Fog of January

during our usual january inversion, we tried to do our best in not getting cabin fever!  that is tough.  the ski hill only had a few good days of snow and they were days we had temple or family plans, so we'll try for february i guess.  we stayed busy with karate, i took the older 3 swimming at 'hairball' hot springs on martin luther king day, emerson had dr. appointments (things were looking up on her exima, but her hair is actually the worst it's ever been:(...she has huge bald spots up front), and lots of primary and camp meetings to attend.   and, a few days of the month, we had sun in the afternoon!  that was exciting!!!

we also cheered bentley on in the pinewood derby.  he and ben worked several hours on his car.  i helped paint and put decals on it.  one of our employees helped with cutting it out down at his barn.  he is actually an inactive member with boys that could do cub scouts, so ben was trying to get him interested, but no luck.  when bentley made it to the final round, the judge asked each boy about his car.  there were several answers about how dads had helped and siblings and even a 'guy we know', but bentley's answer was pretty funny.  he was asked who cut his car out?  "one of our employees" he said, matter of factly.  ben was totally embarrassed.  bentley got 3rd place. way to go for the first race guys!!

ellee has been working on potty training!  we took it pretty easy and started mid month.  by the end of january, she is pretty much there!  she would get a lemon head in the beginning for a potty treat and one nite, we painted nails.  however, while i wasn't looking she took the polish lid off with her teeth and got started without me on her toes.  we have graduated from the little potty after she tried dumping the bowl a few times.  enough of that!  she loves to sing itsy bitsy spider, once there was a snowman, etc.  she is quite the little burst of energy in our home.  you can tell everywhere she has been!  the others have had a friends over a few times and we usually end up playing outside for awhile to get some energy out.  we also went for a cousin birthday party to jump time in meridian.  dodgeball was our favorite there!

ben went on his boys vacation this year with his old roommates.  they flew to oakland and went to alcatraz, china town, golden gate bridge, an nba game, etc.  we tried to stay busy outside playing in the fog, watching annie, visiting our new cousin sterling, working on bentley's penguin project, and getting a blizzard in town.  i also helped a new friend in the ward get her temple clothes ready from distribution and help her with temple prep and attending their sealing.  she is my vt partner now as well.  it has been so awesome to watch as her family has come out of complete inactivity to being sealed this past month.  i hope that i was able to help them, just a little. 

we always work some on our house in the winter, and this one is no exception.  this time, it is all kind of fun, smaller things that we have done ourselves.  the boys bedroom has the new beds up and is almost completely decorated.  usually i come up with all the crazy ideas, and ben is good to make them happen.  he helped retro-fit our existing wall sconces into a more mid century look with some shades i found at home depot.  he even risked his life on the ladder.  i also ordered a sputnik chandelier for our living room to complete the look in there.  no more 80's ceiling fan!  maybe i'll sell it on craigs list; i have gotten rid of a lot of junk this month from the basement that way...and di!  next, we have the bathroom facelift and new doors upstairs to do while i slowly plunk away at cleaning up drawers and cupboards (bridon always gets in my give/throw away stash, check out his dress up).  things can really get disorganized if you let them, trying to not let that happen moving forward!  i also always have a zillion decorating ideas in the back of my head i'd like to see a reality this winter:).  our only downfall was this week, i stopped at the hardware to get a cover and an old man backed into the excursion and smashed in the running board and both doors on the drivers side.  he said he would pay for the damages, so i hope that he pulls thru.  i felt bad.  he was old and couldn't hear very well, probably never leaves marsing.  so, i guess that will be next on the list to get fixed...

 we're just enjoying our time together and staying toasty warm in our house.  sometimes we build a fire downstairs, but our firewood "loan-back" hasn't pulled thru, so we ran out a while ago.  bentley had a great time burning all of my 2007 files while i was doing tax work.  i found him busy at it after i came home from a workout class (ben and i have been going more this month.)  typically, they eat hamburger helper, play, watch a show, and build a fire if i'm gone:).  they also do chores outside and their homework.  the boys IRI scores were super good on their report cards this time around.  way to go boys!  too bad bentley has learned how to push his teacher's buttons.  he got to stay home from swimming today and pick rocks because of it...what are we going to do in jr. high?  yikes.  and, as for his teacher, if he's pushing buttons in 3rd grade, she may not want to ever try jr high, right??!  :)