Search

Popular Posts

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

March 2012

On March 2nd we had Ann and her kids come over for a get-together. It was Dr.Seuss's birthday, so we snacked on green (deviled) eggs and ham,

 and made Cat in the Hat hats out of marshmallows and fruit roll-ups.

I had the idea for another craft/treat that the kids could make lamb or lion decorated cookies because it was the beginning of March. Here is my pitiful lamb example cookie:

 Christian wanted a lamb, too,

 but the other kids had their own ideas, which were really fun!


On the 3rd we took a trip down south and visited Ikea for the first time. We didn't buy much, but had fun looking around and ate some delicious meatballs, chicken fingers and shared a slice of THE MOST AWESOME CAKE EVER.

We ate overlooking the kids' play area. Unfortunately, we didn't know that there was a waiting list and we missed out on getting a spot for Buddy. Faith was too tall, anyway. Maybe next time, Bud!

 We also visited our favorite sporting goods store, Cabellas.



 Here is some artwork. Faith made this cute pouch for her Mountain Man activity day,

 and wrote this great story.

 Christian drew this Darth Maul pen that he got in a cereal box with that same pen.

 Faith was designing a fashion dress one day,

 and she continues her obsession with pandas.

 I loved this Starry Night inspired artwork of hers from school.

 And her name drawn with animals.

The craziest thing that happened in March was that I started back to work! I had been trying to get hired on at Jet Blue Airline for about a year because several ladies in my neighborhood work for them, including my friend Brandi. I did a phone interview and then an interview in person and had to send in a recommendation letter in December. Shortly after Christmas, I found out I was hired! I was to start with two days of orientation on March 7th & 8th during the day, and then four weeks of training Monday through Friday from 4 pm to midnight starting March 9th. After that, I had to work in the center for two weeks, and then could start working from home.

I'm doing phone reservations and assistance and I have to say that the training was fairly difficult. The computer program that the airlines use is not user friendly at all! I did really enjoy spending time with other adults at a job and didn't realize how much I've missed that. I had to have sooooo much help with my kids and owe a huge debt of gratitude to my mom, Joy, Lana and Tammy, and even my dad took a morning. It made it so much easier to leave knowing my children were in excellent hands; but kind of hurt that they didn't miss me because they were too busy having fun :)

My regular schedule (until the end of August when we re-bid) is Wednesday and Friday from 2:45 pm to 8:45 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8:45 am to 2:45 pm. I'm sad to be missing church, but I love having  weekend afternoons and evenings with my family. I'll post more about my job on my April blog.

Christian's preschool teacher, Kelly Beck, gifted me two tickets to a film production of  "Love Never Dies" which is the sequel to "Phantom of the Opera." She is so crazy to give me such a huge gift (these tickets were $16 each)! She gave Buddy a scholarship to her preschool and I owe her sooooo much. She said that she just wanted to thank me for my help because I volunteer every Friday and she loved the show so much that she knew she wouldn't find anything nearly as good if she waited until the end of the school year.

So, on March 7th, after my first day of orientation at Jet Blue, Tammy picked me up and we went over to the new theater in Farmington. I've seen filmed Broadway shows before, but this spectacle was made with new movie technology and felt just like a film except that the music was all recorded live and not dubbed afterword. The story and music were creepier and more haunting than Phantom, and I think Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber outdid himself on this sequel! I truly love it even more than the first. It was an amazing night and I am so grateful for the gift!!!

(For the two or three people who actually read my blog (two of which don't even live in Utah, so, bummer)--there will be a final big screen showing on May 23rd! Here is the link. I'm sure they'll have to someday bring it out on video, too.)

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday this year, so my kids did it up big on the 16th instead.

 Faith even got shamrock hair!

Christian finger painted a "magic shamrock" at preschool. Miss Kelly just put blue and yellow paint on them, but it quickly mixed to make green.

Saturday night we had our traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. I was too exhausted from my new work schedule to celebrate as crazily as I wanted!

On the 24th we went to the park to fly kites.



 There was also some tackle football going on!


 That night, while we were watching Tin Tin, Christian lost his top tooth. Sorry about the gory photo:

 The 31st was the Braegger Easter hunt! Faith and Buddy donned their bunny ears and searched for their twelve plastic eggs in the yard.

Tina's stepdaughter was there with her boyfriend, Brian, and their adorable baby, Liam.

 Jason was a good sport and posed for pictures with the kids :)

 They got lots of Easter candy, bubbles, and darling outfits.

They each immediately changed into some of their new clothes to play with their stuffed bunnies.

We ate their traditional ham and potato salad dinner and had fun just hanging out. It was an awesome Easter party!

Monday, May 14, 2012

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!