A Hazy Shade of Winter

February, as far as I'm concerned, is rather a dud month of the year.  Usually the weather is awful, there are no real exciting holidays coming up, and at least a month till spring.  This year, February was nothing like that.  We packed in a number of activities and events each and every day.  To begin with, Ash & Dade had swimming every Saturday.  Ash loved it, but Dade was only lukewarm.  Probably because the water was lukewarm and he would be shivering with purple lips before his lesson was half over.

Thankfully, he completely loved his tumbling class and never got sick of it.  Toward the end, they worked on a sport that Derek could stand behind: tossing the frisbee...

He was happy to get his "gold" medal, but sad when tumbling was over.  I've hardly seen a kid so coordinated and look forward to years of entertaining sporting events, much like Adia is now doing.

Speaking of sports, we started playing what we called "ball game".  Really, it was glorified dodge ball with lots of cover to hide behind.  We had a few fatalities, but overall a really good time.  We even got Grandma to play with us once!

Adia and Derek had extraordinary aim, Brynn was the stealthy one, Ash liked to dig out all the balls that rolled away, and Sedona took everything that was hurled at her.  Dade was just entertainment when he ran away screaming from all the balls coming his way.

 I took a couple panoramas with everyone holding positions.

See Derek to the side there looking sneaky?  He's pretty deadly.  All those years of tennis and Frisbee earned him some serious skillz...

Ball game was fun because the basement was a hot mess while we were peeling wallpaper.  We also redid a bunch of the outside lights (putting in motion-sensing ones).  Turns out that all the electrical work is a breeze.  The hardest part about putting new lights in is fitting the braces and the drilling, and measuring and redrilling to make things work.  Especially considering a lot of what was done on the house was done in the most sloppy manner possible.

The kids kept busy by crafting and rediscovering playdo and making a variety of one-eyed playdo people.  I'm still a little disturbed by the lips on the one above.

 Adia got her business cards done and printed.  She's open for business Utah folks!!

I found a gem at the BYU surplus sale--only at BYU can you find cast-off pulpits.  We've enjoyed reading scriptures and pretending to preach from it...

I saw this one Pinterest and wanted to make it for my little nephew.  I really like how the colors turned out--go Timpview!!

Adia made this fun sculpture of the color wheel for her art class.  I thought the scissors were a really fun idea.

Sedona  made this medieval castle for medieval days at school.  Well, we all made it together as a family. Those Hogwarts castle parts sure came in handy for this project....

Brynn had been working on these paper dolls that symbolized the different seasons, but then experimented with other color-combinations.

 Ash studied penguins and chose to make her picture of a macaroni penguin.  She free-hand drew this!!

 And my little Dade got a little mixed-up when writing his name and instead made an anagram: "Dead".  I certainly hope not...  :)

Speaking of medieval days, Sedona dressed up as a page.  Her friend was a lady and her cousin a jester.  They made a pretty cute group of kids.

One night I noticed that Bunicorn was sitting all lonely-like on the couch.  I could see he wanted to play before going to bed with a sleeping Dade.  So we did a few push-ups...

And sit-ups...

 A little GQ posing...

 A couple rounds of hide-and-seek...

 A 50-yard dash...

And then it was obviously time for bed.

 Bunicorn snuggled right in with Dade and his My Little Pony blankie.  All was right in the world.

 I decided I better get a few pictures for posterity of the girls as well.

I find it amusing (and sometimes insanely frustrating) that the kids insist on wearing tank tops and shorts to bed, then pile every blanket in the house on themselves and complain of being cold.  Seriously?  They own several sets of fleece pjs.

This one is more like a rare sighting of Bigfoot, but I didn't realize my focus was off till too late.  At least you can see how she's surrounded by candy pillows.  Very indicative of her dietary wishes...

I think I took this picture to show my mom the girls all wearing necklaces she gave them.  What I can't get over is how big they are.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was doing the wash for all four of them and they were little as could be.  Now half of them do their own wash and are frankly just growing like weeds...

 And to my 6th, hairy and smelly, child.  Dade continues to take picture after picture of him with my iPhone.

You can thank me later for not posting the hundreds of pictures he's taken of the dog's rear-end.  He's obsessed with tushes right now for an unknown reason.  Especially Sol's...

