April 2016

April 1 was no joke, I took the kids to Wellsville for baby animal days!

Afterward, we ate at Chic-fil-A & got a free frosty at Wendy's.

On the 2nd the kids tried out a kite that we got for 90% off if we agreed to do a review for Amazon. We took a video and uploaded to the site.

We gave it a good review because it was so easy to get up into the sky!

It makes me laugh when Skittles sits in a "splat."

The next morning, we cooked up the Belgian liege waffles that I'd purchased the dough for the day before. It was conference morning and we did a buffet including bacon, sausage, deviled eggs, fruit dip, and tons of waffle toppings!

Christian managed to get all of them on his waffle: blueberries, strawberries, bananas, cantaloupe, apple slices, pear slices, raspberries, chocolate syrup, butter, freshly made whipped cream, Biskoff cookie butter, nutella, raspberry syrup from Cosco, cinnamon sugar, and powdered sugar!

On my run west of our house, I saw these cool birds on April 5th. They were making a lot of noise and I think they had a baby one hidden in the reeds on the side of the road.

That night, Christian made the tater tot tower like the one on Napoleon dynamite 😂

I saw these online and loved them:

On the 7th, Tony sent me this text-

April 8th we did an early birthday dinner for Tony at Tucanos.

On the 9th The kids and I spent some time going through our memory box. I found this note that Kathleen had dropped off to me many years before. It was so sweet!

Also found this Sculpey clay coyote figurine that Janine had made for me back in high school days.

We had Tony's birthday celebration at my mom and dad's on the 10th.

That night, Christian hatched his sea monkeys. Unfortunately, they only lived a few days ☹️

Resist a picture of this bunny fur tummy on the 17th.

That evening, Tony brought up his "choose your own adventure" books from the basement and the kids got completely engrossed in reading a bunch of them.

On April 19th, in between BlueBuddy work shifts, The kids and I put up this bulletin board for Mrs. Weber.

I was glad that it turned out pretty cute, but was surprised that between coming up with the ideas, searching for the graphics, printing and cutting them out, that it took a good 12 hours of work and $15 to get it accomplished! 😳

On the 20th, I was busy working so Christian made Tony's birthday dessert of chocolate lush.

Kneaders Bakery opened up by our Kaysville Smith's on the 22, so I took a little paid time off work and brought Christian in for free French toast breakfast! It really was a tricky trick because the next day the kids were fighting over the leftovers and I had to go buy another order of it.

That afternoon, I didn't manage to do any treats or crafts for Earth Day but I did buy us some Tuscan turkey breast & some fancy foreign goat cheese (called Sant Gil D'albio Garrotxa) off the clearance shelf. Hey, that counts when we eat things from other parts of the earth for Earth Day, right?

We also improved the earth by getting tomato plants for our garden!

Christian got to go to a late night movie at his friend Cohen's house.

Loved this:

Was walking with Tony on the 23rd and loved seeing all the baby calves.

April 27th I took Christian to the DATC Cosmetology where he got his hair cut and highlighted.

February 2016

February 1st--here I am doing my riot workout class at the indoor soccer field we have been meeting at.

The 2nd was Groundhog Day, of course so we had to make it awesome! Christian went out with a paper groundhog to test if he could see his shadow.

Sure did! Guess spring will have to wait.

We made pancake muffin "hills" with sausage groundhogs for breakfast,

and Christian made his own groundhog sandwich for lunch,

He was excited to see birds enjoying the feeder he made from supplies received at This is the Place Candlelight Christmas.

On the 3rd we went to my sweet grandma Quinn's funeral.

My mom spoke & each of us grandkids (Derek and Ryan were not there) spoke about some memories of her. In thinking about this, I realized how much my personality is like hers!

I love her Pioneer Days Rodeo Attendant pictures,

especially this one with Abbott & Costello.

We will sure miss her, but she has been ready to join grandpa since he left us, so we are happy for their reunion 💗

Here are my Riot gals flexing in red for heart health on the 5th.

We finally got around to assembling our groundhog cupcakes, and I think they were worth the wait!

February 6th we had a 50th anniversary party for Larry & Lana at the Timbermine.

  It was wonderful and all thanks to Tammy's extensive planning and hard work.

On the 7th we had a last minute super bowl party. Hot wings and chocolate fountain!!

For Mardi Gras/Pancake Tuesday on the 9th I made some silver dollar pancakes for breakfast 

and dirty rice with red beans & sausage for dinner.

 

Licorice necklaces for dessert.

On the 10th I dropped a weight and snapped it in half! To be fair, the metal was freezing cold and brittle.

February 11th was Christian's Chinese fair at school. He did a few activities including painting some characters. They had a back drop for this cool photo opportunity.

On the 12th but he brought his valentines to exchange with his class. He found them online and cut them out by himself 😊

I signed up to be the room mother of the Valentines party. I brought heart shaped sugar cookies, cream cheese frosting and fruit for the kids to make valentine fruit pizza!

The other activity stations were fun too.

As I was leaving, I couldn't resist a picture of the neat Chinese decorations hanging in the halls.

On the 13th (insert spooky music here) Christian accidentally stapled his thumbs. It wasn't too bad, luckily.

Tammy and Lana doorbell ditched the kids, keeping with tradition.

And on the 14th I made heart shaped egg in a nest for breakfast.

Tony had gotten us chocolate hearts and suckers from See's!

 

On February 19th I got to go out with the ladies from Riot on a snowshoeing expedition weekend. We got to stay at the infamous Barrus cabin & it was beautiful!

 

On the 20th we headed out into the snowy wilderness.

The snow was slushy and Rachel and I just kept sinking in instead of staying on top of the snow. This made it so, so difficult but I thought it times they would have to helicopter me off the mountain!

It was so hard!

It was beautiful and a lot of fun hanging out with great friends!

  

At the end, we went back to the cabin and ate sweet potato soup.

On the 21st I just had to get a pic of my cute kids at church 😊

I loved this meme:

 

February 27 we went out to Texas Roadhouse for a delicious dinner.

The next day was beautiful weather, so we headed to the park where Christian played with his drone.