Late February Happenings . . .

I can't believe February is almost over and it will be March at the end of the week.  Crazy.  But here are a few pictures of a few of the activities we've been up to:

I had decided to take the boys skiing on last Thursday.  It was a half-day of school and so I thought it would be a good day to go.  The girls would just walk home by themselves and then a little bit later they would be picked up for their book-club.  Perfect.  However . . . it was a cold week and the high for Powederhorn was to be 18.  Apparently, I'm a fair-weather skier - I just get so cold easily and sitting on the lifts just about do me in. (I'm not a fair-weather runner, however - I love it when it's cold.  When I'm moving and exerting myself, cold is good!)  So, amazingly, there were no surgeries happening on that Thursday and so Ben took the day off and ended up taking our two boys (they each got 2 lift tickets for Christmas, that's why the girls weren't included . . .) and Csilla's two boys, Kyle and Levi.  Ben was excited about the cold and the snow, so it was perfect.

 Levi, Jonas, Kyle, and Miles.  Miles will not zip up his coat.  He's a goof.

 The mountain got some fresh snow overnight and it was lightly snowing all day.  Ben said it was the best snow he's skied (well, snowboarded) in in 20 years.  He loved it!  The boys had a fantastic time and weren't too cold.  We bought everyone those hand-warmer things and they were handy.  Haha.

 Levi!

 Jonas!

 Kyle!

Miles!

My girls had been sick that week - Emmy missed two days of school because not only was she coughing a whole bunch, she had a fever that got as high as 102.9.  Lucy started coughing by Thursday and not feeling super great and had a low-grade fever.  Luckily it was low-enough that I could still send her to school because she really wanted to go to the book-club later that afternoon (no school = no extracurricular activities).  So it was good I was home - I don't think I would have left my girls all day long if I had planned on skiing.  I went in to Lucy's classroom and read "The Five Chinese Brothers" because it was a read-a-thon day (and, remember, just a half-day).  I got the girls home, gave Lucy a little bit of medicine (ibuprofen makes my kids forget they are sick), and then took them to book-club.

The girls had been so excited for book-club - it was on the book Holes. They ate donut-holes, drank some peach "slush" (it's a book thing), had pizza, and watched the movie.  So fun.  They had a blast.

The kids were out of school on Friday and so we went to the Rec. and I did my laps while the kids played.  We met up with friends there and so that was fun.  Miles had to stay home and catch up on some school since he'd missed Thursday.  We went to the movie How to Train Your Dragon that afternoon as there was a special showing and price for the homeschool kids.  I'm part of the facebook group and so I saw the message.  A couple of Csilla's kids came with us, so I felt a bit more legit.  :)

We woke up Saturday morning to a real snowfall - we got anywhere from 5-7 inches.  Whoop, whoop.  So Ben and I got out in the late afternoon to enjoy it.  It was so beautiful and snowy!

Gorgeous! Oh, and some handsomeness, too!

That evening I took five boys from the ward up to Delta for a Stake Dance.  It was Jonas' first dance - bummer I didn't get a picture!  The boys were all excited.  I think once Jonas got there, he was a bit more shy than he had thought.  :)  He was hanging out on the wall a bit too much with Malachi in the beginning - so I went over and told Jonas that he either get off the wall and dance, or that I would pull him off and make him dance with me.  He quickly left the wall.  :)  The boys had fun and did most of the dances - including the slow ones.  I'm pretty sure Jonas was one of the youngest ones there - my guess is he was the youngest.  It was a bit long for me, but I survived.  :)

On Sunday morning the girls got Bella ready for church, too:

Hahaha.

 Back to normal, well almost - she was sporting a lovely bead-necklace.  :)

He always looks so funny in pictures, but man he is handsome.  :)  I literally have people tell me on my runs quite a bit - they'll yell it out from their cars.

In sacrament meeting, Emmy gave her first talk.  It was on preparing for the temple.  She and I had worked on it on one of the days she stayed home sick from school.  She did a great job - she didn't really look up from her paper at all, but her voice was confident and clear.  She had expressed to me earlier how she didn't want the stool.  I told her she wouldn't need it.  I had mentioned it to one of the counselors . . . but the bishop didn't get the memo.  :)  So he put out the stool for her.  Emmy still resisted in using it and just put one leg on it and leaned in to the mic.  But the bishop came over, adjusted the mic, and Emmy stepped up on the stool.  :)  The bishop remarked, before Emmy going up, how Emmy was the youngest member to give a talk in sacrament meeting in our ward.  Cool!  (Of course in the primary programs, kids have been younger.  But for a regular meeting, this was true.)

Okay, that turned out way longer than I meant.  :)