filling my mason jar: Haircut, Hearts, and Hyart

Haircut Time!

Much like taking away this kiddo's binky, I decided to cut his hair on a whim. As adorable as it was, it was getting pretty out of control and was long enough to put in a pony tail. The experience was as horrible as last time, which is why I put it off for so long. He hates it! He lifts his arms up and puts his hands on his head. It doesn't matter if I'm just using scissors and a comb, or the clippers. Poor kid was screaming and crying, despite my attempts at distraction (treats, favorite show, making funny sounds). I usually get really worked up and stressed when my baby's crying, but THANKFULLY, I stayed calm the whole time (otherwise he might have ended up with a buzz cut). I think he looks pretty handsome now. Just don't look too close! Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to the next time.

Maybe we'll just stop cutting his hair and put it in pig tails. :)

After enjoying a lovely January, with highs mostly in the 40's, we got an arctic blast this week. One morning it was -35! It stayed in the negatives that whole day. I got this pic when I took the kids to school. They keep the kids inside for recess when it's below zero, but school hasn't been cancelled once yet!

On Tuesday afternoon my lovely visiting teachers came by. They are awesome. That night I went to a Book Club. I met some new ladies and had some fun discussions about the 2 books for the month. The one I read is "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. I hadn't read a non-fiction book in years. It was incredibly fascinating and thought-provoking for me. It deals with topics of ethics, medicine, biology, genetics, racism, and civil rights all while telling the story of the black woman behind the immortal HeLa cells, Henrietta Lacks.

Read more about the book on Goodreads HERE.

Wednesday I made a quick trip to the Red Apple to get milk. On Wednesdays, milk is only $2.29/gal instead of $3.79/gal there. I bought 7 gallons. I also bought 5 bunches of bananas. Ha. I guess our family is growing...

The Shoshone River between Lovell and Cowley was full of ice chunks.

The other side

We took the cub scouts on a field trip to the library in Lovell Wednesday afternoon. Luckily, my friend Megan was able to watch my younger 3 so I could focus on the scouts. The librarian had the cub scout requirements all ready to go, and then helped us make book covers. I love our library! It's small, but so personal. The librarians are super nice, and already know who I am. I don't even show them my library card anymore. They call me up when my book holds are ready, and don't yell at my kids for being too noisy. They have story time on Tuesdays where they read a book and do a craft. I haven't been to that for a few months because I keep forgetting about it. I need to get on that.

I loved the peaceful glow of this sunset. This was driving home from Lovell to Cowley.

Rhett loves this fish bowl. He is learning the colors pretty well using it. He was making a stink face because he couldn't get one to go in right. Love those pouty lips!

Thursday I spent several hours working on our taxes. So much fun! Haha. It was our craziest tax year yet with unemployment, changing jobs, our relocation, and selling/buying houses. I wasn't so sure how it'd all work out, so I was mentally preparing to owe a couple thousand. The biggest unknown to me was the relocation stuff. GP paid for a lot of things, and I knew that a large chunk of that would be added as taxable income, but wouldn't have the final numbers until tax time. They added extra money to our income to cover the extra taxes, but I just didn't know if it'd work out right. Thankfully, it did! We're getting a refund. Yay!

Friday was early out day, so we had some friends over to make Valentines Day decorations. Our paper snowflakes have worn out their welcome.

Saturday morning Clark, Jack, and I went to a friend's baptism. On the way there, we passed the dad of the boy being baptized going the opposite way, towards home. I scrambled to make a couple phone calls to see if we had missed the memo about it being cancelled. The weather was pretty bad, and surely they wouldn't have a baptism without his dad! Turns out they had left the white baptism clothing at home and he was on a mission to retrieve them. I had to laugh. It wouldn't be an important event without something like that happening.

It is always a spiritual event to witness a baptism. I was reminded, again, of the feelings of love and peace that I experienced at my own baptism almost 24 yrs ago. (Wow, that makes me feel old!) I'm glad Clark got to experience that as well.

Reid and I went out for date night on Saturday. We ate some yummy burgers and onion rings at the Cowtown Cafe, then saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty at the Hyart Theatre in Lovell. Have I mentioned how much I love the Hyart? It opened in 1950 and has some cool history. They've updated it as the years have gone on. It's home to "Wyoming's Largest Digital Screen". :) The Date Night Special is only $14 for 2 tix, 2 bags of popcorn, and 2 drinks! Can't beat that!

(pics from the web & their FB page)

My outfit for the night. Took this to send to Phyllis, who gifted me the cardigan for Christmas.

She's got great taste.

Sunday we got even more snow! We are up to about a foot of fresh snow. Clark wasn't feeling well, seemed to have a migraine, so I stayed home from church with him. We spent about 2 hours watching Mormon Message videos. It was awesome to do that together. They are such great messages, and totally helped us both feel the spirit at home. When Reid got home, he told me that next week our ward boundaries will be changing. I'm so curious as to how it'll all pan out. The boundaries for the 2 wards here have been the same for many many years, as far as I know. People are very attached to their specific ward. I'm thinking maybe some riots might break out. It'll be interesting!

The boys took advantage of the fresh snow later in the afternoon. Someday we'd love to have some ATV's to take out there. :)