Snowboarding!!

Here's some Targhee pictures:

Rik, Quinn, Matt and Kawiti

Helamen, Malia and Taisha

KJ and Kayden

McKay (looks like he was talking or laughing... haha!)

Rik and the "Yak-Hat"

Let the Romance Begin.... or not

So Valentine' Day was kind of a bust this year for us. My tooth broke over the weekend, so Monday morning (Valentine's Day) I went in to have it fixed, only it fell apart, so WooHoo I got a new crown... bummer! While I was waiting for them to make the crown, I got a call from the elementary school saying that Anaya was sick, and someone needed to go get her. I called Rik (who answered the phone hoarse and stuffy sounding), and I said something like: "Tan you doe det Anaya from thschool? Thee's thick." Dumb double round of mouth numbing shots! Rik got Anaya and ended up working from home until the other kids got home, I went to work as soon as I got done at the dentist. After some weird events at my school (it took one student's grandma almost 2 hours to find the school, and I may or may not have locked myself out of the school....), I finally got home and whipped out the fasted "red, pink and heart" dinner on record! Too bad Anaya, Rik, Taisha, and Kayden weren't feeling 100%. Unfortunately, the rest of the week didn't get much better. By Wednesday I was just as sick as everyone else, and so, so tired! Needless to say, I am so very happy that we have a nice, long 4 day weekend to get everyone healthy!

Here's some pictures of Anaya's Valentine's Day hair and nails:



Everyone (except Anaya and I) got up this morning and went snowboarding at Targhee. I'm hoping I can round up some pictures from everyone's phones and such, but for now, here's a picture of Rik when he went up to Targhee with Matt to celebrate their birthdays.

Sweethearts Dance 2011

Here's a picture of Mariah and Kayden before Sweethearts:

(Sorry the picture isn't the greatest... Rik went on a pizza run with the camera in his pocket, so I had to take one with my iPod. I'll scan the professional one in when we get it back.)

Good-bye January!!

So I've decided I'm not a huge fan of January. It's long. It's cold. It's dark. It's gray. It sounds SO far from spring and the end of school and longer days. So I just don't like it. But now we're in February, and for whatever reason, it just sounds better.

Kayden had his first track meet of the year (indoors in Pocatello), and just hearing the words "track meet," made me think SPRING!! But then I asked Kayden why my snow shovels are always in the back of his car, and he said that they have to shovel off the track just about every time they go to run.... My happy spring thoughts went right out the window. He's running in the Simplot games next weekend (also indoors.) He and his friend run almost everyday outside, and they tie bandannas around their faces, I guess so their lungs don't freeze.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The other day I was taking the car-pool girls to dance, and they were talking about how much they miss their bikes, and shorts, and short-sleeved shirts.... then they got giggling (or in Anaya's case, laughing uncontrollably.) Anaya told her friends that her teacher says that she is supposed to laugh like this: "Hee hee hee," and then STOP! Such a good teacher... but clearly not the best fit for Anaya. And apparently she is not aware of Anaya's New Year's resolution.

Speaking of New Year's resolutions, McKay still falls asleep to Christmas music every night. =)

-----------------------------------------------------------

A couple Sunday's ago Anaya and McKay were feeling cute before church, and asked to have their picture taken:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday (February the 10th) was the 100th day of school, or what I like to call, "67 DAYS UNTIL THE END OF SCHOOL!!!!" Anaya had to bring a poster board displaying 100 things. Anaya decided on 100 googly eyes. Just like I'm not too fond of January, Anaya is not too fond of me helping her do anything... this project included. Here's how it went down:

Me: Here's some poster board and the eyes. You should start-
Anaya: I know! I know! My teacher told me. Don't help me!
Me: *sighs* and waits until she has the eyes all counted out in groups of ten, then plugs the glue gun in.
Anaya: I can glue them on myself! Don't help me!!
Me: Unplugs the glue gun and gets the Elmer's glue out. Do you want me to put the glue on and then you put the eyes on?
Anaya: No!! Don't help me!
Me: *sighs* I'll go type up the numbers while you glue on the eyes, then you can glue the numbers by the groups of ten.
Anaya: NO!! I'm going to write the numbers on!!
Me: It will look better printed on the computer, and you'll be able to see them better, because the poster board is black.
Anaya: I can do it myself.
Me: ........
Anaya: Glues eyes on, and writes the numbers with a white crayon.
Me: Let's print up a paper that says "100 Silly Eyes Looking at YOU!"
Anaya: I can type it myself!!
She then types up the page, but asks me how to make exclamation points, so I show her on her page, which makes her mad because I was just supposed to TELL her, not SHOW her...
Me: Write your name right here along the bottom edge.
Anaya: I KNOW! I can do it myself. And them writes her name on a different edge of the paper than I suggested.... *sigh*

Happy Birthday Rik!!

