B and I met Mom, Mary and Beckham at the mall one day so the boys could play while it was cold outside, then went to lunch.  Beckham was so happy to see and play with Birch that he refused to be separated from him for a good five minutes or so.  We were laughing in our seats the whole time.

 Oh but before lunch Mom reminded me there were these ridable plush animals in the mall that she wanted to take the boys to, so we stopped off there first.  Little B couldn't ride alone so we rode together.  They should have these in a bigger size for adults!

 At the zoo with some friends.  We'd never seen a lion this close up!

 B and I getting a treat at Kneaders.  We've done this a few times after his Friday morning tumble class.

 I hope B doesn't mind that I'm posting this :).

 Roo and a dragon she drew.  She draws on her white board a lot in the evenings before she goes to bed.  Oftentimes Eric and I will find a fun surprise when we tuck her in.

 Can you see how Roo is sitting?  She sat like this all through dinner when we were at Costco one evening.  It made my groin hurt just looking at her.  She assured us she was completely comfortable however.

 Playing with Winston and Daisy one afternoon when Annie had to work late.

 B at his tumble class. For the past 8 months or so he has asked me to sign him up for a tumble class.  I searched around for a while trying to find the right class and the right place, and finally found somewhere we could both be happy with.  He looks like he is chasing around Sienna, the girl you can see in these photos.  Maybe he is!  He is enjoying his class; it is on Fridays, a small class and they get to play on lots of different types of equipment.  Sienna's brother is in the class, and their grandparents, Colleen and Jim, bring them each week.  Colleen and Jim are very interesting and friendly and we have a great time talking during the 45 minutes the kids are in class.  Every week I learn something even more interesting about them than I did the week before.  Maybe I'll blog about them sometime.

 Mom and Dad watched the kids overnight for Eric and me one weekend, and when I went to pick them up on Saturday morning I found the kids ready to put on a skit for me.  It was so cute; I think I recorded it; I hope I did!  Anyway their grandparents had helped them with everything from the costumes to the sound effects; they have amazing grandparents!  Afterward they played and sang a song for me, Dad too.  It was great.

 We went to the park one Sunday after church and ran into Lauren, one of Aspen's friends, while we were there.  This is the park that's across the street from the house we used to live in.  So we still call it "the park across the street" even though it's not ;)

 Oaks got to take home the cowboy hat he was wearing at Mom and Dad's; he thinks it's pretty cool.  I think he was with his dad this night picking up a birthday gift for me.  With a play cell phone I guess.

 My birthday was great.  It was on a Saturday which made it amazing!  Instead of going about a daily routine I could really celebrate how I wanted.  Eric took the kids up to Bogus Basin for their first day of ski lessons, so I had the morning to myself.  I drove out to Homer road, which is a remote road at the end of Linder, nice and quiet.  I went on a nice run from one end to the other.

 Its a challenging run with some hills, but so beautiful and on this day the weather was perfect!  I had a great phone chat with Ian on the drive up there.  After that I went home and got ready for the day, and then spent the rest of the day with family.

 Eric on his trainer, with B's bike hooked up to another one.  How cute!!

 O's done this too

 Dad and Lisa sent me 23 and me from Ancestry for my birthday so I can have my DNA tested and find out about my genetic traits and ancestry.  I should be hearing back any day now!!

 This is how B wanted us to tuck him in for a while.  Literally tuck in the blankets all around his legs.

 Roo's Olaf.  I thought this was pretty good!

 Oakley likes drawing Fly Guy, a character from a children's book.  One day he taught B and I how to draw him, and this is Birch's picture.  I think he did a good job, and it's pretty fun to look at ;)

 B's Valentine's Day preschool party.

B took this shot of one of his Dino Trux.  I like the angle.

 Eric and me skiing while the kids were in ski school.  This particular day was one of the best ski days I've experienced. The weather was pleasant, and the snow was great!  Eric took me on some challenging runs and there was some deeper powder than I was used to.  And it was fun skiing just the two of us.  Afterwards Birch was pretty tired but Eric hung back with him and Roo and O and I had fun going down the slopes together.

 B crashing on the way home.

 Roo's mermaid she made during church.

 Aspen turned 10 on the 20th.  She celebrated at home with us, had a small family party, and then we celebrated a bit more later.

