Happy Valentine's Day!

Sara asked her friend Tyiss to go to Sadie Hawkins with her. She is so great at creating beautiful lettering and was clever with her invitation. She made this cute card and put it in a basket of yummy fruit.

This is all hand written and she drew the pictures as well.

Last Sunday evening, Mikael came over to play Pokemon and hang out. He pretty much spent the evening with Daniel. They have a lot of the same interests. They jammed on the piano and guitar for a long time. We all enjoyed listening while we talked.

After every one went to bed, Mikael and Daniel were still jamming together. Then the three of us talked until almost midnight. It was a lot of fun!

When I headed to bed, I found Andrew still up doing homework with toothpaste on his face to help with his skin.

Monday morning, I came down stairs to find these beautiful roses from my sweetheart. He said it was for Birthentine's Day, since it was between my birthday and Valentine's Day. He also gave me some gingermints, mmmmm!

Tuesday, Susanna presented her science fair project to her class. She grew different kinds of crystals to see which solution would grow the biggest crystals in three weeks time. She did a great job!

That evening, the doorbell rang and we found this sweet answer to Sara's invitation. Tyiss left a huge bouquet of flowers and candy that said, "To a Sweetie Pie from a Sweetheart. YES."

So SWEET!

Everyone was being so sweet and cuddly after family prayer, I had to take pictures. Tori was hanging out with us for the evening.

Freddy had his school dance recital on Thursday and Friday. Sara and I watched it on Thursday. The students were all divided in to smaller groups and choreographed their own routines. He danced beautifully!

Freddy and Morgan

Hooray Freddy!

Susanna's teacher, Mrs. Neis, sends me pictures all of the time. It's great! Here are some of Susanna's class Valentine's Party.

This is from Friday night's  dance performance.
Freddy, Makenna and Colton

When Freddy came home from his performance the teens all had friends over for a movie night. They "watched" Beauty and the Beast, the old cartoon version. I say "watched" because if you look closely at the picture, a lot  of them are asleep.

Josh Jordan, Kyler Johnson, Mya Hall, Daniel, Makaila Lundquist, Sara, Kara Sasaki, Freddy, Rachel Mounteer (I cut off her head, oops!) and Brandon Mounteer on the floor in front

Saturday morning, we went to Nick's Menswear to get suits for the wedding. Here's a little preview of just the coats. They looked super awesome!!!

Saturday evening was the Sadie Hawkins dance. That will all be in another post.

Josh and Leigh had Mikael and Makenzie Anderson over to teach Makenzie how to play Settlers of Catan. Josh won, but Makenzie came in second. :)

Sunday, as we were walking into church Rich noticed an EXIT sign on the roof of the church. It was from CCV (Christ's Church of the Valley). We have no idea who put it there. The twins were happy to climb up there to remove it and give it to bishop.

Sara and I wore our new Gown Town dresses to church today. They are SO comfy and cute! We got after church pics to show Tim.

Sam came by after church for a hair cut and to see the family.  We've missed him since he moved across town! He looks so happy and handsome!

I made them pose for me mid hair cut.

I don't know what to say about this one, except for... EWWW! Daniel said, "Tasty!"

Another year older :)

Sara and I have done a bit of shopping lately, so I could update my wardrobe. I have lost over 40 pounds in the last year and had hardly anything in my closet that fit. It has been fun. Of course we have mostly done second hand shopping. I have a hard time with spending money on myself and I think things are so overpriced. We've found several cute barely or never used items over the last few weeks. Sunday evening I was a little chilly so I got to wear my new sweater.

This is feverish Laney trying to cool down and stop shivering from the chills she was having as well. Poor baby.

Sara and Brynn practiced the National Anthem Sunday evening. They are getting ready to audition to sing it together at a school assembly. They sounded great!

Papa has been coming over a lot lately. He is such a sweetie. He said he misses all the piano playing and singing that he had when we were growing up, so it was a nice treat for him to be here while Sara and Brynn rehearsed. We have run out of leftover coconut cake from the twin's birthday party and he keeps coming over, so he must really love us like he keeps telling us, not just the cake. 😜 Poor Susie, she was trying to look happy but was still feeling miserable.

