February 28th

So. This week was marked by one, major thing. Both the kids were sick. Jens had the week off from school anyway, so we celebrated by going nowhere and doing nothing. Literally.

We had the home tour Tuesday morning and Wednesday night, which went well and was fun. It is pretty crazy to think about all that we have accomplished since moving in less than three years ago. It was also fun to check out someone else's home. I also snuck out one night for Pinkberry and a Grey's Anatomy fest with Natalie and book club, which is always fun. But other than that we stayed here.

Jens watched a movie every day and ran a fever for a few days. Sylvie had the energy of a kangaroo, even with a booger face and terrible cough. Jens's worst day was probably Tuesday. He snuggled with me and did art projects. We also read The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Ribsy this week; he enjoyed both greatly.

This weekend Mike got sick, although he toughed out a day at the motocross with Jens (he won tickets in a raffle at work). We also managed dinner at Panera one night, and the kids were both well behaved. It gives me hope for the future--someday, going out to eat as a family might be totally pleasant!

Sylvie had a bath and afterwords Mike wrapped her up and stood her in front of the mirror. "Who's that?" he asked.
"My girl Sylvie," she answered.
"You're gorgeous," he said.
"No, I booty-ful," she corrected.

She also calls Jens "Jensia" and me "Mommia," probably because we call her Sylvia.

Me, to Sylvie: "Your cough sounds so sad!"

S: No! I not sad, I cute!"

Fun times

In between all that work, we do manage to have some fun, too. This is one of our favorite Jens decorations. In fact, it has been up for quite a while. It says "Happy Party," which is what we have around here. A lot. He made it in preparation for a family party we had with dancing and games. We can't bring ourselves to take it down, so every day is a hapee porte day at our house.

Like this day: (Zingo is Sylvie's favorite game. She doesn't just fill her card, she also takes pieces for OTHER people's cards and puts them where they belong)

A little clowning around (side note--thumb sucking is history around here)

Ready for some movie fun:

Home Improvement, housecleaning, and a little note from Jens

Mike knows I am up to something when I message him at work saying things like "When are you coming home?" and "Can you stop at Lowe's?" and "I think I made a mess." Luckily this mess wasn't TOO hard to fix, and the result is that lovely faucet you see below. It is a big improvement over its bottom-of-the-line predecessor. There is also a mid-process picture of the microwave replacement. But no after. Sorry.

Okay, fine. Here is an after.

Sylvie overcame her fear of the vacuum this week, even helping out and vacuuming her animals.

And, in case Mrs. Cann is wondering, the kids DO listen in class. Jens wrote up a little transcription of the beginning of circle time.

Playing around

Jens had a brief obsession with coloring these geometric designs. They turned out really neat looking and took a lot of time. This picture insists on staying sideways. Sorry.

Sylvie with a cart full of goodies.

And having a heartfelt conversation with the beaver. Don't you wonder what she is thinking about?

Happy Valentine's at our house

Jens made sure that we were well decorated this year.

The balloons seemed like such a good idea, and really they loved them so much--they just didn't go with the candles very well.

February 22

I have forgotten what we did last week.

Jens and Sylvie are both sick and Jens is off school all this week for President's Day. Apparently our school district is EXTREMELY patriotic.

Oh! I just remembered some things. I installed a new faucet in the kitchen and took out the old yucky water filter. We also bought a new microwave and made popcorn as soon as it was successfully installed (by me and Mike. It only took us 6 hours and we saved $99 by doing it ourselves . . . I am not sure if it was worth it or not.) But that means that the kitchen is pretty much done. I would like to do some sort of window treatment and maybe repaint the ceiling at some point, but it pretty much looks the way it is going to look. And I am really happy with it.

We also celebrated Valentine's Day. We had heart shaped pizzas and exchanged valentines and the kids ate enough candy to make any normal person sick. Mike sent me some beautiful roses, but unfortunately they went to our old address. He went and took them off the porch--no one was home, fortunately.

