February

February is also blurry now. Mostly I remember spending an entire day making 40+ valentines with Tom and Katie. Each. I cut the hearts, they decorated them. That took wayyy longer than I thought it would. 3 hours for decorating, an hour trying to get everyone's addresses because I couldn't find my address book, an hour assembling and filling the envelopes. I was exhausted. I'm pretty sure I was the one who got groaned at at the post office when I ran in there 5 minutes to closing with a handful of under-priced envelopes and needing additional postage. But guess what? Those valentines arrived on Valentine's Day. My phone went off the hook with texts and phone calls thanking Tommy and Katie, and they were giddy with delight. They love their Love Holiday. After that crafting extravaganza, Tom observed the table and commented, "Mom, our table is a mess. But it's a mess of love!"

We also celebrated Chinese New Year, and I don't even remember what day that was now. It must have been the week after Valentine's Day. Cathie (I'll write about her in the next post) came to help me. She caught me as I was finishing the grocery shopping, then we went to my house and did all the cooking together, taking turns caring for Thora as she needed it. The other three kids entertained themselves with Kung Fu Panda. Together, Cathie and I made Hot and Sour Soup, Egg Rolls, Dumplings, Thai Cashew Chicken, and Lo Mein. Oh, it was fantastic! And celebrating a second new year reminded me that I STILL have yet to review my 2014 resolutions and create new ones.

And now pictures.

"Take a picture of us!" they said. Notice Katie's blossoming style with her headband, and her necklace looped around her shirt.

"Ta da!"

Gotta include this one. She was stylin' too.

And sometimes Mom needs to turn the camera around.

I'm sure I forgot to write about it, but our area lost elders in January. There just wasn't enough productive missionary work to support two sets of missionaries, so the elders got pulled and now we just have sisters. We've enjoyed getting to know Sister Wagher and Sister Brunner better as we've had them over for our usual dinner and games that we had with the elders on Mondays. Sister Wagher finished her mission a couple weeks ago. 

Sister Brunner is delightful and a calming personality, even though she tends to be anxious at times.

I don't know what this picture was for, but there's the three mobile ones. And their tongues.