February Fun

Most of the month of February was spent snowed in at our house, trying to stay warm. It was a crazy month, but we still managed to have a little fun.

The kids have been back at karate for a couple of months, although it's been hit and miss with COVID and the bad weather. They're all happy to be back though. 

We had a double birthday party Saturday at the beginning of February. The kids were excited to go to Cade's roller skating party that morning. We hadn't been roller skating in several months, so they were ready for some fun. 

Samuel showed off his prizes from the arcade. 

We had a little Pre-K reunion at the party. Even though Elisabeth's pre-k year got cut short, it's still full of fond memories. They had the sweetest class. 

That same afternoon while Samuel played basketball, the girls and I celebrated Sarah's birthday with Elsa and Anna. We can't get enough of all these princess parties. 

The girls listened to stories, sang songs, and got their nails painted. 

Katherine loved seeing Elsa and Anna. As they were leaving, she ran up to them yelling, "Bye, see you at my birthday party!" 😂 We'll see if she changes her mind in the next seven months, ha!

We had some record low temperatures combined with an ice storm followed by a snow storm for two weeks in February. Matt took the kids to the pond to see if it had frozen over. I stayed home inside my warm house, ha!

The next week we had a couple of days of snow. It was still bitterly cold, so I took a couple pictures through the window of the kids playing outside. 

One evening, they decided to build an inside beach. I think they are tired of winter, ha!

I think the cold scared them away from wanting to play outside in the snow, because even after it warmed up some, they didn't want to play outside. I sent Samuel outside to fill up a giant tub of snow and we brought it inside to play with it. That was a hit! They played for over an hour making and serving snow cones and other creations. 

After most of the snow melted, we celebrated my 36th birthday. Matt surprised me with a beautiful and delicious cake!

And I got some really great gifts including a crazy expensive blender I've had my eyes on for years. Matt took the kids to Dollar Tree and they picked out some very thoughtful gifts. 

Elisabeth even made me an "I Love You Because Box" filled with notes about things she loves about me. She came up with the idea and did it all by herself (with maybe a little spelling help from Nathan). She's such a thoughtful, sweet girl.

We celebrated the rest of the weekend with a date night to a great new Mexican restaurant and a family lunch at Hideaway. 

Our Sunday school class had a roller skating night the day after my birthday. It was perfect timing, because everyone was ready to get out of their house and the kids needed to burn off energy after being stuck inside with the bad weather. They had a lot of fun skating with their friends. 

We've been trying to get together with the Dalmans for several weeks and always end up having to reschedule for one reason or another, but it finally worked out for them to join us for an after school play date and dinner, and we were all so happy to spend a few hours with them. 

Our kids get along so well. I can't believe they've all been friends since they were babies. 

These girls have been on a Barbie kick lately. I bought a giant pack of Barbie clothes for them and it's renewed a love of playing for them. 

We celebrated Addisyn's sixth birthday at the end of February. She's one of Elisabeth's best friends. 

The big siblings brought their Nintendos to stay entertained during the JoJo Siwa party. 

And Samuel brought a book, ha! I had just picked up a new book for him from the library, and he couldn't wait to start reading it. 

These four girls were all in Pre-K together and they got to have a sleepover to help celebrate Addisyn. It turned out to be Elisabeth's first successful sleepover, yay! 

She tried last year, but asked to come home at bedtime, and we've been a little gun shy about sleepovers since then, but she did great and had the best time. She kept thanking me for letting her sleepover. She's certainly growing up, and I'm so very, very thankful for all the sweet friendships she has.

February contained a good amount of stress for me and Matt in deciding some new career decisions for him. After a lot of prayer and discussion, it all got resolved with a promotion to a management position at FlightSafety. We splurged and went to a fancy restaurant to celebrate his promotion. 

Matt works so hard with so much integrity and determination at his job. He provides so well for all of us. I'm a proud and thankful wife.

This last weekend, the Evetts came to spend the weekend with us. The kids played all weekend, and the adults played games and visited all weekend too. It was the best. Our families all get along well together and everyone had a wonderful time. 

On Saturday evening, we were in the middle of a game when it was dinner time, so I put the boys in charge of cooking. They did a great job but were eager to be relieved of their kitchen duties when I had time to take over. 

The weekend flew by, and we all hated to say goodbye. We can't wait to get together again soon. 

Valentine's Celebrations

We had a fun weekend celebrating the Day of Love. 

Katherine had a fun little Valentine's performance at dance the Friday before Valentine's Day.

Elisabeth wanted to look festive for her class too even though she's outgrown the Valentine's dance 😥

Katherine did a great job during her performance. Her class was poorly attended because of the ice storm, so she got to perform it again for us the following week. She dances and jumps and twirls all over our house all the time. Dancing is her thing!

After her dance we came home to get ready for our Valentine's Day Party with friends. We had some up in the air plans for the week of Valentine's Day, so our party was planned pretty last minute, and we kept it small with just our party friends, and the boys' best friends. Then at the last minute, one of our friends woke up sick, so the party was even smaller, but the kids didn't mind. They still had a great time celebrating, snacking, and exchanging Valentines. 

They had fun decorating Valentine boxes for the party. 

Nathan's was especially creative. 

Our friends came over after lunch and the kids were ready to exchange their Valentines. 

Asher's box was also super creative. 

They couldn't wait to dig into their boxes and find out what they got!

These girls loved the scratch off Valentines. 

The kids spent the rest of the afternoon playing together. The girls conned me into letting them watch a show in my room. I thought Kate might fall asleep during it.

The boys spent most of the afternoon playing Rock Band. 

I'm so thankful for these friendships and getting to do some of the normal school parties even while we're homeschooling. It has added so much fun and excitement to our schooling this year. 

Friday night, Matt and I were able to get out of the house for a Valentine's Date. He planned a fun, special evening. He's the best Valentine around. 

Saturday looked like the last normal weather day before another winter storm hit, and we wanted to take advantage of it. I texted Brooke and asked if they wanted to get out of their house and come spend the day with us before we were all cooped up inside for another week. They jumped at the idea and we spent Saturday visiting, playing games and listening to the kids play with their friends. That evening, we kicked Brooke and Corey out for a much needed date, and we ordered pizza for the kids and let them have a movie night. We all felt renewed and recharged with friend time to keep us going through another week of bad weather 

Sunday was Valentine's Day, and the kids snuck upstairs and worked all morning on a Valentine's Day present for me and Matt. It was the sweetest thing. One of our Valentine's Day traditions is to have a treasure hunt for the kids to find their Valentine surprises. This year the kids made one for us, and our present was a homemade book about what they love about us. Cue all the sappy tears. I just love them so much! Those kids are absolute treasures!

I don't know how they'll top this next year. They hit it out of the ballpark with their thoughtfulness and creativity. 

After Matt and I finished our treasure hunt, we sent them on theirs. 

They managed to solve their clues pretty quickly and were all happy with their surprises. 

That evening we had our traditional cheese fondue for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert. 

We also shared about reasons why we love each other over our dinner. 

Katherine says she is a big fan of our Valentine's Day traditions. 

I hope the people inside our home always feel loved because they are loved more than they'll ever know. It's joy to celebrate so much love every Valentine's Day.