February, or should I say FebRRRRRRRary!?!

The month started off great!  Nick and his team won their first game of the month.  The final score was 43-25.  This is just what they needed to jump-start their enthusiasm for the last part of the season.  Nick played two and a half quarters and did a great job on defense.

Steve and Jeremy had a streak of good weather and they took advantage of it to get as much done on Jeremy's Eagle project as possible.  They finished the big circle area and got the fire ring placed.  They also got a little bit of the path done before the weather turned.

 Getting the fire ring in place. 

 Jeremy is starting to believe that he might actually get this done.

 Placing brick along the pathway.

 Not bad for one weekend.

For his birthday, Nick wanted to have is bestie (Matt) sleep over and go see the Lego Movie which came out on February 7th.  They had a great time playing video games, going to Chick-fil-A for dinner and seeing the movie.  Going to see a movie on opening night is really fun because the place is packed and you get to hear people's reactions.  It adds to the overall experience.  The kids loved it!

February 8th Nick had a basketball game and only 5 players were able to come.  Everyone had to play the entire game.  They led the entire game until the other team got a buzzer-beating three pointer which tied it up.  We went into overtime.  They played their hearts out and eventually lost  by one basket!!! The final score was 33-35.  He was still proud of himself for playing so well the WHOLE game.

February 9th we had our family party for Nick.  He wanted a homemade meat lover's pizza and pop for dinner and pumpkin roll for his cake.  I let him choose the toppings for the pizza and here is what he came up with - ground hamburger, sausage, bacon, ham bits, pepperoni and ground turkey.  He is our carnivore.

February 11th schools were released two hours early due to a HUGE snow storm headed our way.  It snowed for 5 hours without too much accumulation which was really good because Steve was in Chicago and could have been stuck there if the weather had worsened.  He did make it home just before the biggest part of the storm hit.  

February 12th we got 8 inches of snow!  School was cancelled for the day and we had a great time just goofing off.  Nick especially loved it because this was like an extended birthday!  We wrapped our boogie boards in garbage sacks and headed off to the golf course.  Everyone wanted to give our boards a try because they out-sledded most of the sleds!!  It was great.  Naomi negotiated a ride on Jake's snowboard in trade for him using our "sleds".  She loved it.  

February 13th we got an ice storm over night and woke up to more snow.  It snowed all day long and the kids got another day off to enjoy it all.  Steve even got into the fun and took the truck out for a drive - and almost got stuck.  He did help several people that really were stuck though.

 Shoveling snow - to just for a snowman.

 Building her snowman family

.

 Done!

February 14th we got another 5 inches of snow.  No school again.  We played all day and loved every minute of it.  Steve helped with more stuck cars and loved every minute of that.  By the end of the day we were still able to get to a local restaurant for a Valentine's dinner.  It was a lot of fun.  

After three days of non-stop snow this is what my entry from the garage and the front entryway looked like.  Our washing machine was busy for the next two days.  

Naomi got creative and made a house for her Beanie Boos.  She used old boxes and made her own wall paper using construction paper and markers. By the time she was done they had an incredible new home with all the modern essentials.

We've got Cabin Fever!!!

February 15th Nick's team won the last game of the regular season.  Nick played great defense and had a couple of picks to help his teammates get to the basket.  He even went to the foul line.  His shot was dead on, but a little short.  He has really grown during this season and wants to play again next year already.

That night we went to the mall because we were tired of being cooped up for three days.We also wanted to check out some presents for Jeremy's birthday which as quickly approaching.  Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea.  The place was packed.  It took us an hour to get out of the parking lot!!!

Sunday, February 16th, Nick received the priesthood and was ordained a deacon.  He was so excited.

February 19th Jeremy turned 15 and Nick played in his first Playoff game.  They lost by one, but Nick scored a basket, so it all evened out.  We celebrated Jeremy's birthday the next night and he got his favorite - cheesecake with caramel sauce and chopped cashews.

