Foggy Mornings

We got a nice taste of limited visibility this past week.  It really wasn't that bad outside of early morning.  I really liked having the fog there, and possibly a light rain, each day when I got up.  I do think Monica drove the girls closer to school for the morning walk a time or two (only the days it was raining hard!), but all in all we enjoyed the misty mornings.  I feel like it's been a long time since I've been in fog.  It's not very common in CO or in UT, but maybe a bit more so here.

Winry got a little chicken thing that you shoot off your finger from school or something.  Anyway, it's a little sticky, and often finds itself up high on the wall.  And sometimes, the only way to get it down is a frisbee.

Jelly has found a new technique for drinking from the sink.  It does seem easier to wrap around the faucet... though I suppose this way her paws don't get wet, but that's never seemed like a problem before.

Look at that gap!  Winry lost another tooth!  She was very excited about it.  When I asked the next morning, she said she was able to catch a glimpse of the tooth fairy AGAIN!  I think she said she didn't even fall asleep first this time.

It's not quite captured in the image as it was in real life, but when I got off the train to walk to work, the fog looked nice on the buildings.  I really like when sky scrapers fade out in fog as they get higher.

So, I know it's obvious from the picture, but Grayson bit holes in his cucumbers, and then is looking through them as glasses!  Lately he really likes to take bites out of the middle of things, and then often the rest ends up going on his face.  Cucumbers are not the easiest to look out.

Monica and Grayson headed to the park for a play group, and the little stream was running high.  Grayson was very excited and plopped right down on the side of the bridge, shoes, socks, pants and all!  He didn't care, and it wasn't even a particularly warm day either.  This kid really loves the water.  He was also getting wood chips from the playground to dump into the stream, and Monica said he had basically no desire to play on the playground the whole time.  Just play in the water.

On Saturday I took Grayson to Liam's birthday party.  It was cars themed, and Grayson had a really great time.  He liked playing with these inflatable tires, and I spent a lot of the party trying to throw them and get them to land around him while he was running.

There was food, and Grayson spent a lot of time eating.  He formed the popular table when it was time for cupcakes.

While we were at the party, Monica, Brooke, Winry and some friends from the ward went to the high school to see Matilda.  It sounds like everyone really enjoyed the show.

I made a lot of progress on the shelves in the office this week, and now I think it's mostly just figuring out some trim, etc.

Sunday afternoon I took the kids down to the Brushy Creek trail.  We were in search of bridges and had a good time walking the trail and throwing sticks into the creek.  We also played on the playground for a while when we made it back to the car.  It was fun, and Grayson loved the bridges which was great news.  It's just too bad it's a 20-25 minute drive away.  Also, when we got home Winry realized she left her jacket on a table at the park, so I hopped back in the car, drove down and found it.  Fortunately, it was still there.

And that's all I've got for now.  Have a great week. 

Snow Day!

We had out first snow "storm" while living here in Texas.  It was very exciting, and the best news is that it even came on a holiday, so everyone had the day off.  As soon as we finished eating breakfast the kids were ready to rush out the door and into the snow.  It was a pretty chilly morning, under 20 degrees, and if I'm remembering right a wind chill around 5, so of course there was much bundling up.  Look how prepared Winry is!

Slightly earlier in the morning it was just Winry and I awake.  She's our early riser, and is always the first kid up.  We were enjoying some quiet time on the couch together, and she got her kindle and started reading to her lion on her lap.  She's become an impressively good reader.  I feel like it was only a few months ago we were still finishing up her learning to read books and she'd have to stop and sound out a word every sentence, and now she just ploughs through.

When Grayson woke up I asked him about this amazing structure he built out of blocks the day before.  He told me that it was "Gram and Audrey's temple."  So this was his take on the new temple in Orem that we saw when we went out to visit.  Also, he loves to build temples, that's always what he builds when he gets his blocks out.

Once everyone was awake and we'd gotten a start to the day it was time to go play in the snow.  Grayson didn't want to go out in the cold, so it was just the girls.  They went to the highest concentration of snow they could find, the car windshields!  Yeah, it was really just a dusting, but snow is snow, and it's always exciting!

