February FinaLLy!

According to the calendar, this was a fairly MILD month. THe weather of course is still chilly. We still have snow on the ground that hasn't melted in forever due to colder temps.

Brennan is playing basketball on a Rec team. Again, he does not love it. Derek is assistant coaching. He does not love it. Hmmm. Why are we doing it?

Mady is in a continual fix trying to Juggle her social calendar with dance and Cheer classes. This semester, she is trying Jazz/Ballet, because there were no hip hop options. Hmmm... I do not know if I like it. We will see. Ballet is one of the oldest forms of dance. Traditional. Graceful. BORING! I pray we make it through.

Before we knew it, it was already Valentine's weekend. We went to the cabin with dear friends to celebrate- our 2nd annual sweetheart sledding extravaganza. I think this is by far my most favorite weekend of the year. I do love my children, but this is for sure one weekend that I do NOT feel guilty about leaving them with a sitter - (and I swear they appreciate us more when they are without us for a few minutes) The weather was stormy but still good enough to go sledding. Thanks to the Simonsen's again for their navigation skills and knowledge of the trails. One day we are hoping to be familiar enough with them that we recognize where we are:) I still laugh at our pathetic movie projector and makeshift quilted screen setup. What were we thinking? My eyes still ache from squinting to make it seem more focused :) Maybe next year we can celebrate Valentine's day somewhere warm... with a real theater room??

Right after Valentine's day was my 40th birthday. To be quite honest, it seemed like any other day, aside from all of the wise cracks & crazy aging gifts... Steph got me the darn-dest sack of old lady items I have ever seen. It kind of looks like the crap we hauled up to Quailridge for Grandma Belva! Yeeesh! :)

Spent the day doing literally nothing important. ok... maybe I did. I took Chloee to Dance. She loved it, we had a bonding moment. although I have never been a ballerina, I love that she is having a great time and is excited to be with other sweet little 3 year olds that are having as much fun as she is....

I spent time with my sweet husband at lunch who has been with me through thick and thin this last year...

I took Madelyn to Cheer after school - it is fun to see her excel at something that I can only do on accident.... (things like the splits and stuff...) sheeesh!

Our family went to dinner tonight @ Ruby Tuesdays.... I was again reminded that it is not a bad thing to take your kids out in public once in a while so they don't forget how to use good manners and to be on their best behavior. Yeah, it is 60 minutes of pure chinese torture to sit there with them all doing whatever it is they do.... but important.

After dinner, we all went to icecream at Farrs with Steph's family... again, was reminded of an important lesson, how important it is to have a FIRE EXTINGUISHER on hand when having birthday cake for anyone over 10 years old. Damn.... that was a lot of candles. Pretty sure we could have set the smoke alarm off when we blew them out.- and it took 3 of us to blow them all out. Sick. The cake top is in shreds after removing all of those candles.

I did get a new laptop out of the whole torturous day... so it was not all bad... oh and a couple of liters of Pepsi. Only a true friend will bring you Chocolate Ganache cheesecake and pepsi for your 40th birthday :) Tiffani is pretty swell. So the day was not entirely the pits ;).

On the 20th Noelle and I took picture for a Clogging team. I did not know that clogging was so popular. Lots of kids. Lots of cute costumes. Lots of laughter... There is never a dull moment with Noelle. My sides nearly split at times laughing at her...

It seems no matter how we try, we just can't keep our house clean lately. My kids are a whirlwind of messmaking mass! They THRASH everything they look at and leave it in a state of shreds! That little poem that mentions "One day you will miss my little hand prints" CHA! AS IF. As if there were only handprints. What about all clutter and craziness? That, I will not miss.


So, I have decided that I am grateful that I am not a cleaning lady by profession. I am happy to fill in and help out in a pinch - Steph and I went to clean an apartment today after the cleaning lady quit. (Yeh. GOod move sister!) That place was scarry! We needed a stick of DYNAMITE to clear it out first so we could even start cleaning. Again, there is never a dull moment when doing anything with Steph! Is it just that nothing is funny at my house? I didn't think my life was dull or lacked humor. Apparently it is. This woman needs to be on stand up house wives - totally hilarious... for sure laughter is the best medicine while cleaning something that calibur of GROSS! Laugh or you will end up CRYING!!

I took Basketball team photos for my nephew Dallas on the 23rd. There team is undefeated so of course they think they are smokin' hot studs! Funny. 'Took some pretty cute shotz, action shotz for sports posters. They are going to love them... but what 10 year old doesn't love to look at themself doing something totally cool like a lay-up or jump shot?

The 25th was our ward skiing party. Did we have hot dogs and chili you ask... (that is a joke at our house...) Why yes, they did. Of course we had fun skiing. I am always reminded of how BLOODY OUT OF SHAPE I AM when I ski - beginning with putting my boots on. SHEEESH! Then my knees are screaming by the end of the night. WOrth it? Of course it is. Chloee skiied with Derek tonight for the first time. We thought she would be a whining mess and want to go back to the lodge after 5 minutes. SHE LOVED IT! She skiied most of the night. Amazing.
Gage is improving and BOMBS is down the hill. He gets really sick of waiting for me at the bottom. I am in no hurry to get to the bottom. I do not need to be reminded of what it feels like to "YARD SALE" it on the hill. I am good with moderate slow and steady s curves. I am completely comfortable with the fact that my 6, 9 & 12 year olds can out ski me. Most especially, I am grateful to be able to walk in the morning after it all :)

The next night, we were invited to a good old fashioned dinner party at the Simonsen Home. We are truly blessed to have such great friends & such great memories of fun times. Cooking is FOR SURE an ART FORM and a lot of work and planning! There is beauty in great tasting food & beautiful presentation, a table set with china, crystal and personalized place cards! She is an amazing cook! (totally need to raid her recipe box for Chicken Cordon Bleu, twice baked potatoes and PEACH CHEESECAKE!) Oh my! LIfe is GOOD :)