Another Magical Ordinary Week

Elsa had her first lesson with her new violin teacher. She came out with the biggest smile and has been going gangbusters with her practice time. She loves her new teacher. The first thing she said when she got back in the car after her lesson was, "Rhaevyn was right! Sarah is so patient, and it's so easy to tell her you are having trouble playing a song!" I think we've found the right fit for Elsa when it comes to violin. She was so excited about her lessons that she got out the other violin and sat down with Meg. It was so sweet to watch the two of them.

 

 

This week consisted of a lot of crafting as we made a lot of Valentine's Day cards. We got Rhaevyn and Aeva's package mailed off in time for them to get it Valentine's Day, but when they went to pick it up they were told it wasn't there. Sigh............the students must have been having a rough February 14th because they were not very nice about it at the mail pick up spot in the Cannon Center. It worked out for the best, I suppose, for the girls to retrieve their package Friday morning. This way they could video call us, and we could watch them open up their package and see their reaction to their goodies and hand made cards. They laughed the most with Christopher's cards.

Wednesday night was family craft night, so we made Valentine's cards for each other.
Chris hand crafted a hat for Meg:

 

 

 

 

 Chris had me try it on once he was finished. Meg happened to peek around the corner from the living room and see it. She started to cry because she was so sure it was for her. She was very happy Thursday morning when she was given the hat and got to wear it.

 
 I gave the kids their cards and treats Thursday morning, and I found a wonderful Valentine's surprise on the kitchen table from Myles. He had me take him to buy a tulip plant and flower pot, telling me that it was for Elsa. I was so surprised at this sweet gesture; it made me tear up.

 

 

 

 Elsa made Chris and I sweet cards.

 

 My handmade card from Chris.

 

Meg's best buddy, KK, 

 

stopped by so they could exchange Valentine's cards and gifts, paint, and play a game.

 

 

KK's mom made a cute little video of the Valentine exchange:

My video footage from different angles:

 Her buddy got her some really cute gifts..........strawberry seeds, forget me not seeds, a sun catcher to paint, and a terrarium. Myles helped meg get her seeds started, and Chris helped her put the sand terrarium together.

 

 

 

 

 
 Poor Meg, she dropped the terrarium right after this picture and the sand got all mixed up. She started to cry because she thought she'd ruined it.

 

Valentine's Dinner was heart shaped pancakes.

Miss Molly just chilling.............

 

She got groomed on Friday.
 
 Myles has been busy with his little greenhouse and perfecting his dragon drawings:

Myles really enjoys playing chess with Chris. They have decided to up their game and get competitive. Myles and Chris are teaching Elsa how to play the game, and Meg even asked the other night if Chris would teach her how to play. He sat and went over the basics with her and then played a very short game :)

 

I sent these two videos to the girls. I think our weeks apart are made up of funny videos that we send to each other of our little inside family jokes. 

I sent this one to them after Elsa's dance class. I told them I felt like I was in the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds". For an hour and  a half this is what I saw and listened to.

Then I sent them this video of Molly. I was telling them I have many conversations like this one with Molly. She is not a good retriever, but it makes me laugh. Mainly I think it makes me laugh because we all know I am not an animal person, at all, but have found myself very much becoming one. And if I'm totally honest, yes, I do call her my fur baby and yes, I am her mommy. I love that she follows me throughout the house and lets me snuggle and cuddle her. I'm laughing at myself as I type this confession.

 

Don't forget to check out Aeva's latest post too.

The girls are doing well, but say they miss us and are counting down the weeks until they are home for summer break. I love that they are so independent. I love seeing how they are venturing and branching out. However, I love most of all that they still call home for a few minute a couple times a week to tell us they love us and that they miss us. I love that they take time to talk to each of their siblings and how excited the littles here at home are to talk to their sisters. And I very much love to hear their voices and their laughter.

Oridinary Days

No big events have occurred since the last post. Just simply the magic of ordinary days.

Myles was getting nervous about his poor plants in his garden box. It has been so cold and snowed a bit. He drew Chris a picture  of what he wanted to put over his box.

On Saturday they worked on protection for his plants:

 I happened to be doing my regular Friday grocery shopping and could not get over the panic of people. Snowmagedon was apparently upon us, and people were freaking out. All the salad was gone at the store, and there were three lines that snaked their way through the store. It took me 30 minutes to finally arrive up at the register. I sent Rhaevyn and Aeva two videos of our snow Friday night in jest. They said it was child's play compared to what Provo was getting. The kids were happy to at least get some snow before spring. We got a dusting on Tuesday and a dusting Friday night through Saturday morning.

