Valentine's Day 2014

I really love holidays. It is so much fun for me to make it fun for the kids.We started out our day with heart shaped french toast. I don't make french toast very often and I am not sure why, because my children love it. They had a side of heart shaped strawberries too. 

 I packed Brayden a special Valentine's day lunch, and I made a few more for Reagan and Dallin. I thought it would be fun for Reagan to have a friend over too for  a special Valentine's day lunch. This is Reagan's friend Sam. She is in kindergarten, but Reagan and her get along really well. So it was perfect that she has morning Kindergarten and we could spend lunch together. 

Dallin had fun eating his heart shaped lunch too!

Here is Brayden's bag.

Sleep update

Dallin continues to sleep great with his pillow. I decided to make him a pillow case. Almost every night when I go in to check on him he is sleeping on his pillow.  

This night he put Reagan's slippers on before he went to bed and slept with them on the entire night. You can see how big he is getting, he almost takes up the crib. 

Super Bowl 2014

As a family we were so excited to have the Denver Broncos make it to the Super Bowl. Granted it would have been a lot more fun if they weren't playing the Seattle Seahawks. Everyone here is beyond excited that Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl and so it is hard to not feel a little negative towards the home team, cause we LOVE the Broncos so much. We had a great time planning a family party for the game. 

We had lots of blue and orange and football garlands hanging around.

We even ate on our football field!

We had some yummy food that was either blue and orange or in the shape of footballs. 

We even bought a brand new really big TV for the game. Unfortunately, as ready as we were for the game the Broncos were not. I am not sure they even came to the game. We were pretty sad as they got down early, and it got worse and worse as the game went on. Well maybe next year! We still had a great season cheering on the Broncos!

A pillow

Since returning from our fun Christmas break Dallin has not gone to bed very good. He was struggling in Boise and it carried over since we returned. After a few days he was doing better, but even when he would go to bed without crying he would wake up in the night. One night Reagan asked if she could sleep in her new bed.  It is a super cute trundle bed, but it is in Dallin's room. 

Since Dallin hasn't been sleeping well we didn't want to add Reagan into the situation just yet. Jared and I looked at each other when she asked and shrugged our shoulders and said, "why not". I doubted it could get much worse.  I gave Reagan all her instructions. I let her know he was probably going to cry, maybe throw his binkies, and shake his crib railing. I told her to just lay there and ignore him and she could not leave the room. She was still really excited to sleep in her bed.  We did our good night routine, and as soon as I shut the door Dallin started crying. I went downstairs and in less than a minute no more crying. I didn't know what was happening but I was confident that Reagan would be coming down the stairs any minute, and the crying would begin again. I waited for her to emerge from the stairs and she never did. I was amazed when I realized it had been 30 minutes and I hadn't heard a sound from their room. I went up to check on them and found them both fast asleep and Reagan had given Dallin one of her little pillows from her bed. The next morning she told me all about how she helped him go to sleep. She sang him lullabies and then gave him her pillow. We have learned that he loves the pillow. Since that night he has went to bed so good with a pillow. He now has his own pillow, and we recently picked out some fabric to make a new case. They have been sleeping so good together.

Apparently, is doesn't even have to be a pillow just something soft. Like a diaper. On Sunday he was going through the diaper bag and pulled out one of his diapers. He was playing with it and I didn't care because he was doing it quietly and Jared and I were actually able to listen. About 5 minutes later I leaned over to check on him and found him fast asleep on his soft fluffy diaper half way into the aisle. Luckily, the next two hours of church were also held in the Chapel so he spent the next hour on the floor taking a nap.  

I know this picture is blurry, but it shows how far out in the aisle he was sleeping.

Fun stuff in January

Reagan is getting to be such a big girl. Here she is getting ready to go to her friend's birthday party. She had to get in her party dress. 

Dallin did a great job getting ready for church. He was so proud he was getting ready all by himself. Now we just need to work on getting those items on in the right parts of his body.

MLK

In school Brayden learned about Martin Luther King Jr. Brayden loves history and was fascinated by MLK and the hero that he was. This picture of him was in our window for the holiday.

Parent's visit

We are always super excited to have visitors come. I had mentioned to the kids that my parents were coming, but didn't make a big deal about it until the day there were scheduled to arrive. Before Brayden left for school I mentioned that they were going to be here later today. He was surprised to see them when he got of the off the bus. I don't think I have ever seen him run home so fast. He just couldn't wait to give them both a hug. Jared flew to Utah to attend his Grandmother's funeral so we just hung out Thursday evening and the kids loved to have two extra playmates. On Friday, I was able to got to school with Brayden for a bit in the morning to help in his class. I always love to go and see how he does at school. After school we took Grandma and Grandpa to the Root Beer store. They have so many different types of root beer. The kids also got a root beer candy cane made from the candy store they visited while in Colorado at the beginning of the month. 

After we went to the YMCA for Reagan's final soccer practice. Since it was her last practice and they are only 4 year olds, her coach decided to have a pizza party to celebrate their season. Reagan had a blast and was super excited to finally get her own medal.

 

On Saturday we spent the morning at Toys R Us letting the kids decide what they would like to put on their lists to Santa. Then we headed to the airport to get Jared. We grabbed a bite to eat and then it was time for Reagan's last soccer game. She really likes soccer, but loves to wave at us as she runs by. I think she has had a great time and wants to play T-ball this spring. This month our family has also been adding leaves to our thankful tree. He it is at the beginning of the month.

 

Here is a new tree that was higher off the ground so Dallin couldn't pull it off several times a day. Here are our added leaves when Grandma and Grandpa came. Some of the leaves were family members, toys, football, Disneyland, and church.

Sunday while we were getting ready for church Brayden surprised me with this hair do. He has been wanting a mo-hawk since football season, but we have family pictures coming up so I had to tell him no. I am sure I am bias, but I think he looks cute with any crazy hair cut. 

Monday Brayden went to school so while he was gone Dad helped me put together my entry bench and coat rack. I am so excited to have a place for all of our stuff to go. Now I just need to paint the entry and hang some pictures of the kids. We also took Reagan to gymnastics and dance. I think she really liked having them their to watch her.

After school we met Jared in Puyallup to go on a hike. It was pretty cold, but it was nice to get out and hike around. We went to a park that is right in the middle of town, but once you get on the hill you feel like you are far away. I wish we did stuff like this more often and not just when visitors are here. That is probably part of the reason we love visitors so much, cause we get out and see new things. Grandma and Grandpa left Tuesday morning after Brayden got on the bus. It is always hard to say goodbye to visitors, but it was nice to know we would be seeing them again in just a few weeks.