January celebrations

So when I picked these pictures out to post on our blog I told Ken, “Yea me, after I post these pictures from last week the blog will be all caught up!”  Well, that was almost a month ago.  Wow, sometimes the days go so slow but then the month is gone in a blink of an eye.

So, onward and upward, right?

Rachel planned us a fun Chinese New Year dinner (but not too Chinese :-) ).  She came down and made Sweet and Sour Pineapple Chicken and we had a fun night together.  Here’s Jessie’s picture of her plate.  She thought it looked so pretty, but was disappointed that she actually had to eat all the veggies and the pineapple in addition to eating the chicken.

Remember that nasty stomach flu Mark had, well it surprised us again a week later, this time it was my turn.  YUCK!  Abbie or Spencer posted this sign on the bathroom door for me; warning everyone else they might want to use the downstairs bathroom instead, in case I came running (well I don’t actually run right at the moment, more like fast waddling).  It was very sweet of them in any event.The sickness showed up on Mark’s birthday, so I’m glad we had planned to celebrate the next day.  He still wanted to open gifts that night so Ken and the kids got that ready for him.  He got a hot spark, which he has been dying to get ever since he got to go to a fire starting activity with the 11-year old scouts, a BYU hoodie, and tickets to a BYU men’s volleyball game, and a cool drawing of his name from Abbie.

The following day was our big celebration for him.  Rachel came down and helped me make lasagna, Mark’s absolute favorite dinner.  Here’s Neil helping me stir together the cheeses.  She also brought him a balloon bouquet tied to Mark’s very own 1/2 gallon of whole milk.  He loved it!  Not only because it was whole milk, but since it was his he could drink from the jug without getting in trouble.Mark wanted coconut cream pie for his dessert (and we found out that it is also one of Grandma’s favorites too).  Singing, candles, and presents followed.  It was so great to have family here and Mark had a fabulous celebration.  Thanks for coming everyone!

The next day when Mark got home from school he was so kind to share the last of his pie with Abbie, Neil and me.Now that Neil loves baths all the kids (except Jessie) LOVE to be the ones to bathe with him.  And he just loves all the attention.For 100th day of school Abbie and Spencer both got to bring 100 things to class and did fun things there. Here’s Abbie’s monster with 100 words on his legs.And when Neil wanted to wear the movie star glasses during dinner one night Jessie just couldn’t get enough pictures of him.