Valentine's Day

So me and Michael decided back when Matthew was a baby that we would make Valentine's Day all about our kids. As in, do fun Valentine's crafts, eat Valentine's candy, and take the kids out on a simple date. To me, that is just more fun. Michael and I often celebrate each other by going out on a date the week or weekend before since our half anniversary is on Feb 7th. And then on Valentine's Day we just focus on all the cute fun kid stuff. It's a fun tradition that I know won't last forever as the kids get older and have less of a desire for the "cute fun kid stuff," :-) but for now, it is perfect.

In the past I haven't usually gotten Valentine's gifts for the kids, but growing up I remember that my mom always decorated the kitchen table with fun Valentine's candy and maybe a small gift and I loved it. So finally this year I did the same for the kids. The all got a small gift and some candy. Matthew and Kate both got a fun pillow and Josh got an art toy.

That night I took Matthew out on a date and Michael took Kate out on a date. Me and Matthew's tradition for the last several years has been to go to McDonald's for ice cream cones. He loves it and so do it!

Michael and Kate's tradition for the past few years has been to go get a donut at Bosa. She loved getting all dressed up for her date.

I love that second picture because they took it to recreate the picture they took two years ago on their first Valentine's Day date - (too cute!)

Gotta love these years when the kids want to spend their Valentine's Day with their parents. ;-) I'll miss that! Ha! Oh and yes, Joshua was kinda left out of the ice cream/donuts this year since he still didn't really get what was going on, but he will absolutely be included starting next year. I wouldn't want him missing out on all this fun!

Kate's 4th Birthday

Kate's birthday was on a Monday this year, so we celebrated a little on the Saturday before her birthday so that we could more easily do the activities she wanted to do. She requested to go to As You Wish (a place where you choose something to paint) and also to see Moana. She'd already seen Moana, but she'd become pretty obsessed with it after seeing it the first time and had been asking and asking to see it again so we figured her birthday was the perfect time to let her go see it again in theaters. :-)

Me, Kate, and Matthew all headed to As You Wish and she chose a butterfly to paint. Matthew chose a dolphin. They both LOVED it.

When we got home she headed out with Michael for a daddy/daughter date to see Moana. He let her pick out candy at Target (which is right next to the movie theater) and she was in heaven getting to see it again.

showing off their movie stubs

On Monday, her actual birthday, she woke up to balloons in her room. She chose cereal for breakfast (ha!) and then got to open a present.

Kate has play group with two friends on Mondays (Tori Bagley and Audrey Allen) so I had it at our house so that she could have friends over without having an actual party. (In our family, friend parties start when you're five). I asked them not to bring gifts, but I tried to make the play group extra fun that day. They played lots of games, decorated cupcakes, and dressed up in princess dresses.

When they left Kate got to open another present - a Sleeping Beauty doll from Grandma and Papa.

After lunch and Josh's nap we played games and hung out until Michael got home from work, and then we headed to Chick-fil-A for dinner. Yum!

After they ate and played in the play place for a bit, we headed home for cake and presents! Kate was excited to tear into her presents and then eat lots of cake! She requested a "yellow butterfly cake," so that's exactly what she got. It wasn't anything terribly special, but she seemed happy with it.

We love this girl so much. She has always been and continues to be a huge ray of sunshine in our family. In the past year she has gone from super shy to SUPER outgoing and chatty. She is one of the friendliest people I know! If we are at the park and another little girl shows up, she'll immediately run over to her and introduce herself and ask the girl to play. :-) She loves friends!

Kate is so smart. She knows (and can mostly write) all of the letters - uppercase and lowercase. She knows the sounds most of them make. She likes learning about the world and is very curious. She has a lot of empathy and gets upset when she hears about someone being treated unkindly.

Kate is almost always moving. She has a hard time sitting still, even for a 4-year old. I think this is part of the reason she is such an insomniac. She has a hard time shutting her brain off and holding still long enough to fall asleep, even when she's exhausted. Getting Kate to sleep every night is difficult, but at least she usually sleeps in. Matthew likes to call her nocturnal, and I'd say that's pretty accurate. Haha!

Kate loves dance class. I know this because she's always excited to go and is so giddy when I pick her up, although she's not a huge fan of showing us what she did in class that day. She'll usually say, "You can see at the recital." Kate also loves swimming and riding her bike. She is always down to go to the park and enjoys Primary. She loves games and will play several throughout the day with Matthew. She also loves playing pretend. She has a lot of friends, but Matthew is her very best friend. They play together all the time and I'm so glad that they have each other.

