Our Special Valentine's Day Surprise

I have to say a BIG thank you to all of our Houston cousins for the beautiful hand made Valentines! They are all so special, so thoughtfully written, illustrated, and decorated! Our Valentine's Day was made so much sweeter because of you. Thank you for sending your love from far away! It was truly felt! We miss you all!

Mema and Papa, as you can see in the pictures the kids were delighted by your darling books and goodies! Thank you so much!

Preschool Valentine's Day Party

This year I have helped in Sydney's preschool class parties for Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. I was going to sit this one out after Sydney warned me that I had to let the other moms have a chance. But I couldn't help letting the teacher know I was willing to help, just in case there weren't any other volunteers. So that is how once again I got to be there for the party (and with Sydney's permission of course)!









Here Sydee's like, "Oh my gosh, there's my mom, with her huge camera. How embarrassing!"



The only girl in a dress. She just had to wear it. I wore dresses until 5th grade. She's so much like me! The cute boy next to her is Aaron, the sweetest, most well-behaved boy in the class. I am secretly hoping Sydney will marry him. Hee hee! Just kidding!

Just like Sydney told me, the boys always act silly!

All the kids got to make a bag to put their Valentine's in, and then Sydney helped pass out the cookies and chocolate milk that we brought.
One girl spilled chocolate milk all over herself and the boy sitting next to her told me "that was a really bad idea", meaning bringing chocolate milk. These kids crack me up!

Jack at the Dinosaur Museum

Sometimes I can sense that Jack needs a little special one on one time. So this week I dropped Sydee of at school, left Allie home napping with Chad, and then surprised Jack with the news that we were off to the dinosaur museum to meet with some friends. He was very grateful and said "oh mommy, that is my favorite place!" Here are some pictures of his fun time with me all to himself. It is nice to have one child to devote all your attention to for an afternoon!

Sydney's 5th Birthday Party

Allie Rose: 18 Months Old

Favorite game: peek-a-boo

First words: dog
cat
cow
nay (horse)
baa (sheep)
here you go
where'd he go?
I nana
pillow
gabba
hello?
tickle tickle
look
again
1...2...3...
milk
snack
ma ma
da da
be be (baby)
be be (Pepe)
cup
nigh nigh (goodnight)
up
go
hi
jack
bubba
mmm's goo (it's good)
sky
thank you

first song: she tries to sing twinkle and twinkle. I sing and let her fill in the blanks with are, high, sky. When we sing this song from gabba gabba "inside voice..." she follows with "quiet". The other two love this and when they are giggling they look so proud of their little baby Rose. They run to tell me every time she says a new word. She also sings the ABC song. It goes, eh le be de i a G! But she has the melody down pretty well!

Favorite Foods: everything. It's all wonderful and keep it coming please! I always serve her less because she is the baby, but she ends up finishing off whatever Sydee and Jack have left on their plates. Her manners are impressive. She always says thank you, although with the attitude she might as well say "it's about time"! The last two days she has been following the big kids and clearing her plate when she is done.

Allie loves to dress-up, feed Pepe, rock her babies and push them in the stroller, read books, and do anything her brother and sister are doing of course. She also loves ducks, eating, and brushing her teeth.

If we are near, Allie always takes a moment to walk over to us and give the gentlest, sweetest, most loving hug we have ever felt.

If we are too far, Allie always takes a moment to walk over to us, wrap her arms around our calves, step on our toes, lift her chin up above our knees, and scowl and wail until her will is done.

That is our little Allie Roses!

Sydee: On Love

The other night while tucking Sydney into bed I said: Did you know that every night after you fall asleep, I come back in here to check on you and I give you hugs and kisses? She seemed to be in very deep thought, and then very seriously told me: Mommy, we hug and kiss people we love. But...we should hug and kiss people we don't love too. We should hug and kiss everybody.
Below are some questions by kids I think are hysterical!

Homemade Portraits

Every now and then the kids actually want to do a photo shoot, so I race to grab the camera, never mind the mess. At least our memories will be authentic! Some day I'll get the lighting right!
Allie Rose was asleep this time.

Grandparents especially: be sure and click to enlarge each picture for ultimate facial expression viewing!

Sydee With the Straight Hair

I knew there would come a day when the curly- haired girl would want her hair straight. But I never thought it would be this soon! Here she is after becoming friends with the blow dryer and straightening iron. After gazing into the mirror a few moments to admire her "long" and flowing hair she turned to ask, " but how are all of my cousins and friends at school going to recognize me? " I saw that in her mind, she had turned into a butterfly!

Please will you play dress-up forever?

When the dress-up phase is over, it'll be a sad, sad day.