Science Fair!

Its the two words that strike fear into the hearts of parents everywhere...'science fair'. Well, we successfully completed our first science fair project. In the grand tradition of science fairs, there was yelling, tears, someone (me) balled up in a corner - rocking and talking to herself. But in the end, I think we came up with a pretty awesome project!

The topic Clayton chose was "can magnets float?". I'll let him explain it to you:


This kid worked really hard and was involved every step of the way. I won't say that Justin and I didn't give (a lot of) help, but I'm proud of the way he worked hard to make sure it was done - and done right!

And now it's done. Only three more years until Noah has to do the science fair (unless we get lucky and they don't do that in Idaho - fingers crossed).

If you haven't heard...

I'm on Instagram now. True story. Since getting a new iPad as an early birthday present (one with a camera - ooh fancy) I have embraced Instagram. It's fun, it's fast, it's easy. I like it, but I promised to myself that I would not let it interfere with my blogging.

Recently, my awesome sister in law helped my turn the blog into books. One for every year. Do you know I've been doing this for six years?!? Six! Wow. That's a lot of family history to turn my back on now that I'm so much more high tech. I refuse. In fact, I think this new fancy device of mine just might make my blogging even more fun. Here's why:

I think it takes some pretty good quality pictures:
Josie getting ready for her date with Justin:

Modeling her "fancy" dress that she picked out for said date (**fancy = gaudy, but she rocked that dress**)

I love this picture. She looks like she's waiting to dance.

I realize a lot of these pictures are of Josie, but she's with me (like, right next to me) all day every day so there are just a lot of pictures of her.

There are fun photo editing apps!
Behold, my dark circles under my eyes are almost gone (just like that delicious Chick fil a sandwich in the background):

Love the retro look you can add:

I know, he's incredibly handsome - those eyes!

This belly is my favorite thing in the universe. For real, I will seriously mourn it's loss someday. I'm glad I have this picture!

I can take multiple photos and paste them into one mega picture!
The girls and I had a lot of fun puddle jumping earlier this week when the weather was (gasp) in the 40's and sunny!!

The kids had a lot of fun in the snow. The downside, my floors are constantly covered in muck. It's worth it to be able to go outside though!

Justin's car broke down earlier this week (in the middle of a busy intersection...in the middle of a blizzard). This is from the fun day when Sammie and I followed him around while he fixed his car. (Thankfully it was just the battery.) I got bored waiting but Sammie was in Heaven because she had 'Tangled' all to herself on the old iPad. Also, we checked out our local thrift store while we waited for Justin and Sammie thought this mannequin was her best friend.

Finally, photo booth! Photo. Booth.
I'll just let these speak for themselves:

Oops, this one isn't photo booth. This is just what happens when you ask a two year old to say "Cheese". Unpredictable...and hilarious.

Also, not Photo Booth. Hmmm, I should rearrange these, but alas, I'm too lazy. These are some silly boys though!

Ah, more photo booth:
This one makes me laugh out loud:

As does this one:

Wait, how did this get in there? That's not photo booth...

Anyway, I think that Instagram and I are going to be friends. I think it will just make my blog better. And that's what it's all about right? The blog?

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day for us meant:
Fancy Valentine hairdo's:

Making beautiful, sparkly necklaces for our favorite Valentines (and then never giving them out because we lost them - oops).

Spending time together:

Concentrating really hard on making our Valentines (does his tongue sticking out crack you up? I love it!):

"You're one in a Minion, Valentine!"

Finishing up our Valentines for school (side note: I LOVE that they were able to make these by themselves. It almost makes up for them being too cool for our traditional "picture-of-them-holding-a-lollipop" Valentine cards):

Valentines breakfast. Complete with pink pancakes, boxes of chocolate, and love notes:

Ha! This was right when the boys woke up so it was a little bright for them. They begged me to turn off the kitchen light, but I took pictures anyway (because, you know, I'm a good mom):

Bless his heart, he tried to look awake:

This baby makes me happy:

We decided to be extra fancy for school (even though he has to wear a uniform, it's not going to put a damper on HIS sweet Valentine's Day style!):

 Baby Valentine hair! It kind of took forever, but I think it was so cute:

Basically, we just hung out together and enjoyed each other (and a whole lotta Valentine candy).

 

The next night was date night. No, no, not for me and Justin. See, every so often Justin steps out on me with another lady. A younger lady who is much prettier than I am. I know he loves and adores her (and she loves and adore him) but I'm pretty fond of her myself, so I don't mind one bit!

 

They had their "day date" to a place called The Pigeon and The Hen. It's a paint your own pottery place. For a little lady who absolutely loves doing a project, this was right up her alley:

 Justin looooves (sarcasm) when I give him the camera and ask him to take pictures, but I'm really grateful he does it anyway. Precious moments, precious moments:

Josie painted this awesome Technicolor zebra. (Not sure why it's sideways. I'll call IT and get them to fix that...eventually.)

Justin, who is officially the sweetest dad of all the dads, painted Josie this cute little jewelry box. She loves it.

