February Fun

It's amazing that I'm almost caught up! 

Then I can start working on FUN posts that I've wanted to do forever!

February started out fun, we sneaked over to Tyson's Aunt and Uncle's 

house and made a snowman for them.

 I've been trying to work on more "portrait" shots of the kids so I can do them myself better on their birthdays, etc. I feel like I'm a lot better at still life shots, but I'm working on it ;)

Snow cave

Dinner at Nancy and Greg's! It's been fun being in Idaho and getting to spend more time with these fun people. This was on Superbowl Sunday.

Cookies by Tyson to contribute to the dinner

The snowman with a face!

 Xi in his high chair--I'm especially trying to do more pictures of Xi because I think he got pretty neglected in the picture department the first half of his first year!

The constant drool down the chin! I can never get a picture without it, it seems. I'm debating whether I should start photoshop-ing it out.

Student hard at work!

 I've started a new cooking rotation with the kids. They always want to help, but it got WAY too chaotic  trying to let three kids take turns helping while they are pushing each other on the chairs they are standing on, complaining that they can't see. For a short while I banned all kids from the kitchen.

Now one child cooks, another sets the table (and gets first pick to where they sit), and the other helps with dishes. It's worked REALLY well this past month--I feel justified in sending everyone else out of the kitchen, I get a little more one-on-one time with each kid, and the other two seem to be able to play without me needing to intervene so much. Jacob has definitely seen a huge increase in his Mommy-time since I've started this--something he had been sadly lacking with the first two just being able to do so much more.  

 Jeffrey has LOVED doing puzzles lately, and it's been nice for me to give him something to do when I need a little more quiet time and he is up! He's gotten really good at puzzles. He has one that's 101 pieces that he received from Taylor and Krystalee. It was beyond him at first, but after doing it EVERY  DAY for three weeks (no joke, it was his favorite Christmas present) he can do it in about 25 minutes now. He also loves this world puzzle, and can complete it in about 15 now. My quiet times keep getting shorter as he keeps getting faster and I'm tempted to start buying him a new puzzle every month--for both him and me!

 Another park time! Notice my kids without coats (and Amri in a short-sleeved shirts). They had opted to ditch their coats on the sidewalk because it warmed up to an amazing 30 degrees! 

(I cannot believe how freezing it has been this winter.)

 

Another sledding session, this time with Sierra

You can tell Xi really loved it! I think the poor kid was a little sick actually.

 

Visiting Utah with Cousin Henry, and my Grandma before moving to an assisted living facility.

Trying to copy Amri's fish face-he actually did it, but the camer missed it

Mesmerized by a Planet Earth video on the computer

One of the kids must have dropped their baby carrot on the floor and of courses Xi found it! Funny Xi.

 

Love this baby!