Second half of February

On the 18th the kids tried on crazy St. Patty's hats at WalMart.

That night, I tried a new Pioneer Woman recipe: Corn & Cheese Chowder. It was sooooo yummy!

The 20th was President's Day and Faith didn't have school. The kids had a sleepover in the family room with a tent made of blankets over chairs. Here, they took a picture with the timer feature on my camera while they ate oatmeal.

That afternoon, we made berry hand pies (which we hoped would taste a lot more like the tarts at Utah Shakespearean Festival than they actually did) and pretzel log cabins.

The next morning we started off Mardi Gras with a Pancake Tuesday breakfast--purple, green and gold mini pancakes!

Faith had to dress up for her oral book report on Betsy Ross and I had sewn her an old-timey bonnet for the occasion. Her "shawl" was the baby blanket I crocheted for her blessing over ten years ago!

I found this cute printable paper Storm Trooper and Christian had fun making him a gun out of sparkly paper and playing with him that day.

I made jambalaya in the crock pot for our crazy small-holiday celebration,

and decorated mini King cakes (which were actually brownies baked in a muffin tin).

On the 22nd Faith lost her last baby tooth. That girl is growing up way too fast!

The 29th was Leap Day. We wanted to celebrate in style, but I had my personal trainer appointment in Ogden that threatened to put a kink into our plans. Luckily, we worked it out for me to pull Faith out of school about an hour early, then drop off the kids with Joy and her kids at Kangaroo Zoo in Ogden. I met up with them after my appointment and the kids "leapt" around all afternoon! We left just as a big snowstorm moved in, but we made it home safely. For dinner we had Cornish hen (just because we couldn't think of a special "leap" dinner, but it sure looks leggy on their plates!) but I made a new twist on Frog's Eye salad for dessert. I used Lana's "Orange Dream Salad" recipe (similar here) which already has tapioca, but I made it with blue jello and blueberries. It was okay, but it's best with raspberry jello and raspberries, I think!

I had them fill out an "every four year time capsule" paper of questions, do a frog maze and gave them rainbow gummy frogs.

They even made origami frogs! Lots of leaping for us on Leap Day :)

Here is some artwork that has been up on the wall. This is a Valentine card that Christian made for Faith at preschool. I love that the dinosaur is a pocket which holds the heart!

Here's the inside, he sure loves his sister!

This is a panda climbing some bamboo. Again, he made this for Faith because she loves pandas.

And a beautiful design he drew with a rose for me ❤ 

This is a thank-you card drawn for me from my niece Alaura. She had gotten a "assemble it yourself" crocheted panda kit for Christmas, but it came missing one arm. I tried to replicate the included one and she was glad to have it completed.

We sure had a fun month of holidays!

first half of February

On February 2nd, I went all out for an obscure holiday (imagine that?) and we had a GROUNDHOG EXTRAVAGANZA. I had the kids color groundhog headbands as party hats, and we watched Groundhog Day while we ate dinner on the ground.

Dinner was meatloaf (made with Pioneer Woman's recipe minus the bacon & sauce) and made with half ground beef and half ground pork (because it's ground hog--get it?) shaped into the guest of honor and decorated with string cheese slices and black beans.

After dinner we attached shadows to groundhogs and made groundhog finger puppets.

We had already done our cuter groundhog treats with friends, but we had to have dessert for such a special day, so I baked up some store bought choco chip cookie dough and let the kids decorate. Faith's cookie in the inset is the "normal" one and the one on the counter is a vampire groundhog.

It was a super fun night! It's one of my goals this year to do more celebrating!

On the 5th we had a Super Bowl party at our house. Faith was sad that the Steelers lost out in the first round of the playoffs, so to appease her (and of course, the downtrodden Tony) we celebrated with family and food.

Here is a crab cheese ball that I made and tried to shape into a football. I gave Faith the assignment of packing it with sliced almonds to finish it off. Fifteen minutes later she tells me that it's done and I realize that she's painstakingly arranged and pressed in each almond slice individually so it would be "perfect." Is this kid even related to me at all??? :)

They changed the recipe on our favorite frozen hot wings (TGIFriday's), and after "not really watching" the Pioneer Woman episode on football food with me, Tony decided to give hers a try. Best hot wings ever!!! Tony's the deep fry master at our house. He also fried some jalapeno poppers and some breaded mushrooms that Jordan brought.

Homemade salsa.

Faith took this picture of bread cubes and Knorr spinach dip before the dip was added :)

There was also a Chick-fil-A nugget platter, pretzel bites, and dad later brought over sweet and sour meatballs and his guacamole. For dessert, there were turtle brownies in the shape of little footballs that, very unfortunately, were enjoyed only by our driveway (poor Joy), and we had the chocolate fountain going with strawberries, cuties, pretzel rods, gummy bears, marshmallows and banana slices. It was enjoyed by all, but my little Buddy was seen twenty minutes after everyone had eaten themselves sick, sitting on the island, still dipping, and with a very chocolaty face.

Didn't get many pictures of our guests, but Joy brought her family, Eric stopped by for food and part of the game, and mom & dad came late after feeding grandma and grandpa Quinn. After the game, Faith played some music videos from her iPod and I caught Christian and Lily enjoying a snuggle under the upturned rocking chair.

