Valentines Day...

It was more like Valentine's week, really. Paul was going off track the week before, so they had an early class party at school. A friend and I were talking about how crazy the loot is that our kids make off with these days. When we were kids, it was just a cheesy Valentine card with your favorite cartoon character. Now they include stickers, tattoos, holograms, and CANDY! Every Valentine must come with CANDY!

Jackson made a traditional mail box to collect his Valentine's this year, and we told him he had to do it all by himself. We were still burned out from making the C3P0 collector last year! Alanna had a party at preschool and her dance class. Too much CANDY!

We broke tradition this year, and instead of pizza, we got Chinese food! It was really fun to eat at home with the kids and without having to fight the crowds. We had cake balls for dessert, and I let the kids go at the "decoration candy". I made James this Broncos minke blanket, and he gave me a certificate for laser hair removal. Yeah! Too bad it won't be all over with by the time we go to Hawaii. It was a complete surprise though, and I love that he is so thoughtful.

I can't believe that I forgot to get a picture of my Valentine decoration I made from Pinterest. I was so happy with myself for actually being crafty and making a couple of heart wreaths, a topiary, painted letters, and pictures to celebrate. I figured I needed something to take my mind off of the dreary January/February weather :)

Uncle Caleb's Birthday!

Caleb wanted a German Chocolate cake this year. I did a triple layer Paula Dean version with chocolate ganache, and of course, lots of butter :) It was so good! I really need to get one of those cake levelers some day - my cakes are always lopsided!  My parents made homemade Rocky Road ice cream to go with it - talk about desserts that could put you into a diabetic coma!

Caleb decided that he and K.C. share the same birthday. She wasn't offered any cake, and I don't think she liked it. After everything was cleaned up and everyone was out of the kitchen, I looked over and saw that she had jumped onto the counter and was licking the crumbs off of the uncovered portion of the cake pedestal! What a mischievous girl she is.

There are so many reasons why we love Caleb. I feel so blessed to have him as a brother and an amazing example of love and kindness in my life. He's always the life of the party, especially for the kiddos. I don't think I've ever had an argument with Caleb. When we were kids, I remember a few times when the rest of us were fighting, and he'd start crying and say "Stop fighting, you guys are hurting my feelings!" That just shows you what a tender heart he has! On the other hand, he did drive me crazy at times when he would literally bounce off the walls when he got home from school and run around making annoying sounds. That energy has been channeled for better uses these days! I love that Caleb is so tenacious and hard working. When we were finishing our backyard, which was full of rocks/boulders, he would fill up a wheel barrow full of rocks and run them up the hill on the side of the house to dump them on the curb. He never slowed down either - he's just a work horse! And anytime anyone needs help with a project, he's the first one there despite a busy work and school schedule. Our kids always feel special when he takes time to stop by, or takes them to his house for a "birthday weekend". One of the sweetest things he has done for me was when he made me a "Candyland" themed birthday cake a couple of years ago. I LOVE candy, and it was such an awesome looking cake that took a great deal of planning, creativity, and effort.

Here are some things the rest of us had to say:
Jackson: " I like that Caleb comes to our house often. He took me to Grannie Annies for my birthday for a huge scone, eggs, sausage, and toast. Also, I stayed at his house all weekend and went to a parade, went fishing, played with K.C., and watched a movie."
Paul: "I love when Caleb come to our house to wrestle us. I love K.C. too. Caleb took me to get french toast for my birthday, and took me swimming and bought me swim shorts. I love Caleb."I'll add that when Paul was born, Caleb came to visit us in Virginia. We took a 2 hour trip up to Philadelphia to see the sites, and Paul screamed the entire way home! Caleb was very patient with Paul during that trip, and he loved and cuddled him and put funky hair styles in his hair!
Alanna: I love Caleb because I just love him. (big smile) He puts me up high in the air and throws me up and catches me.
Blaze: "Uncle Caleb...love him. Play with me!"

Andrew's Art Show...

