Jan-Feb Little Happenings

Yep, extra food always goes in his hair.

"Mom, take my picture!"

I think I made his oatmeal a liiittle too thick this morning.

"Mom take a picture of us together!" He loves Jeffy.

Oh, Rod and his eating adventures. Today he got a pita and put ketchup and mustard on it. Gag.

I read a quote the other day that resonated with me. "A woman can do anything. But she can't do everything." I am very passionate about always having goals and trying to learn and better myself. But, I also think it's important to be OK with where you're at RIGHT NOW.  women, and men, always have dozens of balls in the air. It's Ok to let someone take a couple balls for us sometimes. Or for us to drop a few balls either temporarily or for good. If we try to do it all- we're going to drop everything. On a side note: I bought myself a box of chocolates at the store and ate all of them (without sharing my kids) on the way home. Absolutely no guilt. It was fun and freeing and I totally recommend it.

He also puts empty cups and bowls on his head when he's done.

Steve took Spencer with him on a young men's activity to a BYU science museum and to BYU creamery afterwards.

"Jessica take a picture of us in here!"

Whenever I go to Robin's I open her door and call down "knock knock" before I come down. Our little parrot Jeffrey thought this is just how you do it. So every time he goes to visit grandma he calls down "knock knock" and doesn't go down until she answers. He LOVES going to down to visit Grandma. He usually rides the horse, plays the piano (after she turns on the lamp), drinks from her water bottle, unplugs her heater, hits the keys on the her keyboard and then asks for his cup. She has a mini plastic cup that she'll put some trail mix, or candy or raisins or whatever she has, and then he'll use her piano bench as a table while he eats it.

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Our kids know I'm weird. Especially after I clean my kitchen. I hate spending hours getting it scrubbed down just to have it ruined by the kids 2 minutes later. There have been many times I have finished cleaning the kitchen and hear the boys say, "Let's get a snack, but we'll have to eat it outside since mom just cleaned the kitchen." They know me so well. Today I had book club coming over and had just cleaned and scrubbed the whole downstairs except for the kitchen floors. So we ate dinner on the floor so all I had to do is sweep and mop after.

Riding horsey on the Reindeer card holder my Grandpa Atkinson made.

Preschool Valentine Party. Decorated our own cookies.

Made these heat-color changing mugs the last time Grandpa Oliver came to visit. The boys always insist on using them whenever we have hot chocolate and soup.

Just being us.

We had the weirdest winter this year. We got barely any snow until late February. We finally got a good enough snow storm to go sledding.

I found this in Spencer's backpack the other day. It was for a project at school where they made pamphlets about places to travel. This is what it says.
"In my opinion the best place to go is Texas. Texas is a awesome place to be. You can get to the airport in one hour! There's also a awesome hotel. It has a lot of rooms and the couches can turn into beds! They also have a "bafay" (buffet) and they have delicious food. There's also these houses that you can stay in a while. Their Walmarts are exactly the same! You can also go to Sea World. It has rides and games and there's a killer whale show at 3:00 pm. There's also a seal show and a Beluga show. There's a pizza place too. There's a "mary go round" and a giant play ground in the middle it also has a splash pad."

Wow he sure makes it sound like an awesome place to travel. I love what sticks out to kids when we travel and make memories.

Found Jeffrey in our bathroom adding liberal amount of Vaseline to his hair. Washing it 3 times. Twice with dawn dish soap. Still Greasy.

Me trying to get with the times. Didn't go great. 

Steve's mom gave all the boys $10 at Christmas and said they could go shopping with her and get whatever they wanted. Rod finally went today. He specifically asked to go to the grocery store (not a toy store, or even a Walmart that has toys) and this is what he came home with. I especially loved the travel toothbrush holder.

Finally lost his first front tooth. He went to visit his former 1st grade teacher (He still loves her) and asked her to pull it out. Haha. She is a complete sweetheart and got a paper towel and did it. He was so excited. Now just to get the other snaggle tooth out.

For Tristan's birthday he got to invite one friend to go with him and his family to Boondocks. Some pictures his mom sent me.

We made these "random acts of kindness" plaques at the Relief Society activity. The idea is to do a random act of kindness and leave this. The person who had the act done for them takes it and does an act of kindness for someone else in the family and leaves the plaque, and so on. It was technically Spencer's turn but Rod found the plaque and without any prompting he went up and cleaned my room and left the plaque in the middle of the floor. I was so touched and proud. He was proud too :)

Rod tries to act tough but he secretly loves when Jeffery cuddles and hugs him.

Second grade field trip with this crazy kid to the Children's Curiosity Museum.