Miscellaneous February Pictures

Sibling Love

Every week at family night, everyone draws a name and we each say something we love about the person whose name we drew.  The kids love this so much and get so excited to do it.  I love watching as they talk to each other about the things they love about each other. It always ends with lots of hugging and kissing and it's the sweetest thing.  They have their moments of bickering, but overall they are really good to each other, and it makes my heart swell.

There's really nothing like siblings.  Friends come and go, but siblings experience life together and bond over things that last a lifetime.  I'm so grateful they have each other, and I hope they remain close friends forever.

The "Peking Acrobats" at Popejoy

Last year, Brad and I went to the Peking Acrobats show at Popejoy so when we saw it was coming back again, we thought it would be really fun to take the kids to see all the cool tricks they did.

Initially, the plan was to leave Karly with a sitter, and Brad and I were planning to take our three oldest, plus Eden's friend Myla.  When the afternoon of the show arrived, Brad decided he would actually rather stay home and study while Karly napped, so Myla's sister Brinlee joined us too.  I got quite a few comments about the number of children that I brought along, but we had so much fun!!  They loved that we went into the lounge first and got lots of treats before they show.  They all had great manners and behaved so well, I even had a few people come by to compliment them (this lounge usually is just full of old people and no kids, so we were garnering lots of attention!) 

This was Olive's first time seeing a show at Popejoy and she was very intrigued by the big stage and fancy lights.

The absolute best part of this whole experience, was seeing the intensity with which the kids watched the tricks.  They were all so into it! Laughing, screaming, cheering, totally awestruck, biting fingernails and hiding their eyes.  This particular balancing trick, on top of a stack of chairs had all the kids at the edge of their seats, so intensely watching, but also hiding.  It was so funny to watch them, I couldn't even watch the show!

I heard Eden saying, "no don't do it!" quite a few times.

I couldn't help but take pictures of the kids as they watched because it was so funny to me that they were so invested in what these acrobats were doing. 

Such fun memories. I love it.

Sleepover Party with London

Kally is trying to get their house ready to sell so when the realtor scheduled to come take pictures, I knew Kally would need her "little helper" out of the house in order to be productive.  So London came to our house and spent the day and night hanging out with us while Kally got some things packed and the house cleaned.  These two girls had so much fun.

They immediately ran to the costume closet and came back in these outfits, describing themselves as "the bad guy girls".  ha ha

That night we had a few other families over for dinner so London got to meet Olive's friends Claire and Magnolia.

When it came time for bed, they were so excited to make a bed on the floor of the movie room.  I heard lots of giggling going on in there, but thought it would be fun to let them play a little bit.  After some other strange noises started to come from the room, I went in to check on them and they had taken all the DVDs off the shelf and were stacking the actual disks in a pile, with open cases strewn about the room, laughing as they worked.  After some discussion while cleaning, they settled back into their beds and fell asleep not to much later.

The next day we spent the morning at the trampoline park. They had so much fun chasing each other around and pushing each other into the foam pit.

I'm so grateful we had this time to let these two play together. I'll be so sad when they move because they are blossoming into such cute friends!

Valentine's Day

We love any excuse around here to show some extra love.  Valentine's day was a fun way to get in lots of extra hugs and kisses.  Daddy came home from work with flowers for all his girls.

Bentley got a special Valentine from me.

And of course, we all enjoyed lots of Valentine's treats.

I sure love my little valentine babies and my favorite Valentine Brad.

Snow Day!

So just last week I had a post about the incredible weather outside and how we were so happy that it was warming up.  Well, this morning we woke up to snow, the first real snow storm of the winter.

Eden was SO HAPPY! She is definitely my little winter bug, and will stay outside non stop to play in snow.

  I was bummed that winter came back, but it wasn't all bad because it turned out to be a snow day so school was cancelled too.  They had so much fun playing outside, drinking hot cocoa, and enjoying the day off together. It was a great day, and a fun way for them to make winter memories together too. :)

Sibling Sleepover

Every night before I go to bed, I go in and do one final check on each of the kids.  It's so cute to me when I find them not in their own beds, but snuggled up with a sibling.  I love it.  Sharing rooms creates opportunities for them to really bond.  (And these two need it!  ha ha)

This is Bentley and Olive, sleeping together in Bentley's bed.

Fun Outside

We have had a week straight with the temperatures outside being in the upper 60s, or lower 70s.  We are in heaven!!!  Being able to play outside definitely brings happiness to us all! (and we even saw one of the turtles come out of hibernation!)

Come on summer!

Karly really wanted a turn in the 4 wheeler, and would scream every time they drove by.  So after using the jump rope to create a seatbelt, she now happily gets driven around by her siblings, giggling the whole time.

The Baby Eats Markers

I have always had tons of craft supplies out for the kids so that they can let their creativity flow whenever they feel like doing something artistic.  Unfortunately though, this baby has learned how to take the lids off of markers and she proceeds to bite the tip and pull the whole ink stick out of the marker tube and then eats it.  She has caused quite a few messes, so now the markers have to stay put away.  She somehow still manages to find them though!

 

And obviously, you can see from the pictures that she gets really upset when I take those marker sticks away.

Oh the joys of babies!

Trying to Stop the Naps

This cute girl and her naps....... I can't get her to stop!  I know it seems weird to say, but I would prefer she stopped the naps because right now they are kind of causing more trouble than it's worth!  She wakes up really early, usually around 6:30, so after lunch she is worn out and begs for a nap.  If I let her, I have to wake her up after about an hour or else she sleeps too long, and won't go to bed until really late at night.  However, she is very angry when I wake her up so I always dread doing it, and it kind of sets us up for a pretty rough afternoon.   

 

Most days I will try to distract her with something fun when the sleepiness hits, but inevitably, she will sneak off at some point when I'm not looking, and I'll find her asleep somewhere.  She just isn't ready to give up those naps, so for now, I will continue to fight the post nap grumpiness!  :)

A Date to the Ballet with Eden

I love spending time with Eden.  She is so much fun, and having a night out with her is like spending a night out with a friend.  I love it.

I saw that the Cinderella ballet show was coming to Popejoy and I thought this would be the perfect outing for us.  She was so excited to see this show.  She has been doing ballet this year and has loved it, and this was her first time seeing a professional ballet.  She was so intrigued the whole time, and commented a lot on how beautiful the dancing was. 

But before the show started, she picked dinner at Panda Express, which is one of her favorite places to eat.

I'm so grateful for Eden and the time I can spend with her.  I'm sad she is growing up so fast, but it's also so fun to experience these new adventures together.