Chucke Cheese

Chuck E Cheese was so great that I thought it might be a great family outing.  They had a pretty sweet coupon so we took the whole family one Saturday. 

Again - we had the place mostly to ourselves. 

Noah still loved his Ski-ball and stayed here most of the time.  (I recently read a post from 2010 about Noah spending 30 minutes playing Ski-ball)

 

Outings

In my perfect world Dane and I would go on a "real" outing (grocery store, library, and parks don't count) at least once a week.  Unfortunately there just isn't enough stuff open to accommodate that AND it is just really hard to do it.  But things are slowly changing and I try real hard.  We still have our pass to the aquarium so we go there at least once a month (or every 6 weeks).  We invited David and Krista once.

We go to the park every week - usually with our ward play group.  I am trying to  teach Dane about friends.  He doesn't really have any kids "his age" they are all 3 or 1, so it is kind of hard.  In a few years it won't matter - but developmentally it really does matter right now.  He says his friends are Will and Marshal.  It is pretty cute.  sometimes Eve comes with us - but she is usually at home napping.

And Chuck e Cheese finally opened!!!  I am so excited!  Dane loved it (not as much as he COULD HAVE - they took away coins and tickets and subbed a debit card - SO LAME for little kids.  So now it is half or even a fourth of the fun it used to be.  But he doesn't know what he is missing. So its' ok... I guess.

He got pretty good at ski-ball.  He wanted to do it by himself.  He got it pretty good.

 

Cute Eve

I mean... I don't have words... she is just adorable.

Although her adorableness will only get her so far.  She is a bum.  She won't roll or crawl or anything.  She just lays there.  We work with her and put her down ALL THE TIME - but she has no desire to move.  Most of our kids were crawling and pulling up by now - not to mention rolling for months.  It makes seeping hard because she can't roll around and fin her binky - especially when it gets stuck under her.  grr

And just for a few other baby pictures.  

Dane is the best

They love their baths together.

And playing together.

We all love watching her sleep.

 

Swimming

I try so hard to schedule family activities that all 8 of us can enjoy.  I got "tickets" to go swimming.  Fun was had by all.

Dane loved doing the obstacle course.  Jason even did it - which delighted all the kids!

This is just a bad picture.  Eve loved swimming and the water.

See

The one thing we will miss about covid is NO CROWDS!!  Since you have to make reservations everywhere and capacity is limited every activity is so fun cuz it is just us.  When the cap is 10 and you are 8 it is pretty awesome!  haha

Jason did races with the kids around the lazy river.

 

A few of our favorite things

Below are a bunch of random pictures, posts, and stories of some of our favorite things in 2021.

Dane is obsessed with his "brown football" and the drone.  In fact the drone got "lost" becasue that was all he talked about and wanted to do.  In fact we have noticed that Dane becomes obsessed easily... we know what that can mean... but we are trying to not pigeon -hole him.

Sunday night is family game night.  We got some new games for Christmas and we have been loving them.  For Jason's birthday we gave him Trivial Pursuits and that has become a family FAVORITE.  I do need to document that I won the first 2 times - which surprised everyone, including myself.  Jason says I won becasue I got easy questions (the answer was Winston Churchill) but TWO of his questions were "what South African leader... ? of course both answers were Nelson Mandela)

For December through most of February I was trying to find ways to get this girl to sleep.  I tried several different swaddle styles and wraps.  Our favorite was this starfish one.  She was so cute in it.  She only liked it for a few weeks - I think it would have worked better if I would have started her in it in like October.

I had to take a picture of this.  Here Jason is riding his bike, while playing x-box.  He is funny.

I mean... who doesn't love this??

Dane and Eve are each other's favorite things.  They LOVE to "talk to each other" Dane repeats the sounds she makes to her and it lights her up.  It is one of OUR favorite things.

One Friday night the boys had a birthday party so the girls and I did face masks and I taught them about their periods.  haha

Dane has a book "over in the arctic" that he loves, so I got out my preschool arctic animals.  Turns out Madison loved it and made these scenes with them and froze them overnight.  she would chip away at the ice, make ponds, sea shores, rivers, and ice burgs and place the animals all around.  She is adorable. 

Noah ALSO becomes obsessed easy.  He took art classes in February and drew some of his favorite characters.  He is getting pretty good.

Eve loves her naps.  

My uncle Scott had some scary medical news so our whole extended family fasted for him during the February fast Sunday.  We took a picture of us breaking our fast and sent it to him for support.  For fast Sunday we always make breakfast for dinner - it is a tradition that a family in West Virginia used to do that Jason always thought was fun - it is your break - fast dinner.  Our kids love it. 

Dane still wants to be outside every chance he can.  This usually happens during Eve's naps - but sometimes she comes out with us.

I love cereal sales.  The Kix and Cheerios were .10 cents and ounce!  That is unheard of for Kix.  I bought the whole stock (like 10 boxes)

Dane and I have started baking once or twice a week.  He is the BEST helper.  So obedient, gentle, and patient.  All I have to do is say "wait" and he will stop what he is doing and wait.

For the Friend to Friend event (which we loved) we popped popcorn, cuddled under my heated blanket and enjoyed some girl time. 

Hmmm... I don't have anything about Brock.  His current favorite thing - checking the weather app and praying for snow (more on that later), checking his grades (more on THAT later), and as always... spinning.  Brock loves to spin things.

New Years Eve

For the last 3 or so years the Weister's have invited us and the Clark's over for New Years Eve.  First off I need to say how grateful I am for people who plan fun things, put in great effort (decorations, cutsie things, etc), and invite us to it.  It is a talent I don't have and am grateful my children (and me!) get to benefit.  I had to say that first because I need to document my terrible attitude about the party.  We were supposed to go over from 7 to 10 - which shouldn't be hard, but it was SO HARD.  Dane's bedtime is 7 and Eve wasn't on an evening schedule, sometimes she falls asleep at 7, or 8, or 11 - who knows?  But she does have a routine and it is NOT being at another person's house at a party.  She also wasn't sleeping well and so when she went to bed I went to bed.  So I REALLY REALLY didn't want to go.  But I felt obligated.  So we went. 

The kids had a fun time.  Krista is adorable and made it so festive. Although the kids ended up playing video games the whole time and then when it was time to go home they were sad that we didn't play games together.  Better learn time management! ha

Then there was the game.  It was a fantasy/dungeons and dragons type game.  I would rather chew off my arm than play a game like this.  Luckily I didn't have too - but then Jason went home to put Dane to bed (lucky) so I took his place.

Luckily I got home by 10:30 and got Eve to bed.  Krista let the kids stay until 11:00 ish. She is so wonderful to put up with such a winey friend like me!  Happy New Years!