February 21st I helped with the second grade "Community" activity.  The kids were learning how a community works.  Each room had a different function.  There was a bank, post office, city hall, etc.  The kids sent mail, paid rent and utilities and got to shop at the community store.  That was a favorite.  It was a fun day.  That afternoon I went to lunch with the girls at PF Changs.It was a fun lunch and we just enjoyed talking until we had to rush off and beat the kids school buses home.

Karen Fielding, Sara Muller, Christie Jensen, me

February 22nd Naomi started soccer on team Hearts.  This is her first year in the U10 category and so she is now one of the smaller girls on the team.  It will be a good experience for her.   She likes her coach, Shan Rumfelt, and the other girls.    Steve and Jeremy were finally able to get back to working on his project now that the snow had melted and the pile of sand had thawed.  They almost finished everything.  

February 24th we got our tax refund and I was able to pay off Nicholas' braces.  Two kids in braces within 8 months of each other and they are both paid for.  Not bad.

February 26th I finished both of the recharters for the pack and troop.  We have new chair persons in both the pack (and she just had a baby) and the troop so I was asked to do the recharters.  I didn't mind.  I like working with Roger Penny at the council office.  

February 28th we had the Muller's over for a Cafe Rio dinner.  They had heard for all of us who are from Utah about the Cafe Rio restaurant and wanted to give it a try.  It was a hit and we had a blast just talking and letting the kids goof off.  

January 2014

I just looked at the calendar and realized that we are almost to April and I have only one post for the year so far.  It has been a little busy here lately.  I will break the posts up into months so that you are not too overwhelmed by all the awesomeness.

Now that the grandparents have received their pictures for Christmas I can unveil the gorgeous school pictures of my kids.  I didn't want to ruin the surprise for the grandparents, but I have been excited to

 show them off. 

January 2nd started off with Jeremy getting his blood drawn so we could re-evaluate his food allergies.  Waiting for the results was harder than getting the blood drawn.

January 3rd, the boys went back to school while Naomi and I had a girls day at home.  We did a little shopping to get her some new denim (she is growing way too fast), went out to lunch and then hurried back home because it was only 21 degrees outside.  Brrrrr!  She helped me clean carpets in the bedrooms upstairs and we did a little laundry in between reading fun books and laughing.  It was a great day.

January 4th, Jeremy and Steve went to work on his Eagle project and came back almost immediately.  The pile of sand was frozen solid.  I was a nice excuse to stay in and stay warm for the day.

January was the month of basketball for Nick.  We practiced once a week and had a game every Saturday.  The season started off very frustrating with Nick learning the rules and the moves.  By the end of the season he had it down pat and loved playing with his team.

January 5th Sister Cobb and I got our new group of Sunbeams.  It was hard to see our old class move up without us, but this will be an exciting and fun year.  We have a great group of kids.  I was exhausted by the time the two hours was up, but I had the new season of Downton Abbey to keep me going!!!

January 6th, Steve left for Knoxville to help Bradden and Sunny move into their new place.  He left extra early because of a huge storm in the Appalachian Mountains.  He wanted to have plenty of time to get through that and arrive before the moving van.  He didn't need to worry because Bradden and Sunny had gotten caught by the storm people were calling the "Polar Vortex" and what they thought would be a two day drive actually took them three to complete.  

January 7th we had a record low in the morning, 6 degrees.  Both CMS and LNC schoools were on a two hour delay.  In the spirit of the extremely cold weather, I took the kids to see the movie "Frozen" that night.  It was a huge hit and our new favorite.  When we got home, Naomi said that her stomach felt funny. She then went upstairs and threw up.  Yup, the curse of Steve leaving town and something happening to one of the kids still holds!

January 8th there was another 2-hour delay due to the extremely cold morning temperatures.  Naomi didn't care when school started that day because she was home sick with an upset stomach.  

