We had a fun few days celebrating Valentine's Day this year. We've created some fun family traditions that the kids look forward to every year.
Our first tradition is heart shaped pancakes for breakfast.
Katherine was a fan!
The kids were festive in their red and pink clothes on Valentine's Day
The Big Three had parties at school Friday morning. Nathan got a special Valentine for Kamryn. I had to document it ;)
This Little Girl was thrilled to attend her silblings' parties.
First up was Samuel's party.
They played the saran wrap game. It wasn't a huge success with so many kids. But I think everyone still had fun.
Then we headed to Elisabeth's party.
They played some fun games.
Elisabeth decorated her Valentine's Box by herself. I thought it turned out cute!
Lastly, Katherine and I ran to Nathan's party. His class made love robots.
And he also decorated his box by himself, ha! He loved it.
Matt and I had an at home date night for Valentine's Day. He ordered take out and planned some fun activities- rock band, a puzzle, and a romantic movie. I sure love my Number 1 Valentine.
Saturday afternoon, the weather was pretty so we went to the Gathering Place for a couple of hours.
This swing is the kids' favorite thing about the Gathering Place
We came home from the Gathering Place, and the kids did their annual Valentine's Scavenger Hunt.
They were pretty happy with their surprises.
After the Scavenger Hunt we had cheese fondue for dinner and all shared what we love about each other.
A few of the answers I want to make sure I remember-
Nathan said he loves that Samuel never accomplishes a goal, because whenever he gets close to completing one, he always sets a new goal (Such a profound and accurate description)
Katherine loves that Mommy and Daddy snuggle with her
Nathan and Samuel love that Elisabeth is so outgoing and fun to play with and will always talk to people for them.
We usually have chocolate fondue for dessert, but it was getting late, so we postponed and had chocolate fondue for dessert the next night.
Katherine approves of our Valentine's Day traditions.
Like most Januarys, our January 2020 was pretty uneventful.
This Sweet Girl is doing great in Pre K and loves to wear her hair "curly" when we take our her braids.
Samuel was invited to a fun birthday party for some church friends and especially enjoyed climbing the rock wall. He waited in line for a long time to get a turn.
This Cheesy Girl is always ready to pose for the camera. Her sister has taught her to pose with her hands on her hips.
We had a dusting of snow one school day, and the kids couldn't wait to get home from school and play in it. They were so proud of the snowman they built. I was laughing too when I reminded Nathan that there was snow on top of the trampoline if they were running out of snow to play with and his response was- "I know that's are snow reserve in case we need it" These kids have definitely been raised in a state that sees little snow.
Katherine is always so excited to pick up Sissy after school. They get about an hour of time to play together before the boys get home.
Nathan's class is reading buddies with the Pre-K class (They come to the pre-k class and read with them once a week), and I love that these two chose each other to be reading buddies.
In a season of frequent arguing and sibling fighting, it was refreshing to know that they really do love each other enough to choose to be reading buddies.
Princess picnics happen pretty regularly around here, and I love it.
On one of our free Saturdays, we took the kids to the Discovery Lab for the morning. We hadn't been since this summer, and they all had fun running, climbing, playing and learning.
Elisabeth has been working hard on memorizing the books of the New Testament. She's done a great job.
These two Stinkers stole my phone and took selfies on the way home from dance. It's so fun that they are in the same dance class, and school class and that we're neighbors. Addisyn is one of Elisabeth's best friends.
Katherine always asks Daddy to read books to her before bed. I think I've figured out why, ha!
January was a big month for our Sweet Katherine. She said goodbye to her pacifiers and to her crib- the crib that has been a useful part of our home for almost nine years! It was a big day and transition for all of us. Babies don't keep...
I miss her baby days but she is just the most awesome two year old around. She's outgoing, talkative, happy, affectionate, and always loves to play. She's my best buddy these days and I'm soaking it up!
We spent the second half of Christmas break playing with friends, family and new toys.
Makinley and Ainsley came over to play for the afternoon on the day after Christmas.
Of course, the kids spent almost the whole afternoon jumping on the trampoline. I was glad the weather was warm enough for them to be outside burning off energy.
The girls put on princess shows and gymnastics shows for Rebekah and I to watch.
We spent the weekend after Christmas out of the town, and as soon as we got back in town the kids were ready to play. Samuel got a water globe craft kit from Momoo, and he couldn't wait to create his water globes.
And Nathan had all his new Lego sets built by New Year's Eve.
We stayed home and played on New Year's Eve, and then had some friends over that evening to snack and celebrate.
These girls were ready to party!
We had yummy snacks for dinner, and then the kids played Mario Party while the adults visited.
Our friends brought sparklers, so that was a fun New Year's activity.
Then we came inside for sparkling cider and YouTube countdowns, ha!
We almost made it until midnight before we all crashed. Nathan said he stayed awake until midnight, but I'm pretty sure no one else was awake.
New Year's Day was a momentous day for this little girl. She (with Mom's prompting) was ready to say goodbye to her pacifiers. It was hard for both of us, ha! Since she's my last baby, all these milestones sting a little more. She packed up all her pacifiers, and we took them to Build A Bear.
She chose a rainbow kitty and put all her pacifiers inside her kitty.
She was so excited to have her new kitty, and she's done really well adjusting to sleeping without her pacifiers. She's such a big girl!
Matt took off the rest of the week after New Year's, so we decided to surprise the kids with ice skating on Thursday. They've all been asking to go ice skating, so they were excited.
Elisabeth burned out pretty quickly and decided she had more fun chasing Katherine up and down the bleachers.
And Nathan got a blister from his skates and didn't last too much longer, but Samuel would have skated all day if we would have let him. Matt finally had to tell him we needed to leave. He was doing great at skating and keeping his balance. I'm hoping to bring him back soon for another day of skating.
Friday morning we had breakfast with the Dalmans. These Cuties were so excited about donuts and friend time.
It felt harder to get together with friends this break because of when Christmas and New Year's fell during the week, so I was really glad we found a time to get together with some of our favorite friends.
These girls gave each other manicures and pedicures. They were so cute. Elisabeth adores Emma. She has such a good time playing with an older girl, and the boys camped out in Grant's room playing Legos.
These Sweeties were excited for the first Sunday of the New Year. They have turned into such posers.
For part of the kids' Christmas this year, we made a date schedule where each child gets a few one on one dates throughout the year. On the calendar for January was a Nathan and Mom date, and we decided to knock it out early in the month.
Nathan asked to go to the movies and eat at a steak restaurant.
We saw Spies in Disguise which was a cute movie.
We headed over to Santa Fe Steakhouse for dinner afterwards. Nathan has turned into a big steak fan recently. He's starting to outgrow his tastes for McDonalds and Chick Fil A, ha! We had a fun day together.