Fortunately the cold was present, so we had to have hot chocolate when we came in.  I was recently blessed to be reunited with my mug from our family reunion when I was 7.  What a great year, I really... don't remember it much.  I wonder if I knew what we had done if I actually would remember anything from it, but at least I'll always be connected to my childhood through hot chocolate.

Grayson has been back and forth with eating lately.  He's definitely by far our hardest child to get to eat.  The funny thing is, there will be times we give him food and he yells and screams about it, but then we leave and a minute or two later he walks over to the table and eats it all.  So when we finally got him to agree to some food, and then he got upset about it, I asked if he wanted a picnic upstairs.  Guess what?  With no parents around, he sat and ate it all.

Monday afternoon Brooke went to a birthday party for a friend from school.  The party was at the Austin Spurs game!  Brooke had a great time watching the game and hanging out with her friends from school.  The bull even came into their box to say hi and get a picture.

On Tuesday, Monica took the kids to school and... the heat was out, so they said it was optional and everyone could go home, so home they came.  This was probably good, because there were only like 4 rooms at the school with heat, so all classes got moved there and I'm sure it was just a fun, play day.  The bad news is that since the heat was out at the school, all these dinosaurs froze in ice, so the kids had to help free them all!  This was meant for Grayson's birthday party months ago, but we didn't end up having time at the party so they'd been in our freezer ever since.

Grayson has recently given in to his animal instincts and started going down the stairs like a penguin.  Sometimes the girls think this seems fun and do it too.

On Friday night there was a ward board game night, and I attended.  Monica was still feeling sick and had quite a cough, so she didn't come.  In fact, on Friday she went to the urgent care and found out she has bronchitis, so she's likely past being sick/contagious, and now just has her lingering cough for who knows how long.  That said, it's a pretty bad cough, and would very much be likely to make people nervous in public to have her there.  Anyway, the game night was very fun.  I played a Reckoners board game, and had a super time.  The game, and especially the company were delightful!  And I even got to hold the Johnson's baby!!

On Saturday I did a bunch more work on the shelves for the office.  It was finally paint day!  Here's a bunch of pieces out in the garage, drying.  Also, you may notice the space heater.  Technically it wasn't warm enough out to be in the appropriate range for the paint, so I plopped the space heater out there, and it was able to keep the garage warm enough for me to paint.  It really only had to run in the morning and evening, and during the day, even though it only got to around 40 outside, it was over 50 in the garage without the heater's help, so it got to take a break.

Once all the pieces needed to build a shelf were painted, it was assembly time.  I'd bring a set into the living room and assemble it on the rug.  That way I hopefully wouldn't scrape paint off.

And then I'd haul them into the office and put them up on their stands.  I was able to get 3 of the shelves assembled, and still need to assemble one more.  I was also able to get everything painted, so I can work on the rest of the assembly throughout this next week, and will hopefully have a picture of all the shelves put up for next week.  There will still be a bit more work with trim and stuff, but it's very exciting to finally have gotten the shelves painted and put together!  Oh, and I did put some of these pictures out of order, but I was up until 11:59 on Saturday night painting shelves out in the garage.  I stopped just in time for the Sabbath, and believe everything is in a good enough spot to do the assembly this week.  Also, I am VERY tired today.

Brooke invited her friend Vivian over on Saturday, and they had a great time.  They also included Winry in their games, which was great!  It just so happened that they had started working on cake pops in the afternoon, so while Vivian was here they got to decorate them!

After dipping them in chocolate and drizzling some on the top, it was time for sprinkles.  As happens, working with chocolate and sprinkles tends to attract racoons Grayson.  When Monica found him he had his face in his hands, and when he looked up he had a nice Santa beard going on.  He unfortunately licked it pretty quickly, so we can't share the full effect, but he definitely snuck a hand full of white sprinkles.

Once cake pop decorating was done, the girls headed out to do some roller skating.  They let Vivian have the first turn, and helped her make it across the driveway.  Right as she was turning around, her mom pulled up to pick her up. So after a quick skate back to the safety of the grass, she got ready and headed for home.  The girls had so much fun having her over, so we'll definitely have to do that again soon!

Here's a picture of Grayson brushing his teeth that evening.  He climbs up on the counter just about every night to brush his teeth. What a cutie!