January 9th, Nick visited the orthodontist for the first time.  He needs braces!  Both boys within six months of each other.  YIKES!!!!  Before the braces could go on he needed to have two teeth pulled.  He is excited about having straight teeth, but not thrilled about all the pain that will come with it. 

January 10th we went to our friends, the Mullers,  for a home cooked dinner.  It was a great night.  The kids played and the parents talked.  We even got to take Justin home with us for the night.  BONUS!

January 11th we helped clean the church, Steve coached the Young Men's basketball team, Naomi went to violin lessons, we all went to Nick' basketball game, Steve and I went to one of his co-workers wedding openhouse, and then we took the kids to diner that night because I was too tired to cook anything.  

January 12th I got to speak in church.  They asked me to speak about how to create a Christ-centered home.  I had a lot of fun writing that talk because it was something I was very interested in doing in our own home.  It was a bittersweet day because our ward was split in order to create a new ward.  I will miss the families that are now in the new ward, but the work of the Lord is going forward and that is exciting.  This is the fourth ward split we have had since we moved here.  

January 14th Nick had two teeth pulled.  He really hates the dentist and the teeth that needed pulling (his canines) are the most painful to have pulled.  He was a trooper though.  They had to give him several shots of Novocaine to keep him numb.  Apparently, the more upset you are the faster your body burns through the numbing medicine.  I learning something new.  

January 15th we finally got the results of Jeremy's allergy blood test.  The results are encouraging and we are ready to move onto the oral challenge phase.   The last test we did was when Jeremy was in second grade.  His egg white then was 1.02, now it is .32.  His whole egg was also 1.02, now it is .22.  His milk number then was 3.86 and now it is .47.  That is a significant drop in the numbers, but is it enough to be able to tolerate these foods in his daily diet?  We shall see.

January 16th Nick got his braces on.  He liked them for the first several hours and then the pain set in.  The poor kid ate nothing but smoothies, apple sauce and yogurt for almost a week before his teeth settled down.  

January 18th Steve and Jeremy helped Ryan with his Eagle project.  Ryan needed to finish up before his 18th birthday which was in one month.  It was crunch time, but they all had a great time putting in the lights on the main walkway at Hind's Feet Farm.  

Naomi, Nicholas and I took lunch to the group and brought Jeremy home so he could get ready for the dance that night.  He was exhausted by the time he got home that night.  But it was a good exhaustion. 

January 20th they finished Ryan's project and worked a little bit on Jeremy's.  I took lunch to the crew again and then had them all over for dinner that night since they had put in a whole day of hard work.  

January 24th Naomi came down with a really bad cold which included a high fever and very sore throat.  She did nothing but lay on the couch for five days.  She was so sick that she didn't even go to her best friends birthday party.  That tells you how bad it was.  Poor thing.  

January 25th Jeremy went to the temple with the youth.  Nick played a great basketball game and felt good about how much he is improving.  

January 29th Naomi was finally feeling well enough to go back to school and school was cancelled because of a snow storm.  The kids loved that day.  We went sledding at the golf course on our pieces of cardboard which worked incredibly well.  In fact, our cardboard was better than several of the sleds!  All the church activities were cancelled as well and we all got to have a night at home together.  

January 30th CMS was cancelled again, but LNC had a two-hour delay.  It was another play day for Naomi.  We had the Tufts girls come over and hang out.  It was a great way to end a very busy January.  

Let's Finish Out the Year!

I cannot believe that it is already January 1, 2014.  That is completely unreal to me.  So much happened in 2013 that I am a little sad to see it go so soon.  The rest of December was filled with tons of fun.  Here is the recap.

Rick and Ella-Rene stayed with us until December 11th.  We really enjoyed spending time with them. Baking cookies and watching Despicable Me 2 were the highlights.  Ella-Rene kept me sane while trying to get some old VHS tapes converted to a digital format.  I went through two VCRs before we finally found one that worked and would play my VERY old tapes (from high school!!)

 Grandma Ella-Rene made this blanket for Jeremy when he was little.  It is his favorite.  He still has it on his bed.  

