Valentines

 Our Valentines started here :)

 Provo Bakery is so yummy and for the past couple of years, we have gone up there for an order or two of meringue cookies.

 They let them cook a little too long this time so they just gave us these.  Usually they are a bright baby pink :)

 We write little messges to eachother or to friends....put them in the cones above with some fun sprinkles.....

 ..and glue two of the cookies together and on top of the cone with melted chocolate.  It's fun.  And yummy.

 Jack had to make a couple dozen valentines for his kindergarten class but instead of paper notes, he decided to make valentine robots.

 He put a face on :)  And some feet.

 And built a little army of robot buddies.

 Leah enjoying a meringue cone.

 And Katy made this little valentine mailbox all by herself.  I cut the hole for her and she did the rest.

 Anytime we are in Provo we love to drive by the site of the new temple and see the construction.  On this particular day, we had a little more time to kill before picking up Jack from kindergarten so we drove past our house and to Payson to see the construction site of that temple.

 It's really unbelievable to see both of these huge builidings going up.  The payson temple, below, is so big.  There was a man working at the very top that day. 

 And for family home evening a couple of weeks ago, we shot off this rocket from christmas.

 First we tried it in the house....

 ..and quickly ended up outside.

That thing really flies!  We had so much fun!  Thanks Jake & Robyn!

Just some stuff

 Jack's 100th day of school was a couple of weeks ago and the kids were asked to decorate a shirt with 100 items and then wear them to school.

 Here is what he came up with: on the top is Yellowstone Road made with black licorice. The bottom is the back and he has a parking lot, a large garden with carrots and tomatoes and little homes where loving families live (that's why they have hearts on them).

 The kids had the idea to go to the park and chase the ducks around with their remote controlled cars.

 We tried but the batteries ran out quickly on the sidewalk.

 And we brought some old chex cereal along.  There were a few ducks all the way across the pond.....and then they started coming in.....

 and coming in.....

 and Leah......

 and then suddenly there were so many!  They were climbing up the bank to get some stale cereal.

 And here is something kind of interesting.  Jason  traps every winter and it's usually beavers and bobcats. Well this winter he wanted to take Jack with him and teach him a few things, so together they trapped fox and muskrat.

 When they have been cleaned and stretched he takes them down to the annual fur sale 40 minutes South.

 There, hundreds of trappers bring their furs, bobcats, fox, beavers, muskrat, coyotes, mink and probably more. 

There are two buildings full of these pelts.  There are probably a couple thousand and the guys there in the blue coats are grading them.  They grade them on color, size and overall quality.  They buy them and then the fur goes to auction where fur buyers from bigger cities and from big clothing companies buy them and make clothing or accessories out of them.  Or ship them overseas.  So if you have ever bought anything with real fur, it most likely started off like this.  :)

So much snow

Look what Jason found up the canyon. :)  I didn't realize how special these were until he sold them for nearly $400.

 We have had so much snow this winter.  But it was so cold and smoggy for the first couple of weeks in January, we couldn't go outside and enjoy it for very long.  Well, another storm rolled through a couple of days ago and Spanish Fork got about 4 more inches.  The smog cleared, the sun was shining and it was in the 40s.  The kids went outside and played for about an hour.

 I went out with the kids while Leah took a nap.  She woke up, I wrapped her up and brought her outside too :)  So much fun in the snow on a sunny, warmer day.