Grayson has been doing wonderfully in primary so far.  Winry will walk him up to the front and help him get in a seat, and then he just stays there.  We've checked with his teachers, and they say so far he's always been well behaved.  Also, tonight at family home evening he was singing along with some of the songs because we were singing songs they're learning in primary right now!  I'm very impressed how well he's doing for how energetic he can be, and especially for how energetic he got to be each week in nursery.  This is essentially a 180 degree change, and he's taking it like a champion.

Tonight we had Grayson's monitor on, and Jelly laid down right in front of it on the couch.  She apparently wanted to keep a very close eye on him tonight to make sure he was doing well.

In other Jelly news, her favorite game to play with me is when we both hide around a corner from each other, and then she'll run over and pop out around the corner, and then I'll spring up towards her and she'll run away, and then I'll hide behind the corner and wait for her to rush in again.  Well, we were playing this over the couch this past week while Monica watched, and she was very much appreciating the game.

And to finish out the Jelly section, she got out of the house today.  I had a presidency meeting here, and apparently the door didn't get closed all the way when the last person arrived.  Part way through the meeting I heard a car drive by outside and thought it sounded too loud, and asked if the door was open and someone went and closed it.  When the meeting ended we opened the door and Jelly came darting in.  Not only had she been outside for at least a half hour, but it had started to rain too, and it was even wet all the way up on the front porch.  And it was only 35 degrees outside! So there was little Jelly, still with her shorter fur from being shaved, all wet and cold.  She fortunately didn't seem like she herself was cold, just her fur on the outside, but she seemed very happy to be back inside!  I'm kind of hoping that it was a bit of an unpleasant experience for her and will make her not want to run out the door as much in the future, but mostly I'm just glad she's back and safe!
 

Happy Birthday Winry!!!

Happy Birthday Winry!  What a cutie!  Winry's had a super year, and done a lot of growing up.  She lost her first tooth, started kindergarten, and has become a reading machine!  She's been a joy.  She is full of energy and loves to share her happiness with everyone.  It's been amazing to watch her learn and grow and bless our family!  We love you Winry!

I got a new phone this week.  It's the Motorola Razr+.  It' folds, which is pretty cool, and is the main reason why I wanted to get it.  There's something about flip phones that I really like.  Another thing I really like is that when it's folded there's a screen on the front, and you can run basically any app on it.  So I don't have to open my phone to do things like text, email, etc.  Since there is a second screen, it also means it's really easy to use the nice cameras for selfies, and it plays an animation to catch kids attention when you're taking pictures, and Grayson LOVES it!  Just look at that huge smile I was able to get.  Seriously though, it's a little animation of a cartoon face making faces at you, and the color changes, but kids really are glued to it for pictures!  Maybe I'll try to get some pictures of it on Monica's phone to share since it is pretty unique, and I do really like it.

The Christmas lights around Grayson's window slowly attempted to consume his bed!  Monica did that for him and he really loves it.  The lights are down now, which is a little sad, but he still has his Christmas tree in there, and I love it as his night light!

We had the missionaries over for dinner on I believe Tuesday night this week. Grayson was craaaaazy. When I took this picture I really thought it was a lot better than this, but I guess I didn't actually look very closely when I took it...

Anyway... on Winry's birthday the kids got ready for school real quick so that Winry could open presents in the morning before school.  It's amazing how fast they can get ready when they're motivated!  Winry was very excited, she got a game, and some fun crafts!

We joined Winry for lunch at school!  She wanted us to pick up Chick-fil-a, so that's what we had.  We were joined by another girl in kindergarten who also had her birthday!  That was pretty cool.  Lunch was a lot of fun!

That afternoon, Grayson... ate like a cat?  I'll be honest, I was working...

While Winry was at school our present for her arrived in the mail, which was a kindle.  She was very excited for it, and that afternoon she and Brooke were reading together on the couch.  She's really loved it so far and has already read a few books, so that's pretty awesome.

Winry wanted to go to Jeramiah's and get ice cream for her birthday treat!  We took candles along with us and sang happy birthday there.  It wasn't very busy, so it was pretty awesome to get to spend family time there and have it be quiet.  I mean... external from our family quiet.  Anyway, it's an ice cream and Italian ice place, and it's pretty fun.  I definitely want to go back and try some other flavors!  Most importantly, Winry very much enjoyed herself.