 This desk belonged to Rick's grandpa and then to his dad and then to him and now he has passed it on to Steve.  Ever since Steve was a little boy he has loved this desk.  It is gorgeous. 

 Making cookies!!!

Eating cookies!!!

These cookies are for the teachers at Lake Norman Charter.

Naomi gave a very festive performance of "Jingle Bells".  

When Rick and Ella-Rene left I was forced to return to reality.  I got all the presents ready to mail.  As you can see from the picture below, that was no small feat.  We baked and delivered and had a great time getting ready for Christmas.

December 12th, Steve received his certificate of completion of the Premier PhD program.  For months he has been working in small groups learning different management skills and putting together presentations and programs that were considered for implementation in the company.  Only 8 people a year are invited to participate so he is one of a small group who has been through the program.  It was a great experience for him.  

Our ward Christmas party was on Friday, December 13th.  It was really fun.  The dinner was great.  There was a slide show with past and present pictures of members of the congregation.  We had a program put on by the sisters and elders and then came the visit from Santa.  Naomi was excited this year as she has not had a chance to visit with the big guy in quite some time and has never had her picture take with him.  Her childhood is now complete.  

The next day, while shopping for some tools at Lowe's, I got to visit with the big guy as well.  It has been years.  He was just as nice as ever.  I love Christmas!!

December 14th Jeremy rented a tamper and got all the gravel placed and tamped down in preparation for laying the stones.  We are almost there!!!

December  14th was also a great day for Nick.  He scored two points and shot two foul shots.  He is really getting excited about playing basketball.  Everyone played great and they really started working like a team.  In the end, they didn't win based on the most points, but they won based on their level of teamwork.  Way to go, Navy!

December 19th I took Jeremy to the Urgent Care because he had another ingrown toenail that had gotten infected.  I naively thought that going on a Thursday, in the middle of the day, would be a less busy time.  WRONG!!  Three-and-a-half hours later!!!  Oh well, his toe feels better and the infection will soon go away.  

December 22 Sister Cobb and I gave our cute little Sunbeams their pillowcases for Christmas.  They were so cute about it.  We also found out that we were not moving up with our cute little class, but getting to stay as the Sunbeam teachers with a whole new group of kiddos.  We are certainly going to miss seeing this group every Sunday.  They have been such a great class.  After church we fed one set of sister missionaries at our house and then took dinner to the second set since the two sisters schedules were so different for the day.  It was a long day, but we all enjoyed it.  

December 23rd, Naomi had her friend Emily come over to play.  They had a great time playing games and doing weather experiments.  

Nicholas goofed off in the backyard with his basketball hoop.  He got my small kitchen ladder and was using it to help him "stuff" the basket.  I think these pictures tell a great story.  He did this for at least an hour before he finally got tired out.

Christmas Eve was a great day!  We got to have our "sisters from another mother" come and play with us while their daddy had some surgery on his knee.  They thought this was a great way to spend the day.  We played and rode scooters and bikes and baked cookies for Santa and sent them home nice and tired so hopefully they would sleep through the night.

Christmas Eve night the kids got to open their new pajamas.  This year they wanted custom-made pjs and even picked out the pattern, fabric and design.

 We had told the kids the night before that they had to wait for us to be up before they could go downstairs.  About 7 a.m. we hear Nick and Naomi at the top of the stairs (which is right outside our bedroom door) having the following conversation.

Naomi:  "Let's just go down."
Nick:  "NO!  They said to wait."
Naomi:  "They won't know."
Nick: "Yes they will."
Naomi:  "No they won't."
Us:  "Yes we will."
(The sounds of scrambling back to their rooms.  Steve and I laughed for a minute then got up to get ready for the day.  We had to drag Jeremy out of bed.  He is such a teenager!)

 "Can we come down NOW?"

 Nick got the new Hero Factory sets he wanted.  

Jeremy FINALLY got the iPod he has been eyeing for months.  

