January

I felt like January was calm compared to December, but it was still active for our family.

For breakfast on New Year's Day the kids wanted breakfast pizza.  I didn't even know there was such a thing until a few months ago when Kimball had a breakfast pizza at a Scout camp out.  Anyway, the kids loved my first attempt at breakfast pizza and they begged me to make it for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  I have a feeling it will be a frequent request for holiday breakfasts!

Kimball decided to try his hand at hydro-dipping.  For those who don't know, hydro dipping is where you spray paint water and then dip an item into the water/spray paint.  The paint apparently doesn't stick or mix in with the water and sticks to whatever you dip in the water.  Anyway, Kimball decided to dip some cheap shoes from Walmart that were mostly white.  He spray painted the non-white surfaces white and then dipped them in pink, blue and yellow paint.  He learned all of this from watching YouTube videos.  I was impressed with his first attempt.  He taped a Nike swoosh symbol on the shoe to make them look less like a shoe from Walmart. 

Rebecah has been asking for a few months to get her ears pierced.  I have been holding back because I remember how badly it hurt when I got my ears pierced.  I hated the thought of subjecting her to that pain.  Anyway, we decided that she could get her ears pierced for her birthday.  Some friends offered to come with us to offer moral support for Rebecah (and me)!  We had to wait about 30 minutes and we both got more and more nervous the longer we waited.  Thankfully, Rebecah could get both ears pierced at the same time.  Rebecah can be a little dramatic, but she did great.  She didn't want to cry in front of her friend, so she was extra brave.  No tears, just smiles. 

Rebecah and Melanie

1...2...3...

I was so proud of Rebecah.  She said it hurt.  I tried to tell her it would hurt without scaring her so I said it was like a hard pinch.  She looked at me afterwards and said:  "That was more than a pinch!"  We ended our outing by celebrating with lunch at Panera with our friends. 

Eden is getting to be such a big girl.  She loves to help and be included.  When the kids turn three in our family they are eligible to start earning a small allowance and have the responsibility of a daily chore.  She doesn't seem to care about the money, but is usually good about doing her chore. Eden also transitioned out of the church nursery to Primary.  Her first day in Primary she was assigned the talk and she did a great job.  I thought she might be too nervous to say her talk, but we practiced and it went really well.

Rebecah's friend gave her the game Googly Eyes for her birthday.  It's a fun drawing game where you have to wear glasses that alter your vision.  The kids had a great time playing and trying to draw.  The glasses left Joseph and me with headaches!

When preschool started up after Christmas break, Eden join the 3 year old class.  She was SO excited to be going to school.  She did great and walked right in to her class and she fits right in.  

In this picture Annika wanted to be taller than Lincoln so she is standing on tip toe. 

 She is a funny girl!

Rebecah turned 10 on January 7th!  For the 7th year in a row she had cheese danish for breakfast.  At least she is predictable in her requests.

It was Rebecah's second year having Chocolate Brownie Bombe for dessert.  It is a frozen dome of chocolate-y goodness. 

We love Rebecah and we are so glad she is in our family.  She is a great big sister and plays so well with her siblings.  She loves to hang out with friends and try new things.

I hosted a birthday lunch for a friend so we lined up all of the kids on the couch and turned on a movie.  The kids were so good while the adults had lunch.  

My wonderful friend Bev turned 80, and I wanted to throw a little birthday party for her.  It was a surprise that I coordinated with her daughters.  Bev was so surprised that she told us it wasn't fair to surprise people at her age!  This sweet woman is our special New York Grandma.  She always remembers the kids on their birthdays, for Christmas and Easter.  She spoils us so I wanted to spoil her.

Birthday group.

Lincoln and Annika finally decided that they were ready to sleep in different rooms.  Really, Annika decided that she was tired of cleaning up after Lincoln.  Eden and Annika now share a room together and Lincoln has his own room.  Lincoln is now responsible for the mess in his room, and so far he is doing fairly well cleaning up after himself.

Joseph has a habit of giving the kids options for meals and activities and one food item or activity is always something really off the wall that shouldn't even be a real consideration.  For example, he might offer the kids cereal, pancakes or bacon for breakfast and we don't have any bacon in the fridge.  So, he gave the kids the option to play, run through the sprinkler or "do something else" one day after lunch and Eden chose the sprinkler option.  We asked her if she really wanted to run through the sprinkler when it was so cold outside and she said she did.  She changed into her swimming clothes all by herself and then Lincoln and Annika followed suit.  Annika never made it outside, but Eden and Lincoln actually went outside and Joseph sprayed some water from the hose that he had to hook up.  Lincoln danced and screamed with excitement as he ran through the water.  It lasted just a few minutes and then I welcomed the kids back inside with warm towels.  They all agreed that the sprinkler is a better activity for summer!

The little girls love to cut things.  They spread out the grocery advertisements one day and went to town cutting out the food they liked.  It was an easy thing to say "yes" to, and they did a pretty good job cleaning up all of their paper scraps.

Annika continues to melt our hearts with her art work.  Here she took the Church program and wrote our initials and then drew our family at the temple.  I love how she tries to be very specific giving Joseph and Kimball brown eyes, while the rest of us have blue eyes.  She is always very good about giving herself bright red hair.  

Rebecah went with her friend Melanie to the school luau.  I offered to take her to the party, but she said she would have more fun with Melanie, and I can understand that!

We decided to take the kids to The Strong Museum in Rochester.  I had heard a lot of good things about it so we decided to check it out.  It was huge and the kids had a lot of fun.  It was similar to the Science Center in St. Louis, but more fun and entertaining.  (I find the Science Center a little boring).  

There was an entire section devoted to the Berestein Bear family and I loved it!  There was Sister Bear's club house, a dentist section, Farmer Ben's vegetables to gather and a quilting area for Mama Bear's quilts.

A wall displaying all of the Berenstein Bear books.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?!

Kimball's favorite parts of the museum were the arcade games.

Joseph took the kids skiing when they had the day off for Martin Luther King, Jr. day.  Both kids are doing really well skiing and they had a great time.

Probably the biggest event of the month was that I donated blood!  I haven't given blood for roughly 20 years and I don't like to do it.  My brain doesn't like having needles in my body for long periods of time.  After a while my body just shuts down and I faint if I'm not careful.  One of my very good friends organized a blood drive at our church building and I volunteered to help out with snacks and checking people in.  The day of the drive, Mari had eight people who had signed up unable to give blood cancel for various reasons.  I felt so bad for her because she wanted the blood drive to be a success and she had all of these people turned away from giving.  I knew I was eligible to give, so I finally got up my courage and told her I would donate.  She was shocked and so was I.  My body immediately starting over-reacting and I was sweating, my heart was racing, my blood pressure was much higher than normal, and adrenaline was coursing through my body.  I did it though!  I braved my fear of fainting and needles and I was able to donate a full pint.  Toward the end of my pint I felt myself getting hot, which is my first indicator I'm shutting down, so I quickly asked to be reclined and I was fine.  Since my heart rate was so fast I filled the bag in record time and I was finished quickly.  A huge blessing!  I can't say I will give blood again any time soon, but I did feel empowered that I could do a hard thing and help others.