february was busy!

we had a great month and here are a few high lights:

first and foremost,

we made our FINAL student loan payment on January 25th!!!!

WE ARE DONE!!!!!

it feels unreal and sooooo good.

we celebrated by going out to dinner. 

there aren't too many nice restaurants around here, so we decided to go to cheddars and let everyone order whatever they wanted, including a drink (we always just get water). the food was mediocre and the waitress was even worse. we waited and waited and waited for our food. by the time we had our meals everyone was too full and too tired for dessert haha. another time!

OWEN:

he has always loved guacamole, but this month has taken it to a whole new level, asking for it constantly, even for breakfast

he has had friends over several times, and between friend time and sunbeam class on sundays, we've been amazed at how much he has changed over the past year or so. he still screams (a lot!) but he's definitely mellowed out and matured. its been rewarding to see how far he's come!

chris had some dry ice and owen's mind was boggled and blown away!

owen's hair is getting long, but i think we're going to let it grow and see how he likes it. plus, the bedhead is awesome.

he loves his bike and rides it whenever its warm enough out... and if it isn't warm enough, he brings it inside and rides

the van had an electrical issue, but these two were able to fix it!

because owen is home with me he gets a lot more attention and photos than the others do, but that doesn't mean i dont love them just as much ;)

CHARLIE:

this kid has been wearing glasses for a year and they haven't helped strengthen his left eye's inner muscles at all. so the dr prescribed a stronger prescription bifocal for him to wear. we'll test it out for a few months and hope it works. otherwise the next step is surgery to loosen that inner muscle.

when we went to pick out his new frames, he knew immediately which ones he wanted. i asked him to try on several other glasses (all of which looked great, lucky handsome kid!) but he kept coming back to these white ones. he loves them!

the 100th day of school was a few weeks ago and charlie wore 100 googly eyes that slowly fell off through out the day. im still finding them around the house.

for the record, as a parent, i abhor the 100th day of school.

he worked very hard on his valentine box, which was a pikachu.

yesterday on our way home from church i looked around in the van and saw charlie sitting in the back, shirtless. he couldn't wait the 5 minutes to get home before undressing lol!

he is such a ham.

this week is dr seuss week (another celebratory week that i can not stand. why make so much extra work for parents!?!! just read some books and do a craft and call it good, please!) today the kids got to dress up as a favorite book character and charlie wanted to be dogman. but because we dont have a police costume or a dog costume, he went as harry potter :)

also worth mentioning is that charlie now prefers to go by charles on any and all paperwork. we can call him charlie, but when we write it, its got to be charles. reminds me of when he was about 4 and asked us to call him Charleston haha!

ELLIE:

most exciting, she turned 10!!!

ellie has made a lot of really good friends this year at school and has become quite a popular little person. she really enjoys doing all the dress up days and is always hoping we can come up with super cool stuff. for the 100th day of school she turned her hair into a donut with 100 sprinkles.

today for favorite book character day, she dressed up as bellatrix lestrange from harry potter and totally nailed it! she told me that last year the kids in her class told her "she over did it" with her costume (as hermione). i asked her if she wanted to tone it down this year and she said "no way!!!". she loves to have fun!

we are so proud of ellie's basketball season this year. she worked so, so hard. they made it to the tournament and ended up in 3rd place overall which is really exciting! 

ellie was definitely a key player and almost always played the entire game. well, their team was very small to begin with so most of the girls played the whole game, but if they ever rotated girls out ellie asked to stay in. she loves basketball! she is very good defensively, but they had her playing pointgaurd because she is so aggressive. only problem is, most plays ended up like this video clip, she's number 5 in black:

she'd get the ball down to the goal, but hardly ever made it IN the goal. haha! she's so fast and strong for her size and we can't wait to see where she goes with her basketball hobby!

before the last game (although they didn't know it would be their last one because they hoped to win and move on) we told ellie not to pass the ball as much as she had been in previous games. she had been passing it to girls that weren't even open because she was trying really hard to pass the ball. well, that night she didn't pass the ball... ever. she kept it and drove it in to the basket every play. it was hard for her to find a happy medium between the two and it cost them the game. not to mention that the girl they had her guard was a beast. she was huge and she was physical and she was darn good at basketball. afterwards we were on our way out to the car and ellie broke down. she was beat up physically with scratches down her arms and bruises on her hips from being knocked down, but she was also beat up emotionally. she felt as though she personally lost her team a chance to go to the finals. it was a hard moment for her. i was so proud of her for fighting through that game.

we are already missing basketball, but soccer is right around the corner and this year we've got all 4 kiddos signed up! should be fun (and so, so busy)!

