Valentine's Day

Holidays are much more special with these 4 kids who get so excited about everything.  I love making a big deal about anything and everything related to holidays so, of course, Valentine's Day is an extra special day in our home.  This year we actually did some leading up to Valentine's Day as I put a heart on each of their doors with something that we loved about them beginning on February 1st.  This was a hit (in fact, as I write this in May, Julia, Ella and Charlotte's hearts are still on their doors and Julia asked me a few days ago not to take them down!). And, for the record, Joseph had his up well into May.  I even included Daddy in on the fun and he had hearts on his bathroom mirror.  So much love in the home- ha ha!  They looked forward to reading their new heart every morning and especially got a kick out of the funny ones, such as Charlotte's which read, "I love it when you say my butt" Oh, Charlotte!! 

Joseph had to decorate a Valentine's box and he made an awesome Fortnite themed box, which unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of.  And, Joseph, Ella and Julia all had to fill out Valentines for their classmates.  We picked them out a few weeks prior and one rainy afternoon when I was getting my haircut they signed them and put them all together.  It was nice that they were done early so we didn't have the last minute rush to get them done.

Julia had her party the day before since she didn't have school on the 14th.  She came home with lots of treats from her friends and had "the best day ever."  Here are her and Charlotte all dressed up in their heart apparel ready for her party.  

"Now a funny one!"

They were up bright and early (well, not bright since it is still dark outside!) but early to see the decorated table.  Daddy had flowers for all fo the girls and they each got a little treat from us (LOL dolls and a game for Joseph).  

Heart shaped braids and they were ready for a special day!  

 
I was fortunate enough to go into Ella's classroom for her Valentines' Day party and we had a great morning of graphing candy hearts, making heart necklaces, and heart crowns and other fun Valentine activities.  I'm so thankful to Nani for allowing me to volunteer every week in their classrooms and to have this time with them.  Since Joseph had his Valentine's exchange I didn't go into his classroom that afternoon but treated myself to a little love at the gym on the treadmill-gotta have some self love, too!!  And, then after my workout I found out that church school was cancelled due to the rain so we were able to have a nice, relaxing afternoon at home.
This is from Ella's Valentine's Day party that she came home with.  The last one is "teddy" 

 She is always, always, always creating/crafting.  We go through so much paper and tape in our home that it is ridiculous but she loves it.  She is totally into making books right now (aka a lot of paper stapled together and the front and back decorated).  She made this one for Joseph and gave it to him on Valentine's Day.  So sweet!

 Rich's class ended up being cancelled, too, which was a great surprise so he picked up Thai food for us and the kids made heart shaped pizzas.  It was a perfect Valentine's Day!  

Happy Valentine's Day!  

Great Wolf Lodge

At the end of January we went to Great Wolf Lodge for the first time with our friends, the Laugesen and Bestafka families.  The kids have been wanting to go here for awhile now (after hearing about all of the fun from others) so for Christmas we gave them an ornament of a wolf and told them that we'd take them in January.  They were pretty excited but definitely so much more excited when the time came and we arrived!  We had such an awesome experience here and they loved every minute of it!

There was a professional development day on the last day of January which we decided would be the perfect day to go-hopeful for small crowds since it would be during the week and it was!  Rich took a half day and we headed up around 2:00 on Thursday, getting us there around 3:30.  After checking in and putting our things away we made our way to the water park immediately!  

They had a great "baby/toddler" section where I hung with Julia and Charlotte pretty much the whole time.  I didn't mind hanging with just the two of them because they were SO much fun to watch!  The two of them loved the water slides and would go down side by side and just come up with the biggest smiles on their faces!  I didn't have my phone on me that first day and that is my biggest regret because, honestly, their smiles were picture perfect every.single.ride. The big kids hung with Daddy and the rest of the crew and loved it all, too!! 

 Ella joined us for a little bit every now and then, too, which they loved!

The kiddos inside the water park!

 It was loud in the waterpark but thankfully really wasn't crowded, especially compared to what others have told me, so we got really lucky and everything just worked out really well.  Char was such a trooper and had a blast!  She totally hung and loved it all!

 Although at bedtime she was so wound up that she was just talking and talking and talking!!!  I left the arcade earlier with just her trying to get her down earlier but she was so amped up about everything that it was close to 10 by the time she went to bed.  I'm pretty sure she was up later than Julia! She did look pretty cute in her wolf ears though!

 Such a fun group with all these kiddos!

 Loved this experience with our family!

 We stayed until about 3:00 on Friday which was perfect, it was starting to get more crowded and after a full day there I was good! I truly felt that one night was plenty-by Friday afternoon I was ready to go-felt like we had an amazing time and could leave on a high note.  So, we finished off by celebrating with "tipping buckets" for each family which was a perfect ending.  Charlotte was asleep by the time we got on the freeway and they were all asleep for the majority of the car ride home.  We picked up dinner once we got back home, ate and then everyone headed right back to bed!  Lots of fun over the past two days and such sweet memories!

First month of 2019!

It is hard to believe that the holidays are over and we are back in the routine and in 2019!!!  We are looking forward to an amazing year ahead and January is off to a great start!

As mentioned before, Uncle Bruce is here for 6 weeks and we are so happy to have him in San Diego.  He is staying at a great condo in Coronado, right on the beach, so on 2 different occasions we took advantage of having him here and his awesome place and went to visit! 

It was a bit chilly but nothing that a heated pool and jacuzzi can't fix! 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture of these sweet cousins!

Beautiful sunset in Coronado!

I feel like we are always at a park and I always have kids hanging upside down!!  

Different day, different park, but still kids hanging around!

