February Fun

I’d say February was a pretty short, uneventful month.  We had the normal day to day without anything too major going on.  Most weeks go something like this:  Monday-cleaning day and FHE, Tuesday-library story time or Relief Society Presidency meeting, Wednesday-playgroup and gymnastics, Thursday-groceries/errands, Friday-playdate/errands/misc. 

Tanner had a 15 month checkup at the end of the month.  He came in at 25 lbs. 5 oz. (82%) and 32.5 inches (88%).  He is learning a lot.  Some good and some bad.  The bad:  he has become a little climber.  The worst part is he’s also figured out how to move the kitchen chairs to where he wants them so he can get to things on the counters.  It makes preparing dinner extra fun!  The good:  he learned to blow kisses and say his third word (the first two were mama and dadda).  It is “tickle tickle” and he moves his little pudgy hands in a tickle gesture.  It is the cutest thing ever, but I cannot, for the life of me, get him to do it when I have the camera rolling! 

  

Ridge is becoming more and more independent, getting himself dressed and putting his own socks and shoes on.  We’re still working on getting him to keep feeding himself until he is completely done with dinner though.  One day he said he was going to make his own sandwich for lunch.  I think he must have learned how to make a sandwich from Grandpa Lemon because he piled on about half the package of meat and several slices of cheese!  Wouldn’t you know, he took two bites then declared he was done with it! 

 

After wiping Ridge on the potty, I left him to pull up his pants and wash his hands.  When he came out, he had little cuts around his lip.  When I asked what happened, he replied quite matter-of-factly, “oh, I was just shaving!”  Me:  “You were shaving with Daddy’s razor?”  Ridge:  “Yah, Daddy’s two shavers.”  Me:  “Ridge, doesn’t that hurt, Bud?”  Ridge: “Yah, but it’s okay.”  Me:  “Do you want a bandaid?”  Ridge: “No, it’s okay; it will get better.”  His reaction was so nonchalant, it made the situation quite comical!  I explained that he needed to be a man with facial hair before he shaved again.  He agreed that that was a good idea. 

 

Jade is still very much into girly things like dressing up, dancing, singing, putting on shows, etc. 

 

She also still loves to color, craft, and create.  She is always coming up with some new activity for her and Ridge to do.  Below left is a card she made for the neighbor boy, Jaylyn.  Below right is an alien mask she made for some game she made up.  I love her creativity, so she pretty much has free reign over the paper and craft supplies. 

 

This one was a gift Jade made for Cody and me.  I was impressed she had figured out how to make a 3-D structure using only paper.  It is a stage with two people performing and a guy playing the music in the back. 

 

Cody is the Ward Mission Leader.  He recently gave a talk in church introducing the ward’s new format for a Family Mission Plan.  The next day we had the missionaries over to help us create ours.  One of the goals was for Jade to share the Book of Mormon with one of her friends.  That week when we had a play date she gave her friend, Kayla, a Book of Mormon with her testimony written inside. 

 

Jade continues to read all the time: when she wakes up in the morning, on the way to school, when she gets home, before going to sleep at night.  This girl loves to read!!

 

The Saturday before Valentine’s Day we made batch after batch of sugar cookies.  Playgroup was at our house the next week, so we needed to prepare!  Of course, we had to decorate and taste-test a few as we baked.

 

   

While we were at it, we decided we should make a few cookies for Jade’s teacher too.  I told Jade she should also make her a card.  Once again, I gave Jade free reign and let her go wherever her creativity would take her.  She made a card, but she also made a purse (with two pockets) to put it in.  Jade couldn’t stop there though; she also wrote her teacher a book with a small pocket on the cover that had little miniature Valentines in it.  The book also fit nicely inside the purse.

  

Valentine’s playgroup with cookie decorating was a success!  Cookies + frosting + sprinkles always equals a good time.  I think we had about 8 moms and 11 kids. 

  

   

Cody and I were able to go out to dinner and a movie the night before Valentine’s Day.  We laughed as we recalled the last time we had gone to a movie sans children:  last year on Valentine’s Day.  Valentine’s morning the kids received little surprises and red velvet pancakes.  I didn’t want to go overboard on candy as we try to eat fairly healthy, so I opted for new books and play dough instead of lots of treats.   

  

Simple but effective.

Jade had been planning a Valentine’s party all week.  She made crafts with Ridge, set up a fancy lunch, saved cookies for everybody, and even made her own special lemonade.  I contributed to her event by making some sandwiches I knew she would approve of.

  

My calling as Relief Society Second Counselor keeps me busy with meetings, member visits, teaching, and planning Relief Society mid-week activities.  This month we had Family History Consultants available to help the sisters get started on their genealogy.  To make the event a little more enticing, I came up with a “Family History Mystery” theme with appropriately themed invitations, signs, and badges for the consultants.  For treats we had secret agent water labels, “on the trail” mix, and mystery (candy) bars. 

 

 

Every so often Jade gets invited to a birthday party, but it’s pretty typical for them to be on Sunday.  You can imagine her excitement when she received one that was planned on a Saturday!  Twin boys from her school class had a Mario-themed rock climbing party.  She loved the mustache and socializing.  Rock climbing was just okay to her.  After climbing about half way up the wall, she was too scared to go any higher.  She still had a blast playing with her friends though! 

 

I think the highlight of the month (at least for Cody) was skiing!!  He hadn’t been for years, so I made him round up some friends from the ward and take an entire Saturday to hit the slopes.  After a little research, Cody found the highest vertical in terms of ski mountains in Pennsylvania: Blue Mountain.  In true Cody fashion, he left the house at 6:30 a.m. and didn’t return until 9:30 p.m.  He’s got to be on the mountain every single minute he can!

Last Saturday Cody took Jade skiing at Alpine Mountain.

It was her second time to ski.  Cody had taken her once last year too.  She caught on pretty well and really, really loved it!  It was cute to hear her excitedly describing it to Ridge the next day. 

  

Jade tells us of everything she’s done or tried, skiing and gymnastics are her very favorites.  She especially liked going fast.  She must be her father’s daughter! 

 

To conclude our February recap, here’s a little video of Jade skiing!