The Deep Freeze

It has been a very cold winter around here, like record cold for around these parts.  Dave and I have taken advantage of the time indoors to complete a few projects that have been on the list for a while.  he installed ceiling fans in all the kids rooms, painted the kids/guest bathroom, and we are now working on painting and re carpeting the study, phew that is a lot for a few weeks of work. 

As for these Southern born (or raised) babes of mine they have been a bit cooped up and stir crazy.  We have kept busy with lots of art projects, reading, movies, and general indoor mayhem to get the wiggles out.  During the worst of the inversion, it was actually warmer up on the Mesa, so we escaped as much as would could up there to get some fun in.  The kids were all excited about making a snow cave, and when we got there, we had all of the fun without the work as we happened upon this one.  Hot chocolate after a ski tastes so much better if eaten in a snow cave.

And Maren and I took one day and bundled up to go to the local ice skating rink, and can I just say this girl is a natural.  First time on the ice since she was maybe 3 or 4 and she was trying to figure out how to do some figure skating moves as she watched another girl practice.  I was impressed.  Maren also was my big help with prepping for Valentines this year.  She and a friend sat  for a couple of hours and took wrappers off of broken crayons to melt into heart shapes for all the kids to give out to the kids classmates. It was a fun project and they loved creating colored patterns for their friends.  

On another very cold day, Amanda and I a huge group of youth spent the day traveling to the Monticello Temple.  It was such a great experience to go with Amanda for her first temple trip, and so wonderful to be surrounded by teenagers who would choose to go to the temple on a Saturday that could be filled with many other fun things.  

 Amanda was down to one crutch at this point, woot woot, but shortly after she hurt her foot on a sledding hill (jump) that set her back another 3 weeks.  It was very depressing to see that second crutch come back out again...seriously 5 months with crutches is VERY LONG TIME!  But look at that smile, it didn't keep her down.   As of today she is actually walking without any crutches and the boot is starting to come off at small intervals so there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel.  I couldn't resist showing off this cute Valentines Day box she made for her"parallelogram" party.  Her math teachers excuse to pack a party into a middle school curriculum. 

I love this picture of Jacob, this is what he does when he is concentrating very hard. He is writing his name, which looks like a bunch of scribbles except for the "J" which he refers to both as "my letter" and "my hook".  His small motor skills are starting to come, today he drew a picture of mom and dad holding hands which looked a lot like two stick people with long necks and some spidery fingers.  I love preschool art!

Jacob is a perfect last child for us.  He is peaceful (except when being a ninja), fun, and super loving.  My favorite phrase lately "Dad, I wuv you" is heard very often, expect he says it to everyone.  Dad gets the most of course, but Spencer is a close second.  I think mom comes in last most days, but hey I'll take what I can get.  Plus he dishes out the best hugs at bedtime when I lay by him for a few minutes, and that is all mine.

Spencer was the spot light at his kindergarten class way back in December, but I forgot to mention it so it seemed perfect here.  He worked really hard helping me make this poster and talk to his class about himself. 

 

He has also made some huge progress lately being brave about being dropped off at school without anyone waiting around until bell rings and even let the dentist clean his teeth for the first time ever last week.  He is also beginning to sound out small words and loves playing our star fall game to practice.  Too get all those winter wiggles out he loves running around the house being a ninja whenever he is bored.

Another nice distraction from the weather was a visit from Michelle.  This trip was intended to be an opportunity for her to see Amanda swim in a local swim meet, but as Amanda's foot has kept her out of the water for a while now, it turned into a play weekend instead.  We went skiing on the monument, a rare opportunity that only comes on those really cold days when the snow sticks around on the red rocks.  We also went snowshoeing and sledding on the Mesa, and swimming another day.  

 The kids love to play on her ipad when she visits, I guess she has cooler apps than dad.
 The kids also love to show off how far they have come with their school work and music lessons.  And Amanda and I even talked her into painting nails with us.
 Michelle also babysat one night so Dave and I could get away for a nice dinner and movie, we watched Lincoln which was fabulous
Thanks for a great visit Michelle we love having you come join the chaos of our house!


She shot this picture of the kids and playing out in the snow one day.  Our snow men are really snow blobs because of the low moisture content and freezing temperature of the snow.  But we tried!  I just loved that it was barely warm enough to get them out of the house for an hour to get some energy out.  We built a mini sledding hill off of a rock and also made some forts to throw snowballs from, which was more snow dust, or ice chunks, luckily the boys don't throw that hard yet=)

And I am happy to say that in the last few weeks the inversion has lifted and we have had some warmer temps, so we are back to our normal activities, and looking forward to spring, well trying to at least.  If mother nature will cooperate anyway, as we got another couple of inches last night.  Welcome to Colorado!