When it's springtime in the Rockies

Here are the promised Jayne-smile-making photos.

I believe I've mentioned that this winter has been slightly more than strange, but this beats all. 

See that up there? See those tiny little shoots poking their noses up through the sun warmed soil? In February?

Those are tulips.

Yes, my nose was that close to them, and yes - the dirt smells good.

 Hello, friend. I was worried you were going to think it was springtime when the temperatures have been so... well, springy.
Please don't die when it snows on you.

 And these are snap dragons, which I don't think are quite as hardy as tulips. I'm slightly more worried about them. Because guess what it looks like outside my window today?

Hello, welcome to Utah!
We love you. Luckily Caleb found the kid's snow shovel yesterday so they could shovel the walkway this morning. Because, you know, someone's gotta do it.

Happiness is winter decided to be winter

My kids went sledding! In our yard! In real snow that almost covered the whole ground! 

It was a miracle. 

This winter has been beyond weird, I tell you what. The greatest comfort I have is in the fact that if I had to choose a Ski Season to sit out with morning sickness, this was the one. 

 This little guy can be timid at times. Sledding is not one of those times.

Claire, turns out, is quite the little snow lover as well. She had no need for me to be out there with her, she very happily climbed halfway up the hill, plopped herself down, and began munching.

Until Emmy decided that she needed to sled.

Which Claire was okay with.

Especially the going down part.

And, the going up part!
Reminded me a little bit of when I was little and my darling little sister Tess would pull me all around the yard in the wagon for "hours" because I was the princess and she was the horse. Until the moment where she got fed up with it and gave me a nice shove off the road into the mud and stormed into the house.

I think I got what I deserved, yes?

Where was I? Oh yes.

 One thing about snow - it almost always produces smiles.

Genuine, happy kid smiles.

Go to the thrift store, spend a few dollars on snow suits and sleds, and you'll get a million smiles as return on your investment.

As long as it snows.

See? I told you Claire smiles in the snow.

But oh just you wait. I took a few photos this afternoon, and maybe I'll post them... tomorrow. They have nothing to do with snow, but they caused many many smiles. On my face.

Short stories, by Jayne

Story number one.
While shopping in Park City, we made a quick stop at Petco so Caleb could purchase a few crickets to feed to the mascot at work, which happens to be a Black Widow. I know. I don't understand either.
That evening, as the minions were getting ready for bed, the crickets began singing. We all gathered around them, starry eyed and sentimental, and reminisced about past camping trips.
After a little coaxing from the minions, we agreed to let the crickets spend the night in their room.
"Mom, it's like camping with bunk beds."  "I miss the stars."  "Mom, how about don't sing tonight, let's just listen to them sing instead."
And so, for the first time in 6 years, I sat quietly with my babies as they drifted off, which was fine, because my replacement was seriously talented.
I can't remember how we avoided the "these crickets are spider food" the next day when they left with Caleb. I don't think it came up. *whew*
Honestly, if crickets lived more than a few days, I wouldn't have let him take them.


Story number two.
We had the flu last week. On sunday morning, when I informed the kids that we would not be attending church, Jonah had some concerns.
"What if Brother W. thinks I'm dead?"
Jonah really loves his teacher.
"Will you send him a message and tell him I'm not dead?"
So, naturally, I did, and Brother W. was very relieved.


Story number three.
I have this pregnancy app on my phone, and every week it sends me a cute little picture showing me how big my baby is, and something it compares to size-wise. So far it's been lovely things like a grape, a kumquat, a lime. What new photo greeted me this morning? A shrimp! Ew! I almost lost it, I'm not gonna lie. Let's hope this week goes by quickly so I can stop picturing my little angelbabe as a skinless-looking sea creature.

I had to take a few deep breaths before viewing that photo. 

Story number four.
We received a few inches of snow, which is always cause for much celebration around here, so the minions geared up and headed out. 2 minutes later, three large neighbor boys stomped into our yard, and Emmy and Jonah almost passed out with joy.
We really love our neighbor boys, and for good reason.
It always amazes me how gentle they are with my littles, and how quickly they can shrug off their teenage coolness and get down and play. The youngest isn't a teen yet, but he's significantly older than my kids, yet it mattereth not. Kids are kids, I guess.


Story number five.
This story is also short, as is the main character. But don't worry, what she lacks in stature she more than makes up for in personality.

It's my Cami's birthday today, and I love her so much it's weird. I'm not saying that I love her more than my other 7 sisters, I'm just saying I love her.
She's leaving in a few weeks for Rome, and she'll be gone for a year and a half, during which time I won't be able to call her at any hour just to tell her that my finger hurts or that I just ate an incredible fish taco.
She's off to serve the Lord, and I'm so excited for her I can hardly stand it.
There is absolutely no doubt that I will miss her terribly, but the time will pass and I'm already looking forward to her letters.
I love you, Cambo, Happy Birthday! Sorry you had to share your post with a shrimp.

iLove

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the things I love, so without further ado, I give you,

an incomplete list. In no particular order.


