February Roundup

Violet and I went to a mommy-daughter Fancy Nancy birthday party for one of her preschool friends. The mom went all out, and things were in fact, very fancy. Here's Violet with some of her birthday party dress-up goodies, and then her being shy doing the fashion show.

A few of Violet's preschool projects-- she has such great preschool teachers! 

Cora's work from a Sunday afternoon painting session with Dad (while I napped!): Noah's Ark and the Tree of Life.

Valentine's Dinner with Kissie and Pata

Some of Cora's school crafts she's been really proud of: Mount Rushmore

and Dr. Seuss day hat. (we usually take a picture of her projects before they get tossed).

They started building on the lot behind us. They'll actually build out all three lots this summer. It's great that it's the last of the construction around us and it will be done all at the same time. It's amazing we kept our view for three whole years. Hopefully they'll get done sooner than later so I can get my windows washed! Meanwhile, it's great entertainment for Luke-- he likes to check on which trucks are working each day.

We took a trip to the zoo with Kissie. Our pass runs out the end of May, but I think we'll have to renew so we can see the new arctic exhibit that opens June 1st! 

Kevin and Pata got to go tubing at Soldier Hollow with Cora and Violet. No pictures came out of that trip, but it sounds like they had a lot of fun. It was such a great time going last year with Kevin's family, when they had a groupon, I had to snag it. It sounds like there were longer lines and less snow this year, but still a fun time. Hopefully we can make it next year too--Luke will be old enough to go then. I love being able to go down without having to drag a sled back up! 

While they were gone, Luke and I had a day date. I thought he would love going to the farm at Thanksgiving Point. It turns out he is one big scaredy cat! He wanted to stay far far away from pretty much all of the animals, even though they were all behind fences. We went through there pretty fast. He did like the tractor/wagon ride at least. He was scared about the pony ride, and here he's reaching out to me because I backed up to take a picture instead of walking around beside him. Oh well! He had fun going out to Kneaders and playing at the park afterward. We were running down a grassy hill and I slipped and fell, which was a little scary, but Evelyn was still moving around just fine, so I guess all was well.

February was our month of car issues. The van had problems with the automatic doors, which took several trips to the shop to fix (under warranty at least!). It also needed its 60,000 mile check-up-- hard to believe it's been that long! The jetta started having some transmission problems which were going to cost more than the car was worth. It's been such a great car for me, and Kevin too. My parents gave it to me for college graduation, and since I went on my mission right after college, they surprised me with it on the way home from picking me up at the airport coming back from Connecticut!  It was so great to have a car in graduate school, to not have to budget for car payments, and be able to take trips home when I wanted to. And it's been a great commuter car for both Kevin and I. Pretty lucky! It's been 11 years and about 160,000 miles, and we still got a decent amount of money out of it. 

I couldn't find the 'before' picture of me at 22 years old at the dealership with a new car with a bow tied around it (no digital camera then!)... but here's the 'after' picture. A lot has changed in 11 years! 

We were really hoping to not replace this car until next year, and it was kind of worrisome to have to find the money for a car unexpectedly. But, in hindsight, it really was a blessing for it to happen with this timing... between the Christmas money we hadn't spent, our tax refund, and money from the sale of the car, we ended up just fine. We got a 2010 certified used Corolla for a great deal, which will be a good commuter car for the 8 miles Kevin puts on it daily. Hopefully it will last a long time!! It better!

This month we also set my induction date to have Evelyn (April 19th!), watched two seasons of Downton Abbey (pretty fun to have something Kevin and I liked to watch together), and I hosted a bridal shower for my good friend Emily (somehow, no pictures from there either). A fun and busy month! 

And, probably the most exciting thing that happened this month was that Cora learned to ride her bike without training wheels! I bet she's actually been capable of it for a while, because it took her all of about 15 minutes to get the hang of it. She's a pro now, and even pretty confident on the more moderate hills in our neighborhood. 

Cora was doing great on her 16" bike, but with Violet catching up to her in height, we moved Cora to an 18" bike and she did well with that adjustment too. Violet is riding with training wheels and has no inclination to try riding without them :). Maybe next year!