Valentine's Day

I am playing catch up with pictures! Levi put lots of stickers on his Valentine's and then played on the floor. Notice the awesome mis-matched socks. Katie was very dedicated to making her cards this year. She had a blast.
I was a brave/crazy mom this year and gave her a bottle of glitter and told her to go for it. She did. We are still finding glitter everywhere. She was coated but loved it, of course.

We had a playgroup v-day party too. The kids got to decorate heart cookies. Levi loved the frosting.

Most of "the regulars." There are 4 babies crawling around on the floor too.

Yum!

Katie was very clever at trying to fit as much as she could on top of her cookie. I woke up on Valentine's and remembered I had forgotten to hide the kids' presents. My mom always had some kind of hunt for them and I wanted to continue that for the kids. I decided to make a string trail for the kids to follow and find gifts along the way.

Levi spent most of his time getting untangled.

Katie did a bit better and then just started walking around looking for presents holding the string instead of following it to the presents. The "Valentine Fairy" (Grandma) left breakfast and goodies outside for the kids.
Notice what Levi did when I said, "smile!"

Taylor and I made a crab dinner with cheesecake for dessert. All in all, just what we wanted for Valentine's Day.

Friends

A few weeks back we got a ton of snow. My parents are masters at turning their driveway into the best sledding run. We invited ourselves and 11 of our friends over for some sledding fun. We are evenly matched in the kid to parent ratio with this group. Mom, of course, had to provide snacks and hot drinks for the kiddos. After one or two sled runs all the kiddos camped out around the food.

The Dads all had fun racing down the hill.

We are so thankful for the great friends God has blessed us with! And thanks Mom and Dad for letting us crash your house!

Sleep.

We've all been getting a lot of it lately. I got sick of the bedtime fight and moved the big kids to seperate bedrooms. Amazing! Grayson started sleep through the night. Like 10-7 sleeping through the night. Also, amazing. Having 3 kids has been busy. It was the most common word used when I asked people how 3 was and it is so true. There are so many little people pulling for your time and attention. Not to mention the house, food, laundry. You get the picture. I have found Grayson twice this week passed out! For your viewing pleasure a peek at the cuteness.

Asleep on my bed when I came back from getting Levi dressed. Asleep on the chair when I looked up from doing laundry.

Bowling

We took the fam bowling for President's day and went with Taylor's brother and his girls too. It was kind of a crazy experience and I don't know that I need to go again real soon. That won't be the case if Katie has anything to do with it. She asks me several times a day when we are going again.

Loving her new bowling shoes, the bowling alley, the music, the lights, her ball...you get the picture. Grayson also enjoyed his first time bowling. I told Taylor I was not going to nurse him at the bowling alley and he kindly slept for 3 hours.
This is a picture of a Becky panic attack. I was freaked out about the kids smashing their fingers when the balls shot out. Levi did end up getting his fingers rolled over.

You'd think with a follow-through like that that her ball would get to the pins in less than a minute...you'd be wrong.

Lot's of time for pictures while we waited for the ball to get to the pins.

Lots of time for eating too:) And laying on the floor.

I scored a 77 the first round. The second round I got a 180.

That is not a joke.

That's how I roll.

That was a joke.

We finally got this little contraption that sped the game up tremendously!

Between me being terrified of smashed fingers, crushed toes, kids being snatched, broken lanes, broken bumpers, and broken scoring we somehow managed to have a pretty good time. One that I can delay repeating for a little while:)

A Katie Party

Katie has been asking lots of question lately about God and Jesus. The night of February 7th we put her down to bed and a few minutes later heard her get up to go potty. This is a very common occurrence and we were feeling slightly exasperated that she wasn't staying in bed. When she was done she yelled downstairs, "Daddy, I just asked Jesus into my heart!" Taylor and I looked at each other and called her downstairs to talk with us. I honestly didn't feel like she probably knew what she was talking about. We asked her what she thought it meant and she gave such a deeper answer than I thought she would be capable of. She told us she knew she was supposed to get in trouble but that Jesus died on the cross and got in trouble instead of her. She said she believed in Jesus and loved him and wanted to live in heaven with him. We prayed with her one more time and then sent her back to bed with tears in my eyes and such a thankful heart. It was so amazing to see the truths we have been trying to teach her and surround her with have penetrated her little heart. Though there is much she still has to understand she has taken the first steps towards Jesus with childlike faith and we are so humbled by it. She was very excited to hear that the angels were having a Katie party in heaven. We told her we would celebrate by going out to eat, her choice, and buying her a real bible (instead of the summarized children's versions.)She said we wanted to go out for breakfast. Mommy and Daddy were thrilled about this because Cracker Barrel breakfast in one of our favorites and we wouldn't be stuck going to McDonald's. Look at that beautiful big girl!

Katie picked out a purple flower bible and had her name embossed on the cover in rainbow letters...are you surprised?
We are so privelaged to help show God's love to this precious girl.

A close up of the amazing bible:)

2 months old

Hard to believe we've already made it 2 months with sweet Gray as a part of our family. he truly is so sweet. He sleeps pretty well, usually only up 1 time per night. He has a great giggle and ready smile. He loves to hear singing. Anytime he is fussy if we sing he calms right down. He got his 2 month shots this week and had a bad reaction to it. His poor leg swelled up from his knee to his hip. A little medicine and the swelling went back down, but it was no fun.

All oiled up after a bath. Trying to keep a baby's skin from drying out in Colorado is so hard! He loves his fingers!
Caught a smile!

Silly sibling shot.

He is getting so big!

Warning gross picture! What timing. Caught it right on a spit-up

Cousins and Snow

We stayed close to home this week after a houseful of colds, a lot of snow, and a bad shot reaction for Gray. We love having family close by in town. It is so nice to be able to hang out with cousins! Katie loves her cousin Anya. They were playing dress up this week. Katie, as you can see, has an amazing sense of style. Snuggling with Grayson. I have actually used not being allowed to hold Grayson as a punishment for her.
She has been taking shorter and shorter naps. This day she slept past 4 and I went in to wake her up and snapped this sweet pic. She has been taking naps in the other room and has been sad that she isn't cozy in her bed so we let her sleep in the recliner.

She remembered how to make a real snow angel!

Levi liked the snow a lot more this time. I had to bribe him to come inside with a treat when his hands were freezing!

We probably got 6-8 inches of snow! Just realized the dog is peeing on the tree in the background. Look at those rosy cheeks. He loved throwing snow on Oakley and throwing the ball for him. Oakley is so berserk about fetch that he kept playing even when he cut his mouth and was bleeding all over.