Sunday February 28

Logan has a managers thing this weekend in Boise, so Madi tagged along and surprised us!

We only have her he tonight and fire a few hours tomorrow.... But we are so happy to have her here❤️

Church was amazing today.

So many great things shared.

I'll need to write more about it tomorrow.

 

Saturday February 27

 Went to the gym this morning.

Got the kids to do chores.

I worked on laundry.

Also cleaned bathrooms.

Cass has been gone all day.

First half with DYW.

And now she's at work.

Crazy long day for her!

I took Port and his friends to the dollar store.

They think it's the greatest 😂😂

Then feed the little ones dinner.

Port and I got in the hot tub.

That's pretty much the gist of the day.

Nothing super exciting or flashy.

Dad had a pretty slow day at work as well.

I hope his night goes the same way.

Friday February 26

I spent the morning, after the gym, submitting lesson plans for homeschool.

I also turned in progress reports of all the work we have done so far.

Then we had school, of course 😁

They don't hate school...but they don't love it.

What surprises me is how much I enjoy it!!!

Hopefully I can find ways to make it more fun and enjoyable for them.

This afternoon, Sierra came over so she and Elsie could finish planning the lesson they will give on Sunday for YW.

I think the planning went well and I'm sure they will do great in class on Sunday.

Brooklyn, her aide, can't over with her.

Brooklyn is one of Madi's friends, so it was fun to catch up with her.

After she left she sent Madi the nicest text: "Went to your parents house today at work and that front room looks amazing of course always obsessed with that house and your mom is the most uplifting person to be around. How do I become her when I grow up??"

Oh my gosh 😭

How sweet is she???????

I'm not adding this into my journal to try and uplift myself....

Instead I want to keep it as a reminder of how such a kind thing made me feel.

I know I'm not that great 😂😂😂

But I sure hope that remembering how she made me feel will help me to pass it along and do the same for others around me ❤️ ❤️

Dad and I had a nice date night.

We went to Jakers for dinner.

Some grocery shopping, of course.

Then, he renewed my temple recommend 😏

On the way home, the moon was beautiful. Man, I wish I could capture how pretty it was!!!

We started watching the new Tom and Jerry, but we kept having wifi issues so I think we will try and finish it tomorrow.

 

Wednesday February 24 - Thursday February 25

Not much happened yesterday.

Just homeschool stuff.

I'm learning how to submit progress and submit lesson plans.

I think things are going well.

Just have to convince the kiddos of that 😁

Actually, we did for a fun science project taking about bacteria and we are growing said in petri dishes, so that will be fun to check in a few days.

Today was the last called for my Tues/Thurs weightlifting class.

I'm sad but also, I look forward to having a better day to day routine for homeschool!

So today want super smooth with school for Elsie....

Port got things finished up because dad took him and Cassi skiing with dinner of the neighbors.

But Elsie finally got her stuff done.

I think she is staying to catch on and do better.

The problem is her DESIRE to learn.

She can 100% understand this stuff in teaching her..... She just didn't want to do it.

So that is frustrating ☹️

So like I said, dad took the others skiing, and it wasn't until they got home late that I find out that they almost lost Cassi!

I need her to write the story down....

But the gist of it, dad was gonna go down the face of the mountain with Billy so cass was going to take the easy way back to the lodge.

SOMEHOW, she ended up at a backside part of the mountain that has been completely shut down since 4.

She realized that there was no one around.

And when dad and Billy got back, they realized she SHOULD have been back and wasn't.

They went on a few of the runs looking for her and then really started to worry.

Well, I will have cassi write it down... But thanks to a phone hidden around the side of the lift, she was able to call the ticket office and get someone to come rescue her.

I went to a RS activity tonight, the first in-person for a very long time!

We talked about journaling, family history and indexing.

It was really great and I got pumped and excited to start indexing with the family!

Monday February 22 - Tuesday February 23

The last two days were have been doing school.

