This month was the month of Love. We celebrated our Valentine's day with our annual candlelit "Love Dinner," complete with heart-shaped pasta and sparkling cider. Each child gave a "toast" at our dinner:
Ella: "A toast for our friends and family and all the love we have."
Dax: "To our family, and all our years together."
Amelie: "I'd like to make a toast and I love my family."
Josh: "To Frodo Baggins!"
And since I didn't take any pictures of our Love Dinner, here is one from breakfast with our heart-shaped pancakes:
Here is the Valentine Dax made for me:
"I love you mom. I love you so. I love you when you look different. I love you when you look normal. I love you so much I want to hug you."
Months ago I helped my dear friend George Handrahan with the Zions Bank Art Show. For compensation, he not only supplied us with a beautiful painting this year, but also blessed us with his enormous generosity by gifting us some cold hard cash to take our little family on a vacation. And so we did!
For Amelie's 4th birthday, we traveled to St. George to swim, hike, rock climb, and get some much needed Vitamin D. It was much, much needed, for all of us, and turned out to be a great weekend together!
Here are some pictures from our fun little weekend-away jaunt!
Amelie's only birthday request was that we go "swimming." So we spent two days swimming in the hotel pool, and our friend's pool at their condo.
The girls all tucked in, ready for bed.
We spent Sunday hiking around Snow Canyon. The kids opted out of the slot canyon we had previously planned for them. (apparently the idea of being lowered 100 feet into the canyon proved a bit much for them.)
Amelie opened her presents! 4 years old and lots of toys from the movie "Frozen."
Here we are rock climbing at a great place we found outside of town.
Amelie is not scared of much, but heights and climbing definitely don't agree with her.
All the kids (aside from Amelie) made it to the top. They all wanted to get there to see the giant "deuce" that was in the cavern above. Here I am above, checking it out and shouting, "That is disgusting!" And below, grabbing my phone to take a picture so you can also view "the deuce."
Personally, I don't know how it is possible for any animal to pass something that large, and instead opt to think of it as some strange geological formation......
Ella snapped thses two shots.
Here we are for Amelie's birthday dinner.
Our waiter was very kind, and brought us out a "peach pie" with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Cam and Ella devoured it.
After dinner, we went and walked around the St. George temple grounds. We also went to their visitor's center and watched a movie called "Treasure in Heaven: The John Tanner Story." An amazing video of his unwavering faith, and conversion to the gospel. You can view the video here:
After the temple we came back for some birthday cake!
Thank you George for supplying our family with a great time and wonderful memories!!
Joshua
This boy is funny. I mean really funny. His quick wit and sarcasm often causes the entire family to laugh out loud. Maybe it means I have the same sense of humor as a twelve year old boy.........reagardless, he is fun to have around.The kids all seem to bicker and fight almost all the time, but there is one thing that always seems to bring them together: fart noises. For some reason fart noises, or anything having to do with passing bodily gas, is like the super glue that bonds them all together. I caught Josh and Dax one day bonding. Josh was singing the tune of "Tonight" by Fun, (in minion voice) while Dax provided vulgar accompaniment.
Daxton
Here is yet another hand-written example of Dax's awesomeness. The assignment in school was to describe each family member so others will know what they are like. It's always funny to see my little family through my kids' eyes.
"My dad has whiskers, plays ball, and he is nice. My mom has curly hair, she has a lot of furniture, and a lot of lamps. Josh has a lot of toys and is good at basketball. Ella is good at homework, eating and skiing. Amelie is good at playing with friends and running."
Dax had his 2nd grade program this month, all about reading, and sentence structure. (fun!) They had to dress up as characters from a book. Dax chose "Davy Crockett," and his good buddy Richie was Tom Sawyer. Below, Dax with his teacher Miss Smith.
Here are Dax and Richie finishing up their basketball season together. They not only played against one another, but they also guarded each other!