Such a fun night! Oh, and I don't remember which team won. Or even who was playing for sure. Super Bowl is NEVER about football for me :D

On the 7th Christian wanted a "getting close to Valentine's Day" breakfast. I used a heart cookie cutter on a piece of bread and then fried an egg in it. We call it "egg in a nest" but when I was a kid, my mom called it a "one eyed Egyptian." Why? I have no idea. Buddy then used a special bread cutter we have on his cinnamon toast which cuts it into two dolphins and a small heart. Special breakfast, indeed.

That night I made some cornflake treats in the shape of little hearts.

The morning of the 11th we went all out. I made red velvet heart pancakes. Some even had a little message ❤

I also did some heart bacon. I saw on Pinterest how you can bake it in this shape, but my kids love the precooked kind (bleach) so I just nuked it like this.

We even made heart eggs!

At Lowe's the kids made Valentine Card Making Kits.

That night we had a special dinner of snow crab legs at home.

On the morning of the 14th, I got up early and made heart shaped cinnamon rolls (from a can).

Then I worked on some amazing Valentine's hair.

Faith loaded up her Valentine's card holder box (which looks like an embarrassed Pascal the chameleon from the "Tangled" movie) and I drove her to ballroom dance practice at school.

My mom did special Valentine activities and gifts the Sunday before, and Valentine's night Lana & Tammy ding-dong-ditched us with this awesomeness!

That night we ate the kids' favorite "Fancy Dinner"--spaghetti with marinara and homemade alfredo sauce eaten on our china dishes.

We even had appetizers of these heart shaped Lil Smokies (just cut on the diagonal and rotated with a toothpick "arrow" through the middle).

For dessert I made Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes.

I got the kids a little treat and stuffed animal at the store,

 and Tony came home with more chocolate and some beautiful roses. We had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

January

On January 2nd, since Tony was off for the New Year's holiday, we went to the Kaysville Theater and saw Puss in Boots for just $2 each.

After the movie, we fed the ducks at the Syracuse pond. New Year's Day is one of the most boring holidays in my opinion, but this year we had fun!

On Saturday the 7th the kids played in the little bit of snow we got and then came in for some hot chocolate.

We ate our favorite dinner--teriyaki chicken and steak from Mo' Bettah Steaks!

On the 10th I volunteered to help with Dibels testing at the school again. Christian was such a great helper! He read books, played with his iPod, and then hid in the library playing a game of "sneaking up on Mom." We were there for over four hours! My Buddy's such a volunteering trooper.

On the 11th the kids got a hold of my camera again. This time it's crazy pictures with sugar snap peas! We get them fresh in little bags near the salad and they are the most delicious, healthy treat! And apparently tons of fun, as well!!

 Here's our Lowe's craft from the 14th: a castle!

That day, after enjoying some shoestring licorice Lady and the Tramp style,

we ate lunch at Chick-fil-A,

then went to play at Boondocks. We did a round of mini-golf,

said "Hi" to the mascot,

bowled two games, ate slushies, played at the arcade and picked out awesome prizes! What a fun day!

The 16th was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so to celebrate I made a special breakfast of Rice Krispies cereal with chocolate milk (for the bringing together of different skin tones??) I try to celebrate for each holiday, but I think this was an epic fail :) Better luck next year!

Here is some of Buddy's artwork from preschool:

For this, his teacher asked the kids to draw something that happened at Christmastime and then dictate a story to her, which she wrote down word for word.

"Santa came and brang an iPod. He didn't bring us anything else. He ate part of the cookies. We bet he can't drink anything else! He only ate part of the cookie. We left the reindeer eight carrots. We waked up. Faith waked me up. We got to see what we had. We waited until six o'clock. And then we waked mom and dad up. And Santa bringed us a note. It said, "You could be a lot more good so you better watch out!" 

Uh, I think Santa's actual note said that he's proud of them but they should work on getting along with each other and minding mom & dad :)

I love this artwork and how Christian loves to copy what Faith draws. Hers is on the left--a darling Santa bringing gifts. I guess Christian noticed that there was a fire in the fireplace, so he drew Santa with his bum on fire. LOVE IT!! Also, I guess this scared the cat, Dusty, because he's on the ceiling in Buddy's picture :)

On the 20th we had some crafts planned to do with friends, but they forgot so it was just the three of us. Here are our snowmen treats out of mini powdered donuts:

and our awesome Chinese new year dragons! Buddy's is on the top left, Faith's on the bottom left, and mine is the crazy "pride parade rainbow" one on the right.

More of Christian's artwork from preschool: he's so good at snowflakes!

On the

Here is Faith's Bikini Bottom (SpongeBob's city) picture:

and here is Christians:

They're both so great!

 On the 26th we were in the mood for some clam chowder, so I made some of the delicious stuff

and I made cheesy biscuits (like the Red Lobster ones) to go with it. I didn't have any Bisquick, so I made my own mix and they came out extra crumbly. I'll try these next time and make sure to get some Bisquick. No, I don't eat bread, but I did have a small taste.

On the 27th Ann brought her kids over for our "Snow and Groundhog Celebration." Faith made signs for some really fun games.

After games, we made groundhog snacks out of Little Debbie heart cakes.

(Faith made a vampire one, go figure.)

The Lowe's project on the 28th was dinosaurs. They came with two different sets of stickers, so the kids each did different ones.

 On the 30th Christian made this great sculpture of a panda climbing bamboo out of Sculpey.

It didn't quite hold up when it was baked, but I'll still have to get a picture of the final product after he fixed and painted it. Such great detail for a five year old's work!