JACK:

jack is growing up. he kept his 100th day of school dress up very simple. in fact, he had debated if he should dress up at all but his teacher had strongly encouraged the kids to get into the spirit of the day so he did.

he decided he did not want to dress up today for book character day because i told him that his idea to be captain underpants wasn't going to be ok with mom and dad. so if he couldn't wear a funny costume with underwear over leggings then he didn't want to dress up at all. im sure he will go all out for crazy sock day though, he loves that one :)

jack has been obsessed with the winter olympics! 

he wanted to stay up late every night to watch the various sports and during the day he tried to recreate the events the best he could. he set up "ski" and "ice skating" runs for the kids to compete each other. they all really got into it, whether on rollerblades, bikes, scooters, or on foot!

jack was finally picked as patriot of the month by mrs howald!!! last year when he had her, she told all the kids who had been patriot of the month in the past the she tries really hard to only choose kids that have never been picked before. so he didn't think he'd be chosen this year either, but when you're a golden student its kinda hard not to!

last night jack was able to attend the ward's temple and priesthood preparation night for kids turning 12 this year. as he sat on the front row with the two other boys turning 12 this year, i was hit with a feeling of absolute peace and trust in the young man that he is becoming. jack knows who he is and who he wants to be. he knows where he wants to go in his life. im sure he will make mistakes and hit bumps along his way, but i have no doubts he will reach his goals in this life and in the next. he is a phenomenal kid.

ME:

ive had a busy month filled with all of the things that moms do. birthday celebrations, valentines day prep and valentines day itself were all fun for me. i love being able to do small little crafts that only take about 30 minutes and then i can put it away and not have to do it again until next year ;)

the kids valentines this year were pretty cute, although not my original idea. its been floating around the internet for a few years now, but the kids liked it and it was super cute and easy so we went with it. ellie and charlie had to make valentine boxes this year. charlie worked hard on his, painting and gluing all the parts. ellie had grand, elaborate plans for an entire village made of hearts she called "Valen-town", but when it came down to it, we didn't have the time. so we hot glued a bunch of silk flowers on a wrapped box and it turned out really pretty! 

ellie's class had a competition if they wanted to enter their box. she didn't win any of the categories, but she still loved her box.

valentine's is a fun time for me. 

i remember my mom making it a special day for me starting in about middle school. she'd usually buy me a piece of jewelry from the fancy jewelry counter at target, wrap it up and set it by my bedroom door with a box of chocolates on valentines day. i loved it! it meant so much to me that she would take time to do that during their busy season at work. 

as a mom, i wanted a way to make valentines a special time for my kids. im sure ive written about this before, but i read on a blog years ago about a mom who bought those cheap little mailboxes in the dollar section at target and would put a gift in them each day for her kids during the month. well, i bought the mailboxes when jack and ellie were little and for the week leading up to valentines day i put in a little note i write for each one, along with a lindor truffle. i used to put in a cheap little toy every other day or so, but those just break and are a waste. the kids love to read their notes and it makes me happy to see how much they look forward to those each day.

we continued our tradition of valentine's fondue for dinner and this year we totally nailed the cheese fondue recipe/technique! it was so satisfying for both chris and i to have finally found a good one!

that night the elders came over to make milkshakes and say goodbye before transfers (its kind of been a thing for a year or so for them to do that the night before one leaves), so rather than having chocolate fondue for dessert and then milkshakes, we decided to have the chocolate fondue the following sunday... along with more cheese fondue for dinner because we had extra cheese to use. it was so delicious!

and it feels like i babysat quite a bit this month. turns out i still have the magic touch and can put fussy babies to sleep :)

CHRIS:

this month was a big one for chris. he started running again. he tweaked his knee during the marathon last october. he tried to run on it but realized he was going to have to take a break to let it heal fully. it feels so much better now so he's decided to train for the hog eye half marathon in april.

he also flew out to ohio to interview for a couple jobs. he really liked one of them and felt very comfortable with the head guys and the facility. they really liked him too and told him that he was their first choice, but the hospital asked them to pick another candidate due to his experience. chris could have the other job if he wanted it, but it didn't really feel that great to him. so, we will wait until another good one opens up. we aren't in any rush, so we'll wait until it's supposed to happen :)

lastly, chris decided it was time to get a new car. he's had his 2003 corolla since ellie was a babe. its a great little car.... but its got its issues. if we end up moving to ohio, that carol will have some serious problems. so after a lot of back and forth, he finally made a decision and upgraded to a 2018 subaru outback (v6 touring edition). seriously, it took him a while to decide and it consumed his every thought, even keeping him up for hours at night. so glad he made his choice and is happy with it. its a beaut and has all the bells and whistles.