Kate knows tons of songs word for word and is often singing. She is a big time snacker and no matter how big her last meal was, she is always asking for snacks. Her favorite foods include sugar cereals, fruit, yogurt, fruit snacks, Fun Dip, chocolate, and macaroni and cheese. As unhealthy as most of these foods are, she's actually pretty good about eating the healthy foods too... though they're not what she'll ask for. ;-)

Kate is girly and FUN. She is amazing in so many ways and I know she'll do great things in the world. Love her SO MUCH!

Day Trip to Flagstaff

We decided about a week or so into January to take a day trip up to Flagstaff to play in the snow. Now, considering what happened last year, we almost didn't even take this trip. Last year Matthew and Kate were SO excited during the drive but absolutely hated the snow once they got out of the car and cried the entire time. Yeah, not ideal. Matthew and Kate were insistent about trying again, so this time I planned very carefully where we'd go, (somewhere heavily populated so there would be ZERO deep snow for them to have to trudge through) and me and Michael set our expectations extremely low. Ha! I made sure to pack all the warm clothes we owned and then we were off!

We finally found a good spot about 15 minutes north of Flagstaff called Crowley Park. I bundled up the kids and they were off! I was nervous but they did SO much better this time. It was Joshua's first time playing in the snow (he wasn't even a year old last year so he just stayed on my lap) and he was fascinated! Matthew and Kate loved it too and were anxious to start sledding.

All the kids went down the sledding hill a bunch of times with me or Michael and they all loved it - especially Matthew! Once he was comfortable he went down by himself a few times form lower on the hill.

We also built a mini snowman! Josh was SO excited about his snowman - look at that cute excited face!

I was so impressed with how well the kids did! Totally exceeded my expectations.... by a lot! Haha!

After a couple hours Kate and Josh were done. Especially Josh, who was getting pretty cold.

Matthew was SO bummed to leave. He would've been happy to stay another few hours! Me and Michael decided that now that we knew they could have more fun in the snow, we'd definitely try to make an overnight trip the next year. I felt pretty bad for Matthew who wanted more time. But I'm so glad that he and the other kids did so well and had so much fun. A great day for sure!

Christmas

We were lucky enough to have my mom and dad come stay with us for Christmas this year! We were all so excited!

I LOVE Christmas Eve almost as much as Christmas morning! The excitement and anticipation is the best! My mom brought Christmas Bingo, which was one of my very favorite Christmas traditions growing up. It was fun to see my kids love it as much as I did.

They also brought this cute puzzle of the Abominable Snow Monster. It was actually a really hard puzzle. Way harder than it looks! Ha! Then I made a joke about how I'd kill the kids if they messed it up and literally about a minute later I myself messed it up. Yep. I'm smart like that.

Cute slippers my mom brought for Joshua from my Grandma Winder-

Kate gets her flexibility from her grandma-

The boys went to see Star Wars! Michael accidentally bought tickets in 3D. Ha!

That night we went to the Loop of Lights (awesome neighborhood nearby that does seriously amazing Christmas tree lights - and almost every house participates!) and made sure to wear out the kids. This pic was taken there, even though you can't see much.

And then we came home home, left cookies out for Santa, and put the kids to bed!

That night we watched It's A Wonderful Life and were happy that Santa's job was pretty low stress and quick. :-) The next morning the kids were bouncing and so excited!! I had to get the picture of them at the top of the stairs of course-

And then the fun began! Matthew got a ninja turtle bike and ninja turtle toys, Josh got a train, and Kate got a princess house and roller skates. And of course the stocking! They also got some fun presents to unwrap, including Pop the Pig game, (SUCH a hit) books, stickers, and other random toys. Michael got a machete (sword? giant knife?) from my parents and was SO excited about it. It was hilarious to watch his face light up when he opened it. :-) I got some gift cards, make up, and clothes. We all had so much fun, and LOVED having Grandma and Papa there to share in all the fun! 

Christmas fell on a Sunday and we had church at 10 so after the presents we ate a quick breakfast and then got in our church clothes. I kind of liked going to church on Christmas. Such a great way to remember the real reason for the season.

For New Years we pretty much just stayed home. It's hard to do too much when you have a house full of little kids that are gonna wake up at 6 a.m. no matter what time you or they go to bed. Ha! It's all good though - me and Michael don't mind. We kinda like taking it easy at home and watching the ball drop and then going to bed, barely having made it till midnight. Oh the joys of getting older and also being young parents. ;-) Josh woke up cranky around 11 and wouldn't go back to sleep so he got to party with us at midnight. :-) Luckily he finally conked out again around 12:30.

Hooray for an awesome 2016!