Boots & Valentines

This year is slipping by way too quickly and my baby boy is refusing to stay a baby!  Why do they have to grow so darn fast?!  He is saying new words  daily and it is so fun to hear him say new things all the time, and for the words he's been saying for awhile to become more clear.  Like most toddlers he loves shoes and enjoys finding everyone's shoes by the door on in the laundry room and trying them on.  He especially has a fondness for Brother's boots and loves putting them on and clomping around.  The other day Ryan came home and Jens was clomping around in these and he said, "Jens what are you wearing?"  Jensen very enthusiastically replied, "Boots!"  So cute!

Valentine's Day was a fun one this year.  Madi was thrilled to have me help with her class party, I put together these cute "love bug" hats for the kids to make, they were a hit!

She's a pretty cute little love but I think!

I wanted to do something special for the kids and Ryan so while they were at school I cut out a bunch of hearts and wrote their names (and various nicknames) on them, and wrote love notes on the back of each one and taped them up all over the house on walls and doors.  They came home from school and were so excited to see heart all around asking what they were for, they had so much fun looking all around the house to find them all and finding the ones with their names on them.  It will definitely be a new tradition, they loved it!  Jensen was so cute and I got such a kick out of him pointing excitedly and saying "heart!"  He soon realized he could reach a couple of them...

Love him reaching up on his little toes to snap that heart.  Love this boy so much.

We enjoyed having Grandma over to eat dinner with us, decorating our traditional heart sugar cookies, delivering them to a few friends and of course eating them! 

Love these faces! 

Our Lovely Love Day

At the end of the day my kitchen looked like this...

And Madi's sweet little lip looked like this....


Even so, it was a good day.

Pierce and Madi were both so excited for Valentine's Day this year. They loved getting their Valentines ready to give out to their friends and could not wait for their class parties. Madi was thrilled when I picked her up from pre-school and loved coming home to show me all of her Valentines and treats- her first class party, so fun! Just before lunch she had a bad fall on the wood floor and cut and majorly bruised her lip. After some snuggling and lots of ice, she was ready for more fun and enjoyed spending the afternoon with friends at Chandler's house. She had fun decorating and eating FOUR sugar cookies (no doubt who's daughter she is!) and jumping on the tramp with Chandler, Jona and Annie, her neighborhood buddies. Thanks to Stace for keeping her while I could run to Pierson's school and do his class party. It felt like blasphemy, having the kids decorate store bought-too thin-and-too hard-sugar cookies, with frosting from a can! The kids loved it but, ick! I was looking forward to coming home to my sugar cookie dough waiting for me to roll out. The afternoon flew by and managed to get my sugar cookies baked. Then Ryan was home and we made a quick trip to the cemetery with Valentine balloons for Grandpa and Todd.



We come home and had a delicious Chicken Alfredo dinner (thank you Costco), then quickly frosted a few sugar cookies to run to a few friends. After giving the kids a Valentine gift (new books, which they loved!) and getting them in bed, I was completely exhausted, my feet were killing me and my kitchen was absolutely atrocious! Being pregnant really made sugar cookie making much harder than it should be. And I realized I hadn't taken a single picture of the kids decorating cookies! So, not me. This pregnancy is really throwing me off. I guess I was too busy frosting them, or maybe I was too busy eating them. Dang!

I did manage to get a pic of Madi's cute Valentine hair do, which she absolutely loves!



We frosted more cookies the next night and I managed to get this cute shot of Madi, actually looking at me and smiling (WOW!) wounded lip and all!
I love sugar cookies. Love my kids. Love Ryan. Lots to love!

Loved

A few things I loved about this Valentines Day...

This little boy's excitement about Valentines Day, giving Valentines to his friends, his party at school and making his very cool Valentines Box!

Pretty flowers from the Husband (Really love my husband too)

Delicious Valentine Sugar Cookies! Making them, decorating them with the kids and eating them.

My 2 little Love Bugs. (And Madi's heart hair-do, thanks to Kathryn for the cute idea!)



I also loved...
my kids excitement over getting Valentines in the mail from Papa and Susan
more excitement from the kids over getting Valentines in the mail from Ellie and Addie
my very own Valentine from Addie
and more excitement from the kids over getting Valentines in the mail from Aunt Kate, and her Hannah Montana Valentines
watching my kids run to the door to deliver Valentines to their friends
and did I mention I loved eating sugar cookies?

One Sweet Weekend

We had a great Valentine's weekend - my Dad and his wife, Susan, and her two boys came to stay with us while they were in town for a baseball tournament. My kids adore Jack and Sam and had so much fun with them. On Friday we hit one of Sam's baseball games and then enjoyed a yummy dinner at Pizza Factory.
Pierce & Jack at the ball game - both kids constantly want to sit in Jack's lap or sit by him

Jackson, Trit, Ryan, Madi, Jack, Pierce, Susan, Dad, Sam
Fun at the Pizza Factory - I love Jack's face sitting perfectly in the bread twists in this pic!

Saturday we caught another of Sam's ball games, then I got Madi down for a nap and went to work on my sugar cookie dough. Making holiday sugar cookies is one of my favorite things! I love sharing the tradition with my kids, making them with my Mom is one of my favorite memories of her. Her's were the best ever! I think mine come in a close 2nd. Sprinkles, Sprinkles & MORE SPRINKLES!

Annie & Madi
Our greatest friends, The Woodbury's, joined us for some cookie decorating, the kids had so much fun and went to town with the sprinkles and conversation hearts!
Madi with her loaded sugar cookie

Pierce & Grant
We had a great night decorating and eating cookies and having a yummy dinner. It was fun to have my Dad, Susan, Jack and Sam with us for the weekend. The kids had fun making Valentine cards for them and had tons of fun playing with all of them.
Great food, great cookies, great friends, great company, great weekend!