February

My I have fallen very behind. February started off with James turning 7. We celebrated at home because well, I'm a little lame and didn't plan any birthday party. (He let me know how disappointed he was about that.)

Can't believe how much he has grown.

James was star of the week at school the week of his birthday. At least I planned that one right. ;)

He wanted to draw the picture on his poster.
For his favorite color: he put blue, gold, silver and purple
Favorite book: Bad Kitty Books
When I grow up: he wants to be a policeman
Favorite Food: Noodles
What I like to do: Legos

 His birthday was a Wednesday, so he had school. He chose to bring in Madeline's for his class treat. I think he had a good day that day at school.

Off to school as a 7 year old for the first time.

 After school we celebrated with ice cream.

He had challenged me to make him an Angry Bird cake this year complete with sling shot. The sling shot took a lot of brainstorming but in the end the cake turned out awesome.

When it is your birthday you can get away with
wearing your rain jacket all day but no pants. 

A few days later Charles learned what happens when you don't sit still to eat. Ouch.

For Valentine's Tracy was busy as usual. He did treat me to breakfast at the little bakery by our house.

I took the little ones on a lunch date to McDonald's. It was fun to have a special lunch, as special as fast food can get,  with them. 

For Valentine's dinner I made my traditional heart shaped pizza. This year I also made x and o bread sticks. It was a good day celebrating with my 3 boys.

 February 15th Charles had a doctor's appointment with the holidays falling around his 9 month check up, it ended up being a 11th month check up. Our car had to get it's breaks fixed the same day as his appointment so we took the bus to it. Charles was in heaven. This kid loves buses.

At 11 months, Charles weighed 27 lbs 15.5 oz. and was 35.43 inches tall.

The following day we headed off to Prescott for a Paleontology Conference. Below are the pictures taken from that trip. 

We had a bunch of rain throughout the winter.
They had to flood the Yolo Bypass to protect Sacramento from flooding.
The amount of water in the bypass was quite shocking. 

With rain came lots of greenery. I hadn't ever seen so much green through central valley on I-5.

We spent the night at Sam's Town in Las Vegas.
The boys loved the water show and the atrium.

We made a pit stop at the Hoover Dam. 

Our first full day in Prescott my sister drove up from Phoenix.
We had lunch together than played at a park. It was really cold and wet.

We all had way to much fun on this zip line thing.
I don't know why we didn't get a picture of my sister on it.
James was too scared to try it but then wish he had after we left.

The second day in Prescott, I took the little ones to the little zoological sanctuary.
The boys enjoyed the animals and the staff there is super friendly.
I recommend checking it out if you are in the area.

When you both want to sit in the same chair. 

Prescott was fun but soon enough we had to head back home.

On the way home we stopped at the Grand Canyon.
Wow, what an impressive place.
Looking forward to returning and exploring more.

These two's friendship grew a bit on this trip.

 

Just Charles being himself at one of the many stops we made.

 After our trip we got back to the daily grind.

Charles really wanted Madeline's, Applesauce and Popcorn for breakfast one day.

Flowers I had received. The rose from the grocery store on customer appreciation day
and the carnation on Valentine's Day from our apartment management.
That carnation was already over 10 days old and it survived about 2 more weeks.

Sometimes a bad hair day take two combs to defeat it.

One of my friend's bought a bounce house for her girls' birthdays.
This was first of a couple more bounce house fun we had at her house.

We joined a program called ohmconnect. Their goal is to use less of the dirty power plants to produce electricity.Several times a week (how many is set by us) they inform you of an ohmhour. During ohmhours is when the electricity in your area is coming mostly from the dirty plants.So the goal is to reduce your usage during the ohmhour and when you do you get points that turn into cash after you reach a certain amount of points. During ohm hour we turn off electronics and lights, even unplug the fridge and do other things. This day at the end of February James chose play dough and Charles chose to play on the patio.  

That was our February. My goal is to get fully caught up by the end of the week.