February 28, 2021

 

 Baking bread, particularly sourdough, has become my new hobby.  I started a sourdough starter back in November, just to see if I could do it.  It worked and these little round beauties have been on my counter weekly ever since.  It's especially delicious toasted with raspberry jam.

 Amarillo never looks prettier than it does after a frost.  It's like the world is in black and white. It's my favorite Amarillo weather.

 What is it about cupcakes with sprinkles?? So festive. Do you prefer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, vanilla cake with vanilla frosting or vanilla cake with chocolate frosting? We had all four.

  It's a good thing that we already have an appointment to get some windows replaced. Add this one to the list. We've had record-breaking cold weather lately, and I discovered this window one morning. I'm assuming it's related to the cold.

  Bailey got a sweet Valentine from a boy in her class. Unfortunately we didn't hear him come to the door to drop it off.  She found it on the doorstep.  The best we could do was thank him through his mom on Facebook.

  Yep, it's cold. Texas just isn't built for this kind of weather.  All over the state there were power and water outages. So many people without heat, with broken pipes, and melting snow for water, for days.  We were so, so lucky to have power, heat, and water throughout the whole storm. Because of the cold and to conserve energy, the schools were cancelled all week.  What was supposed to be a four-day weekend, turned into a 10-day "weekend."

 This is the cute view I have many days when Shelbi calls to talk. FaceTime is cool.

  We woke up to four or five inches of snow, and with the bitter cold weather, very little chance of it melting soon. Sydney decided she wanted to shovel our driveway. Look what a good job she did. It's not a small driveway and it was still really, really cold.  Good work!

  So much for the cleared driveway.  This picture was taken nearly exactly 24 hours after the above one.  We ended up with about eight inches of snow after this wave of the storm. So pretty. I love it when it snows and snows all day. Especially when I've already gotten the call for the snow day tomorrow.

These balloon pedestals have been the most useful thing to come out of my time as the Relief Society activity coordinator.  Jeff made eight of these for table centerpieces for a Relief Society dinner one year.  I pull a couple of them out on birthdays or other holidays to decorate with. It's much easier than hanging streamers and balloons from the wall.

One night we were all sitting around the table, playing a game, when Brynn came out from under the table and announced she found an Easter egg! Sure enough, it still had candy in it! That's an impressive bunny to get an egg to stay hidden under the table for 10 months.

  Back last March, when the quarantine first started, I decided it would be good time to finally clean out my kitchen and reorganize my cabinets.  It only took me eleven months to get the motivation to finally do it.  In my mind it was going to take days.  But really it only took the better part of a morning.  I had three big boxes of old stuff to donate and plenty of junk to trash.  A lot of the donate items were wedding gifts from 22 1/2 years ago. 

 Ryan fancies himself quite the Just Dance dancer.  He's got this routine down.

  She used to be afraid of the ants that sometimes creep onto my bathroom floor.  For some reason, this day she decided that they needed to be saved.  She collected some itty-bitty Barbie accessories as her tools and carefully scooped up the ants.  Then she let them crawl onto the wall, where they were safe from big feet.

     

Two semi-final basketball games this week, the winners moving on to the city championships. Of course the boy who really likes basketball and had high hopes for a city championship was on the team that lost and the boy who was ready to be done with basketball was on the team that won. There were some tears and some decisions to be made. Erik's final game, the city championship, was scheduled for the same time as the first orchestra concert that was allowed this year. He had to choose which one he would attend. He picked the game.  Ryan was also a part of this concert. Can you see that good-looking cello player right next to the conductor? 

 

 It's a good thing that Erik chose to play in the game because the concert lasted a whopping six minutes.  Following the concert I raced across town to join Jeff for the second half of Erik's game.  The halftime score was 30-10, NOT for us. Oh well. We knew it might not be a close game. They already lost to this team in the regular season. The other team was much taller and better coached.  Erik's team still had a fun game and celebrated their great season with a crazy mosh pit-like huddle after the game.  Erik was all smiles.

  The cold is behind us and Spring is in sight. A Saturday morning with 50 degree weather called for a walk around the neighborhood. This view isn't the best one from my walk, but those sprinklers in the distance felt really good when the wind caught them and gave me a little sprinkle as I walked by. Hopefully with the warmer weather coming, more of these walks are in my future.

February 8, 2021

  I haven't quite gotten back into the swing of things with this blog again. I forget to take pictures, then have nothing to post. I suppose if I forget to post anything for a few weeks, the pictures at least pile up. Here's what's going on...

When Shelbi got her wisdom teeth out, she hated the idea of coming out of anesthesia and not being herself. Sydney, on the other hand, wanted me to record her so she could see how loopy she was. She was still acting like herself, but talking so strangely. Here she's just home from the surgery, watching Barbie and the Dreamhouse, telling me how funny she is and how evil the guy on the show is. 

This is the super comfy chair I got to sit in for four hours as Erik got his growth factor hormones measured every half hour. This is a regular procedure they do in this office. The patient (Erik) sits on an examination bed. You would think that they'd take into consideration the comfort of the parent who has to be there too.

Happy double digits to Bailey! She only gets goofier with age, now with some added pre-teen spunk. 

We had to put the candles in the ice cream because her birthday dessert of choice was apple crisp, which was warm and would melt the candles. I learned that lesson the hard way years ago.

