Painting

This is my dear sweet friend, Lisa. She has gifts and talents that I... well, I just don't. She's creative and loves to decorate, and she's good at it. For a while now she's been dropping hints that maybe my walls could use a new color. Friday her wish finally came true. As much as Jon and I dislike painting, when you have two friends who are good at painting and willing, and asking, to come over and help you complete the project, you really can't turn them down.

Tim kindly did all the edging for us, but this wall got painted before he could edge. The only option with wet walls, was for Jon to hold him while he finished. It was quite the site! It took us about 4 hours to complete the project. That was with 5 kids and 1 baby and dinner in between. Lisa came over the next day and we started to hang some pictures. I'll put some pictures of the complete project up soon.

Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend. I mentioned to Jon that I would like some flowers this year, but then changed my mind after visiting the store and realizing they double the prices on flowers just because it's Valentine's Day. My sweet husband bought me roses anyway and I love them!

This is the card from Hyrum that came with the roses. Jon's wasn't quite as cute so I didn't scan it.

Hyrum's Valentine to his Dad. It reads, "To Dad From Hyrum, you'r a Dear!!"

Lydia's card to her Dad. Yes, Hyrum can draw better deer than me.

Jon's card to me (front and back). I always request homemade cards for all holidays because Jon does the cutest job. This time I also requested a poem. He writes sweet poems.

The inside of my card with the poem which reads:

Have you ever lived in a perfect bliss?

The one where nothing is amiss

You smell the sweetness of the seas

You see little angels love with ease

You feel loving arms around you day and night

You hear the words forever with pure delight

You taste the lips of the love of your life

Then count your blessings she is your wife

As long as this beautiful wife is by my side

I know I am in for a blissful ride

Then he drew me a map where the rest of my present was hidden (two pieces of silver).

My adorable card from Hyrum with a map included also. I'm grateful my son has such an amazing Dad to look up to and follow!

An additional map from Hyrum, which led me to a picture of a big pink heart that said, "You are the best hartee ever!"

Our friends Allan and Molly came over for dinner on Sunday (Valentine's Day) and Allan cooked the entire meal, with a little help from Jon. It was soooo yummie!! The main dish was kabobs and rolls, which were preceded by stuffed mushrooms and crescent sausage cheese rolls.

A heart shaped chocolate lava cake with ice cream was dessert. We managed to eat the entire cake- yikes! The kids didn't even help, they had root beer floats.

Enjoying a game of Rummikub after dinner.

I had made some whole wheat sugar cookie dough for the kids on Saturday thinking they could bake and decorate them on Valentine's, but with all the sweets we already had, we saved these for our Monday night FHE treat.

Just a cute random picture of my little cowgirl.

McCall

In December we bought a Worldmark Timeshare on ebay. We've used Jon's sisters in the past and really enjoyed the resorts so we figured it'd be worth it to purchase our own. We spent Wednesday and Thursday night in McCall at the timeshare. This is the view from our back windows.

Now that Grandpa Fred is retired he's free to join us on last minute excursions like this. The kids love having their grandparents around. It seems they are much better at playing with the kids than we are. I know for me, I tend to get caught up in life and not realize the small things that really are the most important, like playing with my kids. Grandparents on the other hand, have the hindsight to know better and take the time for the small, but most important, things. We missed Grandma who didn't have the freedom to come last minute due to work.

The kids and Grandpa played "memory" Friday morning, a game which 3 year old Lydia is actually really good at. She won fair and square several times.

After taking this picture I showed it to Hyrum and asked him if he really wanted a picture like that on the blog, thinking he would say "no" and smile nicely for another one. Instead, and to my surprise, he excitedly responed, "Yeah, Yeah!" So, here you go Hyrum, just for you!

The resort has a pool and hot tub, exercise room and rec room. We enjoyed all of them, but no pictures to show.

Cute self portrait by my little photographer.

Friday night our ward activities committee hosted an adult Valentine's five course dinner. They had a photographer there, but we didn't get a picture taken since neither of us brought money. Instead we took this photo of us afterward. Jon was wearing a nice light pink shirt at the dinner.

Our first family boat is now gone. In hopes of upgrading to a slightly larger and newer boat, Jon sold ours last week. We have so many fun memories in that boat that it was a bitter sweet moment. Farewell to the 1962 Alumacraft-- you were much enjoyed!

Five days later...

THEY'RE GONE!!! Completely gone. I went to the draw and this is all I found. Sad day.

It's obvious my children enjoy these just as much, or possibly more, than we do.

We really must find a local source or soon visit Aunt Elise.

Our way fun weekend!

Our weekend activities started Friday with skiing at Anthony Lakes. This was probably Hyrum's 3rd or 4th time skiing and Lydia's 1st. Though Hyrum's been a couple times, they've been pretty spread out (his 1st time was just after he turned 3) so he's never had consistent time to learn. He did a really good job on the bunny hill. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to turn or stop so each time down he'd ski way past the conveyor belt that gave him a ride back up, which resulted in him having to hike up to the belt in skies each time Definitely, not easy work! I don't think I've ever seen him more exhausted at the end of a day. Way to be, Hyrum!

Both of the kids had a great time. Lydia kept saying, "I love skiing! It's so much fun!" When we went in for lunch it wasn't long before she was asking to go back out. She surprised both of us with how long she lasted.

Hyrum had a few good falls and his skies would come off each time. Thankfully, Jon was there this time to help him gather them up and put them back on.

We used this Elmo leash with Hyrum when he first went skiing. It makes it so nice!

All fed and ready to go back out

Lydia really wanted to ride the ski lift so we took both kids to the top. I had to snow plow down with Lydia between my legs, which turned out to be quite a bit of work. When we made it to the bottom we'd been separated from Jon and Hyrum and Lydia really wanted to ride the lift again so I took off our skies off and up we went. Too bad you're not allowed to ride the lift back down... It would've been nice to know that before we got on. The mountain manager came up on a snowmobile and was going to take us back down, but then a ski patrol guy showed up with a sled and offered to take us down that way. It was pretty fun to ride in one of those sleds though I hope I never have to again. We ran into Jon and Hyrum at the bottom of the lift as they were loading up to head back up the hill.

Hyrum riding the lift

I guess Hyrum had a scary time coming down from the top the 2nd time. Jon set up a contraption of sorts with his ski poles that sort of worked like a leash since Hyrum didn't know how to stop or slow down. Well, Hyrum let go and took off through the trees and slid into a tree. Thankfully, by the time he hit the tree he had slowed down enough that there wasn't any damage done.

Lydia and I at the top

After skiing we went to Haines Steak House in Haines, Oregon a tiny town. Supposedly, it's world famous (or something like that). The food was yummie and the kids had a fun time playing with this horse that moved it's head and made noise.

This is free advertisement for Jon's buddy who's a fishing guide in Alaska-- Valley River Charters, look him up if you're heading that way.

Saturday we set two friends up and went on a double date with them. We ate dinner at Costa Vida and then went to an Idaho Stampede basketball game. Our friends hit it off so well that we gathered at our house after church the next day for dinner and games. They're friends we don't get to see very often (one lives in WA and the other in Star) so we had a great time visiting and hanging out with them. The kids had a great time playing the Wii until way too late in the evening. Our friend from WA left about 7pm to head home and my friend from Star and I finally said good-bye about 11:30pm. That's what you get when you put two girls together:)