Happy Heart Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day over here! I heart Valentines day :)

Jer and I went out Sunday night on a date, to a nice restaurant on the plaza and to see the newest Jennifer Aniston movie, 'Just Go For It'. We had a great time. I love love love date nights with my man ;-)

don't mind the drool in the pic below :) I just thought her shirt was cute - it said 'you can call me sweetheart' This is my baby girls first Valentines Day!!! :)

On Monday, Valentines Day, I went up to Isaiah's school for his class Valentine party. It was so much fun. I love going up to his school. All the kids in his class are so cute. There are only 9 of them total, so its a small, cozy class and all the kids are just adorable. Below is my little man, sittin next to the cutest little girl, Leila. I just love her :)

Eatin' :)

Below they are playing a M&M relay race game

Below: getting directions for the next game. They played several games, the room mothers there are fantastic and had some fun stuff for the kiddos to do :) ps. in the pic below, the lady in the red shirt on the left is his teacher, Ms Kim :)

Later that night, the kiddos got a few extra treats from mommy and daddy :)

Hope you all had a fun Valentine's Day!!!

Kiss or Diss

Seven Simple Snowday Survival Steps

Yes, we got hit with the Blizzard of 2011. Or Snowpocolypse (according to facebook). However you want to look at it, we got dumped with about 12" of snow earlier this week. Around us, some people got a little more, some less. We measured about a foot at our house. It was seriously dumping snow about an inch an hour. Yup. We were snowbound. We hibernated at our house for a couple days. Kids were outta school. Thankfully Jer works from home, so he didn't even have to leave the house. My mom called the day we got all the snow, and asked if Jer was working that day (because a lot of people and businesses were closing due to the weather). I told her that he was indeed working. His commute to work is walking down the stairs to the basement, so unless he fell down the stairs, he would still be working :-)


So the kids went to school Monday this week, then proceeded to have Tues, Wed and Thurs off because of the snow. Yes, this was snow day 5, 6, and 7 for our district. So, to all those other going-insane-must-send-kids-back-to-school-before-I-lose-my-mind mommies out there........here are a few of my snowday survival tips....

Tip #1: Throw em' outside. :-) A little fresh air and excersize is good for kids. And while they’re out there, have them shovel the sidewalks. It’s not child labor if you pay them in hot chocolate. ;-)

Tip #2: Bake something. I love those prepackaged cookies, chocolate chip and candy - yum. And so easy, lol. Or if your really brave, you can break out the Easy Bake Oven your daughter got for Christmas that you have been too scared to try until now.

Tip #3: Play 50 games of Trouble.....until your brain won't stop popping and you get callusses on your hand from the popper.

Tip #4: Practice sight words with your kindergartner or writing the alphabet with your preschooler....this will help you remember why you never want to homeschool. :-)

Tip #5: Make hot chocolate so the kids can complain it’s too hot, eat the marshmallows, then leave their still-full cups in a sticky mess on the table.

Tip #6: Snap a ton of pictures and/or take video of the day so you can look back and remember all the fun you had. A wise woman once told me "these are the best days of your life" :-)

Tip #7: Cancel all appointments and plans for the rest of the week because it will take you that long to clean up all the messes the kids will make while home for their snow day.

Have Fun!

(oh, and kids finally go back to school tomorrow!! wooohooo! yes teachers, I am praying for you daily! ) :-)

my top 21

So, our beloved weather men and women are calling for dreaded freezing drizzle/rain off and on today, and like a foot of snow tomorrow. yay. let me hold back my excitement. I tell you what, of all the months in the year, January is at the bottom of my list. I despise you, January. The cold. The rain. The snow. The coats. yuk. (not to mention both my Grandma and my Grandpa passed away in a January) However, to get to all the beautiful, blissful months such as May :) we must endure January first. But YAY! Today is the last day of January! (although I'm not sure February will be much better - - weather wise) Anyyyyywhooooo.........onto some funner (and cuter) stuff ;-)

Yesterday was my baby girls 9 month birthday!!! (sniff sniff) I know......where has the time gone? seriously! So, I took her on Friday while the kiddos were in school to get some adorable 9 month pics taken. Here are my faves :-) Tell me which your favorite?

Numero Uno....

Numoero Dos.....much the same:)

Numero Tres....

I absolutely love her look in this one - cute cute :)

Um......number four below :)

....and five

Six......

I could just smooch on those cheeks all day! oh wait.....i do...... :)

and seven...

lol....the flower looks as big as her head!

number 8

and number 9

Number 10 below....

she did so good and was hamming it up......smiling away for the photographer :)

what number was I on??? oh right....number 11

and 12

Number 13....

look at those toofies!!!

number 14...

i love the close ups........they show off my girls big brown eyes :)

and drool :)

number 15...

number 16....

some of my faves....the naked valentine shots :)

number 17...

Number 18......

she was checkin out the beads. We had a hard time getting her pic taken....there was so many distracting props in these! plus she thought the beads tasted really yummy :)

number 19...

number 20....(hang in there - almost done)

and lastly, number 21.

Ok......those are my faves! (yeah, I know, 21 is a lot........but I had like 60 to choose from - so I narrowed it down some!) What are your top faves?

Snow Day #2,768...

We've gotten like 50' of snow lately. ok, maybe not that much, but it sure seems like it sometimes! We literally got dumped with snow on Wednesday of this week. After of course the kids have allready had like 4 or 5 days off of school in January alone, for either snow or cold temps. So of course after our latest dumping, the kiddos enjoyed yet another day off of school. Believe me, I love snow days and sleeping in, and all that jazz........but c'mon, there's only so much snow shoveling/throwing, movie watching and game playin this mama can do! ;-) yup......about time for them to go back to school!! Anyhow, I snapped a few of these pics a week or so ago, when we got our first dumping of snow. You know.....back when it was still fun and "cool" :)



Lilly and Isaiah got their first "taste" of sledding when sledding with our neighbor Max's sled. So of course the next time we went to the store, we had to buy a sled of our own. We gotta keep up with the neighbors don't ya know ;)

And the big kid in Jer still comes out every now and then. Here he is sledding or skating or ....whatever he's doing.....:) (he can't let the kids have all the fun)

kisses and disses

So it's been awhile since I've done my 'kisses and disses'. thought i'd try somethin new this time......give it a new look....what do you think?

Ok, so I stretched a little on the "disses" one.....but it's honestly been a pretty great week, so I really had no bad things to report. This is a good thing! :-)

*s*n*o*w***d*a*y*

We finally got our first snow this season! And when it rains it pours.....er, when it snows it SNOWS! It started Sunday afternoon/evening, and has finally slowed down this evening. (monday). I'm guessing we got 6-8 inches, but I'm not sure. Jer shoveled our drive this morning, and I shoveled this afternoon, and it is covered again. So the school district cancelled school today, so the kiddos and I had a fun movie/jammie/game/sledding kind of day! And boy am I pooped! Sheesh, it's exhausting! ;-) Here are some photo highlights....



The boy in the green coat is our next door neighbor, Max. He's also in kindergarten, and goes to a private school. The kids just love playing with him.

Max and Isaiah had a blast sledding down their semi-small hill :-) They didn't care tho!

And then we came in and warmed up and I snapped a few more shots.....(you know me, lol)

I love snow days. I loved them when I was in school, and I still love 'em. :-)

Sleeping in.

Staying in our jammies all day.

Playing games......watching movies.....

{never mind all the bickering and fighting.....}

The school has allready called off school for tomorrow too.

I'm preparing for Snow Day #2. I'm goin' to BED! :-)