january, twenty-fourteen

We reviewed our goals from last year and set new ones for Family Home Evening the first week in January.  I was impressed with how thoughtful the kids were!  They kept listing things that they want to work toward and improve on.   Burke and Tosh's lists both went well into the twenties.  One of my goals for this year is to blog twice a month...looks like I'm already falling behind! 

Liv has discovered the 'selfie' and I've found several on my phone.  Here is one of my favorites:

We went out for dinner with some friends one night in January.  I'll call these guys The Three Amigos:

The other side of the table:

Tosh dressed up for '80's day at school (spirit week):

Hewitt dressed up for the 100th day of school:

Liv sure is a good mommy to her dolls.  Don't you love the scarf she insisted on wearing?  It belonged to Grandma Watkins.

Tosh is enjoying running club, but for some reason isn't interested in the races themselves, just going to practice.  We usually have about 20-30 minutes to hang out and play between running club and the older boys' bus arriving.   This is right after running club on "pajama day"

 

 Liv invited us all into her bedroom for a concert one evening.  She had set up five chairs and had set out snacks on each chair.  Here is a shot of the boys at one point during the concert:

Liv accompanied herself on piano (and a maraca) as she sang an original song called, "I Love Princesses."  It was quite a show, wish you all could have been there.   She seems to have excellent rhythm as well as pitch :)

 

 

Liv and I were playing in her room before bedtime one night and she started playing with these fairy plates and pretended that they were going visiting teaching to each other.  It was so cute and funny.  

 

 

Rob sent me flowers after a particularly rough weekend, which was such a nice surprise.  The last time he sent me flowers was about seven years ago (no joke), so when I say it was a surprise, I mean it :).  Tulips are still my very favorite.  



 

I worked at the cannery in Mesa one afternoon.  I was really happy to be able to work with my friend and visiting teacher, Renee.  She is so easy to talk to and we have great conversation (which made the time in the cannery fly by).   We were loving our hair nets, aprons, and gloves:

 

We were rockin' the conveyor belt, and one of the full-time workers called us "Lucy and Ethel" :).  They gave us each a bottle of raspberry jam as a thank you.

 

Hewitt got his braces off!  Liv has started calling Hewitt, "Handsome Hewitt" lately.  It is so funny to hear her call out, "Goodbye Handsome Hewitt!"  or "I love you, Handsome Hewitt." 

Liv has been bringing her doll stroller out on errands lately.  She was quite the problem solver the other day when she had to figure out how to eat her cookie from the bakery and get her stroller around the store.  I loved the solution she came up with on her own-- to carry the stroller over her shoulders!  She got a few comments from other shoppers. 

 

Burke has really gotten into shooting hoops and is out there every day after school and most mornings before leaving for school, even if it is only for a few free minutes.  This has been a dream come true for Rob and me, seriously.  For so many years he has only wanted to do certain things if either Rob or I would do them with him.  It is great to see him become more independent and practice shooting on his own. 

Burke also just became a First Class in boy scouts and should be a Star before going to scout camp in June.  One of his goals is to be a Life by the end of the year.  He should be able to do it and certainly has the desire! 

We received a letter this week letting us know that Burke's science fair project has been chosen to compete at the Hamilton Invitational Science and Engineering Fair.  It was pretty funny/sad to get this letter and then ask Burke, "So what was your project?"  In our district all projects are done 100% at school, which I love!  Burke isn't very interested in talking about it, but his project has something to do with pollution.  I'll report back after we see his project on display at the high school. 

 

I have been busy working as a dance director for the Cultural Celebration for the Gilbert Temple opening.  I taught the kids in our ward for three weeks in a row, and then this past week we combined with the entire stake.  It is quite an undertaking (and has been overwhelming at times)!  We have a couple of weeks to work as a stake and then we will start having regional rehearsals, including two ALL DAY Saturday rehearsals before the performance on March 1st.  Here are some of the kids lining up on the field:  

 

 

This has been the mildest winter we've had since moving here, I believe.  Liv went for a bike ride with her friend, Addie this past week.  She borrowed Bella's bike and it made me realize that Liv is ready for a bigger bike!   She looks like such a big girl on it:  

 

Liv thought it was warm enough for a swim the other day.  I laughed when she came downstairs in this outfit.  What a goofy girl. 

 

She is doing a great job at writing her whole name. 

I was lucky to get this photo of Tosh reading library books to his sister.  Warms my heart:

 

Tosh learned how to ride a bike without training wheels over a year ago, but had a bad fall and has been afraid to do it since.  I went out with him on Saturday and he was riding well within a couple of minutes.  He cruised all over the neighborhood and wants to ride ALL the time now.  We have to make good use of our outdoor time before it gets too hot! 

 

We have a lot going on this month and it is easy to feel overwhelmed by it all.  Instead of talking about the specific 'busyness' and ramble off a list of what is going on every night of the week, I just want to mention that I've been blessed to find more joy in motherhood lately.   Rob has been gone a lot of evenings and though that would usually be really stressful for me, I feel like I've been able to just enjoy the time with the kids.  I'm trying to be better at saying yes to a game of ping pong, or playing dolls.  It's the little things that make the biggest difference, right?