Sunday February 10

Still struggling to get everyone ready for church on time AND be happy about it!

We are never late, but we sure are grumpy!

We will get the hang of it :)

Once we get to church everyone starts being a little nicer.

I taught in YW today.

It seems like forever since I taught.

I guess I taught the Christmas lesson, but I think that is the last one I taught.

Today I taught about how to be self reliant.

I think it went well.

These Beehives are so great with comments and discussion.

I really do enjoy my time with them.

After church I had a quick Beehive pres. meeting.

The kids had choir.

Madi had a temple recommend meeting, then I had a stake temple recommend meeting.

By then, the day was about over!

When I got home, we did our Come Follow Me as a family.

Then Madi had to leave for another meeting!

Good grief....that is a lot of meeting today!

This evening Dad and I made orange chicken together.

It has been a long time since we made that....and I couldn't find our recipe.

So we tried a different one out.

It worked out good.

We had Bubble and Eldon over for dinner too.

We love having them around :)

Saturday February 9

This morning Cassi had a breakfast for her friends.

They are the kids at church,

She wanted to get them together to help one of the girls feel more comfortable with everyone....but she ended up not being able to come :(

But it was still a fun morning to have Cassi's friends over.

Then I was supposed to go take some missionary photos for a girl in our ward....but then a storm came in and so much wind!

So I rescheduled that.

Hopefully we get some good weather on Tuesday so I can get them taken before she leaves on her mission!!!!!!

Tonight was Madi's sweethearts dance.

She asked if I would take the pictures and I was happy to.

We had planned to go out in the middle of the field......but since it was all muddy we opted to stay on the canal road.

It was freezing and so windy....but we still got some fun pictures!

Friday February 8

Today was the 100th day for Port at school.

this is the first year they all dressed up as 100 year olds.

Isn't he just so cute!!!!!!

Dad helped at Bubble and Eldon's again today.

Things are moving along.

Pretty fun.

I was kind of worthless today.

I have been so tired lately!

After I took a morning nap, I worked out then got laundry done and I ran to the store for a few things for Cassi's friend breakfast tomorrow.

Elsie had her friend Carly over after school.

We had Bubble and Eldon over for our pizza dinner, since they don't have an oven right now :)

Tomorrow is Madi's sweethearts dance, and there looks like a storm blowing in...

Hopefully it's not too bad!

Thursday February 7

Happy birthday to my mama!

Dad headed to the department doc this morning after he got of shift.

His finger has been getting worse, last night he couldn't put it in the glove....so he went to get xray.

Turns out it is fractured :(

Dang it!

The doc says he needs to take some time off and tape the fingers and let them heal.

We will see what he decides to do.

He thinks it is pretty silly to take time for a finger to heal......but if he can't use his hands in gloves…..that is a problem.

He can still do hard work.

In fact this afternoon he went over to help Bubble and Eldon tear down walls for their kitchen remodel.

Of course he had his fingers taped together, which he can't do with gloves....

While he was doing that, I was at the school doing Art Smart.

We had a super fun art lesson.....the artist was James Castle.

He was a local Boise artist that died in 1977.

He was fascinating to learn about.

He was deaf and mute, never learned to read or write and was later diagnosed with Autism.

He used art to communicate.

He would use scraps of paper and cardboard to make constructions.

He would make 'soot and spit' paintings using soot from the stove and his own spit to make ink.

He was a self-taught artist, and at first when you look at his work you might think it looks like a child's art.

But he really had some fascinating techniques and understood so much about art for someone who never had a formal education.

I brought scraps of cardboard, rubber bands, paper clips, metal wire, metal brads and other stuff from around for them to make their own 'construction's.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of what they made, because they were amazing!!!!!

We also had the kids stay silent for 5 minutes while they worked, since James Castle was mute, we thought it would be a fun exercise for them to experience that.

They were all so focused and did a great job.

Port made a little mad.

