January Wrap Up

I've done pretty well this month keeping up with my blogging. This post will wrap up the rest of my January. The beginning of this month seems so long ago... We brought home a new member of the family this month. No, not a dog, but a new TV finally. Trevan was pretty funny. "Why do we need a new TV? The one we have is fine. I don't want a new TV." I've decided Trevan isn't big on change...

This is how we spent the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday:

Well, I should say, that is how they spent that day. We also cleaned out the garage. Then, that afternoon, I packed up my kids and drove to my sister's house because one of my old college roommates, Kerri, was visiting that area. So, I got to spend about 24 hours with her. We tried out a restaurant John saw on the food network, and that was spotlighted on some other show too, but it really wasn't all that exciting. It was fun to try it out though. I didn't take my camera, but here's some pictures of us from back in the day. After looking through some pictures I realized we really did a lot of fun things together!

We traveled with another friend to Idaho. The middle of nowhere, Idaho. That would be Malad, in case you were wondering.

We disco skated quite a few times!!

We went white water rafting. That was my other wonderful roommate, Caroline. Really, there was a drought, so there wasn't a whole lot of white water...

We went to Vegas. Us playing probably playing some nickel slots. The only time I have ever hitch hiked was with Kerri outside of Vegas. We had another roommate with us too. A lady picked us up, and then she started talking about strange things that could happen to hitch hikers, and made us all a little weirded out. That hitch hiking benefited us none. Kerri even flew out here and drove back to college with me at the end of one summer. Good times!


Then, that following weekend, we had a progressive dinner and poker night with our neighbor friends. It was a Mexican theme.

We started out with appetizers at Mark and Shirley's house; jalapeno poppers, and nachos. The stuffed jalapenos are Mark's specialty we enjoy in the summers, so this was a great treat for us.

See? We don't need a dog. Mallary gets her fill at the neighbor's houses!

We then moved to our house for the main course. We made chicken enchiladas.

I picked up some drinks made in Mexico for the fun of it. The fruit punch kind just tasted like dirty water.

We then went to Chris and Linda's house for dessert. Chris made some yummy empanadas! He made some cookies with the leftover dough, and I think Mallary ate them all...

I was organizing some recipes a few nights before this, and I came across a Tres Leches Cake recipe I had been wanting to try. (I tore it out of a magazine in 2006) So, I made that too for the fun of it.

Then, back to our house for poker (so we could put Mallary to bed). I can't get anyone to wager anything; candy, baked goods, services, nothing. Maybe next time...

We barely got Linda to participate, because I let her borrow a certain book series...

Trevan got to stay up really late that night too!

Then, this past Friday night it started snowing here!! So, Saturday was a fun snow day!

Mallary is wearing all of Trevan's snow gear from when he was little. I haven't even bothered buying her any because it snows so little here (and last year, I was traveling almost every time it did).

My kids love their neighbor friends too!

Mallary loved being outside. I thought she would want to come in pretty quick, but she stayed out there as long as everyone else did.

"Help me!" I thought it was pretty classic that I couldn't find matching mittens for Mallary to wear...

I said I wouldn't post pictures of poo or vomit, but I never said anything about snot... After everyone came in, I made hot chocolate, just like my mom did for us when we played outside as kids.

Obviously, Mallary has picked up some playing tips from her brother. She calls Bert, her 'bad guy.'

"Give me my bad guy!"

Some other highlights for January: The kitchen has stayed pretty clean most of the month!! Trust me, it's a big deal. Which as a result means, I've been cooking a lot. Nothing makes me happier than cooking in a clean kitchen. This month I have also successfully retrained my kids to wait to eat dinner until 6pm, so we can eat with John. I don't even know if he's noticed or not. But, I was proud of myself for having dinner on the table or almost on the table so we could all eat together with him when he got home.

Welcome, February.