 While their projects were drying, he took her for ice cream.

 Love these two so, so much!

For their evening date, they went to a fancy dinner...Red Robin. Josie got all dressed up and Justin wore purple to match her. Seeing Justin treat our daughter like this makes me love him even more than I already do. Josie is a lucky lady to have such a great dad.

Not sure what we're going to do in a few years when Sammie's old enough to understand what's happening. I suppose he'll have to have two Valentine's dates.

Here are my favorite Valentine cards:
Josie's was completely random, but it's cute because most preschool things (with their jaggedly cut edges, and randomly placed stickers) are:

 This one's from Noah. This kid. Swoon:

 And another close up of the jewelry box that Justin made Josie:

 He's kind of artistic, right!?!

 Sweet:

Valentine's Day around here was a pretty great day. I love that, for us, it's a low key, low expectation holiday. We eat a lot (okay, maybe that's normal), we make each other cards, we have heart shaped pizza, it's nice. I absolutely love these people of mine and, while I don't necessarily need a day to remind me to love them, it's nice to have that day to make it a little extra special.

 

**Off the subject - sort of: Justin gave me an iPad mini for an early birthday present (I know, right - he's the best). I took some really fun pictures with it, but can't find them to post to the blog. Anyone know how to do that? I feel that this will elevate my blogging (I know, how can it get better?? But just wait). Thanks!**

Snow Fun!

As promised...here's the upside of all this winter we've been having lately:

We live at the end of a dead end street. My love for this is endless. I can think of zero downsides to living at the end of a dead end - honestly, zero. I just tried. Nothing came to mind. Only good things. I hope that when we move we can be so lucky. One of the perks this winter has been our snow mountain. When the plow comes down our street, it pushes the snow all the way down and piles it up at the end of the street - literally right next to our house. Justin and I guess that this mountain is about 14 ft. high this year. Since we're kind of the only ones that live down here, my kids are the only ones who play in it (which surprises me because there are a lot of kids in our neighborhood, and this mountain is kind of awesome).

We've had a few downright balmy days this week! 25 degree highs! Can you believe it!?! I couldn't! It was so warm that I went to the grocery store without gloves and (gasp) I didn't zip up my coat! It was so warm that Noah tried to convince me he didn't need a hat and coat and gloves to play outside! Tropical!!! (Side note: I feel very sad that 25 degrees made me feel this way, but it did. We'll probably bust out the swim suits if it ever hits 50 degrees!)

In honor of our tropical climate, we played outside. For hours. It was pretty great. After several weeks of only going outside if we absolutely had to, it felt amazing to get out in the fresh air and play. Even I loved it - like really, really loved it. So here are some of the pictures from one of our two fun days outside:

Noah conquering the mountain:

Clayton made a little path to get up the mountain. I was worried that it'd be too steep and slippery for Jo, but she had no problems.

 My kids are such posers:

Sammie was deemed (by me) too little to climb the mountain - which she was NOT happy about - but she and I had fun throwing snowballs in the street. (Yet another plus to a dead end - we play in the street. A lot.)

Snow angel!

 Do you want to build a snowman?

 Here's our snowbear. Ha - classic Sam!

 Josie wanted one with the snowbear all by herself (homegirl loves to pose for the camera):

Oh boys. They took our sled up the mountain (despite my discouragements) and proceeded to sled down. It wasn't as dangerous as I'd anticipated it being, but they still got going pretty fast and we had a few crashes.

The boys being silly with our snowbear (Noah thought it was hilarious that he was kissing it - oh Pootie).

 Sledding:

Our driveway is NOT steep at all, but since it was all ice, we were able to sled down it. Mostly I took turns dragging the girls up and down it (it was a pretty great workout), but the boys enjoyed taking turns as well.

 Oh how I adore this sweet, sweet baby.

Okay, for real, these next three pictures melt my heart. Melt. My. Heart. I was trying to help Noah build another snowman but the girls wanted to be dragged all over the driveway in the sled. Enter Clayton. He pulled those girls up and down and all over the street. They were having so much fun. It's no wonder they love him so much. He's basically one of the best big brothers in the history of big brothers.

This one (below) is my favorite picture of the year. I know it's only February, but I'm calling it. The looks on their faces. Precious. I'm so glad I caught this moment.

Meanwhile, Noah and I struggled to build another snowman (our problem was that the snow was a little TOO stiff - it didn't want to pack together very well). But we had fun and got the job done in the end.

Unfortunately, we could only get one eye to stick onto our little ragtag snowman. So we deemed him a snowpirate and moved on. Fortunately, Noah thought this was way better than a regular old snowman anyway!

We had two pretty glorious days of outside fun. Sadly, today it has gone back to freezing (they cancelled school again today due to cold temperatures - that makes 8 snow days this year for those of you who are counting). I keep checking the forecast but there doesn't seem to be any relief in sight. So we will be here, waiting for spring, waiting for the snow to melt, and running outside any time the temperatures rise above 20 degrees. Happy winter!