Myles surprised me with a sweet message in the snow and gave the suburban a rhino horn.

Myles made a huge snowball Tuesday and put it on the trampoline. That night Molly thought the broken parts posed a big threat to her.

This is Barnacle Bob the snowman

Ben and Stacey braved the snow storm in their area to come stay with us Friday evening in order to pick up their new little kitty Saturday morning. They were kind enough to stop back by on their way home so that we could all meet Reuben. He was so soft and so cute!!!

I spent the week practicing on getting Elsa's bun big and high for her dance competition. Her teacher and the other experienced moms said I seem to have it down. Elsa's dance competition  for Saturday was canceled due to snow, so this means I get to practice more on the bun technique and Elsa gets to practice more on her dance steps. It has been rescheduled for March.

Round#1

Round #2

Meg's science experiment of growing spaghetti squash on a sponge. Elsa wanted to see what would happen with carrot seeds.

Getting ready to go shopping.........it's always good to start out with a groovy song:

We've been busy making Valentine's Day cards for the girls, and Meg made one for her best buddy, KK. He asked her on Sunday if he could come by on Valentine's Day to bring her something. After being picked during singing time to come up and get a heart, KK announced to all of Primary that there was a girl that he really likes, and that the girl is sweet and has fluffy cheeks like a bunny. He proceeded to say that the girl he was talking about was Meg. I heard all of this from Elsa.

Tonight is family craft night, and we are going to make cards for each other. Elsa for the past couple of days has made cards to give to random people at the veterinary office, Walmart, and to her new violin teacher. It was so fun to see everyone's reaction who got one of her cards.

Elsa had her first lesson today with her new violin teacher. She had such a huge smile when she got back in the car after her lesson. Yay!!!

The countdown has begun for when the girls will be home. The little kids can hardly wait.

And that just about wraps up the magic of our ordinary days around here.

Here We are in February

I'm still alive and kicking. It's just been a bit busy here and hard to find time to actually update the blog. Because I am a month behind, the pictures for this post will be out of order.

Just before Christmas I decided to be more intentional with my days. I'm really liking this goal. I got myself a regular five subject notebook, and I have everyday planned out. I really like to be organized, but I stepped it up a notch. It's working really well for me. It helps me to make more time for my family. Also, we, as a family, decided that we needed to make it a priority to be more intentional with the time we spend with each other.  We've had a month of doing that. We aren't perfect at it, but we are consistently striving to meet that goal. It has been a really good change for us.
We've made specific nights for family game nights, family outings, and family craft nights. It's helping us to spend more quality time together and make some wonderful lasting memories. It is definitely still a work in progress.
Family Craft Night:
                                                        We made pillows and flax bags

We've also been changing some of our eating habits and really focusing on having a meal plan for four weeks. So far this has been absolutely wonderful. I've been having fun making new recipes and getting more veggies into our meals. The kids seem to be enjoying this as well. They can see what is for dinner, and they are liking most of the new meals that I've tried. 
Some of the new recipes we've tried are homemade chili, a Mexican Skillet made with cauliflower rice, tilapia, ginger pork chops, and this is our dinner tonight:

Creamy Tuscan Garlic Chicken:

I also tried this for breakfast........it's a non oatmeal hot cereal. The kids won't try it, and that's okay. However, I did get Chris  to at least take a bite.

One thing that Elsa really wanted, when we discussed spending more time as a family, was to have meaningful time spent with Myles. They have Mondays scheduled for an hour where they play a game together. Their first week doing this they spent their time doing this:

They had a blast and worked so well together. There was a lot of laughter coming from the kitchen.

Myles has been busy getting his garden box ready. He cannot wait for spring. He is always wanting to go shopping with me so that he can peruse the garden section of various stores.

 His room is becoming quite a green house:

 

 He is constantly adding to his plant collection on a weekly basis. Someone from Christopher's work brought in this plant to give to Myles. It's a money tree. To be funny he added money to it and sent the picture to Rhaevyn.

 

 Myles also tried making his own terrarium. Unfortunately, it started to grow mold. It had to go.

 
Two weeks ago, while at one of our favorite markets, we parked near this car. I believe it is a Chevy, but I may be wrong.  Anyway, Myles had to take a picture of it.

