SNOW

The day before Valentines day we woke up to SNOW. Lots of snow, at least for us. Since my husband loves to drive in the snow we decided to take a trip and see how much it snowed up higher. My niece and nephew were and invited and we bundled up in the car with our ill equipped snow gear for the kids and set off. After a short drive we found a nice hill for sledding. The kids were thrilled with our make shift sled, a Christmas wreath Tupperware lid. Our babe wasn't nearly as thrilled with the snow as the rest of us were. We had a great time sledding, making a sledding snowman, karate chopping the snow, making snow angels, and seeing how icy the lake really was. When we got back to the car, hot chocolate and granola bars were waiting for us. I just wanted to let you know how much I love our Suburau. It's been called a grandma car and lots of other hateful things, but it handles so well in the snow. No worries there!

granddad's smoothie

My dad has a routine. Most morning's he follows this routine to the minute. Part of this routine includes his morning smoothie. When on vacation he's not as strict with the other parts of his routine, but the smoothie, that's inevitable. It's the bran smoothie. It's like drinking a smoothie made with strawberries and sawdust. For 17 years now each grandchild has noticed granddad's smoothie and has asked try it. He's always happy to oblige because once they try it, they will never ask again. Until now.... she loves it. He was happy to share the first time and thankfully, he's still happy to share. She frequently has breakfast with him and always has her own cup of granddad's "dirty" smoothie.

ouch!

This happened a while ago, but I just found the picture. She was buckling herself into the car seat and got her finger stuck in the buckles. She's such a tough little girlie. She barely cried, but enjoyed showing her blister to those who cared.

sick, sick, sick

Hum, it seems that I post at least once a month that she is sick. This time might have taken the cake. She was SICK to the point of delirium on one of the days. Her cousins had the same thing, but they were over it in 4 days, she lasted for 2 weeks. Poor girl. All she did was sit on laps (mainly her dad's when he was home). The whole experience was.... miserable.

spray paint

I love spray paint. Did you know you can spray paint practically anything? I learned this several years ago when we were fixing up our last home. I couldn't find rubbed oil bronze boobie lights(this was over 4 years ago). After weeks of searching someone told me to spray paint some lights the color I wanted. Yippee! That started the love affair. While doing my aunts house, I saved over $50 by spray painting these things and they look sooooo much better!

dog and dinner

In our ward we tried to do a revolving dinner group. It didn't happen. We tried for over a month to get together with our December group, it didn't happen. But, we ended up being invited over to dinner by an older couple. They live 20 minutes away, up in the wilderness area. We enjoyed watching the sunset over the valley. For over an hour it was constantly changing and always beautiful. Our babe took to their dog, hum, never thought that would happen (remember Bongo?). I was so glad I got this picture of her and the dog. I really wanted her to ride it like a horse. No, we aren't getting a dog. My husband associates dogs with sarna and scabies and pathetically, I'm allergic to dogs.

my sweet angel

She loved her angel look so much, we did it again!

She got her own camera (our old digital)

She has a cold, again.

She loves nursery, finally.

underwares

She was the first to use both of my aunt's new toilets. She's potty trained! I thought it might never happen, but she was very motivated once she fell in love with gummy alligators. Yes, I used candy as a motivator. I wish I could say I did it with a sticker chart, but she could care less about sticker charts. She's been going potty in the toilet for a couple of months, but never consistent. We even bought her a Dora seat to help motivate her. Now she doesn't want anything to do with the Dora seat or the little potty, she wants the real toilet! I'm really glad I didn't force the issue. We just kept it easy for all of us. I love seeing her run around in her little under ware!

my angel

My sweet little angel was so good during my projecting! Usually she's not too keen on playing by herself, but this past month she was so good about going off and entertaining herself while I worked. Late one evening she was having a hard time so my mom took her home, fed her dinner, and dressed her and her baby doll up. She loved it.

my secret revealed

This is my secret! This is what I did the entire month of January, hence neglecting EVERYTHING but my baby.

Before Christmas my aunt was taken to the hospital with horrible chest pains. After tests they found an anomaly in her heart. At our local hospital they gave her two choices; have surgery and die in less than three years or don't have surgery and and die in less than three years. Her family didn't like any of those choices. Her son (an ER doctor) checked with the heart specialist at his hospital (13 hours away). The specialist said he could put a gortex stint in her heart and she'd be as good as new.

Near the first of January my mom and my aunt flew to the specialist while my uncle drove. Before they left my uncle secretly asked me to redo their front bathroom. The sink was hanging off the wall, the toilet was a contraption of two toilets and their shower tile was 60 years old. While I was at it, could I redo the back bathroom floor? SURE! I love surprises and I love projects. Well, it turned out to be a HUGE project. We did much, much, more than what he asked. When the trouble with my aunt first started, her daughter, my cousin, came to the rescue. B* was incredible and was really the one who started this whole project. She told her mom they were going to fix up the house, starting with getting granite counter tops in the kitchen (they were supposed to be done 3 years ago). Since B* had to go home after Christmas, I got to take over. But, B* was still full of great ideas and very willing to have me spend her parents money!

I was the contractor and thankfully I was able to hire sub-contractors to do the floors, some of the plumbing, drywall, granite counter tops, some of the painting and electrical. If my dad and husband had to do all the work we would have never finished before my aunt got home. I would love to write a list of everything that was done, and all the people who helped, but that would take hours. I was at their home everyday and near the end, my family and a few wonderful helpers worked until 11pm. In the end, it was all worth it. She's alive and well and she loves it. The first thing she said was "Where's my piano?" but then, after a few seconds of being in shock, she said "It's done and I don't have to make any of the decisions."