Valentine's and more

This is a picture of Nick on his first day ever of skiing. It was sooooo fun! He did really well. He even talked me into taking him down a Black Diamond. If you have ever heard of the color-code book, you will know what I mean when I say that I need to work on cultivating the red side of my personality. On our way up the chair lift to the bunny hill, Nick told me that we need to take a left off the chair lift, because he was ready to go down the black diamond classified stretch off to the left. I told him that Black Diamond's are the very hardest hill to go down and that maybe we should wait. His reply was, "Mom, I am like Indiana Jones. I do adventures. Did you think that I was a baby? Now promise me that we will go down the black diamond. Say that we will, and then we have to, okay mom?" He was so confident, that I was actually convinced that maybe it was a good idea. Where was the big blinking light in my head that said, "Tyla! Take control of this situation! He's only four!"? I don't know. Apparently it doesn't exist. I was in such a hard snow plow (turning down a black diamond with a four-year-old between your legs who really has no idea how to turn with you doesn't work. I now know that extremely well.), that my knees were facing each other, and I think my hips came out of socket. But at least he has bragging rights now, and if you speak to him sometime in the next week, chances are you'll hear about how he darted down a Black Diamond with the greatest of ease.

This is a picture of Clara after she dumped a bottle of Elmer's glue on her head. Today I spent hour giving her a long bath, rubbing lavender oil all over her, getting her dressed in an adorable new dress, tights, shoes, pigtails with matching ribbons - and all an entire two hours before church started. 20 minutes before it started I found her on top of the kitchen counter (she now scales barstools), with an entire cube of butter rubbed through her hair, and the pitcher of orange juice dumped on her head (apparently she was thirsty). I should have taken a picture, but at the time I wasn't really in a cherishing mood.
And Valentine's Day! My Grandma came over Valentine's Day morning for heart shaped pancakes. She was the flipper.

Personally, I think you can definitely tell these are hearts.

Clara doing her best in spite of the fact that her parents forgot to give her a fork and cut her pancake up.

Clara getting her first Valentine. The thing I think that is really funny about this picture is that she is randomly wearing Jake's snowboots (see previous post on her shoe fetish).

Roses in our wedding colors...

After breakfast, the kids and Chad cleaned up and Grandma and I headed off to our very favorite store - the consignment store in downtown Eagle. The best thing about shopping with my Grandma is that she has impeccable taste and never, ever, ever gets impatient and wants to leave, even when I am trying on approximately 56 outfits. Also, she bought me the cutest bright yellow sandals in the world as an early birthday present. I love my Grandma!!

Okay, so here's the deal - I used to be really in to Valentine's Day being a family holiday. We'd have a big celebration all day - candlelight family dinner, the whole works - but then I decided, whatever. The kids can have New Year's Eve, their birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patricks Day (the leprauchans do leave golden coins under their pillows), Fourth of July, Easter, April Fools Day, May Day, all day every day, but Valentine's Day - it's MINE! And Chad's of course :), so we left the kids with a babysitter at noon with a heart shaped take-and-bake pizza and didn't see them again until February 15th. I love Valentine's Day!

On Wednesday of this last week, we needed a break from homeschool. So we took off in the car to RAFIKI, an indoor play center. I loved it. It is basically a huge play area that is ridiculously overpriced, with plush couches all through it and latte's available to designer purse mom's who are complaining to their friends about the two-hour limit their gym has for day care. It was kind of fun to pretend like this was actually my life. And the kids loved it, and it was incredibly clean. Workers literally follow you around picking up after you, and ocassionally disinfecting if your child looked particularly disgusting. So naturally I was glad that the fungus on Nick's scalp had cleared up.

Nick was pretty sure that this was the same kind of adventure that Indiana Jone's went through. He was extremely relieved to get out alive.

Clara stayed occupied the entire two hours by going down this slide over, and over, and over, and over again.

I took this this morning of my two little girls. I can't believe Savannah is already halfway to 18, and that Clara isn't even classified a baby anymore. I love, adore, these girls, and can't wait to see their lives unfold.

January

January was a wonderful month for us. Of course, if I would have been on top of my blogging game, I would have posted this throughout January instead of all of it in a big huge post in, well, February. So I know that it's ridiculously long, and a little out of order since it takes a rocket scientist (that's for my little brother, who in fact, is now a rocket scientist) to figure out how to post pictures backwards. But I am learning, and I actually really, truly am enjoying blogging. (My favorite part was when I kicked all of my kids out of my room so that I could blog about how much I adore them :))

This first picture was not meant to be first, but it's how it turned out, so oh well. It's Chad and I at NEW YEAR'S EVE!! At the Gritton's house, Todd's new in-laws. The highlight of the night was Chase's belting it out to Rock Band over and over and over and over and over....

See? I get everything all out of order - well, this is Nick with his pretend gun which he hid in the waist of his tuxedo and pulled out at Todd's wedding to be Todd's "body guard". Yes, he came up with this all by himself. And yes, he is hopelessly devoted to his Uncle Todd.

Okay, back to the New Year's Eve party. This is my darling, adorable, hilarious cousin Kristen and her SWEET husband and kids. We stayed with them New Year's Eve night. I LOVE THIS GIRL!



The family dinner at the Lion House the night before the wedding. We sat with my brother Chase (yes, the rocket scientist) who kept us utterly entertained the entire night with stories of how he defied death in 2 feet of water ("and then, I thought of little Sofia, and decided I could not die! ... So I stood up, and walked out of the water and to the shore...") and his beautiful angel wife, Christina, who I can thank for the design of this blog and who is due with their first baby, like today.




So, the wedding! Here is Nick (notice with weapon in hand) and Jake, with their cousins who they adore, Haden and Briggs...

Savannah and I at the wedding. Is she not beautiful?

This was most likely the last evening of my life that I will spend as a bridesmaid. Is next mother-of-the-bride? Uhhh....

Groom, groomsmen, and dads

My cousin-sisters. I adore them.

I am crazy over this girl.

Did I mention that Todd married pretty much the most beautiful girl in the world? Also, I am suddenly feeling very short. Especially considering I had 3 inch heels on in this picure.

So fast forward two weeks, our weekend in McCall... our wonderful friends the Napiers invited us up for the weekend for "Winter Carnival".

The kids staring at the fireworks. I love it!

Jake on the rather fast ice sculpture slide.

Our favorite ice sculpture. Each tree has a face carved on it.

So, a big change this month, Savannah is homeschooling again! That's why this picture shows her in her pajamas making cookies. Because that's pretty much all we do all day. To heck with math and other pertinent life skills!

Just in case you are a little concerned, I was kidding. This is Savannah and Chad on their way to a daddy-daughter dance. Clara scooted in right before the camera clicked. I'm pretty sure she was figuring she was missing out on something. It's not my fault, Clara. I BEGGED your dad to take you.

This is Nick in his new favorite outfit. He calls it his "Mutt" outfit, from Indiana Jones (which he has actually never seen), but apparently he picked up somewhere that Mutt wears a striped shirt, a jean jacket and jeans every day. I lay cute clothes out for him every night. Every morning he comes out in this outfit, whether it was in the laundry room, the bottom of the hamper, hidden in my closet... he finds it.

My four children. I love them, I love homeschooling, I love the life we are having.

Clara is obsessed with shoes. She can hardly think about anything else if she doesn't have them on. If I don't put them on her immediately, she finds some, somewhere. Notice her look of contenment in this picture. She is even good at staying color coordinated.

And Jake. These are the days to never forget.

So there you have it! January in a nutshell!