We did have glue available, but James didn't use glue, so Porter was determined to not use any for his either.

Turned out pretty cool.

Then with his extra time and supplies he made a really cool state of Idaho shape.

This is Porter's wheelhouse...he loves this kind of hands on art.

It was a fun time.

Tonight is STEM night at Mary Mac.

Dad took Port and they also took Koy and Titan along with them.

I am sure they are having fun.

That is also Porter's wheelhouse!

Wednesday February 6

My day today was kind of blah.....

They called Dad in to work.

I went and helped in the office this morning.

When I got home I worked on getting all the stuff ready for our YW activity this evening.

I made some snickerdoodles for the activity as well.

I also worked on the Art Smart project for tomorrow.

We are learning about the artist James Castle.

I am excited to see what the kids come up with.

The pretty much took up my day.....

This evening for YW, we had a fun activity about Loving our neighbors.

We had a little lesson, and then chose people to give plates of cookies to and the girls decorated hearts to give to them.

Then we loaded in the car and delivered.

I think it was a fun time and the girls thought it was great.

The last house we stopped at was the Capells.

It was so sweet, you could tell Bonnie was so happy with the visitors!

We couldn't stay long, because we had to get the girls back to the church.

But they all left leaving happy that they lifted the spirits of Sister Capell :)

Tuesday February 5

I was so tired today!!!!

Cassi stayed home for the first bit of school because she had an early morning ortho appt.

Dad got me stuff to paint the shelves upstairs and the TV surround.

I have a problem sticking to one project at a time!

There is just so much to do!!!!

I spent a while sorting clothes and working on more laundry.

Man, we had quite a pile built up!!!!

We brought the tables back in the art room.

Still need to get the doors painted and some trim put up.

Also make a surround for that fireplace.

This evening, Porter and I made a puzzle roll mat.

I have been looking to get one on-line.

And though they work, they are overpriced.

So today while I was out getting milk, I bought some felt and we used an old pool noodle and made ourselves a puzzle matt roll.

It seems to be working, so that is good :)

Monday February 4

After we got our morning stuff done, we made a visit to Bonnie and Harvey.

Bonnie just had open heart surgery a week ago.

She is doing well, but for sure tired.

We all had a nice visit together and I hope we didn't wear her out too much.

Got back home and had Brent help me with a little project I want to do upstairs.

Like always, it turned into a bigger deal than I thought.

I had to ditch and go pick up Elsie for PT.

That is when the downpour happened outside.

There was so much rain!!!!!

I grabbed Elsie and brought her home.

By the time we got home, the rain had passed us.

After she got a snack, we headed to speech and PT.

She worked hard even though she as very tired.

She has some goals to work on.

We are trying to work with her using a real bike......and then possibly for her birthday she can get her own cruiser!

Back home, we saw the most beautiful full double rainbow.

Of course we were stuck in traffic.....but at least we got to see it :)

This evening we had a yummy peach/chicken.

Dad made an amazing rub for the Traeger chicken and it was a big hit!!!!

There is one problem we always run into......he made up the recipe.

And didn't write it down.

Dang him!!!!

Oh, but it was yummy!

For FHE we reviewed what our last few weeks have been and then came up with a new fortifying brick.

Today was talked about Learning.

These were our ideas about that and how learning can be a brick to help fortify our family.

- Doing Come Follow Me together

-Develop our talents

-Creating good habits

-Work on skills that we need for the future (this one is geared towards Madi, since she is leaving the nest soon)

-Learning to communicate better

-Figure out what drives us to do what we do

-Find our worth....learn WHO we are

Then we spent the rest of the time doing our Come Follow Me lesson.

We usually do the bulk of that on Sundays, but with Dad gone yesterday, it didn't get done.

Sunday February 3

Kind of rough at spots today.

I miss having Dad around.

We have had quite a few Sunday's where I didn't have to do it alone...…

But the day was good.

It was a nice meeting at church.