 I made her a strawberry sheet cake with strawberry lime frosting.  It actually turned out pretty tasty!  I'm more of a chocolate fan but the lime really added a punch.

 She got the Greatest Showman soundtrack, a Just Add Magic book, a ticket to see the Lion King musical in the fall, and a new journal.

 And Oakley made her something too.

 I found out there is a fancy restaurant in Eagle that serves an afternoon tea (and Roo is a huge tea fan, so I knew she would melt for this), so this was our gift to her.  I pulled her out of school and we met Mom, Mary and Annie there at the Chateau de fleur.

The building was beautiful, and we each ordered our herbal teas.  After a while we were brought our English pastries and finger sandwiches.  We had a great time chatting and trying each of the goodies on the trays.

Aspen wondered what the bathroom would look like so we stepped out to explore and when we got inside we saw that it was very feminine and so pretty!  Roo didn't want to leave ;). Anyway it was a fun way to celebrate our wonderful girl who is growing up so fast!

 We had a good snow about two weeks ago so one evening Eric and I were shoveling the driveway and we looked across the street.  Because our driveway faces north we get little sunlight and when it snows it stays forever.  Here's a shot of our house

 and here's the other side of the street.  Ours looks like winter, and this side looks like spring!

 Both sides of the street.  We just laughed as we talked and kept shoveling.  We finished just as Dad pulled his truck into the driveway for a visit.  He had come for a ski weekend with us.  We had talked with he and Lisa about it for months but unfortunately Lisa couldn't get away. We were excited to have Dad come though and to spend some time with us!
Dad came Thursday night so I got to spend time with him on Friday while B was at preschool, and then on Saturday we went skiing.

 Eric, Dad and I got out alone while the kids were at lessons, which was fun.  It was cold and windy, but the snow was great!  Lots of powder.

Here's a photo I took of Dad (left) and Eric on our first or second run.

 This is a little tree cave Oakley likes to stop at on one of the runs.  He had to show Poppy after we all met up.

 We stopped at the lodge for lunch, and watched some olympics while we ate.

 The kids skied so well the rest of the day.  When we got home we ate some pizza to warm up and watched some Planet Earth.  We said good-bye to Poppy the next morning.  It was a long trip for him to make in a short time, and we were grateful he took the time to come out and see us.

 B being silly

 We dog sat for some friends recently.  They have a shih tzu named Rowdy who's very slow going and laid back that needed watching for one night.  He's a sweet dog and the job seemed pretty easy so I said yes.  Well it was actually a lot of fun.  I think he liked me; he followed me around and stared at me for 3 or 4 minutes at a time.  Eric of course took advantage of moments like these to give me looks and say things like, "See, don't you want a dog?  Isn't he sweet?"  At night he wasn't interested in sleeping on the boys' bed like we'd hoped.  He wanted to sleep on our bed.  But our bed just isn't big enough to add another body to so we put him on Roo's bed and he slept there all night.

 I actually liked walking Rowdy.  Having a thing to walk; a reason to get the kids outside on the sidewalk and down the street.

 B and I venturing to the park on a pretty day.  He wasn't interested in the playground; just climbing rocks.

 My responsibilities at church have changed and instead of helping out with the women and their activities in the congregation I'm now spending time with the 8 and 9 year-old girls with my friend Sally.  We were actually serving together in our previous calling/responsibility so its fun that we still get to work together.  What we're doing now is called activity days.  We meet with the girls every other Wednesday after school for an hour and do activities that help them meet certain goals that have to do with building their faith in Jesus Christ.   For example, learning and living the gospel of Jesus Christ, serving others, and developing their talents.  Last week we made bread that was used for the sacrament (communion) at church on Sunday.  I can't tell you how neat it was to taste the bread we had made on Sunday during that holy ordinance.  And special for the girls too.  And it was delicious! Much better than the store bought bread that's usually used ;)

 Due to the fact that we have a hole in one of our couches and a leg broken on one of our chairs, plus other issues with our aged and used furniture, Eric and I are finally looking for a new sofa/love seat combo for our living room.  We were at RC Willey the other day and B saw these jars and gasped, "Look at these huge cups!!"

 We took the boys to the mountain bike park last Saturday while Roo was with friends and the boys found this caterpillar.  It reminded me of ones I used to find in Corvallis growing up.  They were so concerned about it and worried it would get run over by someone on their bike.

A nativity scene O made on one of our chairs.