January and February

Yay!  I'm finishing my update! Two posts in one day!  Phew!

January
I made a quilt out of the scraps from Madeleine's quilt.  I absolutely love this quilt- it is one of my favorites so far!  I'm learning to abandon my need for symmetry and embrace balance. This is working for me! I named this one Pick Up Sticks

Front

Back

 Daniel turned 42 this year!  We had a small party for him and presented him with a new set of peshtemal towels (because on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy they have towels and since 42 is the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything I felt that it was a good year for towels!)

 For Christmas I gave Daniel the complete set of Calvin and Hobbes comics.  I found this tiger and thought that it was a nice companion gift to the books.  Daniel loved this tiger. He put it on our bed and he slept with it.  Jane was afraid that Seth would steal it, so she would hide it in our closet and Daniel would pull it out for bed.  Each morning she would come in and hide it from Seth.  Then one day it wasn't in the closet- it was in Jane's bed!  She stole the tiger and loves it like it is her own!

Jane and I try to go to the library for story time every week.  Because of getting sick, our consistency hasn't been stellar, but Jane enjoys going and is handling the transitions and being around other children much better now than she was in the fall. The Herriman library has a great program and I'm glad that she enjoys going!

I tried to get her into a preschool class but the ones that I was willing to pay for didn't have openings mid-year.  Some places are $175 a month for 2-3 days a week preschool.  I just refuse pay that.  I felt that she needed the discipline that would come from going to school. I realize now that she will learn it quickly enough in kindergarten.  I decided to change my efforts with learning at home and we have made some great advancements. If I do 'preschool' and I am her teacher she doesn't like it, but if I pull out a fun craft or project she will love working on it. That's okay- I'm happy to keep it all relaxed right now anyhow!  

 Jane started dance class with her little friend Hailey.  She was really excited to go to dance class.  But she really struggled with being there.  We are making progress and hopefully she will adapt to learning in new environments.  I'm just excited that she is in dance class because that means that she has finally gotten her potty training ordeal figured out for the most part.  Encopresis has not been a fun thing to deal with.  We are on the road to recovery, so I'm happy about that!

Seth was chosen to do a fun run for Riverton City to celebrate their 150th birthday.  He ran a short course and then we went to the high school to light a birthday cake and watch a fireworks show.  It was a great evening with Seth! (He was disappointed that he didn't get number 42 though!)

 Daniel and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary this month. We don't do anything big for our anniversary, but we did go out to dinner.
Jane wanted to get married too, so I made her a little veil out of purple fabric and she spent the day as a purple bride!

February

We had a girl's night out with my sisters and mom. We had a few games that we played at a mall.  It was fun to spend time together.

 Daniel and I went out for dinner on Valentines night.  It was a bit of an impromptu event as we usually don't go out because we don't like all of the crowds and Mark had an all day TKD event that didn't get over until early evening.  I was having a rough day and I didn't have anything ready for dinner, so we picked up some pizza for the kids and went to Thai Basil for dinner.  It wasn't crowded!  We were even "daring" and tried sushi!  We had a veggie roll and an Alaskan roll.  I really liked it!  I'm even looking into making sushi at home because I have actually craved it several times since!

Seth had his cousin over to play one day and when I was driving Nathan home, I looked back and saw them like this.  I had to pull over and take a picture!

 Little Jane has had a rough month.  She was sick with a cold- she had laryngitis and a bad "cough-es".  We had a party planned with Madeleine and her grand-daughter, but had to cancel.  Rats!  It had been a few days since Jane had eaten anything, so I had her make the candy necklace that we were going to make at the party.  I figured that she would probably eat some of it and that was good!  She ate the large marshmallows and they made quite a mess!  I went to wipe her nose and the tissue stuck to her face and I had to peel it off in little pieces!  She recovered from that cold in time to get sick with the flu a few days later.

Even though she was super sick she sure is beautiful! We didn't even do her hair that day!

I was getting ready to go to the store when Jane was sick and she really wanted to go with me.  I told her that she couldn't come with me.  She was upset, but understood.  A few minutes later she brought this doll to me and said "Mom, Ariel isn't sick. Can she come with you?" So, I took Ariel shopping with me!

Mark and his friend Ryan spend a lot of time together here at the house.  Several times Mark has either used up all of his computer time or lost computer privileges so they will ask if there is anything they can do to earn come computer time.  Usually I will have a pile of dishes that need to be washed and they are willing to do it!  Whoo hoo!  

 Jane has renamed Hobbes.  His/her name is now Elsa.  She goes a lot of places with us lately!

This is just a little artwork by Jane.  I love it!  It is Dora and Boots!It is so good to see  her feeling better!  She has spent a lot of time on the couch just watching movies. 

 Oh ya, in January we got a new van.  We bought a KIA Sedona.  We also bought new phones (our phones were 5 years old and the features in the van wouldn't work on our phones!) This is a picture that we took when we were trying to figure out some feature of the phone camera.

 Mark got a job this month as a custodian at his school.  He works after school for about an hour every day.  I'm proud of him for pursuing  this opportunity!

Right now I'm only 1/3 of a way through a project that I thought would be done by now and I have a quilt that was ready to quilt weeks ago. I'm glad that I have the luxury to let these things wait while I nurse the family and myself.  I am experiencing some digestive issues so I'm in the middle of figuring out what adjustments I need to make to my diet.  It is already restricted and I'm afraid that I'm going to have to give up a few more things.  Right now I think that I'll be following a strict FODMAPS diet to get things under control.  Ey yie yie, it is difficult to not eat the standard American diet sometimes.

Okay, I'm caught up now!  Happy March!