 We actually tried a new restaurant.  We've been in such a rut lately with our lunch choices.  We pass this restaurant many times on our way to other places. We gave it a try today. It was good! We'll definitely go back. I had a BLT and they didn't skimp on the B.

The next four pictures were all taken on the same day. I generally try to take a pic of something notable from that day. This first one was an example of what Bailey's been doing all week. As a reward for good behavior, she's been allowed to take her shoes off in class all week. So naturally she's wearing her most interesting socks all week.  I figured this would be today's picture.

 But then it snowed. The snow itself isn't that remarkable but the fact that it was also snowing in Tucson where Shelbi is, is pretty rare. That seemed worth a picture for the day.

Then this cutie asked me to take a picture of her and her baby. Another picture.

I wish the notable things for the day had stopped at this point. But then this happened...

 In an effort to avoid some cones as I was pulling away from the gas pump, I turned sharply into a forgotten post. So sad. And so expensive.

The boys' regular season of basketball is over. They may each have a game or two in the playoffs, but that will be it for their school basketball careers.  Erik moves on to high school next year and Ryan has decided to not take athletics in 8th grade. It was fun while it lasted.

  Nothing makes Brynn happier than when she can convince someone to play with her. It's not always an easy activity. She is pretty demanding in the way she wants the playing to go. She decides which character you get to be and pretty much everything your character does and says. The problem is that Jeff made it way too fun the first few times he played with her, so he has become the playmate of choice. Rookie mistake. 

January 17, 2021

  I am not a good cook.  I can follow a recipe, but I can't always think through what will happen if I have to adjust the process a little. Case in point: the Rice-a-Roni I made.  Ryan had a basketball game this night, so I had to prepare dinner before the game so it would be ready after.  I simmered the Rice-a-Roni for most of the time directed, but then figured I could just leave it in the hot pan and it would finish cooking while it sat for an hour.  Nope. The rice was still crunchy and the pasta soaked up all the liquid and was completely mushy.  Just disgusting.  (And, yes, I realize that Rice-a-Roni is kind of disgusting even when cooked properly.)  I told the kids to just soldier through and then eat cookies, which is what I did.  The cookies, at least, were delicious.  Also, this pictures makes my kids look old. :/

 It feels like we just went through this with Shelbi and now it's Sydney's turn.  Those wisdom teeth are coming out next Tuesday. Fun.

Brynn discovered all the clips I made for her when she was a baby and spent the day trying on as many as she could.  Kind of reminded me of this picture I took right after I finished making them...

 

Sydney convinced me to take the girls to the Skate Plex Saturday afternoon. It was actually really fun. Here's Bailey whizzing by, practically a pro.

We brought this little Cha Cha with us.  She did better than I expected.  I imagined we'd have to go around the circle just like this, holding onto her and dragging her along. But of course she wanted to do it herself. It was slow going, but she figured out how to skate/walk without too many spills.

She had this exact look on her face the whole time.

A pretty awesome way to watch Stake Conference.

  Floof is awesome.  I don't even know how to describe what it is.  It's foamy, water-soluble, and never dries out.  Brynn loves to squish her Polly Pockets ("Hollies") into it.  Tonight they were making snow angels. When she's done playing, she just scoops it all back up, Hollies and all, and puts it back in the bucket until next time.

January 10, 2021

 Let's try this again...

We picked Shelbi up for Thanksgiving at the end of November, and since her school was going to be online for the rest of the semester, she just stayed home with us through the rest of the year.  It was heavenly. Here's the best of December, although I honestly don't have the pictures to properly show how awesome it was. Definitely one of the best Christmas seasons I've had in a while. With EVERYTHING being cancelled (orchestra/choir concerts, church parties, class parties, piano recitals, etc.) we had a lot of time to come up with our own fun at home and just enjoy Christmas simply.

The boys both made their middle school grade basketball teams.  This is new for us but has been fun to go to their games each week.

At the Amarillo Botanical Gardens

Making Christmas cookies.  Nobody actually likes to eat them, so we decorate them and I throw them away a few days later. It works.

Can you see what Brynn is doing? I guess it's a good thing we don't eat the frosting/cookies.

Erik turned 14.  He really is a great kid.

I feel like this was our most successful gingerbread house night yet. This is a Christmas Eve tradition. All of the houses came together really quickly and each of the kids seemed genuinely happy with the end results.

Shelbi and Jeff worked on the geometry of her yurt for quite a while and got it just right. 

Jammies from Grandma Larson. Always a favorite.

Our goofball children got creative with the wrapping this year.  This "table" was kitchen tools...

And Jeff's "sword" was a tie.

Christmas dinner

The sun setting on the last day of 2020.

Barbies all enjoying a movie together.

I was smart this year and took pictures of different parts of my house that I decorated for Christmas so next year I can just look at the pictures and know exactly how to decorate again. It's too much work to do something new every year.

A very excited 3-year-old at her first dentist visit.

As much as I tried to convince her to stay, she's back in Arizona. Such a pretty campus.

We brought a little Arizona home with us. When we first took Shelbi to school, we saw these Eeegee's restaurants everywhere. We stopped at one for lunch and it has become a legend in our family. An Eegee is a mix between a slushy and a smoothie that somehow just doesn't seem to melt. They have real fruit bits. Shelbi keeps us updated on the Eegee flavor of the month. Jeff and I promised the other kids we'd bring some home to them this time.  

9:00 church isn't so bad when we're home by 10:00 and the kids are out in the newly fallen snow by 10:30. I was inside eating cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.