Also it rained a lot and our back yard was just full of water. Very wet and muddy. I walked every day, though, in spite of it. I have been setting my alarm and getting up early to get a good work out in, and although I don't like getting up, I do like that quiet time by myself.

We had a huge house cleaning fest yesterday inspired by this weeks enrichment activity--a DIY "home tour" visiting a few homes where ladies in the ward have done their own improvements. It was fun to show off some of my projects. Mike did not think this was such a fun thing as he didn't like spending yesterday cleaning, but I appreciated the motivation it gave me to finish a few things up. We did end the night with a pizza movie night, so that was fun.

I am going to book club tonight and crossing my fingers that Jens feels a little better tomorrow, but not so improved that he has tons of energy and is bouncing off the walls.

Sunday

Sunday Sylvie was in charge of snack for "Ursery". She was very excited about the responsibility and wore the "packback" several times during the week. On Sunday she could barely contain her excitement and for the first time in several weeks didn't cry when we dropper her off. She was, however, very distraught when we came home without the backpack as it is now Travis's turn to take it home.

After church, Jens and I made Valentine cookies. Sylvie couldn't eat them, so we whipped up a Sylvie proof version--graham crackers with powdered sugar icing and sprinkles. Yum.

Then we went to the park to enjoy a few rays since it is supposed to be rainy all week.

See Food!

Friday night we had the best family movie night. We watched "How to Train a Dragon" which was such a cute show. The kids snuggled up and loved every minute, and we even had popcorn and tiny glasses of root beer, so it was a real party, which made me think of Gramp.

Making Valentines

Our Friday activity with friends

Getting so big!

I don't know if it is the braids or the outfit or what, but she sure looks grown up. It is alarming how quickly time goes by.

Finished Kitchen! (Okay, almost)

THe kitchen is all put back together and functioning. Hurray! Just a reminder of what it looked like when we first looked at the house:

(I love the "staging" that they had)

Here is an up-close look at the new finish vs. the old color and finish (or lack of)

And the finished look:

We have decided that a sink, while highly desirable, is more trouble and expense than it is worth. I actually bought a new sink, but when our guy came to look at it, he said that to put it in he would have to chisel out the tile, remove the sink, put in the new sink, re-tile, then we would have to have the paint guy come and repaint that section of tile to match the rest of our counters, which would cost us close to 1K and would require at least a week without a kitchen sink. So instead, we are replacing the faucet, hopefully replacing the ugly drain, removing the old water filter, and re-caulking the sink. That will have to be good enough. I am happy with how the cabinets turned out and I really liked the kit that I used to do the bottom cabinets.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Helquists!

I hope you are all having a Happy Valentine's Day. I know we are. I also know that more paper hearts have been cut out this weekend than we could ever find homes for. You know how Jens loves the holidays.

This was a busy week with a lot of clay docent work for me--two firings, which means four mornings of loading/unloading the kiln. Jens's class made Valentine hearts a few weeks ago and they are finally finished. We also had four days in a row of play dates with various friends which is fun but mess-making. It is hard to recover from that much social time!

I discovered Pinkberry this week, thanks to Natalie. It is a frozen yogurt place by us and I managed to go there twice this week, both times with Natalie, actually--one night for a girl's night out and one night on a couples night out with no kids. I am sure I will manage a trip there sometime this week, too.

Also this week we cleaned up the yard, I painted some exterior trim that has been nagging at me for a while, and I finished the kitchen cabinets. We spent some time at the park and Mike watched a few basketball games. Mike also managed a bike ride, but had some knee pain afterwords. He meets with the Dr. tomorrow to go over his MRI results. While we don't want it to be something serious, we would like some sort of diagnosis/treatment plan! Mike is feeling lazy and he has some new running gear from Christmas that he hasn't gotten to try out yet.

