February...

We had A LOT of FUN during the month of February...

The first Sunday in February was Super Bowl Sunday. Though none of our favorite teams made it to the playoffs, (Chicago Bears for Spencer, San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills for me), we still made a party out of the occasion and pretty much cheered on both teams, the Steelers and the Cardinals, any time a touchdown was made.

I had Noah sport a Chargers shirt on game day...

...while my little man, Cohen, represented the Buffalo Bills in his game day onesie
(it's sort of hard to see since he has his blanket in his face).

We invited A LOT of our friends over to eat and watch the game with us. We bought enough food to feed about 50 people, 20 of whom were small children. Not quite all 50 people we invited showed up, some decided at the last minute to watch the game else where- SUCKERS! our party was WAY MORE FUN with better people AND better food! We had plenty of food to go around, enough to dish 2ND and 3Rd's to some of the men with LARGE appetites. We ate hot wings,
pulled pork, and brisket that Spencer ordered from a friend of a friend who owns his own personal catering company; it was DELISH; we also had mac 'n cheese, baked beans, and potato salad that I made, 2 kinds of chili our friend Bryce made, along with chips and dip, veggies and dip, fresh fruit, bottled Crush Sodas, and cookies & brownies for desert. It was a YUMMY spread- GOOD FOOD is a DEFINITE MUST AT A ROCKING SUPER BOWL PARTY. Thinking back, I wish every day was game day, I could go for some more baked beans and pulled pork.

The Cluff's showed up, Matt and Laura, with their 4 kids; so did the Merrill's- Kristy and Kalun, they brought along their 2 little ones; Jeremy and Anna came with their 3 kids; Chris and Susan brought Haddie; Bryce and Erin brought Isaac; Suzie showed up briefly; and Spencer's bachelor friends came too... Jordan, Brandon, Dave, and T.J... Turned out to be 16 adults and 14 kids (most of whom were younger than 4 years old).

I wasn't worried about the adults being entertained; all the guys would be into the game and I figured all the wives would just want to chat with one another- which it turns out my assumption was pretty accurate because that's exactly what the guys and girls did for most the evening.

Another look at the guys gathered round the tele. watching the game.

Of course I didn't notice these minor details during the party itself, but after looking over the pictures from the evening, I think it's fair to say ALL the guys need to buy themselves some NEW white socks!
Look real closely at their feet in the picture- every sock needs a good bleach job.
Dirty feet just gross me out; maybe I should have insisted that they keep their shoes on in my house.
JUST TO NOTE: their socks DID NOT get that dirty in my house- my floors are ALWAYS clean,
so clean in fact that I'd let my kids eat off the floor.

I was, however, worried about keeping 20 little kids busy and out of trouble with out breaking things or making a COMPLETE mess of the house. It was still pretty chilly outside on game day, so it wasn't an option to send the kids outside to play. We had TONS of toys in the boys toy room to keep some of the kids busy for some of the time, and we set a t.v. up in the boys bedroom so that those kids who wanted to watch a movie and not be bored by the game could do so. Also, we moved the car out of the garage and inflated the boys big Playskool Bounce House for the kids to jump on and slide down.

Above is Isaac, our very first little guest to use the jumper;

below is Haddie, another little guest who spent most the evening bouncing away!

Most of the bouncing experience was spent "collision free" with the exception of this one we caught on camera... apparently we needed to emphasize the importance of taking turns on the slide...

4 of the kiddos became a tangled mess! Somewhere in that mess is Miss Peyton, Noah, Danny & Tate.

The balls came out and so did the sidewalk chalk- we let the kids scribble on our garage floor. I realized later on that the chalk in the garage could have been a recipe for disaster should some of the kids start to write on our walls with it, but believe it or not, only one kid tried doing just that and I caught him in the act just as he started so not much damage was done. The Bounce House was a HUGE hit; some of the little kids stayed out in the garage jumping on that thing the ENTIRE evening!

Even some of the adults felt the urge to climb in and give it a good bounce or two.

It was fun having so many of our friends over, especially since it's not often we all can get together. Lucky for me, the mess cleaning up wasn't too bad, and only two toys were broken, both antennas off of remotes to our boys remote control cars (both fixable). We had fun and I think it's safe to say everyone else did too. Oh yeah, thought I'd add that I was so busy entertaining guests- showing little kids where the bathroom was, keeping food heated and spills cleaned up- I didn't catch a minute of the game so I still don't even know who won the game! I even forgot to ask Spencer afterward. I'll bet it was the Steelers since the Cardinals were the underdogs.

