Feb eb eb eb eb ruary

Michael has (mostly) been inducted as one of the big kids. These three spend so many hours playing together and I love getting to watch.

On Presidents' Day, we met up with some friends at the Oakland Zoo. 

This guy just stared and stared at us. If one of the kids walked away, he watched them walk off and then come back. It was really cool and we spent a long time just watching each other.

The kids love to have "band practice" with all of my pots, pans, lids, and serving spoons. I think Alex was directing this practice.

 Last year and this year, we have had so much more fun celebrating Valentine's Day. I've never really cared much for the holiday or done much to celebrate it, but last year we got the idea from Ralphie @simplyonpurpose to make it all about how much we love being a family. We have our Love Dinner where we all write a note to each family member telling them something we love about them. We decorate the table with our "fancy" things, and then before we eat we all go around and read our heart notes. The kids LOVE to hear all the things people love about them, and Michael would run around the table and hug the person who wrote his note every time he got to read one. We also celebrate by having a "We Love to Be a Family Day" where we choose a few activities the kids like and we all do them together as a family. This year we picked a bike ride, reading books, decorating cookies, playing a game, and something I can't remember. The kids love all the time together, and the anticipation of waiting to see what's next.

For someone who says she doesn't care to celebrate Valentine's Day, I still managed to go on TWO dates with my husband that weekend. On Friday, we got Mexican food and went to the BYU Young Ambassadors show which just happened to be on Valentine's Day. The next day, our stake had an adults sweetheart dance, so we went to that too! It was a super fun weekend.

I'm grateful for good friends for my kids

 When your sister who lives 1700 miles away asks what you're doing that weekend, you cancel everything and go hang out with her. She and her family came out to SF for a weekend and we got to meet up with them and spend a whole Saturday together. It was the first time my kids and Andrew got to meet baby Lydia, and it was love at first sight for everyone. Seeing my kids interact with my sister's kiddo made my heart all kinds of happy.
We checked out the Ferry Building, stopped at a playground, walked along the piers, ate lunch at the wharf, and then got freezing cold and spent the rest of the day chatting in their hotel lobby. Our time was so limited and life had been so busy that we just wanted to chat and catch up with each other more than anything. Andrew and Dave walked to the store and brought back hot chocolate for us all to make and then later they picked up ice cream from Salt and Straw. Michael spent the entire time watching The Hobbit  since it was playing on the TV. (where's the crying laughing face when I need it?) I miss them so much, and I'm so happy we got to hang out for a day and have our kids play together.

Alex and Lydia enamored with each other.

She's so in love with her cousin

Taking turns tickling her tummy

Sisters and our baby girls

Funny story about this water bottle...I took it to the pool with us one day in July and then couldn't find it again. I assumed that I left it at the pool, but never took the time to call and ask. After not finding it for 5 months, I decided to get Alex a new water bottle for Christmas.  Then sometime at the end of February, I noticed a piece of trash had fallen into the vent in the big kids' bedroom. When I took off the cover and stuck my hand in, it felt like something was blocking most of the duct. You guessed it, it was this water bottle, elbow deep in the A/C duct. Oh Alex.

Andrew got to take Adaline and Matthew skiing for their first time! They had to wake up "in the middle of the night" (about 5am) then they did an all day lesson together and fell asleep on the drive back home. They did so well!

 Andrew went snowboarding and decided to do a lesson as well. His instructor took his group to the terrain park and he learned to jump on some boxes. He said he had a blast but felt like an old man at the end of the day.

Other random updates:
We are making progress on the bathroom again! Andrew has finished the floors, we have painted and cut most of the baseboards, and most of the texturing is done (we hired out for that part). My current hope is to finish it within a year of when we started...LOL

Other things we were working on in February: substitute teaching, planning our ward family history fair, getting a new calling as primary chorister (and keeping my calling as an activity day leader).

Life is fun when it's busy.