Daniel was goofing around and got nailed in the head with a straw, by Josh Jordan. It left him with an interesting mark on his forehead.

Last Monday evening, Josh and Leigh did their own FHE and went for $1 day at Great Skate. They had a great time, except for maybe when Josh took a fall to avoid running over a little kid that hopped out in front of him.

The horns came in for the Beast costume for the musical. Daniel modeled them beautifully for us.

Monday evening, Susanna and Laney were still feeling awful, so I called and made a doctors appointment for them.  I was pretty sure that Susanna just had a virus (congestion, cough, general aches and pains, headache etc.), but Laney didn't really have any of that other than the body aches. She had a high fever and super sore and nasty looking throat. I had a feeling she had strep and would need antibiotics to get feeling better.

Laney finally felt a little bit goofy after the pain meds kicked in.

Monday was a busy day. Andrew went to the salon and had Sara give him a perm to refresh his curls. He has naturally curly hair just not as curly as he likes it to be. He felt like a new man!

At the doctor's office on Tuesday, as she was examining Laney, she noticed that her rib cage was lower on one side of her abdomen than the other side. She had her stand up and bend over so she could look at her spine. She suspected Laney had scoliosis. Richard and Josh both have a very mild case of scoliosis, so while this isn't totally shocking that we would have another kid with it, it was surprising to go in for strep throat and get this additional diagnosis. Susanna did just have a nasty virus and Laney had strep. They were both feeling a lot better Wednesday, well enough to go to school, but since Laney had not been on antibiotics for 24 hours she was not allowed to return. While Susanna didn't make a big deal out of it, I could tell she felt that it was a little unfair that Laney got a prescription and had to miss another day of school, when she had been so sick too. We had a talk about the differences between viruses and bacterial infections. I don't know if it made her feel any better about it, but at least she understood a little of the science of it.

In chemistry, the twins got to do their mole projects. In chemistry, a mole is a unit of measurement for a chemical substance. However, our high school has the kids make moles, the animal, for one of their projects. I have never been sure how this helps them learn chemistry, but it has always been a fun project. Josh made Maynard the Mole Nerd, Tim made Rockin' Mole, Sara made Pippi-molestocking and this year, Andrew made Molezilla and Freddy made Bob Moley. It was pretty awesome!

 

Sara had me straighten her hair Wednesday night. She had a bunch of friends that wanted to see what her hair looked like straight. It is kind of weird to see her with straight hair. She hasn't straightened it in over a year and her curls are so pretty, so it is a little shocking to see it straight. It freaked out a few people at school too. It is beautiful either way, but I personally love her curls.

Thursday night she had me curl her straightened hair so she could have a smooth, soft curl look on Friday. All these ringlets loosened up and made beautiful big curls for school the next morning.

She's such a cutie!

Poor Daniel has been without glasses for a few months. He is quite nearsighted in one eye and  has been making due since Josh accidentally broke his glasses. I finally got him in to get an exam and new glasses. We had fun trying on lots of different styles. His new glasses will be ready next week!

Friday evening we got Laney's results from the doctor. She does have scoliosis and will have physical therapy to try to help with it. We also found out that she only 11 sets of ribs instead of 12 and that her L5 vertebrae is fused to her sacrum more than the average person.

Saturday was my 42nd birthday. Everyone kept asking me what I wanted and I told them that the thing I wanted most was to have a family work day to clean up the front and back yards and then plant the front flower beds for spring. So that is what we did. We spent the whole day working. I missed my Timmy as we planted. He is usually the one who helps me do this. It was a wonderful day with beautiful weather. I loved every second!

Some of my bulbs are coming up and starting to bloom. This is my favorite time of year in the yard!

It doesn't look that exciting yet, but in a month it will be gorgeous!

  

Then Rich and I got all cleaned up and went to dinner with my parents at The Golden Corral to celebrate. We ate way too much, but it was super yummy!

Today in church it was hard to stay awake after such a busy Saturday. These guys didn't make it without nodding of for quite awhile. Laney was just resting her eyes, not sleeping.

This is another of the finds from our shopping excursions. I needed some new church dresses, badly, so I was excited when we found this one. 

Another week survived and mostly enjoyed by the Alger family. Whew!