President's Day

Marshall took James and Lynnlee skiing on President's Day. Lynnlee is improving a lot and wasn't afraid of anything. He said they went down blue runs all day. At the top of one of the runs Lynnlee told him it was steep. Marshall told her she could do it and she said ok and then she did it without a problem.

During the times she was going slower and James was bored he made snowballs as he went down and threw them at Marshall.

One of the lifts has an orange bubble that comes down with the safety bar and foot rest.

Midway Ice Rink

We went ice skating on Saturday. Lynnlee and Kaden were so frustrated when we started. Lynnlee got a hang of it shortly after all of these pictures were taken. She has the best grumpy face for these. Wish I would have taken some pictures after she figured it out. She really loved it and we had fun playing tag with Marshall and James.

Kaden ended up getting pushed in the stroller and the minis ran around on the ice with the orange walker. Then everyone was happy.

It was 50 degrees so it was nice that we weren't freezing cold.

We went ice skating a year ago and Lynnlee never got the hang of it. It's amazing what a difference a year makes.

Valentine's Day '17

Valentine's Day came and went so fast. We like keeping up with the tradition I had growing up. The Valentine Man brings everyone a valentine. The Valentine Man was my dad growing up and so Marshall has taken that on. My kids all know he is the Valentine Man but it's a fun little way to start the day. He got everyone a chocolate frog, monkey, or bear.
I attempted a heart hair style for Lynnlee. It wasn't quite what the original picture looked like but close.

Lynnlee made a valentine bag with her class. James got to make a valentine box at home for his class. He said he wanted BB-8. I'm so glad I talked to Ali before we started making it because her suggestions for making it were way better than what I had planned. We found these white bowls from the dollar store. I cut ten pieces of cardboard into rings and glued them to each other and taped them in between the bottom bowls to give it a space for the valentine's to drop in. Marshall designed the the bowl on top so it rotated and moved around. So creative! Ali designed the cute graphics. She's amazing. James colored the graphics, cut them out and helped glue them on.

I forgot to take pictures when we first finished and so the papers all got a little wrinkly at school.

We had dinner at home as a family that night. I forgot to take a picture but thank goodness for left overs for lunch the next day. I snapped this picture. I got the heart strawberry idea on Pinterest. :)

Matchy Twins

Now days it is rare that I have a free moment to post pictures on the blog. Normally I would be trying to get some work done but there are no new charts so there is no work to do. It feels so nice to have a little break.
Lynnlee and Sienna love to match and I love taking pictures of them. I love looking at the pictures I have with my sisters from when I was a child.

After they got dressed they also wanted to have matching hair.

HEDIS

I had been praying to find a work at home job and then my friend told me her company was hiring nurses to work from home. I knew it was an answer to prayer. I would have never found the job posting on my own. I tried not to get my hopes up when I applied because I have no experience in this specialty. Thankfully I got the job. I'm officially a HEDIS RN.

HEDIS stands for Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set. HEDIS is a tool used by health plans to measure performance of care and service. I will be collecting the data that shows if the care and service are being received.

I started training Monday and it was very overwhelming. Luckily it's all from home, even the training but being a mom is a full time job and there isn't a lot of free time for work so I stayed up late Monday. Thankfully with my mom and aunt Pat's help Tuesday and Wednesday I was able to get the training done during normal day hours. I felt much better by Wednesday night. It has been hard learning new computer programs along with the new job but it's getting a little better each day.

I've kind of worked all over the house this week taking the laptop wherever the kids are. Today I set up in the sewing room and I think working from home is feeling pretty good. 

Setsubun

We love our Japanese family, the Takahashi's! They sent us a package and included were these masks and beans for celebrating Setsubun. It is a celebration of the change of season from winter to spring.
Here's what the internet says: Setsubun is a holiday celebrated in Japan on February 3. It celebrates the coming of the lunar New Year and the coming of spring. Many Japanese people celebrate this holiday at the temples and shrines, where some of the ancient traditions are practiced.
One of the traditions of Setsubun is "mamemaki", throwing beans out of the front door of the house, or at the Oni (demons) in their Oni masks. When throwing the beans, the people say,"Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi", which means "Out with the demons, in with the good luck." 
We celebrated this last weekend. Marshall came to the door with his mask on. He knocked on the door and the kids answered. The kids said "Oni was soto, fuku was uchi" while throwing beans at him. They were laughing and had so much fun participating in this Japanese tradition.
Thanks Takahashi family!

Warm February

We had quite the cabin fever after being stuck inside for weeks and weeks. There was a night last week where it was in the 40s and it felt great! We went outside after dinner and no one wanted to go back inside. This was the start of warmer weather so we have been outside every day since then. The snow is melted now since I took these pictures and so it's been ever more fun having the grass to play on.

Blocks

We have this bag of puzzle pieces. They provide hours of entertainment. While the minis were napping Kaden and I built this tower.

Another day we made this box.

He even fits inside with the lid on.

The possibilities are endless.

65th Birthday

We had the best time celebrating my dad's 65th birthday. We started off at Soldier Hollow. This was the first year everyone could go tubing. The minis loved it and giggled the whole way down. It was cold but the sun was shining and it didn't feel too cold.

After tubing we went to my parent's house for dinner and cake and ice cream. I'm so grateful for my dad and all he does for my family. He's a great example to my kids.