 Pictures from the life of Molly:

 She's such a good sport to let Elsa dress her up.
However, she is not a good sport when it comes to putting paw protectors on. I thought I had found a wonderful solution to having to clean her paws every time she comes inside. It lasted for all of two days, and then she decided she was having no more of it.

Elsa had a bit of an accident. She and Myles had been out playing with the race car track when Elsa's car got stuck. She decided it would be a good idea to use a Homedepot bucket as a stool. That idea did not end well for Elsa. The bucket ended up falling over, and she fell. She got her leg caught in a wire while the rest of her made it to the garage floor. Her leg was pretty bruised. We had to cart her around in the stroller when we went out, and she had to miss her Scottish dance class. She said she definitely learned not to do that ever again.

 Elsa painted this picture for the older girls. It has a little creature from the movie My Neighbor Totoro on it.

 One of our game nights was spent playing with the race car track. We were all laughing so hard.

Meg decided all her bears needed to come do school work with her.

 Since we didn't get to make Christmas cookies at Christmastime, we made them the second week of January. These chocolate crinkles didn't last long.

Aeva has started her own blog. If you want to know what she's up to you can find the link on my blog. The link is over on the left side all the way down. 

She had a project to do last Semester for her Religion Class (about the restoration) and decided to write poetry for it. She was given the honor of being in the top four projects recognized because one of the poems was about Relief Society. Her teacher commented that no one ever writes about Relief Society in his class. He was impressed that she did. Her religion class this semester is on the Book of Mormon, and she's doing some type of needlework for her project. 

She and Rhaevyn had planned to go to a murder mystery masquerade. They decorated their masks, but when they showed up they were told the tickets were sold out. So, they went home and watched a Korean film together. 

In March they will be attending Sleeping Beauty Ballet put on by BYU, and this month Rhaevyn is going to another folk dance program on her own. 

They both survived Fall Semester and had some learning experiences. They are both loving Winter Semester. Aeva loves her Japanese class. Her professor is amazing. Rhaevyn has the same professor for Korean, and wanted it that way. She likes that her professor really pushes the students. Aeva is also really enjoying her geology class and art class. Rhaevyn loves her folk dance class and her Asian Humanities class. She is finding some really kind and friendly classmates in her classes this semester. I would say a highlight for Aeva the past two weeks has been passing Brad Wilcox on her way to class twice and having him say hello to her. She texted me the first time telling me it made her day!

Elsa is switching to a new violin teacher. The one she has been taking from can be a bit abrupt, and this leaves Elsa thinking she is horrible at violin. I did witness this a bit for one of her classes that I sat in on. She has asked about stopping violin lessons and switching to piano. I think the last straw was when, at the end of class time two weeks ago, her teacher Don asked if she went to public school or if she was home schooled. He then asked what her favorite subject was. She said that math was her favorite subject. He then proceeded to quiz her on addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We have talked to the kids about this; the fact that adults seem to take it upon themselves to quiz children once they find out they are home-schooled. My best friend was telling me that she uses this question when this happens to her children "That is interesting, why do you ask that; why are you asking that?" Apparently, Elsa grew tired of the quizzing and politely asked her teacher why he was asking her these math problems. He grew quiet and had no reply. She thanked him for the lesson and said she would see him the following week. When she came out I could tell she was on the verge of tears, and she kept saying she wanted to leave right then. We had to wait because Myles wasn't done with his lesson yet. When we finally got out to the car she was practically in tears and relayed what had happened. We talked about how it was uncomfortable for her. I told her that she did a great job of putting a stop to  inappropriate questioning. It was fantastic that she set a boundary and maybe it will benefit other home school children.
She is starting violin lessons with the violin teacher Rhaevyn took from. It is amazing that when we told her she would be going to a new teacher her countenance changed. She became so light and smiley and picked up her violin and started practicing new songs. New lessons start this week. 

Her dance class is going well, and she loves trying to teach Meg some dance steps. They are so cute to watch together when Elsa is giving her a lesson. Meg got to go with me to Elsa's dance class last week. When we got inside she walked up to Elsa's teacher, introduced herself as "Megatron", and asked if she could do pas de basques. She then promptly did pas de basques for the teacher. I think she'd love to take lessons, but I'm not sure how that would go being in the same class as Elsa.

 I am sure more has happened in the month of January, but nothing comes to mind right now. Hopefully I can keep up for February.