February

This post is all about February... and the two days before it!  Because, you see I can't skip my little Tommy boy's birthday!!

Tommy turned two!  I just can't get enough of this kids cheeks... but I think sometimes he has enough of me kissing them. Hehe! 

Our friend from the ward invited us to her son's birthday party on the same day as Tommy's birthday.  We went to Let's Bounce and had a lot of fun playing with a bunch of our little friends.  Tommy actually just wanted to ride on a motorcycle the whole time but that was fine.  If he ever left it to jump and someone else took it he sure let them know he was not okay with that... "At's MINE!" is one of his little phrases he is super good at saying. ;)

Cache, Tommy, Nora, and Elsy.

Elsy's favorite part was the big, long, tall slide.  Both of my kids tried their hardest to hide from me in the deepest recess of one of the bounce maze's.  Ugh, that was a sweaty ordeal trying to climb in there and drag them both out while they each tried to run back as I grabbed the other.

Tommy just loves doughnuts and since I can't throw away food that isn't eaten... especially when it is a cake!  I decided I had better not bake a whole cake for just the four of us.  Because really I would just eat it all day every day for the next few days.  So we opted for some Krispy Kremes.  They were having a staff meeting but let us stay anyway so we had the place to ourselves.  Tommy doesn't look to happy in this picture... and to be honest I don't think he was.  I just re-watched the video of us singing to him and he just gives this sigh in the middle of the song, as if he is saying, "Guys, come on just let me blow on the fire and eat already."

Here he is, MUCH happier.  We opened presents there.  He got some big legos and two airplanes from Planes Fire and Rescue, Dusty Crophopper and Blazin' Blade.  He still loves them both a month later so I would say they were successful gifts.

This little boy just melts my heart all the time.  I am so grateful to have him in our little family.  Every night when I ask him about his day I ask if he had a good or a bad day and he says, "Goooud."  And then I ask him what he did and he says, "Cars"  And then when I ask him what song he wants me to sing he says, "Cars" again because he wants me to sing the theme song from the Cars movie... which really is just a tune with no words haha! 

He has started to tell me I have "peeey hair" (pretty hair) and he likes to get his fingers stuck in it, it makes him laugh.  Last night as I sang to him (I always try to sing another song too!) he looked up at me as I was rocking him and he said so softly, "Pee-ey song".  I had song "Mother, Tell Me the Stories."  Because he is constantly moving I have a hard time trying to get him to hold still enough to feel the Spirit when I teach him about Jesus.  But sometimes I get through to him.  I have found if I lay on the floor and have him sit on my tummy and I bounce him a little while I talk to him then we have much longer conversations and I can actually try and teach him a little bit.

Everyone always comments on how he has such a deep little voice and it is so true.  The cashier at Fred Meyer the other day said she thought he would someday be a famous opera singer.  I laughed because I wouldn't exactly go that far.  Tommy does not like to sing the way Elsy does, although every now and then he will sing, "A suuuh-bee!  a suuuuuh-bee!" (A Sun-beam!  A Sun-beam!) in his deep little voice.  But if I ever chime in he stops.  He is very picky about his songs and if I start to ever sing a song he doesn't like he is sure to tell me about it, "Ot dat un!" (Not that one!)  Some of my favorite words he says are, "A beebot" (a robot), "A-num" (amen), "Look, Mom!" (he always pauses after he says look and then says Mom a little bit later as if he has to think about how to connect the two words.  He has been making longer sentences in the last two weeks and it is so fun to hear the words he puts together.) "Fafull" (Waffle), "Fuff-Fuff!" (Ruff-ruff, like a dog bark).  We have wondered a bit if he will have a little bit of a lisp.  He always asks, "Ut at guy doin?" (What's that guy doin'?) and whenever I answer one of his questions he says, "Okay, Mommy."

Both of my kids can make their mouths into a straight line like that ^^ and I think it is so cute.

Here is the 2-year check up picture!  He did such a good job but I just absolutely hate shot time, probably as much as they do.  He is a big, healthy boy!  One thing I don't like about my new doctor's office is they don't print out a sheet with all his information on it like my last office did.  So, since this post is a month overdue I can't remember how much he weighed or how tall he was.  The doctor did say he had a really good imagination for his age and was surprisingly really good at imaginative play. (When she came in Tommy and Elsy were playing with some animal figurines.)  I thought it was interesting that she pointed that out, because I feel like he really is good at that.  He will just play on his own for a long time, whereas Elsy didn't learn that skill until she got older.

And here is that straight line smile again that I just can't get enough of.  They get it from their dad.

