Feb 12

 Elli all dressed and ready fro her Valentine's Day party at school.

 Gonga came over to watch the kids while I went to class in Cincinnati.  She had gifts for them.

 Cards, candy, books, money, planes.  Awesome!

 Elli loved finding the dollar bills in the hearts from mom and dad. She asked mom why her dollars were smaller than ours because mom had them folded tiny!

Sweetness.

Feb 7, Leah's baby Shower for Ruby Vashti!

 Lots and lots of gifts

 Elli chose a cute little blanket with a bunny on it for Ruby.  So sweet.

 Leah, mom, Aunt Cheryl, Aunt Sharron.

 Aunt Sheila, Aunt Tanya, Grandma, Heather, myself, Debbie, Katie, and Chris were all there.

 Aunt Sharron made a quilt with little piggies on it.  Adorable.

 The loot!  She got so many nice things for Ruby.  It is fun to see Leah get ready for a little girl after three boys.

 Leah took mom and dad's car home and all three boys crowded in the back seat.  Hilarious.

Elli spent the night with mom and dad and was excited to ride in Leah's car to their house!  It was a fun day filled with great food, excellent company, pedicures, playing kids, and good times all around.

Feb 6, Ice Skating at River Scape

 This is the first time we have taken the kids ice skating.  It was really fun and they did ok.

 Micah was very confused and kept saying he couldn't make them work.  He also kept thinking he was sledding!

 Brent is skating with Micah and Elli is off on her own.  She fell a few times, but nothing too terrible.  She took it slow and gained some confidence.

 Fun times but hard on the back!

 Elli and Madilynn.  They had fun together.

 My boy and I, Elli in the background as well as Paula and Lily.  So fun to be with great friends.

 Brent tried to get Micah to push a chair around.  He did not like that idea.

 Great family picture before heading home and out of the cold.  The Masters and Raymonds came over for some yummy hot chocolate and cookies:)

Well, we did wait until we watched the zambonie!

January ends with a Hair Hawk

 He calls a mohawk a hair hawk.  We love it and he looks adorable:)

Elli may or may not have had her hand in this!

Sledding After School

 Emilee and Elli wanted to join in the fun of sledding the little hill at the end of our street.  Love that they are still sweet friends even with the age gap between them.

 Brent and Elli getting ready for their run.

 This is not easy with Elli and Micah getting so big.  I do think the days of the four of us on one saucer are over!

 Great family picture:)

Absolutely beautiful smile from my girl.  Her giggle is also one of the best things in the world and I heard plenty of that during our sledding runs:)

Snow Time with Micah

 All bundled up

 Selfies while sledding

 It took a long time to walk to the end of our street to sled down the little hill because Micah was eating snow, stepping on any ice he could find, looking for bunnies, etc, etc , etc.  he is easily distracted:)

 But here we are ready for our time down the hill.

 He loved riding on my tummy as I laid on my back.  He called out "I do 'gain, mommy" over and over.  It really was a blast.

 Sort of love that smile and can't quite get enough of it.

He doesn't look all that happy here, but he loved going down by himself as well.  Of course, when he got to he bottom, he just wanted to eat the snow.
He asked me to carry him back to keep him safe and warm. I will say it is not easy to carry and bundled up kid and a sled on the snow and ice, but we made it safely.

Sleeping beauties

 Micah has a fairly long bedtime routine.  We do a bath, read a book, sing songs, pray, say Bible verses, snuggle, jump to the ceiling to touch the moon, pick out animals to snuggle, go to the bathroom, snuggle again, etc. It can be quite frustrating.  it is one of those things that I know I will miss when he is big but it is not fun right now.  However, how can you resist the sweetness captured here?

It doesn't matter how big she gets, I still love to watch her sleep.  She is a great sleeper, always has been.  I do miss our bedtime routine together as Micah has kind of taken over.  We no longer spend time reading together though she often will read on her own.  She still sings and prays with us, but then she does her own thing.  Love her so very much and love these peaceful moments to remember my baby girl.

Chocolate Thief

 We found Micah sitting on the couch, very quietly.  He was busy!

 He showed me how he did it.  He pulled over the stool and got the candy from the bag.

Rotten!

Spencer's Birthday Party

 We went to a gymnastics gym for kids.  It was a lot of fun.

 Such a great group of kids to celebrate with.

 Spencer was so sweet to watch. He was super excited about his ninja turtle cupcakes!

 Big bite, Micah.

 I think you got a little over here, a little over there.

 He had some great presents to open.

Such a fun way to celebrate Spencer

Moments with Micah

 Micah has been coming to school with me on Friday mornings.  We have had trouble finding childcare.  We decided to visit the library one day and found these puppets.  Micah loved it!

Here we are in a circle.  Like I have said, he loves to get in and be snuggled.