February

February is probably my least favorite month of the year.  If you are a faithful ready of my blog (hi mom, and Kay, and Amy)  then you probably know I say this every year.  I don't like the cold, or short dark days and nights, oh and the cloudy/dreary days on end.  But I'm surrounded by amazing people in my life that brighten up my days and help me forget about how much I don't like Winter.  ALSO it helped that we spent a good part of February in t-shirts enjoying 65-70 degree days.  I kidded to Will that all this nice weather was messing up all my sewing, tv watching, and video gaming plans because we have been outside so much.  Those things will all be waiting for us when the weather turns sour again.

Rex had his 1st sick day of the year.  He had a quick but mean 8 hour stomach flu.  Luckily none of the rest of us got it.   

Last year I did a talk at my Mommy group (MOPs now MOV) about the benefits of Freezer Meals and meal planning, and I kinda plugged Wildtree.  This year I got asked it I wanted to do "a food talk" again.  I said I could do one about Wildtree.....or could I do a cooking challenge!!  I've always wanted to do a cooking competition challenge!  I worked up a proposal with how it would work and the grocery list and budget and it got approved!  It was a lot of fun!  The Challenge was basically that you just found out your in-laws are coming over for dinner tonight (you thought it was next week) and your kids are napping so you cant go to the store. So you have 45 mins to cook a 3 course meal using only the ingredients you have on hand in your pantry to make a meal that appeals to in-laws, husband, and kids!!  Then we had a "pantry" stocked with a pretty good supply of ingredients and seasonings they could use.  The Ladies worked as table groups (there were 4 group at the a.m. meeting and 3 at the p.m. meeting) and had to make a single serving size plate of their dish.  (above is a picture of what the church kitchen looked like during the challenge, people were also using our meeting room).  Some of the ladies said, this was their "worst nightmare come true" and some said it was their "everyday life"  I think they all had a lot of fun.  Then we had some judges from the church staff eat the food and rate it.  It was amazing to see what the ladies came up with, they all made really yummy dishes.  

Will spend almost a whole day off (maybe 2?) trying to fix our broken garage door.  For a while it looked like we might have to get a new one but he was able to get it fixed!

We had a fun family movie night at the premier of the Lego Batman Movie.  

Grant's preschool had a sweet Muffins with Mommy morning this month.  I love that happy face looking at me!

We've been having fun exploring the trail in the woods at the park by our house.  The boys have impressed me with how much hiking they can do now....before they start complaining.  I think I've got a couple nature lovers.

When we go to the Farm one of the boys favorite things to eat is Grandma Kay's Donuts.  I've told them in the past I would try to do it sometime, and this month I finally did.  Grant was my assistant (because honestly he knows more about it than I do, he always helps Grandma Kay).  They turned out pretty well and Grant said he was Proud of me!

We usually use our tax return on a house project.  This year most of it got put toward trimming the trees around our house/roof and having a big old rotten tree cut down in the back yard that was about to fall any day.

We were able to save money by having them just put all the limbs and tree into our woods.  The piles was bigger than I thought it would be but when spring gets here and everything blooms again I don't think we will even notice it much.  The boys were a little sad it messed up our little trails we had made in woods.  Hopefully we can forge some new ones.

It really makes our back feel open now.  I'm considering some pampas (sp?) grass or bushes or something to kinda give us our privacy back.  Again when things bloom in spring it probably wont seem so bare and open.

I was looking up some new ideas for our Magnatiles on pinterest and saw the idea to put them in the window for the light to shine through them.  Duh!  Why have I never thought of that before.  Grant has been having fun making some beautiful stained glass windows for me.  And when the 4 O'clock sun hits the window there are pretty designs all over the floor too.

see the reflections on the floor?

Rex came home with paper about a Young Author contest at school.  It was totally optional, any kid can write and create a book and submit it.  Several kids in the school will be picked as winners to go to a 1 day Author conference.  Rex said he wanted to do it but seemed to be too busy all month long when I would remind him about it to sit down and work on it.  Finally the week before it was due he got serious about it and created his story, then over the long Presidents Day weekend we went to Grandma Cindy's and Rex had his own young author conference with Grandma.  He spend an extra night after the rest of us went home and he got it finished.  It is a really cute little book about a duck that becomes a famous racer. (inspired by a game he plays on the computers at school called Duck Life).

So long February!  In March we are looking forward to The Stahr's coming to visit early in the month, Rex's spring break later in the month, vacation for Will, Daylight Savings time!!, Spring flowers, Lenten Fish Fry's, the beginning of Birthday Season at our house, and more!...did I say so long February?