January-March 2011

Grocery shopping

Arden the Fox

These were some of the longest months.  Have I complained enough about how much I don't like winter?  We tried to stay busy during these months.  After our trip to MX, it was time for Arden to go back to school and do our routines...like grocery shopping. Maya loves to use the small shopping carts at Smiths. I like those better than the ones shaped like cars and you have to drive the kids in it...I always bump into things since they are so big.
In January, Arden's class put on a program.  They did the story of the Mitten and Arden was a fox.  A very cute fox.  I was really proud of him because he did a good job focusing on his performance and his dancing number as an old school rapper snowman was superb.  Mayita of course wanted to be part of the action, after the performance, Arden let her try on his fox costume.  What a good brother.  We enjoyed the show.
At the end of the month the FL Whites came to visit the family. It was so fun to hang out with Mia, Mae, B, and Karen. Newel was teaching a nerd class at BYU, so he invited HB to go to class with him.  While we waited for them, we took the kids to the mall to play at the playground.  It was the perfect playground for the kids...so many dinosaur things!

Entertaining the primas while waiting for the check

After class, we were starving so we headed off to a Japanese restaurant.  They gave us our own room, which was perfect because there were many little children around. For having 6 kids with us, they were pretty good.  Towards the end of the dinner they were getting anxious so we turned on our phones for some entertainment. 

I believe the following day or so, we went to a jumpy house place and the children really liked that. It was so fun to hang out with so many cousins.  It wasn't a huge place, so we didn't worry too much about losing one of them.  Maya and Arden really liked playing air hockey.
Side note:  Not everything in our lives is about fun and entertainment.  That same day, Arden was in time out for a while, for lying about school work, I think.  He was in time out for a while. But I think he learned his lesson, at least for a while. 

The bouncy house was so much fun it made us all very hungry, so we went out to dinner...the classic, Carls' Junior.
 While the FL Whites were visiting UT, we tried to get together as much as possible.
The kids loved playing with each other so much.  Mia liked wearing Tab's pioneerish dress.  Doesn't she look cute?

Time went by and sometimes it was challenging trying to figure out what to do on the weekends when it was FREEZING! I don't like the outdoors when it is cold.  Skying?  No thanks. 

Hunting...sort of

A couple of times we went to Cabbela's.  It's a hunting store by our house and we let the kids play some games, look at the fish tanks, and the animals.

Sledding in our backyard

Although,  I don't like the cold out doors, on one of the days Arden had a furlough day from school, we went sledding in the back of our apartment complex.  That's the only real outdoors activity I like to do. After sledding, we enjoyed some Mexican hot chocolate.
We had a lot of fun sledding.  And it wasn't that cold that day.
Maya really enjoyed eating the freshly fallen snow.  I just made sure it wasn't yellow snow.

Arden gets Eagle of the Month for his class

At school, Arden was put under contract with his teachers so he could do a better job at finishing his assignments in class.  After a while, he was doing really well, turning in homework and completing his classroom assignments.
Also, his reading level had improved a lot.  In February we received the pleasant surprise that Arden got Eagle of the Month.  We were very proud of him. And he was proud of himself. He had worked hard to improve.

Learning bowling rules

One of the winter activities we did this year was to go bowling with the primas. There were so many of them, we only bowled one game.  They had fun and realized that it wasn't the same as bowling on the Wii.  This game required more coordination.
I was unable to bowl because I had pulled a muscle on my behind and it hurt a lot.  As a matter of fact, I was unable to exercise for an entire month. After my muscle/ligaments healed, it was so hard for  me to get back into a work out routine.

FHE at Aunt Cupcakes

While G-ma and Paka were on their RV trip in California we continued to have FHE.  One of those nights, Aunt Cupcake invited us to her house for FHE.

We had a great time.

Looking back at these photos, I've realized how much time we spend with our family.  It's so nice to have family near by.  It's always fun to be around them...especially for the children to be around their cousins.  With their cousins around, every get together, is always more fun.  Just look at this photo of the bigger primas pulling the little primas on the wagon or carrying them...so much fun.

Tour of the candy factory

My ward had a playgroup and one of the activities we did was go to a candy factory.  I think it was more fun for us, the mommies, than for the children.  It was so cool to see the candy being made and all of the sweet smells.  We also bought candy at the end of the tour.

Before

I couldn't wait until the weather warmed up more, so I started to sand my old night stand and dresser. After sanding it, I primed them and then painted them red. It took me a while to get this done, since I had to wait for the 'warmer' days to let the paint dry.

Night stand, after

Oh, I also gave the furniture a black glaze finish, which gave it a look I really liked...almost antique.

Dresser before

After

I also changed the knobs.  I found them at Lowe's for like a dollar each.  That was a good investment.  I've had these since I was about 14 years old and they've been with me at every move.  It's one of the few pieces of furniture I haven't gotten rid of.  Now, the night stand is at the entrance of our house and the dresser is used by the children in their room. I was kind of sad to let the kids use the dresser because I knew in a few months, they probably would chip the paint.  The other day I found some water damage on the paint, some chipping, and blue toothpaste on the dresser.
At least they looked nice for a little while.
I'm glad these have been put to good use and they look way better than they did a few months ago...they were an eye sore.
My next project is the computer desk and our coffee table.