It's going good.

They like their little cove spots where they sit while we read.

Yesterday Elsie went to Carley's house to celebrate her birthday.

They had Mac and cheese for dinner and then had cheesecake and ice cream.

She was so excited to spend time with her.

Today is Stacia's birthday and I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of her this morning at our gym workout where I made her wear a birthday crown 😁

We got some really fun news today!!!

Madi and Logan are gonna make a quick weekend visit 

It's a work trip for Logan so we probably won't see him much, but so excited to see Madi!!!

ELSIE DOESN'T KNOW!!!!

SHHHHHH!

We want to surprise her!

She always has the best reactions to exciting things!

Baby chicks are getting bigger.

Port is wanting to incubate some more.

We will see if Vern needs the incubator back yet or not.

Oh, today the three kiddos had dentists appointments.

Happy to say, they were all cavity free!!!

Except there are still a couple of Cassi's were still need to get filled from the last appointment 😁

So nice job kiddos!

ARP meeting tonight was on Step 2, hope.

It was such a special and spiritual night.

I sure miss being with them in person.

SO GRATEFUL we get to still meet online!

There are the best people and I live that we have eachother to uplift and support one another.

 

Sunday February 21

We had stake conference today, which was so good.

But it was at 10 and left us with a full day with nothing to break it up!

But Cassi and Porter worked on guitar.

We had some quiet time where I got a nap 😁

Porter wanted to make brownies.

He did it all himself, with my supervision, so that was cool.

Elsie learned to stitch up her stuff animal who had a dream coming apart.

She was pretty proud of herself.

Porter helped me to see together some fabric for their little cove forts in the schoolroom.

I'll take some pictures of those tomorrow.

Cassi made dinner again.

I am going to be having her do that more often 😏

She made some yummy orange chicken... But dad isn't too happy that she made it while he was at work!!!!

That's his favorite!

She also cleaned the kitchen for be tonight, because she left it quite a mess 😂😂

 

Saturday February 20

I got a great workout at the gym early this morning.

Cassi had her mock talent and interview today for DYW.

Things went good and she got some great feedback.

We did laundry, chores, and hung out.

Dad and I went out on a date after he got back from a meeting.

It's our stake conference tomorrow, so tonight was the adult session, online, so we listened on our date 😂

Dinner at cafe Rio and then we went and got ice cream at c4 to see Cassi.

Elsie worked on her art today.

The prompt is 'dream vacation' and she wanted to do the Eiffel tower, negate she wants to go to Paris 😏

 

Friday February 19

School wasn't totally great today.

I think the day off yesterday was a distraction, but that's okay.

You live, you learn.

It was fine, just a step back from Wednesday.

It's all good.

We just keep moving forward 😂

 

Thursday February 18 (add pictures)

We had a really fun day off of school.

I went to my weight lifting training at the gym and then I started after to help be a participant in a video for someone trying to certify in ViPR.

It's a weighted tube kind of workout.

It was a really good workout!

It will be fun when it's a class offered at the Y.

And Cassi still had to work....

She started a nanny job during the day 9-1 on her off-school days (she still needs to check in for her classes online).

But then we went bowling and had a really great time.

 

Wednesday February 17

School is so much more fun with dad around 😁

Things went pretty smooth today, for the most part.

Everything got done and in good time, so yay!

I'm really having fun, if I can just find a way for Porter to be less 'bugged' by every sound Elsie makes and get Elsie to believe in herself.... Then I'll be smooth sailing ❤️

Dad got started on putting a hand rail on the stairs going down, so Elsie can walk down instead of going down on her bun.

I want grocery shopping and also picked up some fun things for the classroom.

Porter and Elsie came up with a fun "reading book" idea in the classroom and I agree.

So we will see how that plans turns out.

Everyone left tonight to YW and YM.

It was so quiet..... It was really nice 😂😂

But I did get stuff done.

