This is for Elena

In response to your comment on the last post I want you to know that yes it has been warm enough to leave the front door open.  Two days ago it was a lovely 74 degrees.  Absolutely heavenly!  I took these pictures a few days before all the snow melted but as you can see we were only wearing light jackets.  I don't know what to think about Kansas weather.  I guess when its good its oh so good, but when its bad it is oh so very bad.  Two weeks ago I had frost on the inside of my windows! 

Practicing her princess parade wave.

Just because I adore her.

Practicing her princess demands.

These next two are Jacks Jedi poses.

Look mom I can crawl outside!  She was quite excited to be outside moving around on her own.

He had to work so hard to get this out.  But he did it and didn't even beg for help.  My independent boy.

Enjoying the rewards of his hard work.

Its so hard to move and climb around in shoes.  

Love the hair.

 Olivia and Buddy (the dog) are on the same level of  development.  Both hang out their tongue, get excited and come to you when you call out their name, and both are a sucker for a ball to chase after!  At least Olivia doesn't shed.    He waited and watched for her to drop the ball so he could get it back. 

Olivia kept trying to catch his wagging tail.  Not the greatest picture I have a funnier movie but I can't seem to make it work.

It is supposed to get cold again.  Bummer.  It has been so nice to be back outside, a good pick me up from the winter blues.  Even though Montana is still cold, you can rub it in this summer.  When you guys are enjoying beautiful warm days and we are dying in the sweltering humidity!

Happy Valentines Day

This is my last post about valentines stuff, I promise.  This is the kids faces as they waited to open the package from Nanny.

 
They were so excited.  Makenzie was over too, so she got to join in on the fun of opening all the goodies.

Random picture out of order.  This is a straw that Jack now has had to use for every drink.  This came in the package my parents sent out.

Showing daddy all the good stuff.

Kaitlynn showing daddy the best gift of all... a makeup kit!  You would have thought she had died and gone to heaven.  She is still sleeping with this under her pillow.  She has been putting makeup on everyone. Jack doesn't think it is a very fun game.

LOVE IT!!!

We love to be fancy at our house.

Daddy helping Jack with his Star Wars pez dispenser.  The candy was gone in about thirty seconds but these are the toys that Jack keeps under his pillow at night.

I don't think she liked Nanny's card very much.  I don't know what was up with this face.

She did like these though.  They are going to be on our regular shopping list.

This is the package from my parents.  It came a few days later.  It had a ton of candy in it too.  We were watching our neighbors kids that day and I am afraid that Toree on the left there ate about three pounds of candy before the day was over.  At one point I thought I had cleaned it all up but then I noticed that both Toree and Jack were munching on something.  They had hidden a pile of it in between the couch cushions!

Another perfect gift.  We had to go out for a walk once she put these beauties on.  Kaitlynn kept telling me she liked the way they clomped on the ground.  She felt quite grown up.

My little puppy.  She really loves to crawl and chase this ball.

The girls in their matching outfits. And Jack.

This is the first thing he did with the hammer.  Everything has to be a weapon.

 

Thank you Nanny and Mom for all the gifts.  It had so much fun opening them and being the envy of all the neighborhood kids!

Valentines Bags

Kaitlynn told me she needed a craft activity.  My energy level was not exactly thrilled with the idea of making crafts (aka MESS).  But being the totally awesome mother that I am we did a craft activity.  It may not have been so much my awesomeness as an even lower energy level to hear the kids beg and whine.  In the end however I was glad we did it and had fun together.  I just grabbed paint and paper bags and let them decorate.  

Love Jacks tongue sticking out. This one is for you dad.

She was ltrying to dry it fast by holding it over the air.

Sugar Cookies

This last week we were getting ready for valentines day.  Well, maybe not really, I was just trying to find an activity for the kids.  I suggested valentine sugar cookies, the kids were pretty excited about the whole thing.  However I don't think we can claim them as valentine cookies since there were a lot of bats and angels and dinosaurs in the mix.  Oh well we had fun all the same.

I left the room for a minute.  Thats all it takes, just one minute for this little two year old to cause trouble! He was rolling (smashing) the grapes Olivia had dropped on the ground.  He would then lick up the juice from the pin and off the ground.  Sometimes I really wonder how I am supposed to turn this rascal into a responsible and contributing member of society.

  We had fun watching our neighbors kids too.  Nothing happier than house full of kids and cookies. Jack was much more into sampling the cookies than decorating.

So was she.

Finished product.  Yum.  I don't think Ryan or I even tried one.

It happened.  I didn't think it was possible but it happened all the same.  Olivia is officially a tricky baby.  She used to be calm and patient, happy to watch the rest of the world play.  Not so much any more.  Ever since she learned how to crawl and scream life as we knew it changed.  Don't get me wrong, she is still a very pleasant child.  However if she wants something she lets us know.  Good thing she is so stinking adorable!

Now when I feed her we have to have three spoons.  One for each of her hands and one for me, and she still looks like this by the end.  I think I have to remove her clothing privileges during meals.  She constantly pulls off her bib rendering it useless.  

The kids have taken to playing on the stair landing.  This way little monster baby can't destroy their games.  Heaven help us when she learns how to crawl up the stairs!

Poor thing is stuck watch all the fun from down below.

Pigtails! And teeth!  And snot!  This was the first time I tried pigtails in her hair and I think they are fabulous.  You can kind of see her teeth... kind of.  Her teeth just broke through a couple of days ago.  Wahoo. And as for the snot nose, well thats how all the kids look these days.  Darn winter.  

Kaitlynn and Wesley hanging out in the bitter weather.  I think it was five degrees when I took these pictures.

These two were so funny.  He wanted her to ride on the back but with all of her puffy snow clothes she could't really get on.

He was getting pretty frustrated with her.

I took a video of them trying to work this all out but for some reason it wouldn't load.

So you just get to see the pictures of them struggling.

Eventually they did figure it all out.

But in the end they decided it was easier to just walk.