February

G&G Budge came with Nana for a baby blessing in Orem so they stopped by for a quick hello before heading home. We love living so close to everyone!

One of my callings here is Activity Day Coordinator. That means the fun part is that occasionally I get to attend the activities with these darling girls--SO much amazing personality!! And, in the process I've been able to get to know some inspiring women. This is one. She's how I want to be when I'm her age, but not sure I could ever measure up. Her husband passed away years ago, she raised her large family but she is the sunniest, kindest, marathon-runner I've ever met!


Soo close...he's hanging out with all the girls

How many can we fit on one chair?

For V-day Tony surprised us all and gave Ari and Rhett their own Book of Mormon. Then he showed them how they can pick out the words they know & read and underline them. What a wonderful way to start each day and a great way to learn to read! Thanks honey.

Cute kiddies waiting in line for the Provo Temple open house. Thanks to mom Cobia who got the tickets, but then we realized we got the dates mixed up so she went and stood in line for a couple hours so we didn't have to with all the little people. It was a neat experience.


At the end all the kids just ran up to Christ and immediately started touching his hands. I imagine it will be very similar when we all see Him again...children have such a connection to Christ that I hope to emulate.


Trying my hand at sourdough...I've had a start a few times and done pancakes with it, but I've never attempted bread until now...


nice and bubbly

This 100% Kamut flour bread turned out spectacular...and it's a good thing I took a picture because the next several batches flopped. They tasted fine, but they fell flat or had huge holes down the middle. I've made a lot of bread, but I'm getting used to using the start as leaven and it's a bit tricky sometimes. Luckily, the guy who taught the class at my house when I was pregnant has been very kind to answer my questions.

This is how school looks most days. Comfy clothes, me no make-up & cozying it up on the couch. We've been doing reading, writing and math at home with plenty of cooking lessons :), weekly story time/craft trips, occasional library music days (and scriptures of course) in addition to our co-op preschool twice a week (where I like to do some science-y stuff when its my turn). That's the extent of homeschooling so far. Ari and Rhett have loved it. I hope to start teaching them piano on Saturdays and gradually introduce more subjects, but this is on a year-by-year basis. I'm not sure I'll homeschool every year or not yet. However, I will say, this has been sooo rewarding to actually be the one to teach my children how to read. To see them go from letters to words, from words to sentences and now paragraphs. And it's wonderful to spend this kind of quality time with them--even if school sometimes doesn't start until noon, or I finish it right before dinner...I'm glad we did it this year. Super-dee-duper glad.


These are critically important pictures I'm not allowed to erase from the camera so I thought they should be blogged. Rhett's lego men on his lego ship. And his Superman hoodie (complete with detachable cape) that he got with his G'ma Debbie money from Christmas.

Maeser's only flare-up--when I put coconut oil on his tummy! Though it hasn't happened since, so weird...

Yummy recipe from Aunt Meagan--Gyro-inspired chickpea wraps with Tzatziki sauce. Everyone looved it.


Learning about bones for the letter 'X' we showed Rhett's x-ray from his broken arm, wrapped up our 'broken' limbs (or head) with T.P. and then made an x-ray out of our own traced hands and Q-tips. Fun kiddos.