In January we finally got around to selling Andy's car since he has his truck now. I posted it on KSL and within a couple of days I'd been contacted by multiple people. One gal wanted to drive all the way up from Logan (about 2 hours away), and wondered if I would hold it for her. Since she was officially the first person to set a time, I told her I would. She came up with her dad, and they ended up buying it. Quick and easy. It was a good little car and if Kylee was closer to driving we could've saved it for her, but alas, 4 years away is too long to hold onto it!
One day Ally told us she had a loose tooth. The next day she was sure it was going to fall out while she was eating dinner. We told her not to worry about it because teeth are usually loose for a while before they fall out. Turns out we were wrong and she was right. She took a bite of pancake and her tooth fell right out! It was her first lost tooth and she was super excited that the Tooth Fairy brought her a WHOLE DOLLAR. However, she did come crying to me the next day and say "My smile isn't pretty anymore!" I told her she was beautiful no matter what and a new tooth will grow soon.
Another note: A few days after this one fell out the other bottom one became loose. It took WEEKS, but last night she came up after she'd gone to bed and said "I need my tooth to get out. It's too annoying and I can't sleep." I had her grab a paper towel and Andy pulled it right out. She didn't even flinch. Brave girl!
Kylee joined the Middle School swim team and the season ran from December-February. They had four meets against other middle schools and then a Championship that included all teams. They kept putting her in the faster heats even though she had no prior times, and she was racing in the 7th-8th grade category even though she's the age of a 6th grader (and already small for her age)...so she kept coming in last place in everything, but she never gave up and kept trying. I kept track of the 5th-6th grade times and the slower heat times to show her that if she was racing in those she would NOT be last place, and that helped her not get too discouraged.
In the Championship she did two relays and her team came in 2nd place in one and 1st place in the other one, so she was super excited.
One day the kids decided to make and decorate gingerbread cookies without my help. They turned out pretty good!
One night we went to check on the boys and found Colby sleeping on Skyler's bed with him. So cute! Now that Skyler has moved to his own room downstairs Colby is so lonely! He counts down the days until the weekend when we allow him to have a sleepover downstairs with the older kids.
One day after we folded all the laundry there was a pile of mis-matched socks left in the living room. I asked Colby to go put them in the sock bucket. He kept trying to pick them all up at once, but he kept dropping some. I told him "Colby, you're going to have to just make more than one trip." About 30 minutes later I found this next to the sock bucket in my room. He had stuffed all the socks into one sock so he could carry them that way. He's a thinker!!
I pulled them all out to see just how many socks he had in there, and sure enough, it was all of them! He managed to fit this whole pile into one striped sock.
When Andy does the boys' hair he puts gel in to spike it up. One day was Andy was gone to work Colby went and put water on his hair and said "Look, mom! I do'd my hair all by myself. But I don't have any jelly." He did a good job!
Our local High School was looking for volunteers to bring their kids to a 4-week preschool at the Child Development classroom. I signed Colby up and he was super excited. The first day he went with no problem. After that it was all downhill. He would say he was excited to go, and kept asking if it was time to go yet, but then when it actually came time to go he would get nervous and start crying. I would take him there and leave him screaming in the teacher's arms. She always told me that he only cried for 5 or less minutes and then was totally fine, so it was no big deal. For some reason though, he just kept getting worse. On the 5th-6th day he screamed so loud and long on the drive there that he ended up making himself puke on the sidewalk right outside the door. Then I passed him off to the teacher and he puked again. She still wanted to keep him because they were studying separation anxiety, so I left him. When I came to pick him up she said he only cried for about 2 minutes after I left. I just don't understand what his issue is?!? Apparently a couple of the kids decided to do their final project about separation anxiety, so they asked me to fill out a survey. It's pretty embarrassing to be THAT mom, but Colby was always super happy when I picked him up and always told us all the fun things he did at school, so he really did love it.
I asked if I could take a picture of him with his backpack on and he made me take one from the front AND from the back.