 Sean and Brynn sent us these cool pants and scarf from Ecuador.  

 Naomi let her inner DaVinci come out with the paint set from her cousin, Andrew. 

 Nick has been talking about this camera for weeks and was so excited to find out that we really had gotten it for him.  Now he had make all the movies he wants with his very own camera.  

 One of his first movies will include solar-powered robots!  Thanks cousin Nate!

Steve got his bow.  Several of his friends from church bow hunt and he has always wanted to give it a try.  

Christmas afternoon we fed the Elders and had a great time goofing off with them.  We asked the ward mission leader what they might need.  We were told that neither of them had a really ugly tie and a pair of really ugly socks.  No mission is complete without these two items.  Steve and the kids had a great time picking them out.  The elders loved the idea (and even wore them to church the following Sunday).  It was a really fun day.  We enjoyed every minute of it. 

December 26th we all just chilled and did whatever we wanted.  Steve and the boys went out to find us a new WiiU since the games we had purchased as gifts wouldn't play on the old Wii (which was getting increasingly tempermental each day anyway.  We were waiting for it to die.  Then end was near.)  That said, you know what the boys did the rest of the day.  One of the cool benefits is that now we can stream the internet through the WiiU.  No more having to pull my computer downstairs, hook it up to the TV with the HDMI cable, fiddle with it until the image appears on the TV screen and then have to pop up every 8 minutes to move the mouse so the screen saver doesn't activate in the middle of one of the General Conference talks.  YEA!!!  Naomi and I made use of her new sewing machine she got for Christmas.  She sewed a bag and then wanted to sew some clothes for her stuffed dog.  We went to the fabric store and picked out some patterns (which were on sale!!!) and fabric to get her dog some new threads.  She had a great time picking everything out.  

She is "sew" proud of her new bag!  It has a front pocket and Velcro to keep it closed.  

Nick got to spend an entire weekend playing with his buddy Matt.  They spent one day at his house and one day at our house.  By the end of the second day Nick was a little worn out and had a moment of extreme frustration and lack of good judgement in which he threw a rock and broke one of the neighbor's windows.  Luckily Moe is a great guy and was mostly concerned that Nick was so upset. We got Nick calmed down and came up with a plan to replace the window.  Nick will have to work to earn the money, but he is willing to do the work and has hopefully learned his lesson on finding a more positive way to vent his frustration.  Knowing his daddy's history with rocks and windows I am surprised this hasn't happened sooner.  

December 30th I took all three kids to the dentist for their cleaning appointments.  The good news is - No Cavities!   Bad news - Nick is ready for braces.  His teeth are so crowded in his mouth that the newer ones are growing in really crooked.  Oh well, we knew it was coming eventually.  

December 31st Steve, Jeremy and Justin spent most of the day at Hind's Feet Farm working on his eagle project.  They were finally able to start laying the stones.  He can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and is getting excited.  He also finished up one of his final eagle-required merit badges.  One more to go.  

 Jeremy and Justin hauling sand from the pile to the work site.  

 Making sure the stones are in the proper position. 

By the time they stopped in the late afternoon, they had a 9-foot circle in place.  

Lookin' Good!

Meanwhile, back at home, Nicholas and Naomi played with modeling clay.  Nicholas designed his own car.  It was awesome.  

\

 Car close-up.

For New Year's Eve the kids wanted to have chicken tenders and fries with potstickers for dinner.  We played games and goofed off for a bit, then watched Star Trek II and III (the kids wanted to see what the earlier versions of Star Trek looked like).  At midnight we watched the ball drop.  It was great.  

 Getting wacky!

 A New Year's toast with IBC cream soda!  Here's to a great 2014!

The following are just great pictures from the year that I found on Steve's phone while I was looking for something else.  

 Nick, Brother Barker and Jeremy at the Priesthood session of conference in October.  

Justin, Jeremy and Nicholas goofing off at the Army Surplus Store!!

Happy 2014!