It continued to SNOW here a lot during February. Our driveway was solid ice since I gave up shoveling it back in December (we've made a mental note as a reminder that while we're "house hunting" we need to look for a house that faces, east/west or vice versa). I had to warn every visitor before they came over to be careful and wear their ice skates because our driveway and porch were practically ice rinks!

Les and Linda offered to have not only Noah, but also Ian, spend the night with them once or twice in February. It felt sort of weird being left at home with just one child while the others were away; I really didn't know what to do with myself on the evenings they were gone; if I remember correctly, I think I just went to bed early. Not that any of the extra sleep did much good because this little man still wanted to sleep in the room with us...

This is who I wake up to EVERY MORNING if I look to my right; Spencer's on the left.
I can't complain too much, he's pretty good looking even after a whole nights sleep, bright and cheery,
and his morning breath is much more "doable" than Spencer's.

Have I mentioned before how Cohen still doesn't like to sleep through the night! Noah was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks with no interruptions for 11 hours straight and Ian slept soundly by 4 weeks, but Cohen, he's a different story; he likes to wake up at least once, sometimes twice, each evening for a bottle. It's SO EXHAUSTING especially since I'm usually up 3 or 4 times each night just using the bathroom. NO SLEEP!

But check out the following picture...
I think it's evident by this picture that Cohen has grown too BIG for his bassinet!..

I took the initiative to FINALLY move him into a crib in another bedroom. He's not sharing a room quite yet with the other boys; I'd hate to see Cohen disturb them during their slumber each night when he decides to call out for a midnight snack (by "call" I actually mean SCREAM a blood curdling SCREAM!)- it will still be some time before he bunks with the two older boys, but at last, Mom & Dad can sleep a bit better with out little man waking us with every stir.

The week before Valentines Day I helped Noah and Ian make and sign Valentines cards for their cousins. We got around to distributing about half of those Valentines, while the other half, with their candy counterpart, still lay hidden away in one of my kitchen drawers. I decided two days ago I was just going to finally throw them away but have I done that yet??? Nope. Apparently I can't part that easily with things I've let go to waste, especially the candy. Have I mentioned we still have candy from Noah's 3rd birthday party we celebrated last September, along with stale Halloween candy and candy from Christmas in our cupboard?!

Another afternoon I helped Noah make melted crayon heart sun catchers; you make them with crayon shavings and wax paper; melt them by using an iron, then stick them up in the window to let the light filter through it and look pretty. It's kinda messy dealing with the crayon shavings, and while I was ironing the hearts together, some of the crayon got onto a white dishcloth I had laid out underneath to protect the ironing board. I forgot about the red crayon that melted onto the dishcloth and put the cloth in with a large load of whites the next morning, only to find that after the load of whites had finished drying, nearly 90% of the whites had red crayon streaks on them!

I had a TON of candy cinnamon bears that I decided to dip in chocolate, making chocolate covered cinnamon bears I'd later give to Trish's family to eat. Usually I L.O.V.E. these bears, so I bought A LOT them in bulk when I saw them on sale at at Macy's, but since being pregnant I've had all sort of crazy "likes" and "dislikes" and cinnamon bears are among the "dislikes". It was "fortunate" for Trish's family, but "unfortunate" for me. I was first introduced to chocolate covered cinnamon bears up at college in Rexburg; the school bookstore sold them for a pretty penny. I fell in LOVE with them my Junior year of college, and remember eating only those and tortilla chips with salsa every day for an entire semester! I didn't think it would be that difficult covering the bears in chocolate- I also didn't plan for it to take ALL afternoon either or to be quite so messy! What was I thinking?! Next time I think I'll just buy them at BYU's bookstore. The extra penny is so worth the time and the mess I'm spared... Anyhow... the finished product was SO GOOD and they looked fabulous in their own little candy jar. I heard later on from Trish that her kids gobbled them up immediately!

Spencer and I went out on our Valentines date the day before Valentines Day; dinner at The Macaroni Grill and afterward a movie, "He's Just Not That Into You" (I was pretty disappointed with the movie actually and NOT REALLY INTO "IT"). Spencer's parents were kind enough to babysit for us that evening.

That following morning, on Valentines Day, we all woke up early (I was up earlier than I had hoped to be... just couldn't sleep, so at 2 a.m. I was up on the computer checking Google Reader, my Gmail, Facebook and news headlines) to get ready and packed for a weekend away in Bear Lake with our friends The Cluff's. I surprised the two older boys each with their own LOVE BUG balloon and heart shaped doughnuts. We had a few doughnuts left over, so I decided to save them for the morning after our return from Bear Lake; Spencer warned me that they'd get hard and crusty before then but since I don't eat doughnuts I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. That following Monday morning at breakfast I let the boys eat the last of the doughnuts and sure enough, they had become as hard as a rock! This didn't discourage the boys though; they still wanted to eat them, so for a good hour or so they just sat and chiseled away at the frosting on the doughnut and the doughnut itself with their little front teeth. It's obvious they didn't want to see a good thing wasted!