Here's a picture of Jelly I got using my phone's macro mode.  I got right up close to her face, and I guess she decided it wasn't too invasive, because she didn't get up.  Mostly, I just really liked this picture!  And it's hard to see that she's shaved, so she looks like her long haired self!

Those are the events for this week.  I'd say we're mostly settling back into standard life after our trip and the holidays.  Things are going well, and it's nice to have a little more quite and relaxed week, albeit highlighted with Winry's birthday!

Time in Orem

Happy New Year!  As the new year began, we continued our visit in Utah.  On Monday we headed down to Orem to spend some time with Monica's family.  Tuesday night we all headed out to Luminaria, a really big Christmas light show at Thanksgiving Point.  It was really cool, and a super huge light show.  Even bigger than the Trail of Lights we went to back in December.  More details on this later though.

Monday we just kinda hung out and chatted, and one of the things that came up was that Monica and I wanted to go see Wonka, so Tuesday late morning we found ourselves at the theater!  The movie was great and I would gladly watch it again.  I really liked having a go at Willy Wonka's origin, and I'd love to see a remake of Willy Wonka with a more liberal approach to match the style of this movie.

While we were hanging out around the house we definitely had to play some bridge games.  Everyone got sucked in eventually, including Gram!

That evening we went to Luminaria.  It was super huge, and a lot of fun.  They had a whole gingerbread building with some really crazy gingerbread houses, and a nice spot to be a gingerbread man yourself.

There was also a sleigh that you could sit in to get a feel for what it's like to be Santa!

There was an area of these cool lights on the ground that changed colors when you stepped on them.  These were a lot of fun to walk around on or tap your foot on, and we were here for quite a bit chasing each other around.

There was a laser light projection area, and you may notice that Winry has a paper in her hand.  There were hidden yeti ornaments that had letters on them, and as we walked around we had to find them all to be able to decipher his hidden message and get a prize at the end.

There were also live reindeer!  I think one was Blitzen, and I don't remember who else they said was in there.  Brooke said it was Dasher.  Anyway it was pretty cool to get to see some of Santa's reindeer, and they looked pretty tired after their long night.

That night Grayson did what Grayson loves to do, recruit a story reader.  Tonight was Pop's turn!  Grayson snuggled up with him on the couch for a great time.  Grayson really loves stories, so if you want to get in quick with him, offer to read him some books.  That's often how I get him to bed.  When he knows it's close he'll start complaining that he doesn't want to go to bed any time I suggest going upstairs, even if it's to play with toys together.  But if I ask if we can go read some stories?  Well, he often yells he doesn't want to go to bed, but the allure of a story is too strong, and he follows me up to his room and picks some out.

Monica and I took advantage of having close temples and went twice while we were out in Utah.  We didn't take a picture at the Bountiful temple, but we did at the Provo temple.

Brooke ended up getting sick, which, unfortunately, seems to be what Brooke does lately on vacation.  Hopefully we end that streak soon.  Anyway, we got tickets to go to the women's basketball game and got to sit courtside with Gram and Pop!  We all had a lot of fun.  I got a cougar tail (a ~2 foot maple bar) to share, and at halftime we got ice cream!

Thursday morning we went to the bookstore, and Brooke still wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home.  It was unfortunate, because Brooke was really excited to go see "her future school" as she calls it!  We still had fun with Grayson and Winry though.  We went to see the cougars at the front of the Wilk.

And we went to the BYU store and got a picture with the Cosmo statue!  Grayson was having none of it at first, but I'm glad he eventually sat there (after I picked him up and put him there).

The kids had a good time on the Y  mountain slide as well.  

On Friday we were off to the airport and heading back to Texas.  We kind of got lucky, in that it started snowing Thursday night.  The lucky part was that we really wanted snow, and when we got up to my parents house there was a couple inches... and the roads were pretty slick and not great to drive.  But the good news is that it was just bad up at the top of the hill, everything at the bottom of the hill was totally fine.  It was a little too bad though, because we really wanted to go sledding while we were there and never got a chance.  Anyway, we made it to the airport without incident, and Grayson and Winry helped pull Grayson's suitcase along!  I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot easier traveling with kids now that they can help carry and move their own stuff!

And now we're back in Texas, relaxing and preparing for the return to work and school next week.  Hopefully we handle the transition back well.