Rest of January 2012 Activities

Taylor officially stopped sucking her thumb right before Christmas. She has been trying for about a year without luck. We had to wait for her to commit completely to stopping. The kids received personal emails from Santa and he told her that he heard from the elves that she was trying to stop sucking her thumb. That sealed the deal for her and she stopped. She was rewarded with a toy of her choice (ice-cream playdoh shop)
Okay so I am a little embarrassed to admit but I will for journaling. In January Taylor and Natalie got head lice. I am sure you are all scratching your heads right now. My head itches everytime I think about it. This is the stack of bedding/towels etc that I had to wash. We had 2 rounds of it and I had to wash EVERYTHING a couple of times, vacuumed all couches,beds and floors. This is the only time I can honestly say I am grateful my girls have thin hair, it made removing the lice easier.
Natalie did okay for the most part with it all. One of the days I had her wear a shower cap to try to prevent the spread. I knew holding on to the ones from the hotels would come in handy some day.

In between the 2 rounds of lice our washing machine and dryer broke for 10 days. I used different family members the first weekend and then I resorted to traditional methods with Amanda's clothes and a batch of jeans later on. This is my makeshift clothesline in my kitchen.

Natalie became a Sunbeam in January. She is really proud of the fact that she is a Sunbeam now.I took the kids to Skateland on MLK day. It was really crowded but the kids had a lot of fun.

Preston met up with us at the end and took some laps with Natalie.In January Nathan started his winter season basketball games. It is so nice that he can play with the same coach every year with the majority of the same teammates.

Nathan and Taylor do running club at the elementary school. Here they are before their first race on January 26th.The mass of elementary kids that participated from the other elementary schools.Taylor lined up and ready to go.Nathan after the race. He was the 66th boy runner to cross the finish line out of 200 plus.Taylor finished at #228 for the girls.

After the race we headed back to the school for the science/art fair. Nathan's science project was about electromagnetism.

Taylor's project was about the five senses.Taylor's portrait of herself.A couple days later I took the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's to play. Preston had been out of town for work for a few days and I needed some adult interaction.

Sunday January 29th was the Articles of Faith Reception. Nathan and Taylor were recognized for memorizing and reciting all 13. They were treated to ice cream sundaes at the end.Then we picked up Preston from the airport later that night. YEAH!!!

Taylor turns 6

This year Taylor's birthday celebration spanned over a few days. We ate Taylor's birthday dinner (homemade hamburgers and crinkle fries) a couple nights before her actual birthday.On her birthday morning she requested waffles with cool whip and blueberries.A friend of mine watched Natalie for me as Amanda and I brought McDonald's to Taylor for lunch. She even got a strawberry shake with her meal. She was in heaven.

Aftern lunch I went to the playground to watch Taylor play with some of her friends. I left before recess was over because Amanda was getting a little too much atttention from the kindergarten classes.I brought lofthouse sugar cookies in to Taylor's class for a treat. After school one of her classmates had his birthday party at Bounce-U so she got to spend a couple hours of her birthday playing hard with some friends.

That night we had a birthday party for family. Per Taylor's request we played some games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey.I love Taylor's smile of pure joy on her face as she watches her older cousin attempt to hit the mark.Taylor showing where her tail landed. Notice the clothespins on her shirt. Another game she requested involved clothespins that you take from someone if they say a certain word. Taylor chose the word "birthday" as the word to avoid. I was surprised at how well Natalie did with this game. Older kids would try to trick her and Natalie would say "I am not going to say that word."I actually made Taylor's birthday cake this year. It was a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and star shaped sprinkles.

This was a card/mask that was in the costco bulk card box that was perfect for my panda bear loving girl.This picture really didn't turn out very bright but on the Saturday after Taylor's birthday Preston took her to Red Robin for a lunch date.

New Year's Weekend

For the long New Year's Weekend we headed to the snow in Eagar to visit family. On the first day Nathan and Preston attempted to snowboard while the girls and I met up with cousins to go sledding. I say the boys attempted because Nathan unfortunately had the a quick case of the flu bug hit him on the ski lift the second time up. Let's just say if anyone had been under the ski lift in that area would've had a horrible surprise. Nathan tried to rest in the lodge for a little bit so he could finish out his boarding day but he couldn't shake it. I went to pick him up at Sunrise and Preston decided to call it a day too. Nathan felt better soon after he got back to Eagar so it didn't ruin the whole weekend thank goodness. Here are some snapshots of our few hours of sledding.

Taylor and Ryan eating non yellow snow :-)

Amanda bundled up warm.

No trip to Eagar would be complete without some turns on the four wheeler. Thankfully no broken arms this time. :-)

I love how Taylor is holding so tightly to her big brother.

Preston helped shovel snow off the roof.

I brought one of my new Christmas puzzles with me. Many of the family took time working on it.

Natalie napping with Grandpa.