2 of my 4 LOVE BUGS.
I forgot to take a picture of the boys on Valentines Day morning since we were in a hurry to leave
and get to Bear Lake, so I snapped this one that following Monday morning.

As I mentioned before hand, we were in a hurry Valentines Day morning to pack our car and head up to Bear Lake to join our friends, THE CLUFFS, who invited us to stay with them overnight at their family's cabin. The drive was only supposed to take 2 1/2 hours, but it was SNOWING heavily that morning so the drive actually took us a good 4 hours instead. The snow was coming down so thick that parts of the freeway in Salt Lake County were even sketchy to drive on and I can't remember how many auto accidents we saw along the way- too many to keep track of. I had a good time or two during the drive in which I LITERALLY wanted to have Spencer turn the car around and just drive back home, the roads were so terrible at certain points I envisioned ourselves stranded off the side of the road or WORSE, hurt in an accident of our own. Spencer's a good driver though, thanks to all those years he spent as a pizza delivery driver down in Provo, and he had good control of the car; I'm sure it didn't hurt either that I said at least 50 prayers for our safety alone!

I'd never been to Bear Lake before; I'd always heard friends from Utah talk about it and how beautiful it is, so to behold the sight my very own for the first time was breath taking. If I had the money, I'd buy a cabin there immediately.

{Oh, just something funny I thought I'd add here... I've decided you're not a Mormon unless you've, A. Been to Hawaii or on a cruise of some sort. B. Been to Disney World. or C. Someone in your family, possibly yourself, owns a cabin for "family get aways". Am I so right or what??? It seems as though every member in the church has done one of those... except for yours truly. Maybe it's because I didn't grow up in Utah or maybe it's because I came from only a part member family. Oh well, I'm not complaining... maybe one day I can classify myself amongst the rest should I go on a cruise or visit Hawaii or Disneyworld or better yet, own a cabin.}

Our friends cabin was REALLY nice and had all the right accommodations, including the ever important, HOT TUB! Noah L.O.V.E.D. the hot tub; he couldn't wait to join the little ladies in it and work his charm (should I be worried for when he goes off to college???). Here's hoping places like Raintree in Provo don't exist when he's older; I just have creepy memories of going there to visit friends during college and taking a dip in the HOT TUB only to be rubbed up on by some creepy dudes... Anyhow, Noah was innocent of course; Kiya and Ember are TOTALLY just friends. I couldn't use the hot tub since I'm pregnant, SHUCKS (not really- I HATE SPAS, HOT TUBS, HOT SHOWERS, HOT BATHS, and SAUNAS). The kids were the only ones to get in during the evening, but the following day the adults, minus myself, decided to take a dip. I took this picture through the window- thus explaining the reflection across Laura's face (sorry Laura) but the view of the lake from this cabin was AMAZING!This is just a picture of one of the icicles hanging off the front of the cabin. You can't tell by the picture, but this thing was at least 3 or 4 feet in length and the base of the icicle was pretty solid; probably 8 inches in diameter. It was the first thing we noticed when we drove up to the cabin; it reminded for some odd reason of The Mattehorn at Disneyland. Franky would definitely have lost more than just his glasses after shooting his bee bee gun if this thing fell on him! (I'm referring to "The Christmas Story").
We enjoyed good food and games in the company of the Cluffs and were so happy they invited us to stay with them in Bear Lake. Matt and Laura were good friends of Spencer's before I met him, and I haven't had the chance to spend a whole lot of time just hanging out with them, so it was fun chatting late into the evening after all the kids went to bed. We played some ridiculous card game that had rules I never did catch onto; I'm not really a gamer- some people LOVE playing games and others like myself don't so much, probably because I suck at games. I wasn't the best partner during the card game to be had, (sorry again Laura), the guys really swept us; I was really tired and loopy and now I'm pretty sure I may have said at least one or two things that evening that left them thinking- "WOW- she's a bit crazy". I hope not, but it is true, I get a bit silly and crazy when I'm tired.

The group killed it on ROCKBAND!

My little man Cohen finally began to move on his own while we were at the cabin.

Unfortunately some of Matt and Laura's kids weren't feeling very well during the trip. They have a 3 year old, just a month older than Noah, who was really feeling miserable the entire trip. Poor thing just wanted to be left alone and half of the time Noah was bugging him, completely unaware of course and unable to understand that he was sick. We managed to make it back from the cabin without anyone in our little family getting sick, but about a week later we were ALL SICK. Like I've said before, this winter has been BRUTAL and it seems like we all spent at least half of it SICK! I'm ready for SUMMMER, should no parasites be lurking in the public city pools where we like to cool off.