Singing

One of the funnest things about Sylvie is how much she loves to sing. Today, for example, she sang happy birthday to each color of stacking cup and Bingo the dog. Right now she is singing her own song: "We are the Dinosaurs dun du dun. I riding a horsie the blankies and the doggies!" (She is supposed to be napping)

Jens and the Ladies

More Dancing

This is for you, Mom.

Happy Birthday, Dear Mike!

Fun with friends

Sometimes sharing was hard, but sometimes things actually worked out and they played together really nicely.

They are all sort of looking--that is a miracle!

February 8th

Okay. So this past week has been a busy one. It started out right with a visit from Kristin and her girls. They came on Monday and left Tuesday night. The kids had the best time together. Jens and Matisyn had very few disagreements, which shows some growth for them. They are so similar that usually they butt heads pretty often, but they mostly just had a great time. We did have to work on keeping their clothes on (!). Emillyn and Sylvie liked being friends, too. Emilyn called Sylvie "Baby" even though Sylvie is twice her size, and Emi would call Sylvie and try to get her to come play. "Baby--slide!" It was pretty funny. And of course, Kristin and I always like being friends. We enjoyed visiting and went to Apple HIll and the little Folsom Zoo (which was a huge mess and very crowded).

Wednesday I taught FAME at Jens's school. That is always fun and the kids are cute. Maybe it would be fun to be a kindergarten teacher.

Thursday was Mike's birthday. Jens and I decorated in the morning before Jens went to school. Sylvie and I made him a special card which she was very proud of and we had friends over for ice cream and cake. I made Stacey's Cake--the chocolate and peppermint one, and as a fun, different topping I did crushed candy canes on top. I also had crushed candy canes for the kids to put on top of their cupcakes. BIG mistake. I have been picking pieces out of the carpet for days and finally just cleaned the carpet on Monday. (It really needed it anyway). After the kids went to bed we had a nice dinner together. I forget how pleasant it is to eat without them.

Friday was wacky tacky day at school, so Jens wore two shirts and some tall red soccer socks with his shorts. We had lots of friend over to play in the morning. When Jens got home from school there were 5 girls in the sandbox. Jens had a playdate of his own in the afternoon, then the kids had a movie night with the Littles while Mike and I went out to dinner (thank you!).

Friday and Saturday I worked a lot on the previously mentioned kitchen cabinets. Mike went shooting with friends in the afternoon and I went out for dinner with Sophia and Michelle Saturday night. Sunday was spent similarly--Mike watched the Super Bowl with his man friends eating chips and cinnamon rolls and drinking soda, I went to the park where it was 75 and sunny with the ladies and kids, and we had quiche, fruit, and cinnamon rolls. I know the super bowl is fun and all, but I think we got the better end of the deal this time. It was gorgeous outside!

So that is our run down. Have a happy week, everyone.

Kitchen

I have been working on the kitchen cabinets, which is why there isn't a good update. Maybe I will write one tomorrow. We had a very busy week with lots of excitement. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

I started painting on Friday and had a huge mental freak out while I applied the first coat. There is no doubt about it, the base color of my cabinets is a deep, eggplant purple. It was NOT what I had in mind.

The second coat made it darker. (Bottom right is two coats, bottom left is glaze coat on top) It was the glaze coat that really made the big difference. (Phew!)

And I put on two coats of clear topcoat.

I am really pleased with the contrast and overall appearance of things. Now I just need to finish all the doors.

The rest of our week

Blocks have come back into style at our house. Jens has realized that he now has the coordination to build things that are cool.

We had a very rainy Sunday. Jens wrote and mailed some Valentines, which required several trips to the mailbox. He was very sweet about taking Sylvie with him on his last trip.

February 3

Happy Birthday, Mike. You are
M arvelous
I nteresting
K ind
E ternally Youthful (in spirit).

But getting sort of old. How fun for you! I love you, and I hope you have a happy, happy birthday. And if Sylvie singing "Happy birthday to you" with her mouth stuffed full of banana bread didn't make your day, I don't know what will.

He's Baaaaack!

We call him the European Batman.