Grandpa Scott, Nana Trish and Uncle Larry came up to cheer Dax on in his last game!
(Dax is wearing a deflated ball on his head. Totally normal.)
Ella
Ella has taken a keen interest in the Book of Mormon. She is always asking Cam and I, "Will you come and read the Book of Mormon with me?" And it doesn't matter what you're in the middle of, you can't say no to that one. So we will plop on the couch and read through a page or so together.
Below is the picture Ella drew for her Great-Grandma Page's birhtday. It was a darling card, so I had to snap a photo. There is a word bubble off to the side that says, "Happy Birhtday Grandma Page!" (family surprising her) and she replies,
"Hi guys! I did not know you were here!"
"Hi guys! I did not know you were here!"
The girls and I played hookey one day and hit the slopes. They both skied a double blue that day. I was so impressed. Ella said it "was awesome" and Amelie cried most of the way down. :)
It always tuckers them out.
Amelie
Amelie avearages 3 outfit changes each day. Generally starts with regular clothing, then switches to 2 or 3 different dress ups. I came upstairs one day to find her laying on the bench like so:
After I snapped the photo she sat up and told me she was sleeping beauty.
This day she finally layed down and took a nap (never happens.) I love watching my kids sleep. So peaceful!
Grandma Holly, Grandpa Glen and Coco came up to celebrate Amelie's birthday with us!
Grandpa Glen is the party-guy, always up for playing with the grandkids! Anyone need a plumber? Ella's got ya covered.
Amelie went swimming this month at the Kamas pool with her buddies Dash and of course, Joey. Since then she has said that she wants to be a "Kamas pool worker" when she grows up.
Grandma Holly gave Amelie this dress for her birthday. She wore it everyday for a week! Loves it! (and helps mom with her laundry load too!)
Amelie is so lucky to have new friends move in next door! Twin brothers, Luke and Jake. (No lie, Joey is a bit jealous. He told his mom that he doesn't think he can share Amelie with them. He said, "I just can't mom. She's just so beautiful." Ha ha)
Amelie took tumbling this month too! Here she is practicing her back somersaults.
And of course, no post is complete without a few more pictures of Joey and Amelie. They now say they "love each other" and are "getting married when they are bigger." Joey even said that when he's ressurrected, he's going to give Amelie all his toys.
Here they are looking out the window at all the construction workers building next door.
Cameron
Cam seems to be healthy and happy. He's still traveling to Montana about one week a month for work (as most of his accounts are there.)
Ella snapped this photo of Cam and Josh at church.
One of my favorite things to do is go on a date with Cam. Now that Josh is old enough to babysit, a quick dinner out once a week is doable! We tried a new restaurant one evening, and completely busted up when they brought out this dish. Look at the size of that platter! There's enough food there for 4 people! Ha ha!
Cindy
Life is good. Sunshine is great. Kids are awesome. Motherhood is epic.
Josh posed all the kids and asked that I take a picture. Funny boy.
This is a small sampling of all the videos and pictures I take at Ella's lessons to ensure that we practice the right way throughout the week. Since I never played, I have to learn it all right along side her! She's moving fast and is already playing her "twinkles!" (twinkle little star)
One of this month's highlights is our neighbor's cat having her kittens. "Bella" is the sister of our cats. She, and the other neighbors cat, Zygamo, got "married" and now have a litter of 6 kittens. The kids on the street have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the kittens. The day they arrived will forever be emblazoned in my memory. Isaac, our new neighbor, bursts through my front door. "Cindy, come quick! You're not going to believe this!" The kids and I frantically run to keep up as we sprint across the street. Joey is riding his bike towards us screaming, "The babies are here! The babies are here!" And we arrive at the Ballstaedts home to a garage full of excited kids from our street all peering to catch a glimpse of the new little kittens!
Currently, there are 27 kids on our street (that's from only 6 houses.) It's pretty much a party all the time.
Selfie for Cam while he's out of town. I did the infamous "facebook" pose.
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