January 2013

We kicked off the new year by hosting a New Year's Eve party for my family.  We ate yummy food and played some arcades.  Scott's favorite part was playing the Farming Game.  My favorite part was watching Grandma Hebdon play pinball. She said she hadn't played pinball since she was a teenager. :)

Scott's sister Christie and her family stayed with us the next night.  Makayla adores her cousin Camron. We enjoyed visiting with them and going to Nickelmania. We don't get to see them enough because they live 250 miles away.

Even though we've had flu shots, our kids managed to catch a stomach bug for the first half of the month, yuck! Makayla had it to begin with, then Sterling caught it 5 days later, then Lincoln caught it 5 days after that. Boy, are we glad Mom and Dad didn't get too, with all the cleaning up of gross throw up, ewww!  But we have also been suffering through colds too. We will be so glad when we are all healthy again.

Digging in our cupboard, Makayla found the last Twinkie that expired a month before. We warmed it up in the microwave to soften it for her. I didn't see that coming, for Hostess to go completely bankrupt!

We had more fun at the library with the reading and craft time.

Finally the snow got wet enough to make a snowman. Makayla was in heaven!

Scott and I made a pact to eat healthier this year.  We have even learned how to juice fruits and vegetables to give our bodies more nutrients.  You turn a bowl of produce into juice through a machine.  The fruit juice is awesome because any combination creates a yummy drink and the veggie juice, well, um, is mostly pretty gaggy and gross.  We hope by supporting each other we can both slim down.

We took the family to Hotel Translyvania one day when Makayla had the day off school. The boys behaved better than expected, which was nice.

We made some homemade marshmallows another day.

My parents got new callings in church. My dad is now Branch President and my mom is Relief Society President at a special needs branch. These callings take up a lot of time because they are with them every Sunday and twice a month for special activities.  My mom was also in charge of the Hebdon party this month. We had a snow sculpture contest and my mom had prizes and certificates for everyone who participated. She also taught the kids how to make snow globes. She put on a great party!

Dave, Carlene, and Maren's snow sculpture of Kermit and Miss Piggy, so creative!

The older kids enjoyed swimming another day off school.

Now, if my family can stay healthy for February, that would be awesome. And I would also be more than okay with no more snow falling down until next winter.  The kids discovered a leak on our sliding back door this morning with melted snow water dripping on the carpet like crazy. Hope we (Scott) can tackle that soon!