Dreyers Whole Fruit Bars

My washing machine

Lilacs

My girls

Scripture

Green paint

Fingernail clippers

Footy Jammies

Caleb's dimple

The fourth of July

The Secret Garden

Breyers Natural Vanilla
(It used to be mint chocolate chip, but this pregnancy won't allow it. Send help.)

My violin

White dishes

My boy

Sidewalk chalk

Skirts

Sunglasses

Snowflakes

Automatic van doors

My sisters

Scissors

Grapefruit

Oil Pastels

New socks

My old rocking chair

Homemade chicken noodle soup

Claire's squinty smile

It's Raining Men body wash, by Lush

My bike

My Mom's kitchen

Caleb's goatee

Long sleeve t-shirts

Teaching Primary

She and Him

Good pens

Emmy's drawings

To Kill a Mockingbird

Houseplants

Pete's garden

My keyboard

Jonah snuggles

Family night

Evening walks

My neighbors

Fresh mozzarella

White teeth

My pillow

My husband

The library

Frozen yogurt

Snap dragons

Hearing crickets as I fall asleep

Cast iron pans

My brothers

Spring

Quality framing

Vacuum lines in the carpet

My in laws

Photo albums

Webcam

And a couple more things.

My funny valentine

Many things are conspiring against my blogging lately, and I think I finally realized that today. What do I usually blog? Photos of my kids doing interesting (relative term) things and... that's mostly it. 

What did my family do for the past month? They survived. While I dozed. January is a blur, I tell you what. 

That little bit of sicky time baby-preparing is over, for the most part, so we should be able to move on... but our days are rather grey. The weather, I mean. There's no light fluffy bliss outside to play in, which only leaves indoor activities, which are only entertaining for so long when you're Mommy doesn't feel good. 

Plus this whole family has had the flu for nearly a week, and who wants to blog about that? Ew.

Hence, the boring blog.

This is not a promise that it will get better, although it's certainly a hope. 

Moving on. 

Valentine's Day! And you know what that means: PARTY! We love this day around these parts. 

 Emmy and Jonah both got cracking on the valentine making, despite having the flu. I'll show you a few photos of their creations after they have given them away - I don't want to spoil the beauty for the lucky recipients (hi, family!).

 My sweet SIL, knowing of our sickly plight, and realizing that the chances of my getting the gumption to create any new decorations were NADA, made me some herself. This is her heart chandelier, and it has graced our living room for a week now and we love it. There's more too, but I don't have any great photos. I'll work on that.

This felt heart garland was Emmy and I's only project this year, which we just made yesterday. She's way into "sewing" lately, so this was right up her patient little alley.
Please don't mind the empty frames up there. I will get those sketches done... some time.

So, the big today finally came! And Emmy is sicker than ever. Despite that, she was so happy and sweet all day today.

 Caleb is also unfortunately/fortunately sick, so he was home this morning for her breakfast in bed and present opening.
Oh, and uh, don't mind that load of laundry on the end of the couch. They're clean, do I get points for that?

 Look at her poor little self! Don't these photos break your heart? *sigh*

Claire wasn't messing around. As soon as Emmy set down her breakfast tray, Claire picked it up and promptly finished it off.
That's my girl.

 The birthday celebrations, mild as they were, were a welcome excitement today. New treasures to play with, and so many loving phone calls and messages. This is one loved little girl!

She never once complained about no treats or cake. She's willing to do that later when her Grammas and Grampas can come over.
And besides, who doesn't love blowing out their candles over a nice plate of bedtime scrambled eggs?

Let the celebrations begin!

My dear dear dear friend, who happens to be the Mother of Emmy's dear dear dear friend, offered to have a joint birthday party for the girls. Their birthdays are only a few days apart, so sure! Why not?

I honestly was not going to throw a friends party for Emmy this year. Too much work, too little energy.
We're having a family party, but there's so little work involved with that, know what I mean? They expect my house to be... uh... "lived in" and I don't have to make/deliver cute invitations.

Any way.

The party was a huge success, mostly because it was a Rapunzel party and everyone had a long strip of cloth tied around their heads and trailing behind which made them feel very rapunzelesque.

How about a game of Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider?
I volunteered to print a poster, because I needed to contribute to this party somehow, right? Then I couldn't figure out how to, because I'm not very computer savvy.
So I drew a poster instead, and it took me much less time than I had already spent staring at the "print set-up" screen on my computer. Thank you very much.

This is a great bunch of kids. Our neighborhood had a baby boom the year Emmy was born, much to her benefit. These are only the ones who could come, too! There's more!

These two girls really love each other, and it was fun to see them share a party. If there were any moments of "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!" I didn't see them. They seemed perfectly happy to be sharing the glory.

And talk about generous. She didn't have to share her party with Emmy! But she willingly did.
Good friends are priceless, I tell you what.

And what little girl wouldn't die for a rapunzel cake?

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again. You made my little girl's day!