Valentines Day Fun

I love holidays, and having kids makes it so much more fun. Of course Valentine's Day is about LOVE and I'd like to give a shout out to my Love, but it's also about the candy and cards and all the hype that goes along with it. At least today it was. Big man had his card/candy exchange at preschool. He even missed playgroup because he was so excited to come home and open them. He was so good to share with his brother and sister. Although sister was not supposed to climb up on the table and help herself. Big Man got FIVE Fun Dips. This is what's all over her mug. I loved this picture because it shows her pretty blue eyes (and the boogers if you look close).


Later in the afternoon we had some of our friends over. T had her Valentine treat exchange as well, so the fun started all over again. It's like Christmas, but with candy. I was very impressed with both Big Man and T for sharing some of their treats. Way to go guys.

The next event of our day was the Hunting Expo at the Salt Palace downtown. Jeff is helping out at the Vortex booth this weekend, but wanted to show the boys around this afternoon. It was fun. We thought the double stroller would be enough, but none of the kids wanted to walk. We had to get creative. I spent a lot of time holding Little Princess.

Part of the reason Big Man didn't want to walk is because he hurt his foot. Yesterday while cleaning out the basement, he jumped off a tote onto a pair of scrapbooking scissors. They were closed (thank goodness), but he bruised his foot pretty bad. He's been limping on it all day. Tonight I took him into the InstaCare to have it checked out. It's fine, but he got a cool bandage, sticker, and treat. That makes it all worth it, right? It's been a busy but fun day.

Happy Valentines everyone!!!

Thanks NickJr.

While I was cleaning up the house this morning, Big Man was watching Nick Jr. I guess they gave instructions on how to make Moose and Zee 'pillows'. I didn't see it. He got all of the paper and supplies and set to work. He would only do it when I would help him. I cut out a few things, but for the most part, he did this all himself. He did it all from memory too. I had to look them up on the computer to remember what they looked like. So here's the finished product. You can't really tell from the picture, but they're padded. In between the layers is Kleenex.

Not bad huh. So after many pieces of paper and more time than I wanted to spend, here's Big Man's creation. It's so fun to watch him create things. He's amazing.

It seemed like a good idea...

I'm always looking for some good 'quiet' activities during nap time. When the boys asked to play with play doh and paint yesterday, I thought it would be just fine. It was indeed quiet, but this is what happened while I snuck in a quick shower. I'm not quite sure if he did this all himself, or if he had help. Either way he's done painting for a while.
I'm not quite sure how you get it on your back. Impressive, huh.

I know that Little Princess watches everything that her brothers do, but apparently I am being observed also. While I was working in the kitchen, she grabbed this sponge and started to 'clean' every surface she could fine. The sponge wasn't wet, but she thought she was helping. Too cute. Looking forward to some real help in a few years when she gets bigger.
In other news, Big man and I spent the night on the bathroom floor. He woke up at 2:30 this morning not feeling well. He was up about every hour after that. It was a long night. He missed preschool this morning and we got some Gatorade and Redbox DVD's. We're having a movie day. They have some pretty good kid shows at Redbox.

Bowling Extravaganza

For weekend #2 of playing with cousins, we went bowling. What a hoot to watch 6 kids ages 7 and under bowl. They had a blast. Grandpa and Jeff played on the other lane for one game and then Jeff and I played the second game. In the 7 1/2 years since I met Jeff, we had yet to bowl together. It was fun.


Little Princess was only supposed to watch, but she had to try as well. She thinks she's as big as all the other kids. It was cute to watch her push the ball.

Big man used the ramp for the first couple of tries, but then did it without. He's a pretty good little bowler. He was pretty excited that we went to the same bowling alley that he went to his friend's party at a couple of weeks ago.
Little man taking his turn :)

Completely unrelated to bowling, I have some creative kids. Little Princess had nothing to do with the planning, but she was willing to play along. They were super heroes. Big Man loves to wear jammies when he's at home. He'll come home from preschool and change back into his jammies. This was all his idea. He even got his sister's cape and apron? on by himself. What a nut.

I'm Back

I'm not quite sure why it's been a whole month since I blogged. I finally got a memory card for my new camera and the cord to download them :) We're in business. Now I just need to take more pictures. My goal is to blog more even when I don't have pictures. We'll see how that goes. We've had a busy January. I don't know where it went. This last weekend we spent some time with my brother and sister-in-law's kids. They went on a cruise and my parents had the kids for the weekend. We went miniature golfing at Glowgolf and out to lunch at McDonalds. Here's Little Princess enjoying her ice cream.

She's only 16 months, but she thinks she's 6. She has to do everything that her brothers (and cousins) do. Try and tell her no and you'll hear about it.

This is Little Princess's favorite place to sit. Especially during snack time. I guess she likes the cold.

We got to spend a day with Aunt Samantha and cousin O. They came down for the weekend from Idaho. It was fun to let the girls play together. This is them hugging before they left.
I'm not neglecting the boys, but these were the only pictures on my camera :) Besides their scrapbooks are overflowing :) Even though January is a good fresh start to the year, I'm glad it's over. The cold, dark, smoggy days are not my favorite. We had a gorgeous spring-like day today and I absolutely loved it. The sun was shining, it was beautiful. I am so anxious for spring to be here.

In other good news, Little Princess is binky-free. It's only been a couple of days, but it's going pretty well. The first night was rough. I had to rock her to sleep. The second night and tonight as well, she went down fine on her own. This morning was a rough one. She woke up at 5:00 a.m. and wouldn't go back down. She's a smart little whip and adjusts quickly to change. I love her.

Fun with Cousins

It's always fun when cousins come to town. Emily and her boys came down during Christmas break and we went and played with them at the mall.



We'd never checked out this cool new miniture golf place before. It's called Glow Golf. The kids had a great time.



And last but not least here is Little Princes all dolled out. This is what happens when dad picks out her outfit and does her hair. He was determined to get a back ponytail. He got it all right :) Good thing we didn't leave the house this day. Love ya Jeff.

Those are our holidays in a nutshell. We're excited to start the new year. 2009 flew by for us. We hope that everyone has a great 2010.

Catching up

So it's time to update the blog. I've finally downloaded all of the Christmas pictures and surprisingly there are more videos than pictures of Christmas :( Here are a few highlights of the holidays. Little Princess got to hit her first pinata. She was pretty excited about it. I had to help her so she knew what to do.

Nemo wasn't nearly as traumatic as Thomas was two years ago.

Big man opening presents. They had a great Christmas. I have three very spoiled (but cute) kids.

Big man had a big day on Christmas. He turned 5. Here he is playing with some of his new toys. I can't believe he's 5. Where has the time gone?

Little Princess playing with toys. My house looked like a toy bomb had gone off. I could only stand it for a few days before I had to organize toys and put them away.
We had a great Christmas. It's always fun to watch the excitement and wonder of the holidays through a child's eyes. It was a fun year. Some other good news-I got a new camera. Wahoo!!! Now as soon as I get a memory card for it, I'm in business. It only holds three pictures without one. It's going to be great though. Thanks Jeff for my wonderful surprise.