At the beginning of February my friend Ashlea and I put on a baby shower for our friend Kimberly.  We decided to make it woodland themed, which was great because Tommy's side of the room has that theme and I already had some decor.  Elsy helped me to make some chocolate kiss acorns out of Nutter-butters, kisses, and mini chocolate chips.  They turned out so cute and I am sad I didn't take a close up of one... but really, it wouldn't have been as cute as that weird, cheesy smile of Elsy's.

Ashlea hosted the shower at her house (which is such a cute home!)  I made a little garland of animal prints I found for free online.

I also made a tassel garland we hung above the fireplace out of yarn.  I brought all my plants and little animal figurines from Tommy's room.  As well as an antler from my living room, and that metal bear head I got for Christmas.

I went to my friend Alyssa's baby shower about a month before this one and we played a super fun game where everyone made a baby replica of what they thought the baby would look like.  I wish I had taken a picture of everyone's creative play dough sculptures.  They were too cute.

Ashlea had a drink dispenser with the bottom filled with pine cones.  We also had a little place to write down your address so that Kimberly would have all the addresses for later when she wrote thank-you cards.

And the food was super delicious.  (On that middle platter Alshea put some Swiss ham and cheese rolls that were oh so good!)  There were meatballs, chips and salsa, veggies, fruit and fruit dip, a bundt cake, cookie bars, and chocolate acorns. :P  It was so much fun!  I wish I had gotten a picture of Kimberly, she is the most fashionable pregnant lady! ;)

One other game we played was matching baby animal names to their adult animal names and that was pretty fun as well.

I was super busy those few days because I was also in charge of Joy School that week.  I was pretty pleased with myself because I didn't even think about what to do for the letter R until the day after the baby shower and I just used some leftover twigs from the night before and grated some blue crayons and we made raindrops to hang in our windows out of wax paper and melted crayon.  I guess I didn't realize that it would rain for like 3 weeks straight and we didn't need fake ones to remind us about the rain. Bleh.

I just finished reading The Magnolia Story and I loved it.  What an inspiring and uplifting read.

My friend's husband looked up the weather of the last months.  According to him, since October there have only been three days that were 'good enough weather to go outside days'.  I cannot stand the rain any more!  Whenever there is a break in the rain this is what we do... bundle up and run outside for a quick walk around the apartment complex before the next bout of rain begins.

Saturday snacks at Panera again!

And then, just like that, literally overnight, it snowed a boat load!  I have never seen it snow here more than a little dusting that melted after a few hours.  I couldn't believe it.  We were completely unprepared.  Luckily our neighbor let us borrow their sled and Logan made some nifty snow pants for the kids out of garbage bags (haha!!)  They held up surprisingly well!  We drove over to Mountain View Park in Klahanie and had a great time sliding down a little hill they have there.

This girl loved it but she was very worried about getting to much snow on her hands.  

Tommy and Logan made snowman!  I was blown away with how much snow we got over the next two weeks.  There was a lot of ice on the roads and we had to help someone who got stuck at the exit of our complex lot so nobody else could get out.  Thankfully we had snow tires on our tires already (for when we travel to my parents house) so we didn't have any troubles.

This little man just loves his cheese.  I left for a split second and came back to find some big bites out of our Costco size cheese block!

Elsy just loves joy school and is learning so much.  I am proud of how intelligent she is and how well she remembers the things she hears.

Elsy also loves to do my hair.  And take pictures, she took this picture of me haha!

She is also all girl and loves to get into my jewelry box, play dress up, and help me cook.  During nap time she always comes to me and says, "Lets bake something!"

The other day she sat next to me squeezing and squishing my upper arm around.  Finally she said, "Mom, your arm feels like a jelly ball!"  Oh dear.  But she redeemed herself a few days later when she told me, "Mommy you look lovely.  Lovely is another kind of word for beautiful!"

When I started teaching piano lessons at the beginning of the school year I sat and thought about what I should do with the money.  I really wanted to just keep it for me and use it to buy more decorations for my house or new clothes or something like that.  But then I thought about Logan and how he doesn't get to spend all the money he makes on those kinds of things, it has a bigger purpose and that is providing for our family.  I thought about using it so that Elsy could go to a dance class or something.  But the more I thought about it, the more I started realizing I should spend the money on getting our food storage and emergency preparedness items together.  I realized that one day I might look at an item on my wall and wish I had spent the money on something to get me through a harder time.  I realized, there were no replacements and no more important things than fulfilling hunger and having life sustaining foods available in a time of emergency.  So I have not spent a single bit of my piano money on anything except buying food storage and emergency backpacks, lighting, etc.  I bought a hand crank grain mill that I am excited to try out.  This month I have been focusing on getting our backpacks finished. (Today I have some sweet knives coming in the mail for Logan and my backpacks!)  It feels so good to know that we have all these items.... candles, flashlights, clothing, guns and ammo, baking essentials, water purifiers, etc. on hand at a moments notice.  