My good friend/mission companion Lacy came to town for a visit during the month of February. She brought with her, her little boy Raleigh who had just barely turned a year old. She just moved from Orem to Texas less than a year ago, so it hadn't been long since the last time I had seen her but she's a good friend of mine so I appreciated that she set some time aside during her short trip to hang out with me and the boys.

I found a super cute planter box at Tai Pan Trading and thought it would be fun to teach Noah about plants and how they grow. I picked up a variety pack of Herb seeds, that included Parsley, Spearmint, Chives, Oregano, and Cilantro, one afternoon while out shopping at Target, along with some potting soil and a shovel, then had the boys help me plant a little herb garden.
First: Noah put soil into the planting boxes.
Second: Noah poured the seeds onto the soil and Ian helped tuck them under the soil.
Third: The boys misted the garden with some water from a spray bottle.

Side Note: Since it was still too cold to garden outside, the boys did their gardening inside the garage.

Noah was very good about checking his plants every day and watering them. We kept them inside at first in partial sunlight. With in about a week we noticed the Chives had started to grow. It wasn't long before they really began to sprout and grow tall; I got excited because I use Chives a lot in my cooking; some of the Oregano started to grow too. The weather outside finally started to warm up and we had a couple days back to back of really great weather so I decided to set the herb garden outside on the back porch hoping the fresh air and direct sunlight would help speed up the growth of things. Well.... just after I set the garden outside, the weather took a turn for the worse and it SNOWED! We woke up the following morning to find a good foot of snow covering our herb garden!!! Only one of the Chive sprouts survived the snow and frost; since then I've purchased more seeds to plant but I'm waiting for things to really start heating up around here before we plant them again.

The boys and I took a trip to Lakeshore Learning in Sandy one day with my sister in law Megan; Lakeshore is a teacher supply store. I LOVE that store; sure wish one was closer here to home though, but I'd be broke all the time indefinitely. Among all the fun educational and crafty things I splurged on that day and purchased was a dinosaur egg that the boys could watch hatch by submerging it in water. Noah and Ian were SO EXCITED about growing a dinosaur! Noah told me time after time while we waited for the dino to hatch that once it was big enough, he was going to take it with him to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum to visit all the other dinosaurs. Silly kid; he really believed it was real! It took about a week for the dinosaur to hatch completely on its own. For some reason or other, our dinosaur had a stubby tail that never did finish growing completely so he looked sort of silly, but from what I can make of it, my boys are the proud parents of a baby Brontosaurus. We named him "Stubs".
Below are pictures I took through out the week during the hatching process.
First: Find yourself a dinosaur egg.
Second: Place it in a bowl of cold water.Third: Watch and wait.
Fourth: Be prepared to help the baby dinosaur break free from the shell should his stumpy tail get stuck.

Fifth: Rinse baby dinosaur off in clean running water then towel dry.

(Look at that expression on Noah's face! He looks like a proud new DADDY! Priceless.)

Sixth: After bonding with your new baby dino, be sure to teach it immediately all the basic skills of survival, not forgetting to teach it to ROAR!

I'm sure I've forgotten to add some other important things that took place during February, but now seeing that it's already May, those minor things have slipped my mind.
One important thing the boys did learn to do in February was SHARE!!!

Cohen's 1st time sharing a bath together with Noah & Ian... they couldn't have been any happier!

Ian really ADORES Cohen and Cohen shares mutual feelings in return, so when I saw the two of them one morning doing this I had to run for the camera! The two have a really great relationship, maybe it's the fact that they're only 13 months apart in age that has something to do with it, or maybe it's just because they're brothers. Whatever it is, it's precious.

The two younger boys, Cohen & Ian, demonstrate "HOW TO SHARE"...

(HINT: if you can, click on the picture for a closer look.
Cohen's THRILLED in the 4TH picture that his older brother shared his drink with him!
The expression on Coey's face is priceless.)

Speaking of precious, isn't this picture CUTE?!

I'm in LOVE with Dr. Seuss, so when I saw these onsies for sale at Costco I HAD TO HAVE THEM! Don't mind the fact that the onesie Ian's wearing is one whole size too small for him; he SQUEEZED right into it with out the buttons on the bottom popping! Ignore the chub on his thighs, he's a tall kid, but his length definitely isn't in his legs, more so his torso... he's going to hate me when he sees this once he's older, but aren't the two of them just so cute?!
I LOVE THESE BOYS!