I hate February!!!

I know... it's not a very uplifting title, but I do hate February! It's cold, dreary, and just blah. I'm sick of being inside, I need a vacation somewhere warm and sunny, but looks like that ain't gonna happen, so we're stuck trying to entertain ourselves. At least there were 2 sunny warm days in a row! The girls wanted to paint their faces so I gave them the paint and told them to have at it. Caroline painted Elizabeth a rainbow princess

and Elizabeth painted Caroline an ice cream sundae. I thought it was pretty funny. They only kept them on for less than an hour this time, but it entertained for about 20 minutes.

Bella wanted a heart. That was easy enough.

I told her to make a happy face and this is what I got. I love it! I wish it would have been in focus. So cute.

I tried to think of something to do with Caroline so we made a felt headband. She loved it and so did Liz,

so the next day she asked if she could have 2 friends (a rare occasion) come over and all make their own. They seemed to have fun doing that.

Today, President's Day, we got out and went sledding. We haven't done much outdoor play this year. I'd love to send them outside, but we just can't seem to make that a happy place, so we haven't done much. It was fun to do today for a little bit.

These 2 could have stayed longer, but the little ones were done.

I got Charlotte all bundled up and she ended up falling asleep before we got in the car, so she stayed in there and ended up sleeping 3 hours. That doesn't happen too often, and funny enough, when it does, she's usually bundled up in her car seat.

After that, we started a paint project which we don't have pictures for yet. Watch for those to come! And there ya have February in a nutshell!

Great to be 8!

We had a great weekend this past weekend. Elizabeth was baptized on Saturday, February5th, by Brian. The day started out with a trip to some wedding shops to find the perfect dress for my sister Caroline. We were not disappointed as we walked away with several possibilities. However, we are shopping again this weekend, so no purchases were made. After a few hours of that we rushed home to eat lunch and get ready for the baptism.

Here are a few pictures before the baptism with Brian and Elizabeth is their jumpers.

We had all my family here but missed having any of Brian's here. Elizabeth was baptized by Brian and confirmed by Bri, Papa John, Uncle Paul, (soon to be Uncle) Jayde, Brother Oliver and some other guy I don't even know. :) Her session she was baptized with 2 other girls, Brynlee and Olivia, from her school class. I was surprised to see their school teacher there. Not something that I think normally happens.

It was such a wonderful experience and a spiritual one too. We are so proud of Elizabeth and she looked so beautiful. What a sweet daughter we were blessed with! So crazy that she's already old enough to be baptized but so wonderful too. 

 I've been having fun taking pictures of Charlotte lately, trying to get a good smile and just having fun with it. Today she turned 4 months old. She's so much fun. She started rolling over at just after 3 months. She's pretty strong. I'm pretty sure she's teething too 'cause she is slobbery and always trying to gnaw on her hands or someone's face! Love this nugget!

Also need to mention that Caroline lost her first top tooth. It is so funny! She was thrilled about it and now we don't have to worry that she's going to swallow it! One more tooth down!

Elizabeth snagged this picture. We're going to have to work on camera to person distance. Caroline's face isn't that odd looking. :)

Superhero to the rescue!

Last week a friend gave us a bunch of her boys dress ups. Cooper was in heaven. He actually doesn't even really have any "dress ups", so he was so excited.

and so was Bella.....

                                                   and so were Elizabeth and Caroline.

It was so funny to see the girls getting into all the boys dress ups too. They played for hours switching them back and forth. Cooper wanted to sleep in the Spiderman one. The next morning he woke up, walked to the mirror and flexed. I was laughing at this oh so comical sight! And this one is just because I thought Bella looked so pretty.

8 years old!

It's hard to believe that this is where we were 8 years ago. Not so much that it went by fast, I'd say it feels like 8 years, but just where we were 8 years ago. It was around 4:00 PM in Norristown, PA at the hospital on the way to changing our lives forever! And what a great change it was. I get so caught up in being frustrated with the day to day things that I forget to stop and realize how wonderful every thing is, and how wonderful my sweet little family is. Although, not really so little now. :) Crazy that 8 years from this picture we are now a family of 7!

