Fun February

 I accompanied my friend Allyson Omdahl's daughter while she performed a solo for her orchestra teacher, and we spent some time practicing for it, so Allyson tried to pay me which I refused to accept. So the afternoon after the performance Ella (the violinist) brought me this pretty bouquet of purple flowers. I thought that was nice!

Weston and Jared got tickets to a monster truck rally a couple Friday's ago and said they had a good time watching the motorbike stunts and stuff. I personally can think of 100 things I'd rather be doing. In any case it was a great father and son bonding outing quality time etc etc.

 

 

 We took off Friday last week and headed down to st george to attend weston's 3rd gym meet of the season. We didn't compile a video of his events this time because its starting to all look the same. But if he ever gets a 10.00 or higher score on something we will be sure to share it.  I thought he looked really good on high bar this time so I added some pictures of him doing that. He consistently got 3rd or 4th place on every event at this meet, and usually the 2nd and 1st placers were people on his own team, so he is doing great. We had a parent/coach conference last week and Weston is excelling or meeting standards in every area. Pommel horse continues to be his weakest event.

 We had all the Barretts over for dinner last Sunday and Heidi made everyone jam and chocolate strawberries as a valentine gift, which was very nice of her. As we speak Jared is helping my parents move Grandma Rappleye's furniture from her house to their house. Just in the nick of time too, last week Grandma's plumbing was affected by overgrown tree roots and decay and her basement flooded. They have made a nice new place for grandma at their home and she will have privacy when she needs it and company when she needs it and round the clock supervision, which will be good for her, and easier there for my parents to be her caretaker.

For the past 3 months Fiora's vision has been declining, just like the eye doctor told us last May would happen, she has been complaining that can't see far through her glasses since November so I told her to wait til her birthday and we would go back to the eye doctor. The doctor stated that she still has rapid declining vision, for whatever reason the back of her eye is elongating to try and compensate for the myopia, so he talked me into doing Corneal Refractive Therapy, gas permeable  hard lenses you only wear at night that reshapes the cornea so the back of her eye stops thinking it has to compensate and holds its shape. She wears those at night and nothing in the daytime, its kind of amazing to me, like LASIK for kids. I'm a little nervous about her losing one of those $200 contact lenses someday though. They last for 2 years, if you can keep track of them...

Its the darndest thing, my kids have discovered they can do anything they want by looking up a "how to" video on youtube. Instead of watching TV programs, I catch the kids watching "how to paint your nails for prom" or "how to draw Olaf from Frozen" or "how to make a iPod valentines box." Fiora found this iPod box idea and created it almost all by herself, and so Weston found a minion box online and followed suit. I thought they turned out really cute, and since I'm really not crafty its nice they had initiative to do it themselves.

Fiora turned 11 on February 13th. She wanted chicken alfredo for her birthday breakfast. We always make time for a family breakfast and presents on the morning of someone's birthday around here. That day I checked her out of school so she and I could go to Pizza Pie cafe for lunch.  She mostly got craft items for her birthday, she is super crafty!!! must have gotten it from Grandma Sandy, cuz Jared and I can't claim that status. Fiora often has problems procrastinating her homework because she is working on a yarn covered headband, or crocheting and bow, or working on her rubberband loom, or sewing a beanbag out of old shirts, or making a boondoggle, or making jewelry with beads.  I even had to tell her teacher at parent teacher conference that the crafts have been getting out of hand, her teacher Dr. Welte has this "Welteville" business operation going where people order goods from each other to earn "weltebucks".  Its great for teaching business principles, but not good for motivating Fiora to work on social studies and math homework!  Her birthday party included 2 craft activities, making owls out of felt and valentines doilies, and making earrings and necklaces from materials she pre-ordered on Amazon for her birthday. She and her 8 friends also played a few games, "name that pop-star" and "spoons" and "Baby do you love me?" with lots of giggles and squeals. And she had an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins per her request. (spoiled) What a fun party she had!