Hello? Is this thing still on?

Oh hey!  How's it going?  I'd love to say that this month's lapse in blogging is due to being super busy doing all kinds of amazing and awesome stuff, but...it's not.  It's more like I've been super busy being super lazy and getting pretty much nothing done anywhere. Not to mention, this whole month has kind of been one giant blur of a snow day, anyway.  So really -- there's not much to report.  {Seriously.  The kids are home AGAIN today for like the 6th time this year.}  Christmas vacation ended up being extended due to snow and a couple of those sub-zero polar vortex days, so I think I can safely say that we've all been spending WAY too much time together and would be happy to have just a tiny bit of a break.  Hahaha.  I kid, I kid.  Kind of.  But really, the following status update I posted a couple of weeks ago on facebook pretty much sums up the month:

Highlights of today's snow day include: a semi-partial cleaning of the basement, Sophie being so engrossed in a book she was reading that she couldn't put it down even while eating lunch, Alex actually taking a nap for the first time in days, and the rest of the kids humoring my insistence on a read-aloud of chapter 1 from "the long winter" by Laura ingalls wilder (in exchange for an hour of electronics). Lowlights include one of Sophie's newly pierced earrings being ripped out amidst the kerfuffle of grace strangling her, mess after mess after mess in the kitchen, grace's cheek being gouged with claw marks by ethan after a round of a "game" called "fighting" they insist upon playing, and -- at the end of this long day -- a sore throat on me from all of the yelling I've done. At least tomorrow's not another snow day. Oh WAIT. Yes it is.

Hahaha.  Today's snow day has actually been fine enough thanks to the girls jumping on board with my "fun" idea to do "mom school" this morning.  They actually each had a packet from school that was emailed with actual work they needed to do, but even beyond that Grace and Sophie were game for a little more pretending.  Ethan, not so much.  Thankfully, we were spared from any actual bloodshed this morning once he kicked himself out of the house to go shovel the driveway for money.  And believe me when I say I will GLADLY pay him 10 bucks to leave the girls alone AND get the driveway cleared to boot.  {It probably took him an hour to get the job done.  There was a LOT of snow out there.}

{This picture is actually from the very first snow day of the year, but rest assured that they all look exactly the same.}

But like I said, as for the rest of January thus far, there really hasn't been anything all that new or exciting to report.  I barely have any pictures of anything.  Here is the meager handful I took:

 Sophie has gotten SUCKED into the vortex that is the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" phenomenon.  She started the series on January 1st and as of this morning, she's thisclose to finishing Book 7.  Here's a shot of her reading while she was eating lunch during one of our first snow days.  She literally couldn't put the book down.  Even while trying to shovel her quesadilla in her face. 

 This shot captures a few things.  1st, the kids like to dig in the box of old clothes that are stored in his bedroom closet and strew them all over the floor.  2nd, Alex prefers sleeping on top of a pile of junk to staying in his comfy little bed.  And 3rd, he still can't live without the pluggie or the elephant.

 Grace's handiwork.  Enough said.

 I just thought this picture was funny.  While feeding the missionaries on Saturday, the girls were protesting their picture being taken and all put up their plates to cover their faces.  

A final shot of our Christmas card wall before caving and taking everything down for the season.  The wall of pictures was the very last thing to go.  What can I say? I just really like seeing all of your happy, smiling faces!  Hahaha.

Ethan became a proud graduate of the DARE program.  Their police officer/instructor was apparently the coolest thing since sliced bread. 

And that is basically that.  Lame.  I know.  Stay tuned, though, because we DO have the exciting, annual Pinewood Derby on the horizon, so that will be a post in and of itself!  Hahahaha.  Until next time.  Peace out.

Happy New Year's!

 This year we spent New Year's Eve and Day at home.  And you know what?  It was kind of fun! 

On New Year's Eve day, we had a new family over for lunch that will be moving into our neighborhood and our ward at church in just a couple of weeks.  They have 4 kids who are all basically the same ages and genders as our oldest 4, and it was really nice getting to know them and seeing all the kids get along.  We are excited to have another family from church so close by!

Since neither Alex nor Jane napped while the friends were over, it made it pretty easy to give them an early bedtime and put them out of the running for staying up until midnight.  For the older 3, however, we had promised long ago to let them ring in the New Year and -- after blackmailing everyone into showering or bathing in exchange for staying up -- we spent the night hanging out and watching TV.  It was rather nice.  After finishing up an episode of "Studio C" {a BYU TV show which the kids really LOVE -- kind of a kid-friendly and BYU-cultured version of an SNL type show}, we did some New Year's Mad Libs and I had the kids fill out a sheet I typed up reviewing the the past year and looking forward to the new one.  To say it was entertaining to read their answers is an understatement.  Hahaha.  

{I filled one out with Alex and Jane today.}

ETHAN

GRACE

SOPHIE

 

JANE 

ALEX

 

Once the kids had finished obliging my request for some end-of-the-year reflection, we popped some popcorn and let the kids watch a Drake and Josh Christmas movie while Scott and I went head to head in the Bananagrams session of the century.  Hahahaha.  Not really, but seriously -- this game is ADDICTIVE.  And really fun. 

 We devised our own scoring system and agreed to play until whoever got to 50 first.  And we totally tied!  {Although, for the record, I won our tiebreaker round.}   :)

By the time the movie was over there was only a little bit of time left before we all watched the ball drop at midnight.  I'm not sure if this dropping ended up being a bit anti-climactic to the kids or not, but once it was done, they headed up to bed without too much complaint.  And the older ones even slept in a bit this morning!  Unfortunately, the little ones were up bright and early but Scott came to my rescue and let me sleep in while he got them set up downstairs.  Halfway through the morning, I remembered the Pop-Its and noisemakers I had bought yesterday and forgotten to give to the kids and after handing them over they had a grand old time playing with them outside.  In their pajamas.  Hahaha.

The rest of the day was a free-for-all.  With it being the last day of vacation before school started back up again, I kind of gave the kids free reign to do whatever they wanted.  As a result, a lot of Wii was played, Grace watched Drake and Josh pretty much all day long on the iPad, and everyone had a good time doing whatever else they found to do.  All in all, it was a good day.  Tomorrow, on the other hand, just might be horrendous.  Let's just say NO ONE {but me} is excited about our "No Junk January" which starts tomorrow.  Sugar Detox and Electronic Detox here we come!  Mwahahahaha.  Here's to a bright and happy new year!!!