Leap Year 2012

Four years from now on February 29, it might be nice to look back on what the Telfords were doing in 2012. The kids have literally been leaping about our home because it's "Leap" Year.
Obviously, creativity exists in our home.
We find lots of reasons and ways to celebrate.

And lately, it's been organization, organization, organization around here. A lot of that means moving mess from room to living room then back to the original room in an organized fashion. Some rooms take more effort and the mess goes from room to living room to room to living room, etc. as things are organized or eliminated.

So the living room is getting a workout. Clean, messy, clean, messy, and on and on and on. We're getting there, though. I figure by February 29, 2016, we'll have it figured out.

I better leave with a clean view of the living room.

We'll be able to look back at this point and say, "Wow, was I ever that disorganized?" or, and I'm dreading this, we might look back and say, "Wow, was I ever that organized?" I'm really hoping for the former.

Nichole's first loose tooth hasn't come out yet. It's been loose practically all month but it didn't come out for National Tooth Fairy Day yesterday, February 28, 2012.

Jr. also hasn't lost any teeth, but we weren't expecting him to yet. What he has lost recently is some of his hair. He had a haircut and went from this


to this
Jr. Jr. is currently teething, working on a few more teeth trying to poke through, but still only 6 teeth poking all the way out.

Jeremy and I are still happily married and will be four years from now when we look back at this. This is our third Leap Year since we've been married.

So this is our family, Leap Year 2012.

Technically these pictures are of our family September 2011 (taken by my talented sister, Kimber), but I figure a few months won't matter compared to four years.

Adopt a Balloon Animal Day 2012

We thought it would be fun to make up our own holiday. March 26th is Make Up Your Own Holiday Day, but February 24th is a special day for us so we wanted to make up our own holiday that we could celebrate every year on the same day. So come March, we may come up with a new holiday just for 2012, then next year we'll make up a new holiday. However, February 24th we've decided every year will be Adopt a Balloon Animal Day.
So today we celebrated our first Adopt a Balloon Animal Day. We have friends who have been finding reasons to celebrate from the Calendar of Celebration and were excited about this holiday coming up. With two little boys who love balloons, it was the perfect opportunity to give some balloon animals a good home.

We delivered a penguin and dog and included adoption certificates for the boys to sign (or scribble on, as was the case with the younger one).

It was fun to see them get excited about the balloon animals and the mom told me later that neither of them put them down all afternoon.

First Adopt a Balloon Animal Day. Success! Thanks, friends, for letting us help you celebrate and for helping us celebrate.

National Rationalization Day 2012

I've got a lot to do, but I'm rationalizing sitting at the computer since I'm writing a blog post about today, February 23, National Rationalization Day.
First of all let me say that there are certain things that you should NEVER rationalize doing. EVER. You know what they are.
Then let me say that, like blackberry honey for Winnie the Pooh Day, we had something else we wanted to do so we were trying to find a reason to celebrate. We had ingredients to make pudding "dirt," but we kept being busy on holidays that would work for making it (such as Gummi Worm Day), and then couldn't find any other holidays on the Calendar of Celebration that would work. Finally we decided National Rationalization Day would work, since we could use the excuse that we're finally getting to it. So that's what we did. Yumm.Then I made the kids fend for themselves for dinner. I made dinner last night, and the night before that, and the night before that, and well the night before that I started making dinner and Jeremy finished making it (but I did start it). So, I rationalized that I didn't have to make dinner tonight. I even had FFY (Fend For Yourself) on the menu plan. Hee Hee. I've been planning for this holiday. Nichole made sandwiches for herself and Jr. Jeremy had leftovers before he went to work, and I will feed Jr. Jr. and myself (he can't fend for himself as well). But I haven't gotten to it yet as I'm sitting at the computer writing this blog post (and he's not complaining yet as he had "dirt" just a little while ago).
But like I said, I've got a lot to do (including fixing dinner for Jr. Jr. and myself), so I'll end this blog post and ask: What have you rationalized today?

President's Day 2012

Nichole woke up at 1:30 this morning. She crawled in our bed and Jeremy told her she needed to go back to her own bed. Since it was officially February 20, Jeremy commented, "No day like the president." Nichole, because we had plans for the day, called out, "President's Day!" and started walking into the living room instead of heading back to her bed.
I asked her where she was going and she replied, "I just woke up."
I informed her, "But it's the middle of the night."
"Oh."

