instagram unload

kids and rock collecting

friday jobs are done to music but when Michael Jackson comes on, jobs stop and the dancing begins

One Saturday I took the kids to eat lunch at BYU at the Canon center and they thought the all you can eat was so cool.

"Girl Scout Cookies for Sale!!" They loved working at the cookie booth, me on the other hand.

Abbey self portrait

I had to speak in church and I was looking for some inspiration/ideas. so stressful. and it didn't help that Ryan spoke the week before me and the bishop and his counselors were telling me how wonderful it was and how he had set the bar high. nice.

sometimes I have to reward myself on a Friday for a job well done this week

St. Patricks day dinner at Grandma Allen's

corned beef, cabbage and potato's

pine wood derby time!

resting after a saturday swim

my mom has a pasta machine that has never been used so in a round about way, assuming because I lived in Italy I knew how to make pasta, I ended up making pasta for her. No offense but you have to be pretty incompetent in the kitchen to mess this up. Salt, flour and eggs.

Charlotte really wanted to help with every step and when she insisted on kneading the dough, she got into and did it pretty well. We don't require hair nets in our kitchen.

and the finished product. lasagna and fettuccini. I think fresh lasagna noodles makes such a difference and I haven't had any since Italy.

Free is good

Last Friday kids ski free at sundance because they were getting the word out about the cross country ski club. This time I had my niece and since it got pretty tiring towing Charlotte last time, I brought my mom because I didn't want to tow the two little girls. I also wasn't planning on skiing because I was trying to keep it free. Charlotte took off after the older kids and my niece followed so my mom had no choice but to take them on the trail. I am glad she came because I would not have had the patience to teach my niece while trying to keep up with Charlotte. The older kids went off with the club. But it was nice for the kids to get one more session of cross country skiing.

Starting spring out happy

We bought our soil and seeds
Cloe mapped everything out for planting
Tilled the dirt
Marked off the garden
And got it started
Such a happy first day of spring

cross country skiing

I love cross country skiing, you have to try it to understand. It is so peaceful and you are surrounded by such beauty of the winter. During long cold winters, I always have XC skiing to look forward to. But this winter has been very mild so I have been patiently waiting for the trails to open in our local canyon but because of the lack of snow, no such luck. Our local trail are very cheap and perfect for the kids but we have been anxious to go so I sucked it up and took the kids up to the Sundance Resort nordic center. They have high quality equipment and tons of trails. The kids LOVED it. I even got brave and brought Charlotte this time, luckily they have a sled to pull kids in. The kids and I went on a 1 mile loop with Charlotte being towed and a good part of it was up hill then what goes up must go down. I didn't have it in me to pull Charlotte on the trail again so I told the older 3 kids to do the loop and play on the hills while Charlotte put some ski's on and skied at the base. When I pulled her ski's out she could not stop giggling with excitement to try it out like the big kids. She loved it, wasn't so good at going down hill but had a ball.

self portrait towing Charlotte. The sled had pole out front with a little harness in the front that went around my waist.

You now how I said there was also down hill? Well I fell at the bottom. Charlotte was clapping at our speed and the sheer entertainment of watching mom crash.

Abbey

Brody

Charlotte ready to scoot and happy as can be.

random instagram

but I'm thinking a post about Charlotte is more appropriate title. But she is cute and spends everyday all day with me, so what do you expect.

Charlotte with her best friend and cousin, Persayes. We babysit her while her mom is at school but since she splits time between Mom and Dad's house, Charlotte doesn't get to play as much as she would like.

she had to go potty at the kids school and I told her not to touch anything after I put her on the seat cover. I just thought it was a cute photo opp.

"I'm a bad guy"

one of our few beautiful snow days. It has been a sad winter. Warm but sad at the lack of snow

this month's book club book, I recommend it.

family skate night in her own skates.

Abbey turns 7

I'm not a big fan of birthday parties so Abbey has yet to have one. This year was pretty much the same but I did let her plan the day because I felt bad. We went swimming with her cousins

and then to Chuck E Cheeses.

i love this picture because I was trying to get her to look and smile when at the last minute she spotted someone that had dropped a token and REALLY wanted to go grab it.

she collects nut crackers and Grandma Allen gave her this one.

Abbey gets nervous and shy in a lot of situations but then she will surprise me in others and come up with some of the funniest things to talk to people about. She enjoys learning French and told me that this year she doesn't want to play sports, she wants to do dance or gymnastics. I do think those 2 activities are fitting for her.

Cloe's 10th Birthday

and I shamefully admit her birthday was February 18th. I'm doing a little catch-up. It was weird when her birthday arrived because I realized she has been in our family for 10 years and in less time (8 years) she will be an adult! That freaks me out. Cloe is a great student and loves school. I have had 2 teachers e-mail me and tell me what a pleasure she is to have in class. She likes to put on dance productions with her little sisters, especially Charlotte because she thinks she is just adorable doing dances. She is a great help and I know I can always count on her.

Grandma and Grandpa Brown came down for dinner, cake and presents. We ate her choice of pork roast, mashed potato's and canned green beans. She specifically said canned green beans. She was stoked on the butterfingers g'ma gave her.

and stoked on her new heeley's from Mom and Dad.

I know I've raised her well when she asks for strawberry cake with my cream cheese frosting.

love day

This year I bought Ryan and the kids mailboxes at the dollar store and found a Valentine sort of countdown/daily love notes on pinterest.

here are 2 of the 14 days. The kids loved coming home and "checking the mail"

Abbey's hair on Vday. A last minute heart.

We had our usual candle lit romantic dinner a day early because Ryan and I decided to hit the Valentine crowds and do out on a date.