At the beginning of February we had a puking bug go through all 4 kids. It started with Colby (and his lasted for like 6 days!), and then passed to Kylee and Skyler (luckily they had it on a day when school was already out for a snow day anyway), and then finally to Ally. The last three each only had it for 1-2 days, but poor Colby was miserable for almost a week.
More ninja class fun. One day they put a donut mat up above the trampoline and you had to jump on the trampoline, dive through the hole, and then do a forward roll to land on the mat. It was tricky!
The Elementary and Middle schools here do a ski 'club' in February for kids in grades 4-8. They bus them up to the ski resort after school, rent them skis, give them a lesson if they need it, and then let them ski. They're supposed to go 4 weeks in a row, but two of ours ended up getting cancelled for bad weather. However, Kylee got to go twice, and she did great! The 2nd time she went I was able to go as a chaperone (which is awesome because chaperones get to ski for free). I hadn't been skiing since I was pregnant with Kylee 12+ years ago, so I was a bit nervous. While Kylee was in her lesson I stuck with a gal from our ward who was kind of nervous also. We did the bunny hill a couple of times just to get the feel of our skis, and then went up the lift to do the easiest run. I actually did a lot better than I thought I would, and by the time Kylee was done with her lesson I'd been down the run a few times. We skied together the rest of the night and had a blast!
One morning Colby brought me the bag of leftover parmesan bread bites we had in our fridge and asked if he could have one. I said "Sure, eat it at the table", thinking he would just eat them cold. A few minutes later I thought I heard the microwave running, so I went out there to see what was up, and smelled something burning. I opened up the microwave (he was standing on a barstool right in front of it) and some smoke came out. Luckily most of it was trapped under the microwave cover, which he had remembered to use, so I left the cover on so the smoke could escape slowly, and turned on all the fans. I then noticed that the microwave had over TWELVE MINUTES left on it. I asked Colby what button he pushed, and he said "I push the button two times, mom. Two times." Umm...which button?!?
When the smoke finally seemed to have mostly gone from under the cover I lifted it up to find this. His bite was charcoal and was actually STUCK to the microwave plate. Whoops. Our house reeked of burnt bread bit for the entire rest of the day, even though I kept spraying Febreeze everywhere. I had a nice long chat with Colby about not using the microwave unless mommy helps you.
A few weeks before Valentine's Day I found out that our local Chic Fil A does a Daddy Daughter date where they get dinner, ice cream, make a craft, go on a limo ride, and get a flower. I purchased tickets and THEN told Andy about it so that he couldn't decline to go. When I told him about it he was actually excited and thought it sounded fun, so that was awesome! They got all dressed up and headed on their way.
The girls got to make princess crowns and they got little cows with tutus. The tables were decked out with tablecloths and menus.
They had a photographer there to take photos of them in front of their "Frozen" background.
They got to take a spin around town in a big white Hummer-limo.
Right after their date it was time for ninja class so I didn't get a picture of them with their flowers before they had changed their clothes, but they were so cute!
After the older kids moved downstairs Colby's room was feeling really empty, so he got some Mickey Mouse stickers to decorate with.
The kids have been wanting to plug in the old Nintendo 64 since we moved here so that they could play Mario Kart. It finally happened. It sooooo cute to 'play' with Colby. He has NO IDEA that he is not actually playing. He'll yell, cheer, say "oh shoot!", etc. as he [you] drives his car around each track.
One night we went to check on Ally before we went to bed and found this hanging on the outside of her room. Awwww!
Kylee had her band concert the end of February and they did great! She's really excited because not only is she the only 7th grader in the 8th grade band, but also somebody heard their band play at the Festival of Trees a couple of months ago and decided they were good enough to be invited to play in the High School band festival this spring (instead of the Middle School festival), so they're working hard on songs for that.
One of Colby's favorite things to do is play in my laundry basket. Often he goes in there to poop, which is kind of weird, but whatever! I guess he likes the privacy it offers! 😂
