It's funny that when I talk to my family or friends, I think every single one has asked me if it's snowing here in Utah. It's off and on, but there's almost always snow on the ground even when it hasn't snowed in weeks. The kids still have fun in it and like getting to play so I think that's the only reason I'm not completely sick of the white stuff. Partially, I think I'm just tired of being cold all of the time. But we finally were able to build a snowman. It was actually really exciting for the kids to do. Jed showed them how to do it and helped build the snowman. Elijah was so excited! He said it was the snowman's birthday, so we had to give it gifts and he even made it a card. Elijah collected rocks and a carrot nose for his face and even gave him a belly button. Elijah was also really insistent that the snowman wanted a pet dog, and that we needed to build one for him. So the next day I went out with the kids to build a snow dog. Elijah rolled the body parts all by himself. He was so proud of it. He again collected rocks and even some bark for "color". Elijah loved them both and said that he didn't want them to melt. I explained to him that they would once it started to get warm outside again, so he said we had to make a paper snowman and put it outside.
Here's Jed's and the kids' snowman on the first day:
After I made the dog with Elijah I shaped the snowman more so it lost it's ET looking head and frumpy body.lol
(Elijah wanted to make sure his dog stayed warm so gave it his hat)
The day after finally making our snowman and dog, the temperature finally made it's way to the high 40's and our snow melted. Our dog looked more like a duck and the snowman's head fell off, it slowly melted and nothing's left. It has snowed since and Elijah keeps asking for the snowman to come back, but there's not enough snow.
Back when Jed was in OTS, I bought a groupon for indoor skydiving. I've always wanted to go skydiving, but Jed's not really interested in ever doing it, and now that we have kids, he's convinced me that it's probably better to be safe... the only thing about getting to go indoor skydiving-you can't be pregnant! :( Since I wasn't able to go, Jed took his younger brother, Nelson, instead. I said he should take a picture if he can, but they didn't allow cameras so instead he bought the dvd of them going. I thought I would post it since I really don't want $15 for the video to go to waste. Jed is the 3rd person and Nelson is right after him, then there's 4 others before they go again. It's about 16 minutes total if you care to watch it.
Valentine's Day isn't something I normally do much for. I tried to take the kids' picture so I could at least do a card this year, but the kids refused to do it. I even tried on three or four different days... oh well, maybe next year. I did want to do something for the kids though. I set up a zoo out of all of their stuffed animals (it's also a great way to take inventory) and books to go along with each section of the zoo. I made it go through the entire house. They had a blast with it. I invited Elijah's friends to join us for the zoo and a carpet picnic afterwards. By the time his friends came over he was just excited about the picnic (it's one of his favorite things to do) so the tour of the zoo took only ten minutes. I didn't get pictures of the zoo, just because while I set it up the kids would play with everything and run off with it and when it was time to do it they were running around so fast to get to the picnic there wasn't time. For the picnic I wrote little messages for their Valentine's. It was a really fun day.
Jed and I take turns planning Valentine's but this year since I've been sick we were just going to bag it and have a quiet night in. A few days before Valentine's Day, our neighbor asked Jed if we would want to double date with him and his wife. Jed said we didn't have plans or a babysitter, so they said their nieces could watch our kids with theirs. It was our first date out since we've moved on base. (Sad, I know...I really miss having family closer and free babysitting) We went to Boondocks, which is like Sunsplash in Roseville. They had a couples special so it was super cheap (affordable!) date night. It was so much fun. We were able to play lazer tag, go bowling, do the slick track and race track and bumper boats (the guy who ran it thought we were crazy since it was 30 degrees outside, but then was impressed we didn't have a drop of water on us) and played some arcade games. It really was fun getting to get out and just play.
Friday night, we went out to dinner as a family and right before we left the restaurant, Chloe was chasing after Jed who was taking Elijah to the bathroom to wash up. My poor reckless girl ran right into the corner of a table. She went down and started yelling and bawling. It was so sad! Jed brought her back to me so he could finish helping Elijah. It took awhile to calm Chloe down and I had to endure more than a few dirty looks from other guests while trying to console her. It wasn't until she turned her face that they instead tried to make sure she was okay. Her left eye had swollen double its size and had already turned a nasty black color. I felt so bad for her! She finally calmed down after I gave her my soda, which she only gets on special occasions. Her eye looks a lot better and it doesn't seem to bother her at all, but it's just so sad to look at her. For some reason, she tends to really injure herself right before Elijah's birthday. She got hurt last year the night before his birthday too. I'm really hoping this isn't an annual thing.
This picture was taken on Sunday after it looked a lot better.
