This is the longest winter...I am thankful for the rain/snow though.

 

Frances painted this for her friend Letty.

This is Monica. She is Lucy's 1st counselor in the YW. We went to the Springville Art Museum on Wednesday night for YW to see her piece that got in the show. Wahoo!

My really bad pic of our group. 

We just broke the record for all time snow fall in UT in one season. The forecast is not good either. SO lots of flood prepping is going on. The good thing is all of our lakes are LOW so there is a place for the water to go as long as nothing stops it. 

Sarah is writing a paper about getting lost at the Dallas Zoo, this is a picture of that day. It was terrible. I think this picture is kind of hilarious now though.

SO this is the shirt that Natalie (SF softball coach) had made with Lucy's handwriting. I wish I would have known and I would not have bought the other ones. Poop! I really love it, good job LUCY! Oh and she told Lucy she is giving every person in our family one of them.

Marjorie is in the Jungle Book play at school so we saw the Spanish Fork Children's theatre group was doing it so we went. It was fun for her to see it all. 

Frances had 2 parties this weekend and Marjorie had Elle Esplin's! Esplin parties are NO JOKE. You pretty much want to pay for ticket to go to anything Lindsey Esplin does. Anyway this Paris/cafe/French themed party was AMAZING. Marjorie came home with everything pictured below. She decorated her own cupcakes after being taught by a professional and then dipped her own caramels after being taught by Lindsey who is an amazing candy maker!

Sunday morning building.

It was our family's turn to go to my parents' for dinner. It was so much fun. We had a great time visiting with them. And the food was delicious as always. I didn't take any pictures. Joe is on his last several weeks of his Doctorate. I am so proud of him! He has done an amazing job and I am so glad he decided to do it.

Mary concert and art

Some of Brigham's sketches on journal pages. Most of them in friends journals. 

I helped her with the head and hat but she did everything else herself.

Fun RS birthday party. This is Haley Davis, she is an incredible artist. This whole school year we have gotten together twice a month and worked on our art together. It has blessed both of us.

This was in her yard the other day when I went over.

Frannie's pig above hanging in the hall at school. Below is Marjorie's. I got to go to Parent Teacher conferences, all of the kids are doing so well in school. Joe went to some of them for me. 

Cute Heber.

I did this with colored pencil for my neighbor Maci. 

This is West Mountain taken from the other side of valley just below Spanish Fork Peak in Mapleton.

This is an awesome path in Mapleton just below the mountain.

This was taken on I-15 last Sunday driving home from my parents. The clouds looked so cool.

Marjorie drew this for her friend.

Mary had a concert the other night. Joe and I were the only ones who went. We have had several sickies this week. She did great, her band is fun to listen too.

Brigham usually has baptisms every weekend but we don't have all the pictures. These young kids are brave and want a better life.

We are seeing the tiniest hints of Spring. Hopefully nothing too abrupt or we will flood. 

I had the weirdest thing happen to my finger yesterday. From what I can tell online it sounds like Raynauds disease. Basically my blood vessels get too small because of an abrupt change in temperature (get too cold) and the best way to fix it is to warm it up with warm water. It hurt and felt funny for quite a while. And scared me. 

Yesterday Spencer and I got to drive to West Jordan (we had a fun drive chatting uninterupted) to see Ericka Gundersen and her fiance. They thankfully had a party here for Esther's family basically. They are getting married in Texas and he is from Maryland. It was so fun to see Esther for a few minutes. We also got to see Melissa Morales (another girl their age--her and Spencer were baptized together-they are just a day apart) and Stephanie Probst. Fun little Texas reunion. 

 Not the clearest of pictures but I had a tiny little build up done on a tooth. I am not sure it was worth it...but it's done now. He didn't get the color perfect but it was too close to have him redo it. Can you see the tooth? Left is before, right is after. 

Joe and Lucy went to St. George Thursday-Saturday with High School Softball. Lucy pitched 1 Varsity and 2 JV games. She did a good job. Varsity went undefeated 5 games. JV lost 2 of 4. Millie fell and broke her wrist the other day. Brigham got a new missionary this week from Tonga. He is just learning English from what we heard. We will talk to Brigham tonight and tomorrow. He only has 4 months left!!! 

Kyhv Peak/random

 

Finished Ogden temple painting with oils. Need to make prints now.

We aren't sure but we think this is Lucy's handwriting for "softball" on the shirts this year. Natalie asked her to bring it over and it looks like it but we haven't been told for sure that it is.

I took the littles sledding the other night. It was so fun, until Marjorie and Frannie both crashed separately.

This was from her scooter accident not sledding.

Sarah got to perform for a school assembly.

I got to take Bill Hansen on a hike to Kyhv Peak. We had planned to go with Brian Pontius and a bunch of our kids (and some of my running friends) but everyone bailed at the last second. So we went anyway. It was awesome, fun catching up. 

Later that day I went on a walk with Heidi and we saw this cool owl. Thankfully a guy was there taking pictures of it or I am not sure we would have seen it. He blended in really well.

Aunt Sherrie gave the kids this hat when Heber was baptized. It came in handy for favorite hat day.

Brigham is still doing very well. He loves this area and all the youth he gets to teach. He also gets really frustrated with this area because they suffer with a lot more poverty/hard things than some areas of South Africa. The men are not involved at all, lots of drinking and not around. The women do all they can but families are hard to come by. The Bishop and missionaries are working with all the youth as much as they can to try and start a new generation. 

Lucy made the Varsity school softball team, Ellie and Peighton had just visited her and brought her a treat.

Marjorie decided to try out for the school play the day of tryouts (now she stays after 3 days a week because she is singing with Hope of America choir in May) and she got the part of an elephant! The teacher told her to try out next year because she wanted to give her the lead but decided she better pick a 5th grader since it was their last chance.

I made a bigger bouquet for the lady that ordered it for her daughter's quinceanera. They loved it.

Yesterday Michal and I decided to run a half marathon on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST). We went from Springville to Provo and back because it had the least amount of snow. (It snowed again last night so we made it just in time). It was mostly frozen dirt so we didn't have to use our spikes. Tons of deer poop, like so much. We saw 7-8 deer and a couple dead ones. The wind was bad for parts of it, definitely not warm. Can't wait for Spring! There is no way Lucy's first game will be Friday. 

Someone built this tiny little snowman on the trail.

My eyes were shut in this picture and it was the only one we took so I improvised. :) 

Joe is almost done with his Doctorate!!! The editor is done and he is on the very final stretch, the hard part is over. Crazy! We are in the last few months of the school year already and time is going so fast except for the cold weather making it feel like the longest winter ever next to the winter of 2008. ;)