February stuff

In February, I hiked the Y again. it was Awesome!

We celebrated Chinese New Years. And I learned how to make egg-drop soup for the first time. Then we watched Karate Kid.

Rachel being Cleopatra at the jewelry store.

Diahan came to visit during RootsTech. It was awesome. Although we did not have nearly enough time to be together. I LOVE my BFFs. 

We went to see a BYU men's Volleyball game. Sooo fun. We waited to long to get a Cougar Tail though and they were sold out. 

Camille and Rachel are great friends. They have fun and are fun to watch. Here they are playing clapping games.

Bryce

Bryce has decided to dress himself with his pant legs tucked into his socks. Its so cute and he refuses to change. 

After weeks of warm weather in the 50's and even 60's, we were all fooled into thinking it was almost Spring. 

Until we woke up to this...

about 3-5 inches of snow. It was light and powdery. 

Easy to shovel.

And so it figures that after all the other heavy snow we shoveled in Dec and Jan, the shovel would break under the weight of powder!

My Hike - Salamander Flat

Jana and I went hiking up Alpine Canyon today. It was snow covered and beautiful.

Salamander Flat - 1.3 miles. I'm not sure we made it all the way today, but we did make it to the first clearing.

I tried to capture some of the beauty but there's just no way. (Especially in a selfie). 

This was my first time snow shoeing. It was so fun. It took me a while to get used to it and I was a lot slower than I usually hike. 

But I loved it!

I stumbled a few times, several times. Quite a lot actually.

But I only completely biffed it all the way to the ground in the least graceful way possible, twice, I think.  

Oh, Hey, Timpanogos. Fancy seeing you here!

Yeah, I could get used to this. Can't wait to go again!

Brownies and candy bars

Another new year's goal was to try different ways to make brownies. Since we are the Browns.  haha.

We were having a Brown cousin family dinner on Sunday and decided to try something new. 

We added Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to one pan.

And Milky Ways to another pan. 

Mmmmm.

The Milky Way pan turned out really really fudgy. It could have used another egg and a little longer in the oven. And maybe a few less candy bar chunks. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get to try either one 

because I couldn't go to the dinner

because I had Lamb of God practice.

So I guess that makes this experiment not very informative. 

But the pans came back empty, so that was a good sign!

Valentine's Day

Look at these adorable valentine's boxes Rachel and Bryce made. Ahhh. They had a lot of fun making those together. Their idea, their work. I stayed almost completely out of it!

Bryce and I had a lot of fun as I volunteered in his classroom for his party. I was in charge of the craft. 

Camille was up at Clear Creek camp Monday-Wednesday and missed Valentines day at school. So they had their party on Friday. We had purchased valentines the week before and she labeled them all but on Friday morning, we could find them anywhere. My best guess is that they got tossed in the garbage during a clean-up rampage. So, Friday morning, bright and early before school, we rushed to walmart. Of course, there were no valentines cards. So we bought a bag of laffy taffy and laughed it off. Her classmates didn't mind. 

One of my favorite Valentine traditions is to, each day, tape a heart on my children's door (and my husband) that lists something that I love about them. I got kind of behind this year and had to double up several times. But hey, got to keep it real. I can only do my best. 

And it just makes my heart swell to look down the hall and see the love! And it really helps me love and appreciate my children and spouse more when I'm always thinking of things that I love about them.  

This year, all on his own, Bryce decided to make me a couple of hearts too. Sooo sweet!

"Mom, I love that you make time to play games with the kids"

"Dear Mom, I love the pretty music you play on the harp."

Feb Vball Tourney

Sydney is in full-on volleyball mode. I love to watch her play. Ster and I went together on date night to watch her play and then take her out to dinner. 

They took 2nd place in the Silver division. It was a tough game and tough loss. Proud of these girls!

Sterling wanted to know what it felt like up in the referee's perch so he snuck up there when no one was looking.

VIDEO!

Service Project- February

I was preparing a craft for Bryce's 1st grade Valentine's day party and saw this cute heart pillow. It was too difficult for 1st graders but I had an idea...

What about making bunches of these little pillows and donating them to Primary Children's Hospital for the patients.

And voila! Another service project was born. 

I emailed the children's hospital volunteer director and told her what I was thinking. She suggested I make kits for the teenage patients to make their own pillows. 

Then we invited friends over and went to town!

After almost two hours, we had almost 45 kits made. (And Amber and her boys helped us again. thank you friends.)

I took a few more days to finish a few more kits and then delivered them a week before Valentine's Day. I invited my mom to come with me and then we had lunch at a cute little French cafe. 

51 Pillow Kits

It was fun on Valentine's Day to think about patients making the pillows. And now its time to figure out a March service project!