Our Love Day

The boys were so excited to leave Valentines on our friends door steps and run away. This was the first house we went to. They both went up and put the cards down. Bennett rang the doorbell and then they both came running back. Midway back Carter stopped turned around and went back to the porch, ripped the candy off the card and ran to the car yelling, Got it!
If you look closely in the picture at the door, you can see Carter stealing the candy.

Not many people do Valentines like this anymore. I guess were old school, but it is one of my favorite childhood memories, which makes it even more fun to watch my children enjoy it.

Carter finally figured out how the whole thing worked, left the candy behind, and ran.

After running the neighborhood we took grandma, grandpa and Jerica their Valentines. My boys and the dogs, enjoyed sharing grandpa's popcorn.

My Little Love Joy

Ava is turning into such a baby. No longer a newborn or an infant, a full blown baby. She is playing with her feet, trying to roll over, putting everything in her mouth, and has learned to blow spit bubbles.

Everyone keeps telling me how much she looks like Carter, but this tongue thing is so Bennett.

Happy Valentines Day

For all the houses we couldn't get to, here's your Valentine from us.

We love you!

Happy Valentines Day

What a Day

Today was a busy day. First of all, we woke up to snow. I had an appointment at 9:30 a.m. and then I dropped Carter and Ava of at Heather's house while I took Bennett to Speech. We then went back to Heather's for a play date with friends. Once we got there, I was looking forward to relaxing, having the kids play, and socializing with adults. Which did happen, until I noticed the front door open and instantly knew that Carter had gone outside. I ran out looking everywhere and screaming his name. He was no where to be seen. I have never felt such anguish before in my life. My little 2 year old was out of my site and I had no idea where to even start to look for him. Luckily, Heather spotted him running down the field across the street at the school. I don't think I have ever ran so hard in my life, which only encouraged Carter to ran faster away from me. I caught up to him and picked him up and just hugged him. I thought that maybe I would get mad at him, but at that moment I was overwhelmed with gratitude and love, I broke down in tears. Tears of joy, gratitude, and guilt for not protecting my child. Carter just kept saying, "why? mommy, why?". He was gone for less than three minutes, I can't imagine mothers that loose their kids for an hour, a day, a week. My heart still breaks a little everytime I think about him crossing the street by himself. This day could have ended so horribly, but intsead Carter is sleeping peacefully, safe in his bed. What I learned from this is that any day could end horribly, and I need to make the best out of everyday, because in an instant it could change. I also need to get latches put on my doors. Little Carter don't scare me like that again, please!

Squishy Ride

Since we had a longer than usual ride to our activity today, we decided to all go together. I have never used every seatbelt in my car. Four carseats and a booster make for close quarters. The boys had screaming contests, played batman, stole toys, and hit each other. The girls slept. Whoever says girls are more drama than boys should take a ride with us sometime.

Finally!

Finally, Carter stopped and looked at me long enough to get a picture of his face. As you can tell he was not to happy about it and it didn't last long. Oh, but he's cute!

My cute little Bennett slowed down and posed for me in his signature stand.

Legs crossed and leaning.

Ice Castles

Tunnel through the largest castle

The boys loved "rolling" ice chunks down the sides, into the water.

Ice Castles

Today we journeyed up to Midway to the Zermat Resort to see the ice castles. I am still in shock when I look at the pictures, that we were actually there and walking through this amazing work of art. The kids were so excited to hike in the icicles. Carter and Aiya couldn't keep their mouths of the ice.

This is the first thing we saw as we drove up the rode. At this point the kids were jumping out of their seats with excitement. We could not get their hats and gloves on them fast enough.

Above is the largest castle, right in front of where we parked. There was only one other party there, which was nice not to have to worry about our kids getting away in a crowd and we were able to take our own sweet time.

This is what I saw of Carter the whole time. He would not stop long enough to look at the camera. He was a boy on a mission.

Enchanting Fountain

Even better than the ice castles, was the enchanted fountain the kids ran to afterward. Who knew dripping water could be so much fun. We had to drag them away after they were soaking wet. Shortly afterward, melt down set in and this was the end of our journey to Midway.

Ava

Ava is such an easy going baby. I often blog about the activities we do as a family and where Ava does not often get in the pictures, she is always along for the ride. Whether asleep or silently watching, she enjoys her brothers and cousins and beams from ear to ear when they talk to her. These are pictures of Ava today. She enjoys a good outing as much as the boys.

Squid Dogs

Another idea I got from Family Fun, is Squid Dogs! Now, I know this sounds disgusting and for the record I did not eat one, but the kids were excited for something different for lunch. We stuck spaghetti into hotdogs and boiled them. Ta Da! Squid Dogs! That's it, nothing fancy.

Bennett was the only one that noticed that the spaghetti inside the hot dog was not cooked. He pulled the hard pieces out and ate the rest. I wasn't sure what dip went best with hot dogs and spaghetti, but the kids thought mustard and ketchup sounded great!

What Am I?

After movie night we had leftover pizza, which we ate for lunch the next day. Carter insisted on not breaking character and put his plate on the floor to show us how a dog eats. I don't know if it was the tiredness of being a single parent or because it was kind of cute, but I let him do it. He just beams if you play along with him and it's much easier than having a REAL dog. Good boy, Carter! Good boy!

Footprints

We have one section in our backyard that doesn't get a lot of sunlight and still has a couple of inches of snow. Bennett was in heaven making tracks like an animal and then having Beck and Carter follow the tracks to find him and catch him. I love 4 year old imagination.

Up Close

Beckam's

Bennett's

Carter's

Sun Catchers

We got this idea from the Family Fun magazine (thank you Grandma Zona). We made different colored ice cubes using food coloring. Once they were frozen, the kids picked out which colors they wanted and put them in a round cake pan. We placed a cup of water in the cake pan to leave a hole for the hangning string, and then filled the pan with water and put them in the freezer. This is the end result:

They lasted a little over a day before they melted. The kids were so proud of their creations and they loved watching the colors bleed as they melted. We will definately do this again. Note: The food coloring from the ice cubes does get all over, so be carefull. If your child insists on licking the sun catcher (Carter) the color will come off their face eventually.