So when everyone finally got up at a decent hour (Nichole did go back to bed), we got to follow through with our plans. Family Home Morning!

After Jeremy's lesson (which we unsuccessfully attempted last week, but hey, consistency is important, and it was successful this week), we had lunch and headed down to BYU for our activity- the Bean Museum. Our timing was great because we made it just in time for the reptile show they were doing. We learned about the differences between turtles and tortoises and got to see a live terrapene. We learned about the differences between alligators and crocodiles but didn't see any live. We learned about the differences between lizards and snakes and got to see a live leopard ghecko and live ball python. After the show people got to pet the ball python.
We enjoyed going through the museum. It's been a while since we've gone there and Jr. Jr.'s never been there.

Jr.'s hippo face.

What does the bear say? Rawr.

After the museum, we went for our FHM treat. Cupcakes at the Sweet Tooth Fairy. Yummm.
We all enjoyed that.

Then home to play some Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

And we finished off the day with dancing while Daddy was at work.It was a good family day.

Ancestor Pancakes

While talking to Nichole about ancestry, I mentioned that she has German ancestors. She got excited. "German? Like the pancakes? So we had Ancestor Pancakes?"

We now have a new name for German pancakes. "Ancestor Pancakes."
I love how new names for things get started.

National Tortellini Day 2012

National Tortellini Day, February 13th.
Nichole and Jr. made dinner (with some help, but they did most of it).

Rainbow colored tortellini with homemade alfredo sauce, and spinach on the side.

Great job, kids. Thanks.

Catch of the Day

Caught in the act.

Jeremy's been finding things in his shoes lately. Cheerios. Small toys. We had our suspicions of who was "sharing" but had no proof. One night I found Jr. Jr. putting dominoes in Jr.'s boots. There was the proof I needed.

The next afternoon I put my boot on to discover another domino in there. I thought I'd cleaned them all up but something tells me I might be finding a few more around our home for the next little while.

Thank A Mailman Day 2012

What a great opportunity to say Thanks to someone who might not get the recognition they deserve. Thank a Mailman Day on February 4.

Nichole and Jr. jumped at the chance to write and draw notes for our mail carrier.

note the Perry the Platypus hat

We put the notes in envelopes and put them outside on our mailbox to wait for the postal worker.

A little act of service to say Thanks.

How will you thank a mailman today?

Groundhog Day 2012

For Groundhog Day, we had our traditional "imitation groundhog burgers." We also had homemade french fries, thanks to Jeremy.

After the kids were in bed, Jeremy and I watched the movie, "Groundhog Day." It's been a few years since we've watched the whole thing on February 2nd. Some years we start it on one day and have to finish it another, some years we don't even get around to it on the holiday. This year we watched the whole thing. Hurray.

February 2nd was also the 100th day of the school year at Nichole's elementary school. They make a big deal of it there. They did different activities to do with 100. Each child in her class brought 100 of the same item to share and the items were divided up so every child got 100 mixed items. They made necklaces with 100 beads. They made paper hats celebrating "100 Days Smarter." They did little workbooks with things like 100 math problems, write 100 words, read a poem with 100 words. She enjoyed it.

It's nice to know her elementary school finds reasons to celebrate.

February Holidays Coming Up

Over the past couple of years I have blogged about several February holidays. Here's a list and links of some of the holidays coming up this month and when I (or my husband) blogged about them in the past:

Today, February 2, is Groundhog Day.
February 2, 2011- Groundhog Day 2011

February 14 is Valentine's Day.
February 15, 2010- Valentine's/New Year
February 14, 2011- Valentine's 2011
February 15, 2011- A Brief Rundown of Our Valentine's

February 18 is Pluto Day.
This one is blogged on The Balloon Guy's Blog (after reading about Pluto Day, be sure to click on the links at the bottom of the article to see suggestions for activities and refreshments).

February 20 is President's Day.
February 21, 2011- Happy President's Day!
February 25, 2011- Reasons to Celebrate

And Jeremy's birthday is coming up this month as well.
March 4, 2010- Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

February 28 is National Tooth Fairy Day.
This is what we've been seeing in our home recently:

Nichole's first loose tooth. She is so excited. She's been waiting and waiting, while a lot of her other friends have been losing teeth, she's been waiting. Now it's her turn.
I don't even know how long it takes for a tooth to come out after it starts to get loose. Dad? Christine and Jason?
I guess we'll find out. And we'll see how we celebrate National Tooth Fairy Day this year.