March

 March is always a very busy month for us. 

I have always hated the chunky railing that goes from our eat-in kitchen into our family room.  I mentioned to Joseph a few years ago that I would love to have it gone.  He finally did it!!  I love it and the two rooms feel a lot more open without the railing.  Joseph was good about including the kids in the project.

Lincoln helping to take down the railing.

Eden and Joseph scraping off some cement.

Finished product.

For the school musical the kids have three dress rehearsals from 3-9 after school. I volunteered to help serve the kids dinner during these dress rehearsals.  Rebecah loved having me there and it was fun to see her interact with her friends.  I grabbed this picture of her in her costume.  I was very relieved when she told me that the ladies in charge of costumes decided improve the costumes.  No ugly orange for Rebecah as you'll see in later pictures.

Joseph took the big kids skiing.  They had a lot of fun

even though Kimball refused to pose for a picture.

We signed Eden up for a 6 week ballet class.  She loved it and her teacher, Miss Erinn.  On the last day of ballet the girls had a little recital.  Eden was in the back so I couldn't get any great pictures of her, but she had a fun experience.  Miss Erinn is the daughter of one of Eden's preschool teachers so that was extra fun.

Orchestra concert.  

Kimball played the bass and the bass guitar in the concert.  It was fun to watch him perform.  He says this will be his last year in orchestra so I was glad I could attend his concert.

St. Patrick's Day promised to be beautiful and sunny with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees.  The weather did NOT disappoint!!  I picked Eden up from school and we went straight to Green Lakes State park.  It was a wonderful day to walk the lake trail.  Eden had so much energy and loved the walk.  The next time we have a nice day I think we'll go back and walk the extra mile loop around Round Lake.  I think Eden could easily do three mile round trip.  Half of Green Lake was still covered in ice so that was a different perspective.

I was so glad Eden and I had this beautiful, fun day together.  It all went downhill later in the day.  I had a mild sore throat for two days and at times my nose felt stuffy, so I decided I better do the responsible thing and take a Covid test.  I was SHOCKED when it came back positive--I didn't feel that sick.  I doubted the first test so I took a second and it was positive, too!  Where had I gotten Covid?  I have been the most cautious of any in our family, I interact with the least amount of people, and I am still wearing a mask in public even though it is no longer required!  (The kids still wear masks to school even though it is no longer required.  I'm not taking chances after our experience in December.  Covid cases are on the rise in our area again so it's only smart to have them wear masks another month or so.)  My isolation didn't feel too bad since I had already had symptoms for a few days and the isolation period was decreased to six days with four days of mask wearing after isolation.  I did my very best to stay away from my family, but there is something about my bedroom that just attracts children!  I kept having to remind the kids that I had Covid and they needed to stay away from me!!  Thankfully, I didn't have any awful symptoms.  A slight sore throat, stuffy nose occasionally and fatigue.  I also was able to avoid the biggest symptom of Covid...boredom!  I'm a homebody and I love to read so having an excuse to stay home with extra time to read was heaven!  I also limited my time in the kitchen as much as I could for a full 10 days.  No extra baking for me.  Everyone else tested negative.  The three little ones had a cold with a cough at the same time I had Covid, so I actually tested a few times just to make sure they were still negative and they always were.

This is a picture the school captured of the String Fest dress rehearsal.  I love that Kimball went straight from track practice to this rehearsal and is still wearing his prescription sunglasses!

I have missed all of the other String Fest concerts Kimball has been in.  I guess there were only two previous concerts, because Covid canceled concerts for two years, but I was glad I could attend String Fest.  It was my first day out of isolation.  I wore a mask at the concert and Joseph picked seats where I wasn't sitting near anyone other than my family.  String Fest is where all of the orchestras in the district get together and hold a concert.  The groups don't play many songs to keep the concert at a reasonable length, but the music sounded so good!

The  middle school musical this year was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Rebecah was very excited to be cast as Issachar's wife.  The musical practices are intense and most weeks Rebecah had musical practice five days a week.  The musical is such a wonderful experience for the kids.  It was good for Kimball and it was good for Rebecah.  Rebecah made a lot of new friends and strengthened old friendships.  It was SO fun to watch Rebecah perform!  She always had a smile on her face and loved dancing and singing.

Aren't these an improvement on the orange tunics?

Rebecah with Melanie Dolson.  Friends since Kindergarten! 

Rebecah is with Caitlin Klei.  They were in preschool together, but Caitlin is a grade younger than Rebecah, so it has been nice for these girls to renew their friendship.  Caitlin's mom just so happens to be one of Eden's preschool teachers this year.

Ava and Reece, two of Rebecah's friends that came to watch the show to support their friends.

Rebecah and Gianna

The musical director gave awards to all of the cast members. 

Rebecah's award was "Best Team Player".  

Joseph and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary.  I had Covid when we were supposed to attend the symphony, so Rebecah went on our anniversary date with Joseph.  I made a cheesecake stuffed chocolate cake with a white chocolate mousse and dark chocolate ganache with Oreos sprinkled on top.  It was really good!

Rebecah went to the temple for the first time for youth baptisms.  She had a wonderful experience and is asking to return as soon as she can.  Joseph was able to attend with her, but he forgot to document the special occasion with a picture.  