41 years ago this cute little guy was born:



We celebrated Rik's birthday this week. It was kind of low key this year though, because we've had a bug slowly going through the house. I think it has now hit everyone, and the younger you were, the harder it hit (Anaya missed 3 days of school). All that were well went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner on Wednesday, and we had cake, pickled okra and blueberries on Thursday (the cake was more for me than Rik though, because I refused to put candles in the pickled okra...)

Anaya took care of the decorating for Rik's birthday (Bendaroos), and she did such a good job, I think she should do all the birthdays! We still have it up on the wall.... I love it!

Yippee for Snowboarding Nights!!!

Rik and the kids went snowboarding the other night. Anaya and I LOVE LOVE LOVE snowboarding nights! While they were out in the cold (which they all love too....weirdos), Anaya and I went out for dinner, did a little shopping, went and saw Tangled (so good!), and then headed home. We had picked up a box of Florence chocolates for dessert. When Anaya bit into her caramel, her "kind of" loose tooth, became a "REALLY" loose tooth. It didn't take much to pull it out. She was soooooo excited!! This was her first, long-awaited, visit from the tooth fairy! Perfect night!!

New Years Resolutions 2011

So I thought I would share my resolutions for 2011. I have also taken the liberty of writing some for the kids and Rik. They will thank me I'm sure!

1. I resolve to stop licking my fingers when I get something on them. Recently I was doing laundry and got some liquid fabric softener on one of my fingers, so I inadvertently licked it off.... and EWWW it was SO gross! I could NOT get that taste out of my mouth! Then, our doorknobs were not working well, so we called the company and they sent us new ones, and when I was taking them out of the box, I got some of the grease that was on the parts on my finger, so I licked it off! I'll tell you what, the grease tasted even worse than the fabric softener!! I don't even think about what I'm doing, until I'm dry heaving and gagging. In my attempt to get the fabric softener taste out of my mouth, I ate a handful of almonds... only too bad, one of them was rotten!! EWW!! NOT a good time in my mouth that day.

2. McKay resolves to listen to more Christmas music. McKay has a hard time falling asleep, but has an easier time if the radio is on. All through December he listened to the radio station that played Christmas music 24/7. He now thinks he can't fall asleep without Christmas music! So we put about 55 Christmas songs on his mp3 player and every night, we have Christmas music playing for hours. (I can hear Rudolph playing right now!)

3. Anaya resolves to laugh a little louder... more freely and openly. If you know Anaya, you know that her emotions are right in your face. There is no doubt how she is feeling. For Christmas the family got Despicable Me. I was listening to Anaya watching it, and apparently she thought it was pretty funny. It reminded me of my dad when I was younger. My room was next to the family room, and every night I fell asleep (or tried) to my dad laughing until he had tears in his eyes while watching "Night Court" and "M.A.S.H." Anaya has one of the most healthy laughs I have ever heard. She would also like to resolve to not say that her school teacher is a little nice, but mostly rude. Like I said... no doubt how she feels.....

4. Kayden has resolved to tell me when he has planned a big, huge party at my house (especially if he'd like to live over the age of 17...) Over the Christmas break he planned a party with about 20 friends at our house.... only he forgot to tell me. On the bright side, this was a perfect way to get rid of the remaining Christmas junk food.

5. Rik has resolved to never, ever retire. He took off a week and a half at Christmas, but then also got a bonus day off on Monday, because that's when his office took their New Year's Day holiday... the rest of us had to go back to school and work. When I got home from work on Monday, Rik had the Home Shopping Network blaring from the TV and was busy browsing Amazon, Ebay and Craigslist. Yep... I might go broke if he ever retires.

6. Taisha resolved to lose her last 2 baby teeth (which are both close.) We have our first braces consultation in 2 months!

7. Malia has apparently resolved to help us all gain 10 pounds, by making lots and lots of cupcakes and cakes! She is LOVING cake decorating right now.

8. Rik has also resolved to be the all-time biggest collector of Coke Reward Points. He has been collecting (collecting = digging through garbage sometimes) to get as many Coke Reward Points as he possibly can. I was pretty sure that my Christmas presents were all going to be Coke things from the web site. (Rik would like me to mention that if you drink coke products... text him or email him the code under the cap or the box.....*sigh* Not kidding.)

Well, there you have it. I can tell already that we are going to be way better people by the end of this year!