 January 25th 2003 changed who we were and who we now are because we got this wonderful sweet spirit sent to be part of our family. It was so fun and exciting, that first new baby making us not just a couple anymore, but a family. I loved every minute with her. I loved when Brian would go to school and she'd wake up so he'd bring her into me in bed and we'd sleep for another 2 hours. Boy those were the days! I loved that she was my best little buddy and we did everything together. 

She was always so happy and so crazy loud... still is! She was a spunky little thing and we've gone from this tiny bundle of joy....... 

to this wonderful 8 year old! For her birthday she said she wanted pizza for dinner. Her favorite is Pizza Hut so I was totally cool with not making anything. She had a great day at school as the spotlight and then Brian brought in doughnuts and chocolate milk to her class for her birthday treat. I told him to just grab a bag of suckers of whatever was cheap. I think he must have zoned out when I was talking! His treat was better than mine would have been. He said he wanted to do something that would make her feel special.

I spent part of the day trying my hand at fondant. I really lack in the creative part of it. I didn't really know what to expect so I made the cake and fondant the night before. She said she wanted blue, brown and white for the colors. I could have doe something more creative but the cake layers were small so it was hard to do much. I did what I could with Charlotte fussing the whole time. It was frustrating, so I just hurried and finished it.  She loved it though so that's what counts. The more I look at it the less I like it. Oh well. Next round. Although really, I don't know why we make cake. They aren't big cake eaters. Tradition I guess.

I think she had a great birthday with good presents, lots of phone calls, bday cards and a little special treatment. So great to be where we are 8 years later and with such a great daughter!

LOVE

Sunday Play

We had a nice Sunday today. Church went well and surprisingly I think we've hit a good point with our kids. They've been doing really well at church, behaving and all, mostly since we've been in this ward, so we're glad about that. Brian sang a solo in church today and of course got many wonderful compliments. We came home and ended up in the living room where I saw great light and snapped some pictures with the help of Brian. It made me happy. :) So here are a few of those. Later we had a 'Great to be 8' meeting with Liz. She turned to me towards the end and said, " I thought it was going to be more fun than this." Ha! Too funny. She'll be getting baptized in a few weeks and she's really excited about it. Can't wait!

3 months old!

Well we hit the 3 month mark with Charlotte the other day. It's been kind of crazy running around here and there so I didn't get to snap any pictures of her until today. We sure love this little girl. She has the sweetest smile and is such a giggler. We love having her in our family!!!

2011

Well this year has started off fairly uneventful..... thank goodness! We had a great time with our friends Travis and Bree. Brian was sick all day so I was left to all the preparations and cleaning. I kept telling him we needed to call and cancel, but he said he'd been looking forward to it all week and would be fine by the time they showed up. He wasn't . I think he threw up 2 times and was just kind of blah all night.

 We had some yummy treats, one which was a big hit was the chocolate fountain. Travis couldn't wait to dig in.

The kids were pretty excited about it too. Trav and Bree brought these huge marshmallows and the kids were anxious to dip them in and try them out.

Elizabeth went to a friend's party, Bella fell asleep early and Cooper and Caroline were watching a movie. They wanted popcorn and after a little while I went downstairs to check on them and they were cuddled together so of course I had to take a picture!

We did one of our favorite things and played games all night until a few minutes before 12:00.

You can't see them, but their twins were asleep on a blanket on the floor.

Then we headed down stairs with our bubbly (which I had frozen accidentally outside and had to thaw just barely enough for about a tablespoon each) and watched the ball drop to bring in the new year. Elizabeth was the only kid awake 'cause she went to her friend's party until 11:00. Good way to ring in the new year! Good food, friends and fun!

(And yes, I know my face looks huge!)