A watched pot never boils.

Makayla made a baby blanket for her speech therapist who had a baby.

Makayla loves to eat hard boiled eggs. Yesterday I was teaching her how to make hard boiled eggs. After she had placed the eggs in the pot, covered them with water, put the lid on the pot and turned the stove on high, I told her to wait for the water to start boiling. As she sat by the pot of water waiting for it to boil I suggested that she step away and do something else for a few minutes. "They say a watched pot never boils" I told her, then explained to her that concept. After listening intently she asked, "Who posted that one?"



Ben stands on top of the snow cave.


Benjamin has been very helpful this week. I had taught him how to move the clothes from the washer to they dryer and start it several weeks ago. This week I asked him to switch over his laundry. After he did that he saw a tablecloth waiting to be washed he put it in the front loader and came into the kitchen and asked me, "How do you start the wet dryer?" It took a few mintues to figure out that he was asking me how to start the washing machine. I explained to him how, but told him that he shouldn't start a load with just a tablecloth to wash, that would waste water. I told him I had a laundry hamper of dirty clothes in my room that he could wash, so he did! Boy Howdy - if I can have my four year old take over the laundry chores, my life would be sweet!

Speaking of living on Easy Street. After changing Marianne's messy, I placed the soiled cloth diaper in the toilet to rinse. Marianne grabbed the diaper, swished it around, then placed it in the diaper pail. Can it get any better than this?

Marianne's birthday Bash/Gash

Tuesday, Feb 14th - Happy Birthday Marianne. 2 years old!



Maddy made a layered sponge cake with buttercream frosting that had chocolate chunks all from scratch. YUM! Barry made homemade blueberry ice-cream double yum!



Mackensey models the bonnet I sewed for Marianne's present. She really likes hats and this could also be used by Maddy this summer for the youth pioneer trek. Mackensey had to model it becuase Marianne wouldn't put it on!



Barry helps Marianne up the climbing wall at the Camas Wellness Center. We went there on Saturday to spend the day as a family swimming and using the climbing wall. We decided that instead of spending money buying toys for Marianne when she didn't need any more toys, we would pay for a day of fun for the whole family.



Weee!

Ben was so excited to come here. He counted down days until Saturday.

Makayla climbs.

Mackensey loves to climb trees, etc, and she definately got the farthest of all the kids.

Mindy.



To make the day extra memorable, Marianne slipped as she tried to climb out of the 1 foot wading pool. She got a pretty bad gash that Barry was able to bandage up well enough that they let us keep swimming for another hour or so. Then we drove home and dropped off the kids and took Marianne to the emergency room to see if she needed stitches. They put superglue on it and sent her home (not even a band-aid). The nice part was that our insurance covered it and we were in and out of the emergency room in 30 minutes. One of the benefits of going to a small town hospital...

We love you Marianne and are so happy to have you in our family. You are a sweet, affectionate girl.

Milk and Graham Crackers



Mindy



Makayla



Mackensey




Maddy



These pictures show the girls who are taking ski/snowboarding lessons right now. Barry and I went skiing in January and would rotate taking the girls with us. This is Makayla's first year on the skiis and she is a natural. Mindy is a fast skier. Barry is doing well, just picked up where he left off last year. It took me a while to get my "mojo" this year. The skiing conditions haven't been the best this year...

Maddy with her friend Bessie. She and another friend (with Barry's help) built a snow fort and had a sleepover in it.

Maddy has done a terrific job these past 18 months in taking care of her teeth. She had to wear rubber bands on her braces for 16 of the 18 months and had them taken off on Tuesday. She hasn't stopped smiling since. I love to see her beautiful smile. :-)

Mackensey and I had our first guitar concert this week. We know four chords. :-) Mindy and the rest of the choir sang along.



Happy Birthday Marianne! Will be two on Tuesday.



We took Marianne out on our date Friday night for her birthday dinner. She loved the one-on-one time with Mommy and Daddy and was pleased as punch the whole time. Both pictures were too cute I couldn't decide, so I posted them both.

I don't have any pictures of Ben this time, but I have a few things he has said:

For three nights in a row he had brought his pillow and blanket into our bedroom sometime in the middle of the night. I didn't want to make this a habit, so while putting him to bed I decide to bribe him with a piece of gum if he stayed in his own bed the whole night.

Ben: "I was thinking that I needed to go a day without chewing gum."

Avery, "Ok, how about a Hershey's kiss."

Ben, "How about two Hershey's kisses."

Avery, "OK, two Hershey's kisses."

Ben, "I don't want Hershey's kisses..."  (but he did stay in his own room and has ever since.)

Now that I am in primary I get to hear Ben loudly singing the primary songs (everyone had told me how well he knows and sings the songs). One day he wasn't singing at all so I approached him and couldn't threaten or bribe him enough to get him to sing. "I don't want to sing". He told me. "Then what do you want to do if you don't want to sing?" I asked. "I want to think." I told him he could go home and think all he wanted to, but in primary he needed to sing. Ben is definately a deep thinker, just like his dad. Last night he was sitting outside the bathroom door waiting for his turn for the bathtub. Mindy and Mackensey were inside the bathroom making a lot of noise. Ben complained to me "Would you go inside and tell them they are being too loud! I'm trying to think!" Sometimes I feel the same way....

One day while discussing the cutting of firewood Ben commented, "When I am a dad I will cut up the wood small so that my kids can pack them.....I will also give them snacks during quite time. Milk and graham crackers."

 Have a great week!