Fast and Testimony meeting was great.

We talked about being a light to those around us when we were in Sunday School.

After church, Madi and Cassi had a YCL meeting.

The kids had choir.

Elsie was complaining about not wanting to go and that she was starving!

I told her that if she didn't want to fast then eat, but don't sit there and whine if she wanted to fast.

Then she said she didn't want to go to choir.

I told her that they were relying on her being there, but she could choose.

She was getting ready to eat a bagel and I told her I had to leave to take Port to choir.

She started crying and I asked her why.

I guess she decided to go to choir and she decided not to eat.

I was amazed!

For her to go from a complete meltdown, then making a big girl decision like that, I was very proud of her!

Madi dropped Cassi off to choir after their meeting and she had a meeting after that for Laurels.

I went to the church for my Temple recommend interview to renew my recommend.

After choir, Cassi went with Kendyl to make cookies for the boys in the ward they convinced to come to choir with them :)

Back at home we had some grumpy hungry kiddos!

Fast Sunday, with 9 church is a tough one!!!!

But we made it.

They did good.

After some food we had less fighting :)

I am taking Madi's pictures for Sweethearts in a week.

So we wanted to do some light testing....

So we did some more senior pictures.

It was a fun time and we got super muddy, and she got really wet jumping in the puddles!

Of course it was the Super Bowl today.

It isn't as much fun without Dad here.

But Cassi and Porter built their yearly (as of the last 2 years) stadium out of blocks :)

We ate some dinner, made some muddy buddies.....we had some fun talks in the kitchen while making the muddy buddies.

Porter thinks girls are pretty weird!!!!

We wound down with some puzzle time with Porter.

We are excited to have Dad home tomorrow!!!!!

 Elsie drew this picture of our house a couple days ago, and I love it so much I didn't want to forget to get a picture before it gets erased!!!!!

Saturday February 2

I got the stuff I wanted to get done today.

Yay!

I got the basement finished and I got the top coat put on my tables.

I am so glad that Dad remembered to have us take the tables in the shop....because it rained all night and all day!

There was a little break in the rain during the day and Porter went out with the boys to play.

After Madi got home from work, I took Cassi to the store to get her some clothes.

There are way too many fights around here about Cassi wearing Madi's clothes and we are sick of it!!!!

So she got some stuff, hopefully there will be less fighting.
Poor Dad had a bunch of training today out in the rain.
He actually loves it because he was in charge.
He is so good at being in charge of that kind of stuff!
They also had a rescue up in the foothills.

Cassi went to a birthday party this evening.

Madi, Porter and Elsie and I watched Rango here at home and had ice cream.

Porter has been having a hard time feeling 'safe' lately.

Ever since we got home from Arizona...…

He says he is worried about a bad guys breaking in.

He is constantly making sure the doors are locked.

It is hard to talk him down some times....

So all week I have promised him he could sleep in my room when Dad went to work.

I am not sure why he is feeling so unsure.....and uneasy :(

Breaks my heart.

Friday February 1

After getting a workout this morning, I applied the pre-paint primer coat for the cement floor in the basement.

It was a clear coat, but becomes kind of tacky/sticky for the paint to adhere better.

I had to go and shower so I could go to lunch with Heather, for her birthday today :)

So Dad took over and he got the floor painted!

It looks so pretty.

I will be touching up around the edges and doing a second coat tomorrow.....but look how pretty!

We had a cookie Friday today with Madi's friends.

I made a yummy cookie recipe that I got from Bubbles and it was fun to have Madi's friends hang out for a bit.

Dad and I had a date night tonight.

We went to dinner at Goodwood and then we went and saw the movie 'Glass'.

Man, it was pretty good.

We made a stop at Walmart after to pick up some lemon cakes for dessert :)

Madi went to the basketball games and Cassi babysat for the Halls, and she took Elsie and Porter with them so we could go out as well.

It worked out good!