I really do have a testimony of that scripture, "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear." (D&C 38:30).  For all who know me, they know I tend to worry more than is necessary.  And I used to feel so overwhelmed with the thought of something bad happening to our family.  I was praying about it and this scripture came to mind.  I realized if I was prepared, I had no need to fear because I would be ready.  Ready for anything!  So I started putting together our emergency plans.  I started building up a store of the foods we eat all the time.  I am gathering the necessities for a year supply.  We are definitely not done, but I have felt as I gather every needful thing, that I feel more and more peace.  I feel more and more secure.  I feel the Spirit tell me that I am doing what the prophet has asked us to do, and I know that my family will be blessed because of the sacrifice we have made to get this all put together.  We are becoming self reliant, and nothing is as empowering as that!

On to other news, Logan got a new job! It is funny how it all happened.  Logan has a good group of friends who all work at a company called Fresh Consulting.  They have been trying to get him to come over and work there and run the video department for a couple of years now but we have always turned it down because we just have loved the flexibility that Construx has given him.  He can work from home two days a week, go in whenever he wants, leave whenever he wants, we had tons of vacation days, and we just had a really nice, family centered lifestyle.  But it was hard for him there because he could basically go to work and not talk to anyone, all day long!  Logan is a very creative person and very innovative and that job just wasn't that way for him.  All he did was shoot eLearning videos and classes that he would edit together.  Super simple, quite a bit boring.  Well about a year and a half ago Fresh came knocking on our door and we were so close to taking the job but at the last second we pulled out and decided that Construx fit our needs better and allowed Logan to work on his side jobs and business ideas because Construx has very little in ways of non-compete rules whereas Fresh does.

In mid January, Jeff Dance - the CEO of Fresh - asked to have lunch with Logan again.  Logan knew he didn't want to go to Fresh but he says he will never say no to a conversation (and I also think a free lunch haha) so he went and talked to him.  And all the sudden, things just started feeling right this time.  This was the third time Fresh had come knocking on our door and suddenly things just started falling into place and becoming that perfect next step in Logan's career.  It was so strange, and it must have been inspired, how we went from "Oh a free lunch, but we already know we don't want to go over there" to "Actually going to Fresh makes a lot of sense now."  So Logan decided to take the job!  He was able to get some wiggle room in the non-compete contract he signed which was a big deal, as well as a good pay raise (because we knew Logan was going to be working way more hours and we wanted to make it worth it for us).



We were so grateful for Construx and everything Logan learned while working there.  We went through some crazy stuff while he worked there and learned a ton.  Looking at the path that Logan's career has taken it is interesting to see how the Lord has guided us to learn what we needed to learn in ways that we needed to learn them.  Everything at the company was set up perfect for us to learn those lessons and we are so grateful.  I took the kids to visit the office one last time.  They just loved getting to go there and eat all the Cheetos out of the pantry they had there and all the juice from the fridge.  Logan already is missing his beautiful view from his 13th story office.  However, his new office at Fresh is closer to home and actually looks out at the Seattle temple so that is fun.  It is just on the other side of I-90 from the temple.

Last lunch with Daddy!

Logan stepping through the door on his last day of work at Construx!  He was actually super sick that week.  I think maybe the stress of switching jobs maybe set him over the edge.  The kids both had colds and Logan got it so so bad!

He actually ended up going into the urgent care twice.  His throat was visibly swollen and made it hard for him to breath.  He also had fevers.  It is currently mid March and just 3 days ago Logan said he thought his throat was finally no longer hurting him anymore.  The doctor finally gave him some antibiotics that seemed to help a little but the sore throat still would come back in waves.

He slept all day for a week and a half.  We finally asked some good friends from the ward to come and give him a blessing two days before his first day at Fresh.  That also seemed to help.  That first week of working at Fresh was really hard for him because he was still really sick and the stress of starting a new job and not knowing what you are doing.  But it has all gotten better since then!

This poor girl was sick also, and Tommy had a terrible nose thing going on for like two weeks straight.  Just this week I realized Elsy hasn't been coughing as much (as much... she is still coughing) and that has been a miracle for us.  Both last winter and this winter she has had coughs through all the winter months.  Sometimes I wonder if she will EVER not be coughing :(

We celebrated Valentine's Day with our traditional crepe breakfast.  I made everyone a heart valentine and the kids loved them... as well as all the strawberries and M&Ms.