Jules is looking so grown up to me lately.  She's been doing great at school-is independent but has been playing with friends more (Kallie is a favorite!) I've been telling her a lot lately about how proud I am of all of the things she's learning-just in the past few months she has learned how to ride a bike, doesn't use pull-ups at night anymore, snap her fingers, and really practicing her reading!  I overheard her telling her friend, Isabella, one day, "I'm learning so many things this year-I know how to ride a bike, snap my fingers and can read!"  It made my heart so happy to hear her confidence!!   

Rocking her "p-jammies" as she and Charlotte call them on pajama day at school!

She still loves her Kitty (or recently has been referring her to as "Meow Meow") and still has an incredible fashion sense, hence the Easter dress, floral leggings and bright pink sneakers. Ahhh!

The girls love their Thursdays with Nana and Poppa and spend most of them at the Safari Park.  They are so blessed to have this time with them!  

I took Ella to a friend from school's birthday party one Saturday afternoon where they made their own cupcakes and had a great time!

Then we went up to Nani and Poppa's to eat some more cake :). 

Lots and lots of fun on the trampoline this month...we are definitely breaking it in!!

The view doesn't get old!  This was one morning from the bathroom window! 

We've had a few rainy days, too, but still out and about during them.  

Charlotte knows how to bundle up! 

She pretty much rules the roost, maybe one day the world :). She is cracking us up this month.  A few of the best tidbits from her this month are:

-Favorite sayings:  "What the heck?"  "Oh boy!" "Shut your pie hole!" (more on this later-ha), "Phew!", "iPad time", "privacies" for private parts, "pjammies" for pajamas, "Here me am, hear me am", "my tummy really full" whenever she has to poop, "Pinky promise", "Me two!"  

She is full of personality this one!!  She picks up so quickly on what everyone else is doing and wants a part of it all!  She is totally obsessed with the ipad/electronic time!  Her time is still very limited but it is the first thing she asks about when waking up and will constantly ask during the day for "iPad time?" She uses Joseph's iPad since he is normally on the xbox and will bring it to me so I can put in the passcode and then requests "baby shark", "baby alive" or "lol dolls" and wants to watch youtube videos of those.  Oh, geez!!  Hilarious.  It's gotten to the point where we're bribing her with the iPad for her to stay in her crib at night-if she does, then she'll get a little bit of extra time in the morning (she specifically likes to watch Baby shark in the car on the way to the gym).  She's too much!  She has also learned to do 2 on her fingers so is super excited about that!  Oh, and the "shut your pie hole" started thanks to a very entertaining dinner conversation one night lead by Daddy and now the kids think it is hilarious to say to one another "Shut your pie hole" or in Ella's case, "Shut your pie holeS". Ha ha!!  We've talked about only saying this in our home since it doesn't sound very nice to others, so we're working on keeping it at home.  Ha ha!

Joseph in a wrestling pose one morning before school.  There is always lots of entertainment in our home even prior to 7:30 a.m.  

 I needed a picture of him for his First Reconciliation so took this-he is getting so big!! 

Then, of course, everyone else wanted in, too, and it got crazy!

Char getting all dolled up one day.

And then getting crazy!

Julia showing off her stickers from speech.

Hanging at Jen's cul de sac on Friday-our awesome tradition that we look forward to all week long!

We had a quiet Saturday morning home one weekend and the 4 of them were playing in the bathroom for nearly an hour like this!  It was a mess but they were having so much fun and were so content that I just let them!  

We went hiking in our backyard one day.  

We met Poppa at the baseball fields a bunch of times this month-we'd meet Nani and Finn there on Tuesday mornings and Poppa would come play with us after he was done with his baseball practice.  The kids love playing baseball with him!

Ella kept the tooth fairy busy this month!! Although she was hoping that the top two teeth would be out by Christmas so she could sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" it happened shortly thereafter.  Unfortunately, the tooth fairy was super busy on one of the nights so totally forgot to come by but she made up for it the following night writing her a nice note and explaining that she'd receive $5.00 instead of the normal $2 for top teeth since she was late. The excitement on Ella's face that morning made up for the sad, sad face on the morning before when she didn't appear.  

Another lost tooth for Ella!!She lost this one at school which was pretty much the best thing ever!  She received a tooth necklace with the tooth inside-too cute. Look at that huge gap on the top row!!! So dang cute!  At least this time the tooth fairy remembered!

Baseball season is coming!  We didn't have school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day so Poppa took Joseph and Finn to practice and the girls and I tagged along riding bikes and then had a picnic.  It was a chilly day but nice to be out. 

As I'm still trying to decorate and get settled into the new home, Charlotte is normally a great shopping partner!

Bathtime with these three girls! 

Crazy hair day at school! Colored hair makes any sort of hair style crazy! 

Of course Charlotte and Julia wanted in on the fun, too!  

Celebrating shots for Joseph and Ella at Menchies...well, I don't know if celebrating is the right word, maybe surviving.  Ha ha!  They actually did great this year.  Joseph didn't cry at all and Ella worked herself up only a bit and then pulled herself together quickly! 

Joseph went to Monster Jam with Rich and the Martin boys one night so the girls and I had a movie night watching "Frozen"-it was Charlotte's first time and she loved it!

Joseph made his First Reconciliation on January 26th.  We are so proud of him!  I am his catechist again this year and have really enjoyed teaching this class.  My friend, Missy and I are doing it together so it has been so much more fun having her with me and there really is a good group of kids-7 out of the 14 are from Westwood which really gives it a great community feel.  He was a little nervous going in but came out so happy.  He still won't tell anyone what he confessed ;). 

Thankful, as always, for a wonderful month, especially for the first month of a new year!!