First Half of March 2011

     I do not know why but March is always a super packed month for us.  Everything seems to happen in March.  Maybe people think the weather will start to be nice in March? I have no idea what it is but mans alive my schedule is packed this month. Here are some highlights of the first 2 or so weeks.

 Dallen and I painted one of the walls in Claira's room for her birthday.  She is not into pink anymore and wants to paint her whole room green  but I do not want to do all that work, for a color she is not going to be in love with in 2 more years.   So we painted just one wall.  It went pretty quick  but we ran out of paint half way through.  Luckily Sandy was in town and picked me up  another can.  The paint can said that it was a paint and primer in one  and would cover 380 square feet.   We were  only painting one wall so I figured it would cover.  But the paint was really thin.  I guess that is what I get for not going to Home Depot or Lowes to get the paint.   Now Dallen wants his room painted.  I told him maybe this summer......maybe.

 Claira going into her room after school that day.  It took her a while to even notice the wall. All she noticed was that I cleaned her room and made her bed.

 Later that evening we opened presents.  There was not much to open  but she got everything she wanted except some church dresses.  We looked and looked online for a week before her birthday but we found nothing that was both modest and that she liked.  So when we go to Reno next we will get a couple church dresses and maybe some shorts for the summer.

 

Then we had cake for dessert.  The weekend before  Claira had a sleep over with a couple of friends.  We watched Napoleon Dynamite, ate tons of Pizza, had banana splits for dessert (well I had bananas), and the girls played xbox and wii.   It was a night of lots of high pitched girly shrills. 

The rest of our afternoons have been filled with lots and lots of Volleyball....

We also had New Beginings at church.  The girls were in charge which was nice for us leaders.  It was nice and small and quick.  Quick is always a plus on a Sunday evening.  They made a Value Fruit Salad. 

February 2011

     February, well my household calendar is super full so we must have done a lot.  Even with all the activities with the kids I did manage to find time to do something for myself.

 

I made this bag. I love it it holds so much. I am hoping to make another one soon. 

We had wonderful spring like weather the first part of February.  Then it hit.  We got hammered with snow. Claira had the 14th off and also the 21st (for Valentines Day and President's Day).  On the 15th it was so windy that they called a late start and then the power went out so they ended up calling for no school that day.  The 16th the power was still out so no school again and it started to snow.  Luckily we had power the whole time, we are on a different power company than the school.  On Thursday  the snow had let up a bit and so they had school.  Thursday night another storm rolled in and they should have called a no school day because weather wise it was the worst day of the week but they did not.  An hour later the power went out again and so they called a minimum day.  The picture above is the snow that we got on Thursday, it just kept coming and coming.

Dallen did not have too much going on in Feb. just keeping up with his school work and scouts.  He finished up all the requirements for his bear.  So he is now a weblows.

Claira continued with Club Volleyball every Tuesday and Thursday. At the end of the month open gym for school volleyball began.  In 4-H we worked on our quilt tops for fair.  In photography for 4-H we did a fun little photo booth for the Milford Fire Department's Annual Fundraiser Dinner.  That was a lot of fun the kids learned so much from it.

Every year the 6th grade kids are allowed to attend one dance a year.  Traditionally it is the Valentine's Day Dance. At this dance they announce the King and Queen (8th grade) and Prince and Princess (7th Grade).  Claira found out on Thursday that Claira was one of the two nominations for Princess.  I thought this was pretty exciting  but Claira was not that excited.  She could have cared less either way.  Claira did not win but she was totally fine with it.  

These are the pre-Dance pictures.  A whole bunch of girls got ready together at the Fortin's house.  Claira is not really a fancy dancy kind of girl  she rather just put her hair in a pony or a bun and call it good.  For this dance we told her she had to get her hair done because she was going to be in front of everyone for the whole Princess thing.  So she agreed to let Hannah do her hair.

 

January 2011

     Hmmm  What did January hold for us?   Claira started Club Volleyball.  I figured if she wanted to try out for school volleyball team she needed to see if she really liked volleyball first.  After the first practice she loved it and decided that she was going to try out for the school team.  So every Tuesday and Wednesday night I drove Claira to town for Club Volleyball.

     We made a yummy looking turkey....

it tasted good too.

     Dallen learned how to ride his new (to him) motorcycle.  The neighbors were nice enough to come over and give him some tips.  They even gave us their old riding gear.  He loves riding but can only ride once all his school work and chores are done for the day.

Claira had a school dance towards the end of the month.  Here are some of the highlights....

     Savanah, Claira, Erika, Deanna and Julie before the dance.

       Logan and Claira dancing.

       Deanna, Heather, Julie, Callie, Erika, Savanah and Claira.

December 2010

     I have been wanting to update my blog for weeks.  There is just never any time for me to get "my" things accomplished.  So tonight I could not sleep, after laying there for an hour trying to fall asleep I decided that I might as well get up and accomplish something.
      My last post was the middle of December.  Really it was not a post at all, just a note saying to check out a contest.  Many contests have you post on your blog or on Facebook as to spread the word about the contests.  If you post on your blog about a contest you will often get an extra entry, so hey what can it hurt.

     I find it so much easier to read blogs that have pictures.  It just keeps my attention so much better :)  So lets see what pictures I have from December....

Well first pics I come across was the Janesville Wrestling Tournament.  Since there are no wrestling pictures of my own kid I will not share, but I did get some good shots.  Dallen had so much fun being back on the mat cheering on his old teammates as they wrestled.  Of course he was yelling at them telling them to sprawl and such  just as always.

     The next set of pictures is the Janesville Christmas Program.  The Jr High kids always do some type of dance at the performance rather than sing a song.  Thankfully my kid is short and was once again in one of the front rows.  As soon as the program was over I took Claira out of school for the day, all they were going to do was goof around and eat junk food.  So Claira and Jessica came home with me and had a party of their own.

                                                          Deanna Julie and Claira

Dancing Queen

     Then we have the pictures from the Soccer Team Christmas Party.  Of course it was inside in the evening  (never makes for good pictures), and the girls were always moving (also another picture nightmare).  There are a few that turned out OK.

Claira and Jessica

It was actually Holly's 12th birthday that day too.



















They had an ornament exchange and Sally and Jessica saw this ornament and knew it was a perfect one for Claira.  So they worked it so that Claira was able to win the ornament.







     At the end of the night we let the girls let off sparklers.... 

 

Jessica

     Then came Christmas but I do not have any of those pictures edited yet.  For some reason Christmas pictures are always hard for me.  I feel like it is pictures of the same things over and over again....this gift and that gift.  Plus I think it bothers me to have pictures of the Christmas mess. Kinda an OCD thing.

     After Christmas we went to Granny's to see my boys.  I had never actually celebrated KK's birthday with him ever.  The end of December is just a hard time to come down the mountain.  You never know when there is going to be snow until a day or so before hand and then you have to worry about if you can get back up the mountain when you need to get back home.  I was a nervous wreck this time coming home because I knew that it was supposed to snow.  And it did.  Snow does not bother me here but in the mountains where you have no cell service and cliffs to drive off of and trees to hit.  It has begun to freak me out ever since we spun off the road on our way home from Redding  on May 22nd.  It just took me looking down for one second and BAM  I must have hit the slick road just right and we were spinning off the road..... anyways here are some of my favorite pics from KK's 5th birthday. 

 Dallen Granny and KK

Birthday Boy

 Grampy building legos with Dallen and TJ

Claira and TJ

 Can you roll  your eyes as good as this kid?