Snow day fun

Snow days. Growing up and living in Utah and Wyoming Josh and I didn't get to experience this joy. It could snow 3 feet and school was still on. Here in Colorado if it snows an inch, school is canceled. Its hillarious to see the kids camp out in front of the t.v. early on a blustery morning with anticipation that the weather man will announce the name of of their school and the magic words "closed" in the same sentence. The celebration dance is something to behold.

Today to spice things up we decided to make homemade play dough. The kids loved it so much I thought I would share it with you. Here is what you need:

One beautiful outfit (oh wait, maybe that is just on Sophie's list)
2 cups flour

2 cups warm water

4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup salt

food coloring

In a large pan over medium heat stir everything but the food coloring together until it gets thick (about 5 minutes). Take out of pan and knead together until smooth.

(I know this picture is slightly blurry but it cracked me up. Sophie thinks she is so pretty in her swimsuit cover and Sam is disgusted that she is being such a girl)

At this point you can add your food coloring and anything else that you would like. We added sprinkles to Sophie's to make it pretty and strawberry extract to the boys to make it smell yummy.

Happy Snow Day!

Showing love

I'm a sucker for holidays, Valentines Day included. I think its important that my kiddo's know that they are loved on this day and it amazes me every year how easy it is to please them. We gave our boys sling shots (I'm praying that wasn't a mistake) and Sophie got these crazy little toys called Light Sprits. You would have thought it was Christmas. To top it all off, Josh woke up at 5:15 to make us all a delicious Belgian waffles and homemade Buttermilk syrup for us all before he went to work. What a a good hubby!

Caleb and Sam were such sweethearts, they both made me beautiful rings for Valentines Day (Sam actually decided to give me the one he made several days after valentines, so I didn't get a picture of it - but it is beautiful).

They look trustworthy, right?

Celebrating second place

Caleb played in a different basketball division this year with his school. It was a competitive league that required a lot more dedication and hard work, but Caleb did great and had a blast playing with his buddies. They did great and even made it to the finals where they placed second. Awesome job boys!

Celebrating the fact that they made it to the finals.

Doing it for the ice cream

This was Sam's second year in basketball. I wouldn't say its his favorite sport, but he did awesome and even managed to score a few points along the way. I think the biggest motivation for this kid to play is the bribe that his parents give him - you score a basket, we buy you ice cream. Horrible I know, but what can I say, it motivates the kid!

I was blind, but now I see

On Feb 2, I got PRK surgery done on my eyes. I would attach the video that they gave me of the procedure, but its pretty disgusting to watch them scrape a cornea off (it's amazing how jello like your eye ball is). Before the surgery, I was blind as a bat. So blind that without my glasses or contacts I was considered legally blind. I could thank 3 pregnancies for those lovely eyes. Originally, I wanted this post to have a picture of me shooting out the lenses in my glasses, but we haven't been anywhere that we can shoot so you will have to just settle on a picture of my boring old glasses.


3 weeks later, I have one eye that is 20/20 and the other is 20/60. It takes a while for eyes to completely heal from PRK so hopefully my other eye will get better. The good news is that I can finally look at a computer screen without horrible pain! That means that I can start blogging again and finally get caught up on all those events that have been neglected for the past month.

Oh, our blog is public again. Come to find out it's a pain to have a private blog!

Sam's art

Sam did some drawings a few days ago that I thought were blog worthy. The first is the inside of a dog. Did you know that dogs had vocal cords in their legs and backs? Neither did I. Are we supposed to be teaching him detailed animal biology/anatomy?

Second is a giant bunny rabbit gleefully playing near a headstone of his friend Harold that reads, "Herld laye in peas." Peas. I think Sam is on to something with this one: relaxing in peas sounds kind of nice.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

Okay, you might want to sit down before you read on but I have some very exciting news.... I actually sewed something cute! If you know me, then you know that me and my sewing machine don't always get along. We actually cooperated this time (thanks to a fun night of sewing with friends) and the result was a cute skirt for Sophia.

To make the skirt even better, the first time she wore it, it just so happened to be her first week as a Sunbeam (a church class). I made a big deal of that since she was so grown up and officially out of nursery she needed a beautiful golden dress to wear so she would look like a ray of sun.

Apparently wearing a Sunbeam dress turns you into amazing dancer. She convinced Sam to be her dance partner and you could see the happiness in her eyes as he spun her around over and over again. She was so proud of her new outfit and the fact that she is now a grown up Sunbeam. And I have to admit that I may just be a teensy bit proud too :)