Other Winter Events

We kept busy through the winter months with many things including:

-School Award Assemblies - these keep the PTO hopping - it seems we're very busy with one thing or another and I often thought, "What have I gotten myself into?" :).  But this one was special because our very own Vanna Marie was honored at the Student of the Month Assembly for her excellence in the classroom.  Such a cutie all dressed in red and black for Pirate Friday.

One day just before lunch, Cash was also awarded the V.I.P. (Very Important Pirate) award where he was recognized by his teachers as just an all-around good kid (no problems in the classroom or on the playground, hard worker, etc.).  I was proud of him.  As part of that award, the Principal (Mr. McKenzie whom Cash is shaking hands with) encourages parents to make lunch a treat that day for their child by either taking them out for lunch and checking them back into school afterwards or by staying to eat lunch with them in the cafeteria.  I asked Cash which he'd rather do and he said he wanted to go to Subway.  So...to Subway we went.

 

-Building Snowmen - Each of the kids built their own snowmen this year (and more times than one).  They keep getting bigger and bigger every year!  The third picture is a snowman the kids built last year - there's quite a difference!

Winter 2012 Snowman

-Crafting - Our Ward's Super Saturday had lots of fun things for us to put together and I signed up to make some holiday wreaths.  I think they turned out so cute!

 

 

 

 

-Playing with our new kitten -  In the fall our all-white cat, Hank, simply never came home one day.  We searched and searched, we waited thinking, maybe he'd come back but it never happened.  And so a few months later (Thanksgiving time), a friend of ours from the Ward, who knew our cat had disappeared, showed up at our house with a box.  Another man in our Ward had found two hungry little kittens in his yard one night.  When he checked on them the next morning, one had already frozen so he took the other to our friend (everyone knows she's a cat-lover).  She had so many cats already, she figured she knew just the right home and family to take this one to.  And so...meet Tiger (named for his stripes).  Oh, boy were the kids excited to see the surprise in the box.  We had planned on getting them one for Christmas anyway, so it all worked out.  He's been such a good little kitten and is very loveable.   

-Re-Decorating- We got the girls new bedding and bedroom decorations for Christmas because we figured at that time, Rosie would be two and old enough to move from her crib to her own bed.  So right after Christmas, while I still had Ty at home to help me, we got to work.  First we moved the bunk beds that Cash and Vanna were sharing out of Cash's room and put a fresh coat of paint on his walls.  We did another coat of dark brown on the bottom of his walls because when it was originally painted, there was only one coat done and ever since we wished we had done two coats. So we figured this would be the best time to do it.  We also painted a fresh coat on a couple other walls that just needed it because of the noticeable touch-ups we had done when we moved things around to make room for Rosie in the other bedroom and make this room both Cash and Vanna's space for a while.  Once that was dry, we moved the queen bed back into Cash's room for him to sleep in, took down the crib and moved the bunk beds into the girls' room. 

Although I absolutely love decorating and had the itch to just totally re-do Cash's room.  Ty brought me back to reality and reminded me there was no need to spend a bunch more money on it when we had all this perfectly good stuff we'd saved from before.  He's good at bringing back down to earth when I start daydreaming :).  So Cash's room looks much like it did before but I like how it turned out.

 

And maybe the only practically new feature to the room is the clock but let me tell you why I love it - it has glow-in-the-dark hands.  So it serves as a clock (that can be read even at night) and doubles as a nightlight.  Pretty convenient!

My itch to decorate was satisfied with the girls' room where in a lot of ways we got to start over.  First we moved the computer desk to the other side of the room so that you didn't practically run into the bunk beds upon opening the door to the bedroom.  

 

 

So, when you first walk in, this is pretty much the view you see. 

 

I love the beautiful beaded butterfly on the wall next to the girls' pictures.  I just couldn't resist getting that.  And the below art hanger is another of our favorite features - finally a place to put all the kids' artwork and school projects to display!

 

 

We got the girls matching bedding that blended well with the color scheme we already had (see the vinyl on the wall, chair, curtains and the dresser below - I did not want to re-paint that thing!).  It just adds a lot more pink to the room - what little girl's room is complete without some pink right!?

Throw in holiday Christmas parties (class parties, work parties and parties with friends), regular dance lessons and there you have it.  I guess that's what we were up to in a nut shell during those long winter months.  Good times!

Oh by the way, here's a picture from an Ugly Sweater holiday party we went to where Ty's white elephant gift was this picture, framed, and autographed "Live to Ride" - signed Ty Bazil.  Ha ha ha.  Needless to say, it was a fun party!