February 2019

More Friday Skiing. Unfortunately, this was our only Friday ski day in February. Fridays seemed to bring in a cold front week after week.

This is Thomas. He's not sad, he didn't even fall, he just wants a little break.

This was a landmark day. He is standing on his skis by himself! Baby steps.

It's a good thing Thomas took a break on the hill, because we weren't done with our day. We got home and went to the Utah gymnastics meet with cousins.

February = Winter Wonderland! February 6th was our first school canceled snow day. So we played in the snow. At least the older 3 boys played and played. Getting Ezra ready was a chore. I suppose he knew he wasn't going to like it much.

We also made it to a couple of Women's basketball games. We can always find free tickets, you get to sit up close and personal, and the Utes had a decent season...at least until we stopped going to the games.

Thomas was unsure about Swoop, but we managed to get a picture with him anyway. This would never happen at a men's basketball game. Swoop is too busy!

We found a fun art activity that helps the kids draw pictures by watching a YouTube video. Ahhh my blooming artists.

We had a real date night. Dean took me to Park City and we watched his favorite band. The Mother Hips. I love one on one time with Dean!

Ezra is such a happy kid! His smile makes me smile 100% of the time. He really likes to play on soft things and fall into them. So any chance he gets to play on my bed, he's happy!

These two little guys are becoming good friends! Ezra loves the train and Thomas is pretty good at getting it set up for him.

And the soft corner falls down. Perfect snow day activity. 

Four boys, blankets, pillows, running, laughing, falling, pillow fight, happy.

He even laughs in his Ecuadorian pants wedgie. Love this kid!

I talked my sister in law Katherine to come down for an afternoon so we could make pies together. It's always more fun to cook with someone else in the kitchen. And take note, I don't even have to cook.

And it's Valentine's Day! We started the morning with a friendship program from Lincoln and the other 2nd graders. He was so excited for this program it made my heart happy.

Lincoln was far more excited to have his brothers at his school than his brothers were to be there.

The boys got out of school early, so we headed down to Provo to use our "Get Out Pass". They all love the virtual reality, we also hit up some croquet and then headed home for a dinner that I was so excited for!!! I couldn't wait to surprise the boys with my bright idea!...

With Dean's help, we put on a "Pirate dinner" RRRRRR. The idea was to have dinner without manners. That meant no plates, utensils or manners. It took Oliver some time to warm up to the idea (which was a giant surprise to me as he never uses a fork...for anything), and Lincoln to come to terms that I wasn't going to hunt through the Halloween box to find his pirate vest from Halloween. But the bandanna and eye patch provided would be sufficient for the evening. 

Well the dinner ended in a food fight, that resulted from me trying to lighten the mood of my very confused boys. End of story, is all four boys took a turn crying at some point, and I took my turn laughing at all points. In my mind it was a failure until the next day when I heard Oliver excitedly tell someone about our Pirate dinner and a couple of weeks later when Lincoln told me he had the best Valentine's Day of his life. Hopefully it will be a happy memory.

Over the holiday weekend the boys begged me to go back to the Leonardo museum. And once again, they had a great time. Oliver was anxious to present me with his legos creation, which is funny because he can make those things at home. 

We took Lincoln's friend bowling on President's Day. These boys are growing up and it's so fun!

Well, this kid is still a baby. And as # 4, he get's yanked from this position all too often. Every time I grab him from this position I feel so bad. But sometimes, those brothers just want to get out and play! Hopefully Ezra is building resilience. 

Another Friday in February was frigid in the mountains, so we headed to Lehi to play at the Dinosaur Museum. It was a hit. Ryker joined the party, and as always, he fit right in.

I think they played in the sand for at least an hour.

As a giant bonus to the boys, my mom even joined us!

Lincoln was quite proud that he found his own fossil, he just needed my help to uncover most of it.

Another cold weekend=me searching for a good way to entertain and have peace, harmony and happiness. Painting wood worked for a couple of hours.

...And blocks were another solution.

This kid LOVES FOOD!!! When he's hungry he can't get the food in his mouth quick enough. His new trick is WIDE open mouth and when he closes his mouth on the food a big OOWWM sound. This happened to be ice cream I was feeding him, so no wonder he was so excited to get that shoveled right into his mouth.

Once again, Friday just wasn't going to work, so we got the boys out a big early from school and took advantage of the great ski day! I got to ski with the older boys for the first time. It was a whole new adventure!

I recently realized that Thomas was a baby the last time we have been to the zoo. So I took advantage of the last free zoo day of the winter and we braved the cold, the rain and the crowds. It was awesome! It was refreshing being at a place like this with just one walking kid. He got to determine what we looked at and how long we stayed. His favorite was the orangutan. It played and played. Thomas got a front row seat.

The boys had another random three day weekend and short day on Thursday, so we headed to Syarcuse to play with cousins and once again us our Christmas Get Out Pass. When we got there, the sun started to shine and we quickly decided that a park would be so much better than bowling...and it was!

This kid has to steal a nap whenever he can get it.