Don't know what is with the hideous moustache...he's and artist? It was really cool to go to Andrew's art studio where he and a few friends have taken it upon themselves to host quarterly art shows for the public. He lives in Ogden, and there is a huge movement to "revive" Ogden, so they are getting some attention from local papers and blogs etc. for their efforts. Weber State up in Ogden has an amazing art program, so there is a need to show off the student's work.

 It was also Uncle Caleb's birthday that night - different post for that!

 This was one of my favorites, and Andrew made it. It was a bust of our dad cut open to look like a geode. I'll have to ask him the title of it, I forgot. But it was so interesting to look at and try to figure out what everything is made of and how he did it. The geode look is from melted wax that he funneled in through a hole and the bottom of the bust.

When Andrew was making this bust, he texted us all a picture of it asking who it was. I said it was dad, but James said Abraham Lincoln - as did a few others. We never noticed how similar they look! Andrew had a hard time cutting this head in half! He was hoping Dad didn't feel weird about seeing it though!

 Andrew's girlfriend, Cara, is getting her Masters degree from the Art Institute of Chicago right now. This is one of her pieces - she likes to work with food. It's supposed to make you want to touch it! It's a good thing it was high enough on the wall that my kids couldn't lick it!

This was Andrew's other art piece, which was our other favorite. He has been working with the theme of time and erosion.

Jawbreakers are hanging off of string carrying drips of water down from food storage buckets. The color and sugar ooze down onto a drip plate to form a mountainous structure. Eventually all of the colors ran down through the tubes attached to the drip plate into the bucket on the floor. This was so cool to watch how quickly the erosion of candy took place, and to imagine that this is what happens in nature over millions of years. I'm not a philosophical artist, so I had to have help and personal insight about most of the pieces. Andrew said some pieces are for the art community to appreciate because they are the only ones who would "get" them, but this piece wouldn't be appreciated so much by "them" because it is so obvious. Very interesting... this perspective has made me understand modern art a little bit more :)

Wax Museum...

Jackson had an extensive book report project that involved a written biographical report, a tri-fold poster, and an oral presentation in character. His entire grade set up a "wax museum" where they were dressed up like their person of interest and "introduced" themselves to parents and classmates in their "museum". Unfortunately, I had a very contagious case of strep throat that day, so I sent James to document the event. I encouraged Jackson to learn about Pele, because I remember learning about Pele from a similar project I had to do in elementary school. Pele is of course " The King of Soccer", so James and Jackson really enjoyed learning all about him. I love reading biographies too - it's so interesting to learn about people and their motivation and choices, and how it brings them to success or failure. What we loved most about Pele, (and Jackson said this himself) is that he was successful on the soccer field but he also pursued a college education and found that very valuable. He was quoted as saying "you can play in two fields and have success in both!"

Snowboarding...

James got the boys boards four or five years ago, but they haven't been too serious about really using them. I decided to really push them into it this year, and the boys enjoyed their 1st professional lesson at Brighton. They were in different classes, and perhaps because it was 0 degrees up there, the class sizes were very small. There were only two in Paul's class, and three in Jackson's! They learned some simple skills like turning, stopping, etc. Two weeks later, James took them up for an entire day and they rode the lift and did the "explorer" runs. I'm so proud of them for toughing it out for that long. Snowboarding is much harder to learn than skiing, but these guys are pretty committed to hanging in there and practicing and practicing.

I hate snow! I hate winter time! I hate January! I HATE the inversion! (That felt good to vent!) Although we live up in the mountains above the smog line, we still get sick from all of the trapped pollution. I was laughing the other day when I went in to see my favorite doc for a yearly check up, and he was trying to convince me to take up skiing. He said I would "love" winters in Utah if I did. It looks like so far, Alanna and I are content to hang out in the warm indoors while the guys brave the cold. Little Blaze begs to go boarding anytime he sees anyone in the house put on a snow hat, gloves, or boots! I'm sure he'll be up there with the rest of them soon, and I hope James is ready to help out our feisty baby :)