February fun

We did our own version of Super Bowl Sunday this year. We weren't interested in turning on the game, but we didn't want to miss out on all the yummy snacks. We made cooking a family affair!

Blade ate cheese straight off the block, Maddie made the pigs in a blanket,

Daryn did the fruit and veggie tray, and Reagan made a fruit dip and helped Lance with the bacon-wrapped brown sugar weenies. 

It was lots of fun and less stressful than I imagined- the girls were actually quite helpful. When everything was ready, we made out plates and sat down to catch up on all the new Book of Mormon videos we were behind on. Fun for the whole family!

Snow, snow, snow. Yet somehow we never made it sledding once this year. It seemed to snow a lot on Sundays. 

I love going to parent-teacher conferences with the girls and hearing the wonderful things there their teachers have to say. I particularly enjoyed this piece by Reagan.

Blade officially moved to a booster seat at the table (after he kept trying to climb into his high chair when he wanted to eat...)

 And he learned about blankey getting baths and waited anxiously during the whole process.

Dentist trip! The girls did awesome and kept up their no cavity record. Blade did not handle his first visit super well when the dentist tried to peek in.

He is adorably troublesome.

Getting into the treats non-stop is killing me.

At least he helps clean up sometimes? (Without being asked!)

And she is just plain adorable.

Somehow his reading obsession grows every day. He brought this one into my room and was actually saying some of the words in it to himself.

And he moved to a big boy bed and is sharing a room with Maddie. The first week was a little rough teaching him not to get out but he is doing pretty good now. He loves it and runs to bed whenever it's time.

Valentine's Day was fun this year. Not super romantic but that's what happens when you have 4.5 kids. Lance worked from home, so I went in and helped with Reagan's class party. 

While I was gone, he bought me a pear tree and planted it!

We had some friends over that afternoon to help us make chocolate covered strawberries. It was chaotically successful.

Then Meagan babysat so we could go to the temple. It was nice, but I was having some struggles with leg cramping. Lance was unexpectedly able to do the temple work for his maternal biological great-grandfather (Mumsy was adopted and raised by her step-father), which was pretty cool.

Then we hurried back home to take the kids to the Layton City Valentines family dance. 

Layton is celebrating it's centennial this year!

Little sweethearts.

Stair sliding with the crib mattress that needed to be replaced. Maybe not the safest but it was fun.

Nothing helps cleaning up like some music!

When you have Presidents' Day off, you eat Krispy Kreme and go to the park. Reagan and Daryn we hogging the baby swings, so Blade opted for a big kid one.  A little mixed up but ok.

Taking the kids by myself to Math Night at the girls' school while Lance was in Vegas for work was... not fun.

Especially when Blade discovered he could literally stand up in his stroller and walk around and I couldn't do anything to stop him.

Daryn loves reading to Maddie and Blade and they love it, too!

Now that Blade's things are in drawers where he can reach them, his favorite thing to do is accessorize. Every. day. To the max.

Getting out the baby stuff was a little overwhelming. It's mostly taken care of now! Blade had to make sure the bouncer was still in working order.

 

Fancy nails!

Maddie had her last cooking class at Busy Bee Co. She's been doing them weekly for the past 9 months and was ready for a break. We'll be back!

Reagan made this awesome Anne Frank marionette for a school project. She gets to dress up as her for a wax museum in a couple of weeks, too.

Flexible kiddos. I'm especially jealous, considering that I can hardly move. 

 Stop I just can't.

We were watching Frozen 2 last night and Blade got out the Olaf toy and spent 2 minutes popping his head off.

It's the little things.

We love movie night!

Lance took a quick trip to Texas this weekend for his grandma's 90th birthday. We missed him for sure but I'm glad he could be there- and so was Mumsy!

A fine lady with her 3 grandchildren. So happy they could visit briefly.

Today after church, the kids immediately wanted to play church. (Beats me why, considering that they barely made it through the first time around). Reagan asked me to take a picture to submit to the Friend magazine. You got it, kiddo.

They sang all the verses of "The Iron Rod" and then ended the meeting because the Stake President wouldn't stop crying. Struggles. 

Kids are funny but they are the best.