Color Me Mine

For Valentine's day I made a reservation to go and paint a plate with Brandon. We had never done such a thing before, and I learned many things that I would do different next time. But we had fun, laughed a lot, and were mutually annoyed at the huge crowds. The final product actually ended up better then either one of us imagined. Next time I will schedule more time and probably go by myself with a plan already sketched out on paper. I might even take my own paintbrushes.

Bday activity

This year there was no snow on my birthday so I planted peas. I try to plant them every year on my birthday, but some years it doesn't happen. I hope they come up well this year because I am already craving fresh peas from the garden.

Peter the artist

One morning I found Peter in my room just finishing up this cute picture. It's a picture of Peter eating a toasted peanut butter sandwich. I love how he drew the bread.  I am glad that Peter loves to doodle, get crafty, and draw. It makes home school a whole lot of fun.

The Fridge Saga

The top fridge we bought when we moved into this house about 3.5 years ago. Within weeks I was calling the manufacture to come and do service on it. They ended up completely replacing the computer sensors. It wasn't too much longer before the ice machine stopped working. Brandon tried everything he could do to repair it, but it would not work and more time passed as we tried to decide if we should fork out hundreds to replace whatever was broken. I finally decided to pull out the documentation and discovered we had a 5 year warranty so we called and got a repair man to come
out and look at it.

We found out that the ice machine had a problem where it was freezing the entire left back side of the fridge....so when we pulled out the fridge there was condensation running down the fridge down to the floor. Weeks later the part was here and then a few weeks later they finally replaced it. Sadly that didn't work so weeks and weeks later we were finally able to negotiate a new fridge. Regrettably it wasn't a straight trade and it still cost us a couple hundred dollars to buy, which was upsetting to me. However, it is nice to have a working fridge again after a very long time. There are only two things I really hate. First, the water dispenser will not work when the fridge door is open. Second, the freezer drawers feel cheap and flimsy. But I insisted on purchasing a 5 year warranty on this fridge too. Hopefully we will never need to use it. The new fridge is also about 2 cubit feet smaller then the old one.   

Irish Blessings

We got out the paint the other day for art class. I actually took the time to sit down and paint something myself (which I rarely do). I love how it turned out. March is my favorite month and St. Patty's day is always a fun holiday around here (the day we got married) that we enjoy celebrating. This year we are planning on a St. Patty's day party with our home school friends. I plan on posting lots of pictures of that.

State Study

In home-school we have been studying different states. We have learned about California, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana so far. We have discovered a lot of fun things about each of these states. The following are just two craft projects we have done based on the things we have learned about the states.

Luke's beach scene. He has the ocean, a boat, sand, and clouds. We learned that there is a whole lot of fog that rolls in on the California coast.

Peter's beach scene. He added the golden gate bridge and the
Californian flag on top.

Luke's potato creation based on what we learned about the state of Idaho.

Peter's creation. We were learning about Idaho right around Valentine's day. So, Peter's potato is showing lots of love.

Mommy's potato

Peter's potato house complete with tv remote, doorbell, and mouse.

We also all think it's pretty cool that Nevada gained statehood on Halloween (Oct 31st 1864).

My cute valentine

Peter drew this for me and Brandon last night. I love that we are holding hands. This year, more than ever, I am thankful for the hubby. I am thankful for the difficult time we've been thru because it's created a stronger bond between the two of us.  No marriage is perfect, yet I'm glad ours is getting better with each passing year (9 years next month).

PE class for Peter

Utah Valley University has a neat program for homeschool children. During the winter semester they have a pe class available to homeschool families. The kids have to be 5 years old, so only Peter is participating this year. The classes are taught by students who are working towards their degrees in Elementary Ed.

Peter has been thrilled with this class. He asks me multiple times a week if tomorrow is his UVU class day. It's been really fun to watch him interact with other children, listen to instructions from the teachers, and get a little bit of exercise in the process. The class is also financially reasonable ($10 a semseter) and I can park anywhere on campus since we have an employee parking sticker. Yahoo! It's also been a blessing for Luke because I have 30 minutes of one-on-one time with him while we wait for the class to finish.

Luke is improving

Luke has enjoyed coloring, or even sitting down to do anything really. However, I am finally beginning to see progress with this kid. He loves to trace these worksheets and so every day I let him have one. It's thrilling to see him getting close instead of just scribbling over the entire thing. Perhaps he will be a good homeschool student after all.

A Date at BYU

This past weekend the hubby and I attended the best musical ever put on at BYU. It was The Count of Monte Cristo. The director of the show attends our ward, so I got the heads up he was doing this production over a year ago. It was thrilling to be in attendance with a sold out crowd. In fact, the entire show was sold out before it even started running. I'm so glad we had a chance to go, and I hope we enjoy many more cultural events like this in the future.