 

Monday February 15- Tuesday February 16

Ah man, I didn't post yesterday!

It was pretty much a snow day 😂😂😂

I did talk the kiddos into doing school, even though it was a holiday, and promised them a day off when dad was home later this week.

That way we can at least enjoy the day we have off!

Today, the snow is starting to melt a bit.

So lots of it, and slush!

School was a little 'off' again because of my weight lifting class in the middle.

If it wasn't something I wasn't paying extra for, I would skip it (even though I LOVE it).

But I know as soon as we get a good real routine with this school stuff, it's gonna be so great!!!!!!

In school today we talked about the Greek civilization some more and we had a fun art project painting some pottery pictures.

I had never heard of this technique before!!!!!

They color the whole picture with crayon, then I had tempura paint mixed with SHORTENING, and they brushed it on e whole thing.

We let it dry for a bit and then they used a sharp took to scrape off the paint for the designs.

How fun!

I think they liked it.

Oh, and Cassi made dinner tonight.

Yay!

It was so good!

She made beef burrito bowls, yum!

She should do that more often 😏

 

Saturday February 13-Sunday February 14

Woops.... Skipped yesterday's post.

We got so much snow!

Kids played outside a lot of the day yesterday.

Inside too.

We were actually kind of bored during the day.

Dad and I had or Valentine's date night.

We went and saw the movie 'Land'.

It was really good.

Then out to dinner.

Today we had a nice Sunday.

It's Valentine's day too.... 

So we had heart pancakes for breakfast and heart chocolate boxes for the kiddos.

The girls came home from church first because the boys had YMs for the hour after sacrament.

There was lots of snow play outside.

They made a snow angel, started on a snow fort and also a made snow Taylor Swift 😁

Elsie's newest obsession.

I made lots of cookies.

Lots.

We ate dinner then we did come follow me together.

We ended the night watching an episode of 'The Chosen'.

So good ❤️

Oh and the missionaries stopped by and brought us some cupcakes for Valentine's day.... And we sent them home with a dozen cookies 😂

I made like 8 dozen!!!

Dad will take most of them to the station tomorrow.

Friday February 12

Well, were got a ton of snow....more coming tonight. 

It's pretty.

But it would have been way more pretty in December 😂😂😂

School was okay.

Not terrible.

I was the problem today.

I only got a few hours of sleep last night, so I was having a hard time focusing.

So after ELA, we took a long break and I took a nap.

I felt better, but it did throw off our school vibe 👎🏻

It's okay.

We will get the hang of it.

Porter was good and he did his math while I was sleeping, without me telling him to.

So after we finished science, he got to be done with school.

But Elsie still had math and she wasn't happy about it.

Again, it will just take time for us to get the right routine.

But she threw a MASSIVE tantrum.

After kicking and throwing stuff around the schoolroom, I took her up to her bedroom until she calmed down.

I got a few of my lessons printed off and prepared.

So I feel good about that.

It really is going well for being the first few days.

I mean, Elsie is not used to doing much of anything!!!!

So, it will take time, but we will get her used to a full day of school.

Cassi and Porter played in the snow and Josh came over to play too.

While making dinner, I was listening to country music and dad's and my song came on... So I sent him a picture.

He was returning an overtime shift today and I miss him.

Sounds like he has had a crazy amount of calls because of this snow!

 

Thursday February 11

So today's school had a little kink in it.

I am doing my weight lifting class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

But it's just until the end of then month.

Porter did the things I told him to get done while I was gone.... Elsie didn't.

Stinker!

But we did end up getting stuff done.

We did history that and dad came down and hung out with us and had kids of fun stuff to sad.

So that will be a fun part of homeschool today, dad hanging out with us too ❤️

After school was done, Porter helped dad and Eldon with the fence building.

It's looking so good!!!

Porter has his kid fit weight lifting class this afternoon, that was his PE for the day 😁

This evening, dad and I went to a RS/EQ activity and we had a nice time.