These two kiddos are just the best of friends.  I found them talking on the couch like this and I thought it was the sweetest thing.

On Saturdays, because Logan is home, Elsy and I like to go out shopping during Tommy's nap.  We always end up at Home Goods to look around.  We went on the hunt for some birthday gifts for Logan.

Elsy is always ready to leave before I am, which is saying something because I am not the best shopper around.  I let her curl up in the pillows at Target while I looked through frames for a painting I wanted to do for Logan for his birthday.

Another sensory bin!  This one was just some aqua beads from Amazon.  You just soak them in water and they grow into jelly balls and the kids really loved them.

We had cozy time again on a Saturday night.  We watched Storks.  My mom used to braid our hair like this on Saturday nights so it would be easier to do our hair in the morning so I decided to try it.  It turned out poofy and fun.

And let me just say, don't waste your time watching Storks.  The entire time I watched it I just thought it was dumb.  I have not been very impressed with Dreamworks movies.  There was zero character development, the plot had no underlying messages, that I could tell, besides just trying to come up with something that would be entertaining for a kid? and it just had tons of holes in the plot. And Logan and I are so into the art of storytelling I just found the whole thing severely lacking in, well, everything.  Also, I wasn't to happy with the end scene, where storks are dropping off babies to lots of different couples, including same gender couples.  I really struggled with that because I started to get the feels because everyone knows that having a baby (or receiving one through adoption) is such a miracle and you can't help but feel that feeling when someone gets a baby.  And the music was building as all these people were getting babies and suddenly they were giving babies to same gender couples and so there is this conflict (at least for us with the beliefs we have) where you are having all the feels and then suddenly there is something that isn't quite right, but the feels were just there so all the sudden it is confusing because your feeling something and then your brain says, "Whoa, somethings not right?" but the music keeps going and people are all getting babies and yeah.  I just could see how that could be totally confusing for a kid.  So I was super disappointed, and actually felt sick to my stomach, by the time the credits were rolling.  I just felt so betrayed by an alleged kids movie, that it was bringing so much into my home that I was not asking for or wanting.  Anyway. Super bummed and now I want Logan to start a media production company that specializes in movies for kids that carry the same standards that we have in our belief system.  Its a work in progress ;)

But until then, Logan can keep working at Fresh! Haha!  Here he is on his first day, about to head out!  He is so handsome.

And here are those best buddies again.

And again.  I took them to go see a little skit of The Tortoise and the Hare at our library and they loved it.... okay Elsy did, Tommy was oh so bored.

And then, if I haven't gotten political enough with my comments on Storks haha, Logan got this comment on his DaVinci Resolve tutorial he made.  We both had a super good laugh about it.  In the tutorial he uses footage from my deer hunt he filmed in 2015 to show ways of editing lighting and what not.  I apologized to Logan for turning him into an inhumane person and we just had a good laugh.

In my opinion, hunting is the most humane way of consuming meat there is.  The animal is able to fulfill it's measure in the place it was supposed to and the way it was supposed to, and then it's life is also ended in the way it was supposed to to.  "For, behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance." (D&C 49:19)

There are those buddies again, making puddles on the floor.... uh, I mean, helping with the dishes.

So, Logan fell asleep during nap time on the couch and I woke up Elsy and put her next to him but she fell back asleep and neither of them woke up for another half hour.  And I had no idea Elsy was a spooner. Haha!

We also got to celebrate Logan's birthday as well!  He is 29!  (And let me just say we are so scared for 30!)  To celebrate we made a yummy breakfast and then my friend babysat while he and I went out to get Sushi for the first time.  We went to Blue C Sushie and it was alright but we only got a couple plates to share before we ditched and went next door to The Cheesecake Factory for some cheesecake and an entree to share.  We ate so much food but we had so much fun.  

We have been struggling for thing to do on the Sabbath lately because we have early church and no family in town to visit.  And the weather has been terrible so we can't go on Sunday walks.  I decided to start trying new recipes to make as a family.  We have only done it once but it was a lot of fun.  WE made homemade pretzels!  The kids love them but Logan and I weren't very big fans since I didn't have the giant salt so they tasted a little bland.  We also have been watching a lot of family home videos and nature videos as well.

Well that is February.!  WE are learning and growing each new day and trying to become the family God wants us to be.  Each day brings a new challenge and we are trying to stay on our toes!