Valentines Day 2014

Valentines Day seemed to go by so quickly this year. It’s one of those holidays that if the kids weren’t around I wouldn’t celebrate. Since we did have a few things happen I’ll quickly cover those moments.

Karly went to her first Valentine’s Day party at her preschool on Thursday 13th. She was very excited to share her Valentine’s cards with her friends.

 

Then on Valentine’s Day she and Hope had a Valentine’s Day party at their daycare. Noelle and Thomas both had parties in their classes also. It was kind of a hectic morning so I wasn’t able to get pictures of all the kids.  

As you can see in this one, Karly did not want to participate in the photo session.

I could not believe how much stuff the kids brought home from their parties. This is going to make me sound really old….. I remember being in school and getting a Valentine’s Day card from my classmates that was in a small white envelope and it was a real treat if there was a conversation heart in the envelope.  I put all of the kids candy together and was able to fill up a grocery bag with all the candy, pencils, trinkets, and erasers.  It was a real eye opener!

Here are the cards that Kelly made for the kids to give to their friends.

Thursday night after Kelly and Dave dropped the kids off, I went to get some milk for Hope and found these. They were absolutely fabulous!!! 

Then on Valentines Day I was given these beautiful flowers by my Dad.

All and All we had a great Valentine’s Day holiday here.

Happy New Year

I’ve had some pretty bad luck over the past few months. Back in November my refrigerator broke, a few days later while cleaning out all the nasty food that spoiled in the said refrigerator the pipes from the garbage disposal backed up and all the nastiness backed up into the washer pipes and ended up in the garage. My car battery died and needed to be replaced and I got a nail in my tire that needed to be fixed. The week of Christmas the pilot light went would not light so I had almost a week and a half of no hot water (luckily I was able to stay at Kelly’s so I could have a hot shower). Then on New Years Eve my garage door opener decided to break. So, my first purchase of 2014 was a new garage door opener. 

On the positive side I did a pretty good job at saving money in 2013 and had the money to fix the things that needed fixing. I also have very handy and supportive family members that were here on a moments notice willing to help me fix the things that needed to be fixed.  I only needed to pay someone to install the garage door opener. I don’t know where I’d be without such supportive people in my life.
 
Kelly and Dave had to work on New Years day so after finding my garage door opener Noelle, Karly, Hope and I got the chance to hang out. We took a ride out to Wal-Mart with Grandma to get Pop some new socks for his birthday and some other things.

Noelle and Karly found this Duck Dynasty hat and thought it would look great on Hope.

Then we came home a played a little. Hope decided to take Noelle’s snack and give them to her baby doll. Noelle was a good sport and tried to feed them to the baby and Hope. Hope didn’t find that funny. 

         

While Hope napped Noelle, Karly and I did some baking. While we were at the store the girls picked out a Funfetti cake mix with hot pink frosting. Karly decided that the cake needed to “fun” to so we used some dye to make it purple.

We spent a little time talking about the New Year and what that means. Made a special dinner, played a little more and took baths.  Then they got to spend time decorating their cakes and eating them.

I think that the girls were in bed by 8:00 which gave me a little time to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. It was a great day and perfect way to start 2014. I’m looking forward to all the adventures that this year is going to bring.

Snow Time

The last few years when Troy has come to town for Christmas we have gone to Dell Osso Farms in Lathrop to go tubing. We all had a great time together. Thomas and Noelle really enjoyed the extra one on one time they got to spend with Troy and Julie.  I hope these are the times they will remember when they are my age. I have such fond memories of my cousins and all the fun things we did together. I hope it’s the same for them.

Snow Tubing VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After the tubing the kids went over and threw some snowballs. It was all fun and games until someone took one in the face….




Fun was had by everyone… Can’t wait until next year.

Christmas Day

There’s not much to say other than we had a great day.

The kids got up early so they had to wait about 30 minutes before all the adults were ready for them to start opening their gifts. While they waited Kelly made snowmen out of donuts for a quick pre breakfast snack.

 

As you can see they were a hit with Hope.

I just loved this picture of Karly.

 

Hope made her way into a box and decided that would be more fun than playing with the toys she got.

 

I had a special delivery on my car which turned out to be a huge tent. I can’t wait to go camping this summer. It’s going to be fantastic. 

After putting up the tent. Karly decided to bring her microphone in and have a concert. I have a video that I may add later, blogger is having issues and wont upload it now.

 

After our concert by Karly, everyone went upstairs to relax. It was nice. We had about a three hour nap/rest time in the middle of the day.

Kelly and I then got started on a quick dinner since she and Dave had to leave for work. We made enchilada's, rice, salad and cider. FABULOUS!! 

 

Once again our mischievous, Hope , found her way to onto the table.

 

It was a fabulous, relaxing day spent with family. What more could you ask for. I’m so so grateful for the Holiday season and all it stands for. I’m grateful to be able to spend the holidays with the kids and helping to form memories that will last a lifetime.