't want to be alone with baby because we didn't know how long the appointment would take and I was Elisabeth's only food source), she also had her 2 year old daughter in the car, and then I believe we caught a bus home once we were done. After that day Gina and I started going for stroller walks together almost daily and we became fast friends. 

Annabelle left, Elisabeth right...one month ago

Elisabeth left, Annabelle right....last week. 13 year old Annabelle is going to pass up 16 year old Elisabeth in height any day now. 

I love all of these things! Veggies with guac (anything with guac!), roasted artichokes and sweet potatoes. 

I'm over the younger young women class in our area and one week we made hearts with kind notes and heart attacked a few people in the neighborhood who we thought might like a little extra love. 

Pepa came to visit over Valentine's weekend! It was also the sweethearts dance for Elisabeth (girl ask guy...school didn't hold one because of covid, so her friends did...with the help of their awesome and amazing parents; like me :)). 

They had brunch in our clubhouse (moms made food) and then they did an amazing race scavengar hunt which took a couple of hours. Then they separated and got dressed up, came back to the clubhouse for dinner (Costa Vida...every couple paid for their own) and, dancing and games. 

Pepa wanted to look around the area at apartments and jobs in case she decides to come  this way. We're hoping she does, though I know its a tough decision since she's got her adult kids living in Washington near her,  and California. 

Valentine's morning we had cereal (always a treat around here), giant heart rice krispie treats and we gave them their traditional love letters from us. 

Elisabeth and Tanner ready for Sweethearts

Valentine's Day Dinner...we got Papa Murphy's pizza the day before and saved it for this holiday sunday dinner. 

And we played some love songs on the piano. And sang. A little. I sang Lauren Daigle's Love Like This while Elisabeth played. 

Annabelle did this cute heart hairstyle on Nora. 

And then we played games. 

I am so grateful to have been blessed with so many wonderful people to love.  

 

School Kits for Refugees

I currently work with the youth in our church. We planned and carried out a cool activity recently. Justserve.org is an awesome website that allows you to get involved with local service opportunities. I went on there and found something that would work as an activity for our youth group. We collected items, assembled and delivered 100 school kits for refugees. I made a signup genius and sent it out to everyone in our neighborhood and ward with all the items we'd need. People signed up and filled the many slots so quickly after the signup genius went live, it was amazing! 

 People are good. God is good. He loves all of his children and it makes me so happy to see the goodness of others, wanting to help and contribute in any way they can to bless his children.