 I took a couple one night as I lay next to him on the couch reading.  He sleeps in weirdest positions.

There is no way that is comfortable.  Even for a boy dog.  (Well, he's not really a boy anymore.  Even for a gender-neutral dog.)

 I made the mistake of downloading a zombie creator app.  Dade promptly put it to use on the dog.

 I'm not paying for your therapy.

 But I do apologize for inflicting Dade upon the world.

 Dog still loves his platypus dearly.  So much so that he kills it several times a day.

And like every other dog on the earth, he adores looking out the window, rain or shine.  He looks like a supermodel with his ears flapping in the wind.

Okay, I may spring for your therapy after seeing this one.  It makes me tremble to see his face melting off too.

We enjoyed decorating the girls' Valentine's boxes for school.  Ash went with Olaf (which everyone who likes Frozen adored.  Which was everyone.).

 Brynn chose a long-running favorite of hers: The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber version).

I didn't get a picture of Sedona with her minion box, which she reused, so here is last years.  Minions may well be one of the best cartoon characters ever created.  Ever.

 This was my Valentine.  Delectable, no?

 Of course turn around is fair play and he had to get a picture of me with the mustache and heart as well.

Adia with her furry Valentine.  Poor long-suffering dog...

While Derek & Sedona were in Maryland, we went to Classic Skating and did all the activities there.  The moonbouncing was far and away the favorite.

 Though they had fun on the climbing structure...

 And scootering on the skating rink.

 But the most fun we had while they were away was visiting the farm by my sister's house in Springville.

 The little kangaroo they have there is just so adorable and super friendly.  Even Sol couldn't scare it away.

The emus were not amused.  They wanted to eat Sol for lunch and would've if there hadn't been a chain link fence in the way.  Dumb dog thought they were trying to play with him when they would rush him.

Sol loves my brother in law probably more than me even.  He gets so excited to see him that he nearly starts drooling...

 Spirit week always brightens up February, with mustache day being a crowd favorite.

 I'm kind of in love with this picture.  Have you ever seen this much cuteness in one piece before??

 A close-up on my sharpie handiwork.  He had a soul patch that came off at lunch...

Adia got some new music to bulk up her repertoire for harp gigs.  She's been playing them nearly incessantly.

Dade made a robot at preschool when they talked about recycling.  One thing this boy is good at is recycling.  He could teach not a few adults a thing or two.

 We made a few trips to the playground since the weather was so delicious.  I like how this shot turned out.

We all rode down to the school which meant of course I ended up carrying a couple scooters and  broken bike home.  My life as a pack animal.  And I'm talking burros, not wolves...

It's always fun to have the  kiddos stand on the state of their birth.  You can see beautiful Timpanogos in the background.

 He looks like an extra for the Matrix.  Neo 2.0 anyone?

 The last day of Spirit Week: crazy hair day.  That means pulling out the colored hair spray and doing silly stuff with ponies.

Sedona came back from Maryland and loved on Sol so much he started running away from her.  I thought she would've gotten in her love with the cats, but I guess there's no substitute for a Sol.

 Dade went through a brief romance with the fencing game on Wii Sports Resort.  He managed to kick my booty several times and not through luck.

 Loving on the new nephew on his blessing day.  Isn't he a doll?  

We went to the mall to run a few errands and let the kids play at the play area.  Dade, ever the monkey, made everyone's hearts stop several times.

You can't go wrong with sisters on either side of you.

My other monkey.

 Daddy giving raspberries as punishment since Dade wouldn't give him a kiss.  :)

Adia got to go to her wonderful harp teacher's performance in Alpine.  We are so, so fortunately to have such a wonderful woman to teach her.

 More examples of the monkey genes coming through.

 If this doesn't prove we evolved from monkeys, I honestly don't know what will...  ;)

At Pack Meeting this month, we did a carnival theme.  I helped with the face painting.  The kids were so obsessed with Frozen, we made sure to include it in the repertoire.

 Olaf the snowman: giving Minions a run for their money in the cuteness department.

 Probably 50% of what I ended up painting (especially for the boys) was a Y for BYU...

 They say it's your birthday...  I guess she's already thinking ahead to May.

And another Y on the cheek.  Always a crowd-pleaser.