Sweeties

I love celebrating my sweeties. The girls were kind of spoiled this year.  Ellie got a pair of high heels that she has been asking for for a long time. Lila got a jewelry box.  They each got an outfit with a matching outfit for their American Girl doll and a new dress. Steve and I exchanged fun and fitting cards and some sweet somethings--Steve loves the Reeses hearts and he got me some sugar cookies, I'm a sucker for baked goods.

Traditional heart shaped pancakes.

Last week I told Steve that I think I signed up to help with Ellie's class valentine party. Turns out I signed up to be in charge. :) It was fun, but I did start out with a list of 9 volunteers and there ended up only being 3 of us, but the kids had a ball decorating cookies, hearing a story and making valentines, and then I played some games with them with conversational hearts and chopsticks (which I needed to acquire a few more and Steve had a bogo coupon for Pei Wei that was about to expire so we had take out last night). Then we decided to take lunch in and eat with Ellie since I was going in to setup for her party. Lila thought it was great to be at school and wanted to stay. We then had our traditional fondue dinner--so delicious and for dessert personal white chocolate mousse pies.

 






















Fortunately we started making our valentine's early. The girls had a ball making them and put more thought into than I thought they would--they would pick colors they thought would look good together to melt together.

Watching them melt in the oven while eating ice cream.

Valentine's they made for each other. :)

Just Life :)

We've been enjoying life and having fun, but haven't had anything too momentous to blog about. Steve took Lila on a date at the end of January which included her field trip to Get Air, a trampoline park and lunch. She thought it was great and kept talking about how she wants to go back there for her birthday.  She talks a lot about her birthday and what she wants.  Let's see the list includes, Frozen dolls and/or dresses, the movie, and make-up (what?).

A couple of Saturdays ago it was so lovely outside that we bundled Andrew up and put him in the jogging stroller with Lila and Ellie rode her bike while Steve and I jogged. It was so fun to get out as a family. I can't wait for spring when we can do more of that.

On Chinese New Year we were able to go to Ellie's school and see her participate in the parade with her class.  They made a dragon and everything. Lila was so excited to see the "festival" as she kept calling it. I did a little research on the Chinese New Year so we could have a little discussion and I found out that they do a deep cleaning on New Year's Eve to cleanse and have a fresh start for the New Year--sounds like a tradition I could get on board with, the girls were not as excited about it.

I don't know why she is still wearing her coat--she was so set on wearing red per instructions and she wears her snow boots whenever she can. :)

Ellie came home from school last week and was so excited to tell us that she "digested" an owl pellet. It took me a minute to process and I said you mean "dissected".  She then explained that she found a skull in hers and even brought it home yesterday--yay. ;)


We went sledding and snowmobiling with Venessa and her girls on Saturday. It was fun and cold. Then we were able to attend the ward baptisms which included our cousin Ellyn Olenslager and the blessing of her newest little sister Aneyah. It was a wonderful meeting.  We love hanging out with family.

 
Andrew has started giggling. It's that fun hesitant laugh where you're not for sure if they are going to cry or laugh. We sure do love trying to get him to giggle. Life is good!