Week ending 2-6-22 Groundhog Day, opening ceremonies, Madalyn's 20th

 

Monday: Coming out of the woods to change saw batteries I loved seeing Talea push big sister Madalyn.

And then they cooked and ate imaginary food with Kaitlyn and Makenna. I love seeing everyone outside playing. Thomas and the boys always play soccer by the sunroom and usually the girls and I join them.

Alexis Made breadbowls and broccoli cheese soup so we had a delicious hot dinner to come in to.

Cream cheese brownies for dessert.

Every night Thomas practices the dances for Seussical for at least an hour. He's gotten a lot of recognition for it at rehearsals and is now knows the dances better than anyone else. I'm glad he homeschools so he has extra time to practice. And I'm glad he loves it this much.

Tuesday: Kids on the bus going to school for school lunches.

Kaitlyn has a little buffet set up for kids to pick up their food.

Love this little note from Andy! I make granola bars weekly and eat one after lunch and dinner so it was pretty random for him to pick one out for me and leave me a note, as if I weren't home or couldn't get my own. It was so sweet.

Love cutting wood every afternoon and listening to podcasts.

One of my many piles. We haven't hauled and stacked it in a couple weeks as I'm trying to use up more of the wood in our wood shed first, so I've got quite a few big piles now.

Makenna building a cool fort.

Wednesday: Thomas reading while we eat our groundhog breakfast.

Thursday: During school I couldn't find the little 2 and then found them reading with Maddie in her room. We'll miss her when she goes on a mission.

Friday: 6:30am Olympic Opening Ceremonies!

It was Madalyn's 20th birthday and she wanted tortilla egg casserole, fruit salad, smoothie, and donuts for breakfast while we watched the opening ceremonies. It was super fun!

A friend gave me some money for each of the kids so I bought the boys some high quality hiking shoes off ebay for cheap. I'm so excited. I love hiking and they really needed new play shoes as their others had holes and no traction for our steep ravines.

Showing me that they have the same tread (we bought different styles from different sellers.)

Checking out the creeks after 2 days of rain. This one hasn't had anything in it all winter so it was a surprise it was flowing so fast and overflowing it's banks.

Love hiking and playing in the woods with my kids. It's always a highlight of the week.

Today Anderson, Samuel, and Makenna came with me.

Madalyn's beautiful birthday cake Alexis made.

Can't believe she's 20. She's become a beautiful, selfless, sweet young lady. She's a great listener, never complains, does whatever she's asked, and loves to have reading, movie, and Olympic parties. So we're going to have a great 2 weeks! Hopefully she receives her mission call this week or next.

Beautiful sunset.

Saturday: Sister hugs!

Thomas wrote a song on the computer and is trying it out.

Sunday: Talea wanted a picture of the back of her hair to see it.

Kaitlyn has become a lifesaver in doing the girls' hair on Sunday mornings. It's freed me up a lot. :)

And she's really good at it.

Week ending 1-30-22 Walks and forts in the woods, mission papers are in!

 This was a normal week of school and rehearsals a few evenings. The afternoons were between 40-60 so we played outside and came in at 5 when the lights come on for dinner. 

Last Sunday: Going for a walk after zoom church to get out of the house. It's been a week since storm Izzy and we still had a thin layer of snow and ice in the woods.

I love walking with Tilly. We held hands and walked around our yard and through the garden, talking about what we can plant in the spring. Then we walked through the woods and talked about how we walked through them last week when it was starting to snow and how magical they seemed. She loves chatting and loves asking for her picture to be taken.

This is my hiking trail I hike several times a week.

Talea's favorite tree she likes to climb up/stand on.

We came out of the woods and looked at the garden and fruit trees some more. It's amazing how different winter is from summer. Hard to imagine how overgrown it gets when nothing is growing now except some herbs and garlic.

Thomas playing Snap 'N Style dolls with Makenna and Talea.

Alexis's pretty hair as she heads off for a girls' camp meeting.

I loved listening to these 4 do activities in the friend for a whole hour.

Monday: Andy and Talea washing their dishes.

Coloring before bedtime.

Hooray for a warm day! I sent this to Lori and told her to come over! It was 1 degree in Iowa and she was happy it was above zero.

Carving wands.

Tilly hanging out with me while I cut wood.

Makenna showing me her fort.

Showing me inside. Sam is showing where he sleeps.

Looking to see how tall the trees are.

Wednesday: Goofing off instead of doing school.

I walked outside to bring wood in and saw two kids "sleeping" in the yard.

They said they were going camping.

Thursday: Having a little tea party. Tilly always asking for her picture to be taken. :)

Makenna cut herself and it wouldn't stop bleeding for a long time.

After we got it slowed down she went to the playroom and showed me where it happened.

She was cutting this box with her pocketknife scissors to make a box for her wands.

Such a tiny cut for bleeding for 15 minutes. She's a good bleeder. She'll be able to donate blood fast one day.

Madalyn's mission papers are in!!! When she told me I dogpiled her and couldn't stop hugging her. Then I told everyone else to come hug her. She submitted them last January and ran into delays which turned into a full year as she got busy with school and work and changing student wards. So I told her to move home at Christmas and we'd get right on it and get them submitted quickly. She had to redo the doctor, dentist, and bishop/stake president interviews since they were all a year old, and she ran into several obstacles but we persevered and they are back in to mission headquarters!

Talea's pictures she's drawn me lately and hung on my bedroom wall. They are always of me and her. She's quite the artist (always drawing) and super sweet.

Friday: Tilly and I taking a walk to the mailbox. This is the last of the snow on our driveway from 2 weeks ago and we expected more that night but only got an inch.

A worker at the Mill Creek Store took this of Talea holding some raw chocolate milk. I hadn't combed her hair in a few days so I wasn't going to take one, but oh well. I was taking the kids to rehearsal and she decided at the last minute to come with me or else I would have combed it.

Saturday: Playing school cafeteria. Kaitlyn made them quesadillas and had assembly line of toppings and sides.

They get backpacks and lunch bags and pretend to go to school and eat in a cafeteria.