January pictures

I think I was a little camera happy with my cute babies, so you get to enjoy them too.Spencer and I played “King and Queen”  this week.  He even let me borrow one of the crowns he keeps in his special drawer and Abbie donated her cape and wand for the occasion.  Spencer made his crown in Sunbeams a long time ago, but he loves it…especially all the sparkles.Rachel tired a new recipe for me – Gingersnap cupcakes.  A birthday at Ken’s work was a great excuse to get some fun decorating in.  Here’s her baseball diamond.  And the cupcakes – YUMMY!Here’s some more pictures of Neil.I love this one even though the colors are a little off, but that’s what Photoshop is for right?!Spencer didn’t want to miss out on pictures either.Spencer loves to show us things in slow motion.  Like how he throws baseballs, runs through obstacles, or here, how he stalks his prey when he’s a tiger. We made little bird seed wreaths this winter out of birdseed and unflavored gelatin.  I forgot to poke a whole in one before the gelatin set, so I couldn’t string it up and hang it from a tree.  Instead, I set it on the ledge right outside the front window, and we have enjoyed many close up visitors.Jessie’s school choir got to sing the National Anthem at a Utah Flash game (Our NBA D-League team).  Her choir director had even taught the kids sign for it (that why all the arms are up by their ears).  Ken took Abbie, Mark and Spencer to watch the game.  Jessie told me right up front that she was not interested in the game and just wanted to be with her friends.  Mark was all about the game and loved it.  Abbie and Spencer were happy to be there, especially playing with some clapper-noisemakers that we got.  We enjoyed a special treat of sub-zero ice cream at halftime.  I thought the game might be boring – we took the lead early and kept it… until the very end.  Then the other team tied it up and we went into overtime, and then ended up with the win.  It was lots of fun to be together.

We enjoyed a nice Sunday with Steph and McKay and family for their baby blessing of little Harper.  She’s only 2 months old, but is the same size as Neil.  Abbie had so much fun trying to make Harper smile.The kids’ newest game craze is Monopoly.  Spencer even plays himself while the kids are at school.  He has all kinds of great rules like: if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a property the other players make donations, and he’s pretty much on the only one to build.  The bank is also quite generous when he needs a little cash.  He also finds all kinds of fun ways to take people to jail.  Here the car got a ride in a car pushed by the caterpillar toy.  He tells me all about his plays while I feed Neil.Rachel taught our FHE lesson on choice and accountability last week.  She told a fun story about a little boy who wanted to pick a rose for his mom, but decided to ask instead of taking.  She made a rose for each of the kids before she went to work.  Quite impressive.We had fresh pineapple for dinner one night and Neil got his first taste.  He loved it and got to suck the juice out of 3-4 pieces, that is until he managed to get one of the pieces all the way off the fork…that didn’t go over to well with his mom.Jessie and Abbie went to Bright Ideas a couple of Saturday’s ago over at the school.  Abbie came home with a paper cup duck that makes a honking noise when you pull a wet sponge down a string that’s attached.  She also brought home a great FHE treat idea: 30 Second Chocolate Cake.  So you spoon 2 Tbsp. of chocolate cake mix and 1 Tbsp. of water into a little plastic cup and stir it up – we used a chopstick to stir.  Then you microwave it for 30 seconds and –voila- instant dessert!  The kids LOVED IT!!!  But watch out; it’s pretty stinkin’ hot right at first.I made some more on Tuesday, but I doubled the recipe and put it in a regular bowl with some chopped pecans and cinnamon chocolate chips.  I also substituted milk for the water.  Now for something that took only 55 seconds to cook I was quite impressed.  I have a feeling more experiments may follow.

Here’s a few shots of the the kids right when they get home from school……sense a common theme?!

And our last picture of the post is the new decorations on the bathroom mirror.  Jessie did a great job matching the butterflies to the ones on our new shower curtain.  Whenever Spence draws people he forgets to put hair on them, and I love his hair once he’s reminded that we are not all bald – boy hair is a few straight scribbles across the top, and girls hair is a bit longer lines with the edges turned down.