February

 It was a busy month, but we don't have many pictures to show for it!  

One Sunday evening we reminisced about books I had read to Kimball when he was a little boy.  He definitely had his favorites that Joseph and I memorized from reading them so many times.  Since these books were so well loved they got destroyed and we no longer own them.  We were able to find YouTube videos of people reading most of his favorites and we sat and watched them together.  Kimball was like a little boy again!  I have made a list of his favorites and I'm going to acquire them so I can give them to him when he becomes a dad in another 10+/- years.

Our snow fall has been below average the last few years and this year has had the lowest amount of snow.  It's really disappointing.  Skiing hasn't been very good for Joseph and Kimball and the snow fort didn't last long either.  We did get 6 inches of snow at the beginning of February so we decided to go on a horse drawn sleigh ride.  We did this the first year we lived here, but hadn't gone back for various reasons.  I must say it wasn't as magical as I remembered.  The ride wasn't very long and we went on a really cold day.  Wearing our masks definitely kept us warmer!!  All in all the outing was still fun.  We ate lunch in the lodge and those that wanted to went down the sledding hill.

For Valentine's day this year Joseph and I went to a Shen-Yun Chinese dance performance.  It was really nice.  I loved all of the flowing costumes, learning about some of the traditional Chinese stories and seeing the dancing.  On Valentine's day, I kept it simple.  I gave the kids some candy and I made a red velvet cake for dessert.  I'm trying to get away from making the little holidays "big" holidays.  No one asked for a special breakfast so I was off the hook and no one seemed too disappointed that we skipped presents.

We have taken up roller skating as a family.  We have enough skates or roller blades for everyone in the family.  It is fun seeing the little ones master roller skating and it's something the entire family enjoys, except for Eden.  She hasn't caught the skating bug and she isn't willing to try skating very long before she is ready for a different activity.  She'll get there eventually, and if she doesn't, that's okay, too!

Winter break was the third week in February and the kids enjoyed a week off from school.  We didn't do anything overly exciting, but there were football workouts, appointments, play dates, and musical rehearsals that kept us busy.  

Night Skiing during Winter Break.

January

 Welcome to 2022!  I can't believe we are starting a new year already!

Our month started off with a new blanket for Annika.  A dear friend from Arkansas sent Lincoln and Annika fleece blankets when they were born.  Both kids LOVE their blankets.  The blankets have gotten faded over time so we found a second blanket for Annika off Amazon.  It isn't exactly the same since the fleece was cut in different places, but it's fun to have a new one.  The old one is really grungy compared to the new one and that is with regular washings!   Now Annika, Kimball and Eden all have their original lovey and a spare!  Lincoln wants a new blanket, too, but we couldn't find his exact blanket. 

Rebecah turned 12 on January 7th!  Rebecah is very mature and she has seemed 12 for at least a year now.  I'm glad I can finally call her 12 without lying!   She was at musical practice until 6:00 in the evening so most of her birthday was spent at school/rehearsal, but she didn't seem to mind.  Her day started with cheese danish for breakfast, and pizza and raspberry white chocolate cheesecake for dinner/dessert.  The two of us went shopping the day after her birthday for more birthday fun with new makeup and clothes.  Rebecah is a great help in the kitchen and a good big sister.

Joseph found this cute picture the girls had taken on his phone.

We haven't had very much snow this year.  We did get a few inches mid-month so the kids made some snowmen and they lasted at least 2 weeks before rain finally put an end to their snowy lives.

Rebecah making candles.

We went bowling on Martin Luther King, Jr. day since the kids were off school.  It was also the anniversary of Dad's death, so it was a nice tribute to him since he enjoyed bowling in college.  We ate pumpkin pie in honor of Grandpa Johnson, too.

I went to Kimball's last track meet.  The schools around here have indoor tracks and their meets are at the local community college.  My camera malfunctioned during Kimball's relay and I was so disappointed to not get a picture or video of him running.  His speed has really improved and he looked great running.  

Joseph and I went eagle watching one morning once the kids were at school.  We have lived here 9 years and only discovered this year that Onondaga Lake is home to dozens of Bald Eagles during the winter because the lake doesn't freeze over completely.  There is a walking trail to the edge of the lake, but we couldn't see any eagles up close from there.  We saw some at a distance and flying overhead.  We next drove to the backside of the mall that overlooks the lake and we found a lot of eagles nesting in the trees.  It was so neat to see multiple eagles at one time.  We will have to do eagle watching from the mall parking lot again.  We hadn't brought our camera with the distance lens, so the pictures from my phone aren't great.

There are 6 eagles in the center of this picture.

Now that Omicron has calmed down and the cases aren't so high, I took Rebecah and two of her friends to Get Air to celebrate her birthday.  They had a lot of fun together.  Good friends are priceless!

After jumping for an hour we went to Sweet Frog, a frozen yogurt place to cool off.  Rebecah's friends spoiled her!  

Rebecah stays after school daily for musical rehearsals.  She loves being with friends and experiencing the musical excitement.  

Kimball is finished with track, but immediately started the off-season football workouts.  He isn't happy if he has to come home from school right away so he always finds something to keep him busy.

Lincoln and Annika started the bi-monthly activities at church this year.  They are excited to attend those activities.  Our Wednesday evenings are busy!