Emily has found a New Hobby!

     Emily got some new nail polish for her birthday and for one reason or another has just recently developed a love for it! Well yesterday morning she was in the bathroom for quite a while and I was starting to get a little worried, but when she came out, to my surprise, she had her toes AND fingernails painted! Even though she didn't ask or tell me what she was doing I just couldn't be upset at her because she had done such a FANTASTIC job! I was really impressed!

      Once she came out of the bathroom and Haley laid eyes on her beautiful blue fingers and toes she had to have it done too! So I sent both of them back to Emily's salon (aka the downstairs bathroom) and opened the window for ventilation and when they came out they were a beautiful matching duo! I was impressed and they were on top of the world! Overall a great experience and I really think Emily has found a new hobby, not only did she love painting her own fingers and toes, but I think she was even more excited to paint Haley's!!!

 

 

The Dynamic Duo sharing a moment! *Too Bad I chopped out Emily's Head:(



The Dynamic Duo posing for a shot together so that we could capture "The Toes" (and of course those adorable faces!!)

Celebrating Valentines Day 2013~~

     We had a Fabulous Valentines Day, might as well say Valentines Weekend this year!! It started out on Wednesday when Micah came home from work carrying a Dozen Roses in his hands! What a romantic man he is at heart:) I LOVE flowers, and I especially LOVE flowers when I don't have to buy them myself:)

        Then on Thursday the kids and I did our regular activities, school time, a little Valentines Day art, lunch, naps! Overall, a really good day! Oh and I can't forget that I am doing a babysitting swap with a friend and it was my turn for some FREE TIME!!! And I LOVED it!! I dropped the girls off came home put Ethan down for a morning nap and then I worked on a scrapbook that I am doing and did some blogging!! It was awesome!!!

      That evening Tede volunteered to come over with her cute little friend Lauren, who is five, to watch the girls so that Micah and I could go out for a little bit. So we took her up on her offer!  We still wanted to have our traditional (2 years running) heart shaped pancakes and strawberries for dinner, so we invited Tede and Lauren to eat with us!! They gladly accepted, we all had a GREAT dinner and a good time together! After dinner was cleaned up we packed Ethan in the van and took off to run a few errands!! Everyone enjoyed their evening, the girls enjoyed new buddies to play with, and we enjoyed running errands a little more peacefully than usual:)

     Then on Friday night we asked Mimmi and Dooders to watch our kiddos (all THREE of them) so that we could go out together (just the two of us) for Valentines Day, and they agreed!!!! We were so excited!!! We headed to Outback Steakhouse for dinner, we used a gift card from Uncle Gino and took advantage of their $29.99 Steak Special (that came with bloomin' onion, 2 sides and a piece of cheese cake)!! It was DELICIOUS and besides that it was great to be out by ourselves:) Then we got to come home and spend some time together and when we got to sleep on Saturday morning until we woke up!! It was AWESOME!! Granted it was only like 8 AM, but still it wasn't 6AM:)

    All in all we had a Great Valentines Weekend together as a Family and Together as Husband and Wife! We are so grateful for all of our blessings!

 

Fruit Tower that I had sent to Micah for Valentines Day!



Our 3 kiddos with their friend Lauren!



Another shot, I LOVE it how no one is looking:)

 

 



Haley with her Valentines Rose from us!

 

 



LOVE LOVE LOVE Emily's expression in this photo!

 

 

All of us together (with Tede and Lauren) at the beginning of our Valentines Dinner!



3 Peas in a Pod!



The art project that the did with Tede and Lauren while we were out!

 

Tissue art with my beautiful roses!!

A Fun Day to Play In or Out!!! And Ethan's FIRST Play Date!!

     The weather has been SO CRAZY in Charlottesville lately. Seems like one day its rainy, next day it's 60 degrees and then the next day it's snowing! But either way, this was a day last week that we were able to sneak in some outside time between the rain and the snow! And the girls have a new favorite spot to play, a place where they dig in the dirt and make believe!! A great place to foster imagination and creativity! Today they were making a bed for their animals (that you can actually see behind them in this picture on Emily's bike!) They can play in the spot for hours at a time, if I would only let them:)

     Later that same day we had some good friends over to play! We LOVE having play dates and we LOVE it even more when we can have them at our house:)  We had our good friends, the Wheelers, over!! And with 5 kiddos together in the same house you can guarantee good times!! And not only good times, but it was Ethan's FIRST play date with a little Boy!! So it was extra exciting for him!! Boys are DEFINITELY different than girls, here they are together in the bathroom getting in to anything and everything!!

 

 

Ethan and Florian!



And moving on the the play room amidst all the toys!!!



They were really interested in the vacuum cleaner:)



Meanwhile, one room over the girls were enjoying a play date of their own, in quite a different way!!! 3 Princesses, Emily, Haley and Winnie all decked out!!

My Napping Spot Changed for the Day:)

  Today, Emily and Haley had quite a good time arranging their animals on the big couch today! Such a good time, in fact, that I didn't have the heart to move their furry friends when it was time for me to sneak in a nap! So instead I made myself cozy on the rug on the floor! Oh, the things a Mommy will do for her little ones!!

 

 

 

 









 My Nap Spot for Today!

 

 

The Reason for my New Nap Spot:)

 

It's 78 Degrees Outside in January so Here's What we did!!

Seriously, I CAN NOT believe this weather!! It has been CRAZY!! Snow one day, then almost 80 Degrees less than 2 days later!! But, it is what it is (as Dooders always likes to say) and so yesterday when we were coming home from visiting teaching and after the kiddos finished their "van nap" I noticed that our temp in our van said that it was 78 OUTSIDE!!! So at that second, I knew what that meant for us!! Time to GET OUT AND PLAY!! So as each of the kiddos woke up that is just what we did!! Emily was the first one awake with Ethan not far behind so I got both of them out of the van and we rolled all the windows down and played on our sidewalk!! It was so refreshing to be outside!! We took a couple little walks and drew LOTS of stuff on our sidewalk with our chalk that has been hibernating on our porch all winter!! Oh and I almost forgot, before we left to go visiting teaching we decided it was the perfect day, especially since no bugs were out, to have a picnic lunch on the porch, picnic basket and all!!! Overall, it was an AWESOME day!!! 

 

 

 

Haley was excited for our picnic!



All ready to chow down on our yummy lunch!



Emily was another EXCITED little girl to be outside!!



Getting a Picture Taken with the Sun in your eyes is a bit tricky!!



All Ready to Enjoy our Front Porch Picnic!!!



"So, how does this cup thing work again?"



This cute girl was excited to get to play outside even more once we got back home!!!

 



We even busted out our sidewalk chalk and drew "Mike the Man!"



The girls enjoyed a few races up and down the sidewalk:)



And some cuddle time with their little brother!!