And out like a lion. Seriously?

We woke up to snow again. It's going to snow tomorrow. So much for going out like a lamb, March.

Last week I went to the tail end of the littles' gymnastics class to see just what they've been doing every Monday the last few weeks. 

Erica has perfected a headstand and James says he has new skills to try out on the trampoline. They are sad their class is over and both want to sign up somewhere else but we'll see.

There was this one day where there was no snow on the lawn or in the trees so I went out to prune the fruit trees. In the between the trees was what I first thought was trash then I saw it was an unopened package. It was an unopened package for us! It took a minute for my brain to catch up but I realized it was James's missing wool socks Justin ordered. He ordered wool socks for all of us on Black Friday but didn't notice that James's was missing until 11pm Christmas Eve. We looked all through our closet and bedroom and I even checked the flower beds but couldn't find them. I guess I needed to walk around the house to the back. Did they blow in the wind all the way back there? Anyway, the socks were soggy but fine. I dried them out on the heat vent and Justin gave them to James the next day. James was super excited because he loves wool socks.

I love when my Tetris skills have real world application.

This is the only photo I took on St Patrick's Day. I mostly forgot it was a holiday and my kids don't really care. James's class got some chocolate coins from a Jewish leprechaun, apparently. "Mom, what does this say?" Uh that's a dreidel and the other side is a menorah. (Are they leftover Hannukah coins?)

On the 18th we took Henry to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. In true Henry fashion he was a grump and a pill about going. He always acts like this when there's something new to do so I addressed what I thought were his fears of the unknown instead of getting after him for his bad attitude. I just kept saying things like, we stay together the whole time, everyone is really nice, you don't have to know what to do or say anything, etc. As we walked out he said he wanted to come back the next day.

 

It was nice to have Sarah there who is an old pro at it all.

Fun fact: It was freezing outside and there is a large wedding party to the right of us taking group pictures. They looked cold.

I made this appointment in January so we'll see when we get another chance.

There was that other day this month that it wasn't snowy so Sarah and James put up the trampoline. My kids were loving it. It is like 38 degrees here but they didn't care.

If they stopped jumping they'd get a little cold. 

Here's what it looks like today. I told Sarah she could set it up if she cleared off the snow asap each time so we know what she's doing after school today.

Due to our family NCAA bracket challenge, James has a sudden interest in basketball which is great since Henry and Justin love it. But Henry won't share any of his many basketballs so I took James to the store after school on Monday so he could pick out his own. He zeroed in on this black one (I think because Henry doesn't have a black one). Justin and I lowered the hoop out in the driveway so he is all about it.

Me: James stop bouncing the ball in the house.

James (while pointing to the print on his ball): It says indoor/outdoor.

He got me there.

I see the irony in our yearly tradition of painting easter eggs with the last name Dye. I just like painting wood eggs better because we get to keep them year after year.

It's only slightly less messy but no one fights over the green dye like my siblings and I did.

Here are this year's eggs.

Our eggs and baskets are all the Easter decorations we have.

I took this picture of us reading the Book of Mormon yesterday after dinner and the more I look at it the more awkward it is. The boys are sitting on the floor because they decided to eat one more slice of pizza and I wouldn't let them on the rug or couch. I don't know why Erica is on the floor though. But I just really liked how ordinary the moment was and how regular it is too. I hope when they are all big and leave home it will feel weird not to read the Book of Mormon everyday.

So that's a wrap for March. We have general conference this weekend and we are driving to Kanab for a few days of spring break. It's only going to be a few degrees warmer there than here which is a bummer but I think just going somewhere will feel nice. And then of course Easter is the following Sunday which is my favorite holiday.

In like a lion

March is finally here. I have mixed feelings about March. On one hand it is the month that begins spring but on the other hand you have to wade through a lot of mud and slush to get there.

This is Henry killing time before heading out the door to do fast offerings. We got slammed with snow again so I managed to talk him into wearing his snow boots with his church clothes. I had to show him the group text with the other deacon parents to prove that other boys were bunding up too.

Our neighbor two houses down has been making good use of the snow by making huge snow sculptures. Last week it was a bison, this week an elephant. Since my kids are the only kids on the street, I'd like to think he makes them just for them.

At least it's pretty once in awhile.

And then came the rain. Rain on top of snow means lots of water in the gutters and street. Erica's friend gave her some rainboots and this was the perfect day to try them out. James is wearing snowboots and they both came in with sopping wet pants.

On Friday for some reason I'm still not sure of my kids had a day off of school. Justin also stayed home from work so we did pretty much the only thing you can do on a cold and wet day, go to a museum! Henry was not excited. "This is not what I want to do on my day off." Since what he wanted to do on his day off was watch TV I made him come. I wanted to see an exhibit at the BYU art museum.

The littles peering down into the portion of the library that extends underground.

So I like old things and I like art so I was kind of geeking out at this Souls and Sacraments exhibit. Most of the art was from Europe. Old+art+Europe=Awesome. I was unprepared for the level of fine art I was about to see. I've never been to a big fancy art museum anywhere so this was the coolest exhibit I've ever seen. I took a lot of photos of paintings but I'll just make a note of a few here. 

Dutch golden age painting is my most favoritest era everrrrr. I don't know this artist but I like seeing a real painting from the era. 

My heart about stopped with Justin pointed out this painting. We saw a Tanner painting  on Antiques Roadshow and really liked it and looked up more of his work and I really like his style. Plus he's famous so I was not expecting to see one of his paintings in li'l ol' Provo.

My kids were a little thrown off by religious art done by people not of our religion. Halos, angels with wings, baby Jesus with adult proportions and face. It made for some interesting discussion about what we can learn about other religions through their art and also how art technique has evolved. I was busting out words I hadn't used since college. It was great. They even kind of listened.

"Kiddos, this is so old. And it's from Europe. It hung in a church forever ago." They got kind of tired of me saying things like that. But I didn't get tired of saying it. The painting below is the oldest one we found. Seven hundred years old! 

After all the old fine art we wandered to another part of the museum where Justin found a little gem.

Looks just like Ichabod!

Speaking of old pictures, later that day my mom showed me this photograph of my dad and his brother and sister. He's the littlest one. Aren't they so cute? 

I put away all the snow clothes today. Sure it will snow again and the forecast doesn't even have us out of the 40s yet but I by golly I am going to will us to spring! 40s actually feel nice. Will March stay true to form and go out like a lamb?