Valentines and The Sun!

Our Valentine's Day festivities started with the library story time party...fun stuff. Brielle was a little upset that she couldn't go, but she survived. On Friday Brielle and Brooke had their parties at school. Brielle got to make her own Valentine Box, which was fun for her. Brooke made hers at school. Charles also came home and told me he had to make a Valentine box for work so that they could exchange Valentines. Weird? Normal? Who knows. I thought it was weird. He won though! He had the best box! Thanks Nolan, for letting us borrow your siloh. I got to help out in Brooke's class which she was pretty excited about. And we got tons of candy!!

After school we headed for sunny St. George, with one thing in mind...Grandma's Valentine Sugar Cookies!!!! Yum. Me and Jenna got jipped because the boys ate them all. We'll have to hit her up for some more. We spent the weekend shopping, golfing, eating yummy food, playing RC cars, and enjoying the SUN!!! I didn't want to leave. Just as we were walking out the door to head for home on Monday afternoon, Brielle yanked out her second tooth. My Brielle is growing up. So sad!!! Then it was home, and back to the snow. Fun weekend though!

A Comfy Nap...

The other day I told Jacob it was time for his nap. He, of course, said no, and climbed onto his toy boxes. I asked him if he was going to take a nap there, and he said yes. I said okay, fully expecting him to emerge from his room minutes after I left not wanting to sleep on plastic totes. Nope. He konked right out. And slept through me taking pictures. He must have been tired! That kid can sleep anywhere!!!

The Jazz

Monday Chuck and I were able to go to a Jazz game. His parents were in town so they joined us. We had a great evening. We went to dinner and then to the game. We had awesome tickets...center court, row 10. Charles said that I may be the first person that he has taken to a Jazz game who has read the entire program cover to cover...what can I say?! It was interesting! It was a fun night. I sometimes wish I could go out like that for 7 hours and not constantly have my kids in the back of my mind. We rotated them between 4 different people that night. I was relieved when I got home and they were all home in their beds!

We had to take pictures of the Jazz Dancers for Brielle...or Charles ;)

Cabin #3

We had such a great time at the cabin that we turned around the following weekend (this past weekend) and went right back. This time Chuck's family came out. Once again we had a great time. Well, besides someone's face meeting the windshield, and someone's shoulder smashing into the ice (sorry guys! I hope you're feeling better!) I should post about all the injuries sustained over our history at the cabin. Strangely enough, our immediate family never gets injured. It's always the people we invite. Hope your home owners insurance is good dad!! Suzanne came home pretty sore last weekend too!

The snow was packed down enough this weekend to ride the Kitty Kat which is always a riot.

We let Jake drive...he ended up under the pine tree

The Kitty Kat struggled getting up the hill so Chuck followed it around pushing it.

And this is what we looked like when we got home...popcorn and all!

Thanks for coming up! We had a great weekend. Put the "Balch Winter Retreat" on your calendars for next year!

Cabin #2

We went out to the cabin for our 2nd time this year for my dad's annual birthday trip at the end of January. Happy Birthday Dad!! It was a blast. We were worried there wouldn't be snow, but we got hit by a major storm right before. Well, okay, right when we were on our way up there ;) We drove there in the dark in a major whiteout. We were judging the road by the rumble strips in the center and on the shoulder. We just kindof swerved our way back and forth til we got there. Fun stuff! My adorable Brielle suggested we pray, so she prayed for us, and we made it. (On a side note, and completely off the subject...the other day I told the girls they needed to have their room cleaned before Charles got home, or he would start throwing their stuff away. I also told them it was 5:15 so he was on his way home. They finished their room and came upstairs. After awhile they asked where dad was. I said, "I don't know, he should've been home a long time ago!" Brielle...totally matter of factly said, "I know why he's not home. We prayed he wouldn't get home til our room was clean." Nice.) Anyway, back to the cabin, we made it. And poor Erica, her and Nolan had just driven from Logan in the storm and then had to follow us up Daniels in their little Escort. Rulon's Roost or Bust!! If we were headed anywhere but the cabin we would've turned around, we were just excited to have new snow to play in!

The girls sledding-cute picture if you enlarge it!

Jacob liked to watch the sledders behind the snowmobile



A beard full of icicles. Looks dang cold to me...he insisted it was warm? Explain that!

I sure love my dad!

Allee and Caleb. My dad keeps saying he is going to lessen the space between the banister but personally, I think they have much more fun when they can fit through it. Plus, the shag carpet is plush enough that it wouldn't hurt that bad to fall through.

Lazy lazy lazy...the name of the game. If you're not lazy by nature...no cabin for you!

When we got home Jacob laid down on the kitchen rug, fully dressed in his snow clothes and konked out. That snowmobiling really wears you out!

My Boys

This is Jacob. For some reason he thinks it's fun to stick his finger in everything he finds. I have yanked it from little holes in shopping carts, Clorox wipes bottles, wipe containers, everything you can think of. This day it was a funnel. I pulled and pulled until I heard/felt his joint in his finger pop. Then I quit pulling and smeared it with dish soap. Then...I pulled again. We got it out, but he was mortified by the sliminess of the dish soap and couldn't believe I had done that to him! What was I thinking?!

These are their cute new Shark shirts. I thought Caleb's face fit the situation perfectly. He shirt says, "My Big Brother is a Shark"
I put this picture in because you can see how RED his finger is from the funnel

And this picture was just too dang cute to leave out. I can't believe how OLD Caleb looks!!

Boys are a ton of fun. Totally a different fun than girls. It's been nice to have both!! I love my kids!