Dust!!!

Rhyse is adoring art projects lately. She can literally paint for about an hour. Here they are doing some mosaic pieces. Playdough, drawing, gluing, cutting, and especially painting are things she greatly anticipates.

Here is the latest at our house. Honestly, it looks like a war zone. All the furniture is covered and their is a fine (or not so fine in places) layer of dust everywhere. Saturday Craig and I and even Breck for a bit sanded away at our floors using both a drum sander (scary) and an oscillating sander. We learned alot and feel like we are starting to get the hang of it. Unfortunately, we are not finished which is disheartening. It was very loud, and very very messy, but we are excited for the results. We literally took piles and piles of sawdust to the garbage. Apparently, factory finished wood floors have a zinc oxide finish which is very very hard. We were amazed at how difficult it was to remove. I'll bet we end up spending 15 hours on just the sanding. You start with a low grit, and then a medium grit and finish with a very fine grit. Over and over and over.

Here is our valentine project this year- cake pops It was supposed to be a simple fun way to give a special treat. Things haven't worked out quite as planned and we certainly won't be giving out as many as planned. But I guess we can chalk it up as a memory-sticking them in a noodle to dry and screaming as the top fell off right as we finished!

Here is Rhyse helping me to fill the cracks with filler. She loved it and was a great partner. This was a rare day when her hair was done and actually stayed in for a while. Rhyse's swearing is becoming in check finally. Now that we initiated the soap consequence she has really curbed her swearing. What she does now is that whenever she feels the desire to "swear" she just uses her very sober and matter-of-fact voice and says, "When I say stupid (or whatever naughty word she is thinking of at that moment) I get soap." Then she will look up knowingly at me and nod her head while I incur. It seems to be working because she gets the thrill out of saying the bad word without actually using it in anger or frustration. She likes to say awesome and is often commenting on her food. Tonight, she chewed a grape and announced, "that was a really good grape!"

Breck giving the sander a try. She did great!

Here is Pepper after her second bath and first haircut. They are calling it a military haircut. Pepper is fun on a lot of different levels, one being a cute little thing to bath, style, and pamper.

This is where we ate our dinner Saturday night because everything was covered with dust in the main floor. We had a fun picnic!

For Valentine's this year we decided to have an outing instead of getting Valentine's gifts. This is the girls night out. We attended Sky View's Beauty and the Beast. Capriel dressed for the occasion and was so excited to meet "the Real Belle." We also brought a friend of Breck's (Jessica) along which was fun. Capriel sat curled up next to me touching me at all times-pulling my necklace, fingering my hair, arm around my neck, hugging my arm. Talia found a lot of humor in the play and especially like the part where Gaston was hanging out the window with his legs kicking and the lisp that the Beast had because of his fangs. It was realistic enough to the girls that they hid their heads in my lap during the wolf scene, but filled with enough humor (the wardrobe and the spear) and LaFou's dancing that they were entertained. It was fun to go with them.

An extra special note-Breck currently has an A in Math. She has worked so hard and this is a big accomplishment. Go Breck!

Landen has been practicing his bow and arrow lately. This weekend he got to go with Craig to hear his guitar teacher play some classical guitar at a local cafe. Today he taught Talia and I how to shoot and I was once again reminded of how many things I have in life that I could get better at!

Tonight at dinner, Capriel was standing up on the bench doing who knows what when all of a sudden Landen hollered out, "Oh, gross, Capriel dropped pork chop into my water.!" I don't know if it is the winter, or the addition of a puppy, or what but our meals, and scripture and prayer times are usually peppered with children jumping off furniture, someone yelling no to the dog, girls singing, Capriel rolling around or throwing her body around, the puppy peeing, or chewing, or diving under the couch for "treasures", and at least three people trying to talk at once. Tonight while we were trying to sing our hymn, "Whose on the Lord side, Who?" the kids got the idea that it would make a good chant/rap song. The proceeded to give their interpretations of this possibility, which, to be completely honest was hilarious. Following one of these choice experiences, the room we occupied usually looks like a war zone. More often than not I end up looking at Craig, laughing in almost frightened awe and whispering, "let's run away!" or "this is a zoo."