Family and Holidays

After only 12 years our Crock Pot broke.  When the new one arrived Spencer and Neil had a play toy that couldn’t be beat!  Not only was this box big enough to play in, Spencer also filled it with half the stuff in his room and brought it out to the living room for Neil to play with too.Aren’t they cute when they’re sleeping.  For some reason, our newest model (Neil) missed out on the sleep programming.  We usually get about two naps out of him one longer and one shorter - that is if you count 15 minutes as a nap.I just love some of the surprises I get when I download pictures off the camera.David and one of his mission companions came by for lunch – white chicken chili and fresh crescent rolls, thanks Rachel.  After lunch Rachel went to work and the rest of us played Parcheesi until I had to go to the school for the science fair.  David surprised the kids and came too.Mark’s project was seeing which was stronger: water or a water bottle.  The bottle won out even though it was a little misshaped until the ice melted.  And Jessie’s project was seeing if salt water had an effect on how quickly the temperature of the air above it changed.  She was trying to explain why the northwest has milder winters than we do.  She had a great experiment, but on her poster her question that the experiment was supposed to answer wasn’t stated clearly enough and so she only got a participation ribbon.  Poor girl, she was beyond disappointed, but smiled for the picture anyway.Abbie was cleaning her room and found a couple of things to take pictures with so they could be thrown away.  I love that everything on the elf, including his nose was rainbowed.We took David up to SLC so he could ship off to basic training.  Grandma had a tasty lunch all ready for us and we enjoyed visiting while the kids took the dog for a walk.Neil tried out a carrot and loved it.  We couldn’t even get it away from him when it was time to go, so Mark sat by him and when he fell asleep slipped it out of his hand.At the hotel saying good-bye to David.Rachel surprised my kids with a house full of Valentine’s.There were hearts all over the cupboards and down the hallway too.  And a sign posted by the bedrooms that read “only red or pink shirts allowed beyond this point.” The table was all set and decorated and heart pancakes were served for breakfast with all the trimmings.Mark got sick Valentine morning and kicked off our week-long-pass-it-to-everyone cold.  And we were so close to getting though winter without the usual colds. 

I did get to add one new plate to the collection on V-day.  Thanks sweetie.