Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's date we went out with Alyssa and Clayton to Tucano's. We had so much fun with them.
Kathleen had me braid her hair last week so it would be curly. She was so excited about it.
Brandon did this amazing project at school. He is so cute.
Grandma and Grandpa sent the kids valentine's. You put them on the counter and bang on them and a balloon fills up and pops out.
I got a picture of Kathleen playing 4-square at recess at school (her new favorite thing).
Brandon's valentine's party at school. Cody was so well behaved. It was a nice surprise.
The kids opening their gifts on valentine's morning.

Ryan got me a book I have been wanting in addition to chocolates and a crossword book.Ryan got coupons for services as well as chocolate and stuff to make him a Brazilian dinner.
Kathleen wanted me to braid her hair in the shape of a heart. And if you know my hair-braiding skills, you will laugh. But I tried my best and here is the result:
Luckily for me she isn't very picky.
Alyssa making sugar cookies with the kids.
Kathleen made me take this picture of her with the cookies for Grandma. So here they are Grandma!
I was tucking Cody in for a nap and when I was done, I came downstairs to find Kathleen helping Brandon with his flash cards. He is quite the good reader and she was loving working with him.
Cody making his own mini pizzas:

What We've Been Up To

Ryan and I went on a date to see Avatar and I talked Ryan into posing in this so I could take his picture. Isn't he cute?One day at dance class the boys were all staring at the girls dancing.
We take our kids on dates each month, but I rarely take a camera. So I did this time with Cody. He wanted to go to Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts.

Then we went to Cabela's to just look around at all the animals. Best date ever.
Uncle Cameron came to town to visit. Here they are talking to Rachelle on the computer.
We try to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's once a year during winter time. We wash our hands for hours when we get home, but we always have a good time.


Kathleen has been too afraid to get her ears pierced, despite our best efforts to convince her. But she got some sticker earrings at Chuck E. Cheese's and was pretty excited about them.
Cody had his first visit to the dentist.

The kids all got t-shirts. The next day they all went upstairs to get dressed and came down in their matching shirts all excited and proud of themselves.
We had a fluke snow storm and the kids had a blast playing in it.
Ryan has been playing basketball at church. He was awesome. He made about 1/3 of their teams points, which is especially impressive when you consider that he isn't super aggressive and doesn't hog the ball. I guess he just got lucky with his shots. Or he was trying to show off for his hot wife.
We built a massive fort that stayed up for a week.
It was super spacious. I took this picture while sitting inside the fort.
We are reading one of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" books. We read a few times inside the fort.

Happy 2010

So we are a little behind on blogging. This is the first post of 2010, I know. But we just have had a crazy, but fairly picture-less year. These first two pictures are of the kid enjoying hot cocoa that Grandma and Grandpa gave us for Christmas. They were sooooo excited that Brandon's candy cane melted all skinny at the bottom.

Kathleen wanted an easy bake oven for Christmas this year. But Santa and Mrs. Claus after much deliberation decided to get her all her own stuff to make cupcakes instead. Let's face it. Easy Bake's aren't as easy (or tasty) as they claim. And since we have already ruined one, why bother ruining another. She loved it.

One afternoon I decided to be a "fun" mom and make snowmen with the kids. Man, wet snow is heavy.

So the only pictures I got of New Year's Eve are this 1) of Kathleen eating shrimp:

And this 2) of the Reese's. Sad, but that is what you get for the night.

Look how cute:

Since we didn't complete a puzzle on Christmas Eve and Day like tradition, we decided to do on on New Year's day instead.

Kathleen with her Christmas school work:

Brandon with his Christmas school work:

I have such cute kids. Brandon was sitting at the table finishing some homework. He was so cute. He had to pose once he saw I had the camera. But then he went back to work and I got the one I wanted. I sure love him.

Ryan was dancing to Napoleon Dynamite. Too bad he tamed it down by the time I got out the camera. But he didn't know I was taking a video instead of a picture. He is the cutest nerd. Here is your new EQ Pres. We might want to rethink things...

We're Home! (1 of 7)

We had a wonderful Christmas visiting family this year. We took over 200 pictures (crazy I know). Well I scaled them way down into 7 posts. Sorry, that is the best I could do. Here are the pictures of us opening gifts at home.

The kids were great little helpers with cleaning up the mess.

I am playing with my new iTouch.

I know this is a weird picture, but I got a tripod for my camera and I had to test it out.

Instead of eating breakfast this morning, the kids wanted to play with Legos. Being the overly responsible parent I am, I said okay.

The kids all got some new churchy stuff. They look so cute.

Kathleen loves her new sweater and says it makes her give snuggly hugs. If you felt it, you would understand.

It was a great week, but we are sure glad to be home.