New Beehive, Winter Lull

School is back in session. Come Monday morning we were all in shock getting up at 6:45, seems like getting up because you have to is not the same as wanting to wake up at that time! Evelyn about lost it every night this week come 7 pm. Those early mornings are hardest on her. Everyone got back into the swing of things quickly. Gabi sure enjoyed three weeks with her mom. She refused to nap and take a bottle this entire week. Thankfully, she was not crabby just wanted to be held. Amanda says she just nurses non stop from 4 pm through the night.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday taking down Christmas decor and switching up my wall arrangements. Justin got me windmill blades and a cute window frame for Christmas, I HAD to redecorate. I took down the kid tree during Josie's nap. She started crying when she came downstairs, "Oh No! Mom! Christmas is GONE!" It's so fun to take everything down and change things up. Our house was a disaster zone through Thursday due to all the switching of the items in totes and not keeping up with the normal clutter. The little girls decided to be princesses one evening and dance to Disney music. A while later I heard Evelyn say to Josie, "This door is NOT paper!" Sure enough, both girls were decorating the bathroom door with crayon, marker, pen, and pencil drawings. Josie was quite proud that she drew three "Ws". Her form was impeccable. The girls often present me with their freshly painted faces. Most of the time their painted faces look quite spectacular. Evelyn wants to start a YouTube channel showing off her makeup skills.

We are enjoying the new "Come Follow Me" program. I signed up with loveprayteach.com to get cute lesson plans and handouts. We have journals to use as we study the New Testament. I am finding lots of resources on Meridian Magazine and LDS Living. Seems like we will have an hour lesson on Sundays then 5-10 minutes devotionals each evening in lieu of our family Book of Mormon reading. I am now reading 5 verses before the kids go to school from the Book of Mormon. I finished reading the Book of Mormon on the 22nd of December! Hooray for me.

Dog Vader and I are going on a long walk each morning. Josie enjoys her stroller ride, most of the time. She giggles so sweetly when Vader's leash comes near enough for her to grab. Friday she stuffed all her Paw Patrol pups at the bottom of her blanket. I'd randomly catch glimpses of a pup or two having a turn out of the blanket. Vader is a stinker to take on walks. He poops as he walks right on the sidewalk. Then he often pulls the stroller right off the path just to sniff a bush. We are working on walk etiquette.

I hung Justin's new hammock swing this week. The kids love it. The newer saucer swing is already torn to shreds from the harsh weather and kid treatment. I found Everett snuggling the hose making strange sound effects. When questioned, he replied, "Mom, I using the hose to keep me from getting pulled into a worm hole...duh!" Well, then! Carry on.

Josie, Gabi, and I enjoyed a picnic lunch with several other ladies from our ward at the Riparian. A large goose, taller than Josie was pestering the picnic table area looking for handouts. That gander was up to MY chin. We shooed him away after considerable coercion. Josie loved walking on the stone snake. We love the mild winter weather, just wish it would last longer. Gabi finally took her first nap of the week in the front carrier.

Amelia is quite the social butterfly of late. It seems she always has a friend over to play or is begging to go out and play. She went to play with George and Priscilla for an hour or so. I asked her what they did, a literal move by move explanation. The kicker was when she reported that her and George had a nice chat about the serious things of life. Ha ha ha, what? Seriously, the serious things of life. I'm intrigued. Wednesday night she crept into my bedroom around 3 am worried about her lost library book. She worried for hours, knowing she had it that morning but could not find it after school. The book turned up under a seat in George's Mother's car (she got a ride to student council meeting).

Everett and Phillip got into a drawing contest. Phillip drew a rather neat dragon and gorilla. Everett took the challenge a step further. He drew a tiny version of Phillip's gorilla in the bottom corner of his paper than drew a large figure in the center. He made about 20 other drawings each with the previous drawing replicated in tiny size in the bottom corners of all his papers. The final drawing was Mega Mom who was about 20 billion sizes larger than Phillip's Gorilla. Justin got a laugh over Everett's enthusiastic drawings. Justin and Phillip started designing and cutting out a pinewood derby car for the upcoming race next week.

Justin is crazy busy with work again. He even worked most of Saturday up at his office. Boo. Seems like Justin only sees the kids at their worst, right near bedtime. Hopefully, things will settle down again once this latest deadline comes due.

The Payne's invited us over to celebrate Liberty's first birthday. I was able to take her first year photos on Friday afternoon at Nichol's park. The area I chose was bogged down with mud, gotta make sacrifices to get the perfect location! Photos were amazing! Corynn went all out with decor. They had a pasta bar and three cakes for food. A tightrope area, bubbles, volley ball, etc for the kids to play with. She throws a really good party. I bought Josie the companion baby doll to the Shimmer she got for Christmas, can't have Shimmer without Shine. Ha ha. Josie was so cute when I showed her the new doll. Whenever she sees Gabi, she'll rush over cooing, "Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello, baby!" It's adorable.

Kristin Russo told me a funny story about Phillip. The boys were over playing with Owen last week. Everett and Owen locked the door so Kristin could not get outside. Phillip chastised the younger boys saying, "You need to treat your Mom like a Queen, Queens don't get locked inside!" Bless his heart! Kristin was impressed that Phillip said something like that. Phillip's prayers wax on the long side, he blesses everything he can think of. He asks for the sweetest things, like orphans getting the love they deserve. He's a sweet boy, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of his sweetness when he is acting like a hard-headed nincompoop.

Amelia reported that Sunday School with the boys and girls was really cool. She loves her new teachers. Young Women's this Sunday was awesome. She got to help make goals with her new class. We got her all signed up on Family Search. She even found 5 names to take to the temple for baptisms.