My Birthday

This year was a pretty low key birthday for me, but definitely better than last year when everyone was sick! Kyle was gone on my birthday, so the kids and I enjoyed a quiet evening eating frozen pizza and drinking sparkling cider. We finished off the evening watching a movie and eating birthday cake ice cream. Saturday morning was spent at basketball then soccer try-outs. That evening we finally celebrated by trying out Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It isn’t quite the same as Roadhouse in Oregon, but pretty close, so I was happy! I didn’t do cheesecake this year either, I know, a tragedy, but we had a Red Velvet cake that was to die for! Cheesecake may still be my favorite, but that Red Velvet cake is definitely a close second!!

Kyle and Gordon bought me a new water bottle because I really need a new one. Celeste made me a picture frame and put a picture of me in it, :) and Eddie made me a great card and wrote some of his spelling words in his very best hand writing for me. I didn’t want too much money spent on me for my birthday because I am going to Time out for Women this weekend with some friends from church and I want to be able to spend money there besides the fact that I already spent a bit on tickets for the event.

Tommy is 5 months now as of the 15th as well. He’s getting bigger and bigger all the time. He has now tried green beans and carrots and enjoys them both. He laughs when he is tickled and smiles all the time except when I want him to for a camera!

 

Thomas has also started bouncing in the bouncer and LOVES it. The kids watched him bounce for the first time today and he was laughing, jumping and just enjoying all of the attention and bouncing he could do.

As you can see, his brothers still love him like crazy and want to play with him all of the time, even when he would rather be alone.

 

I’m so blessed as a mother and wife and often wonder how I got so lucky!

February Vacation

This year the school district scheduled in snow make-up days at the end of February. I thought it was a little odd, but since Kyle couldn’t get spring break off, he was able to take the snow days off. The kids had to go to school on Monday to make up one day, but the rest of the time the kids were home and we could play. We decided to do some things we hadn’t done yet around town. The Muhammad Ali Museum was first on the list. We enjoyed walking around and watching some of his fights as well as trying to box like Ali.

The next day we went to Mammoth Caves for the day. It is about an hour and a half drive south of our house. We were watching our neighbor’s daughters that day, so we took them with us. Celeste loved that they came because they are her friends, so everyone was happy. There are several different hikes we could take within the caves, but we chose the historic cave because it was the easiest for the kids and a mom carrying a baby, but it was still quite the hike. We spent two hours on the tour and both Gordon and Thomas did great the entire time. It was the perfect day for it because it was rainy and cold, so being in an underground cave was a perfect way to spend the day!

  

These caves were mined and then used for slaves during the civil war. The stories that the tour guide told us were incredible. The kids got a little bored when we stopped for too long, but they loved walking through the cave. They loved that they didn’t have to duck when the adults did.

Some of the areas in the cave were only 3 1/2 feet high. I had to duck and at one point I had to go down the stairs on my bottom because I couldn’t bend over with Tommy in the front pack.

There was also a part that was called Fat Man’s Nightmare because it was so narrow. Fortunately the top part was nice and wide, so we just had to watch our steps, but it wasn’t hard to get through, thank goodness! Before the ceiling of this section had been chiseled out, the man who originally went through here had to be on his hands and knees in this tiny section. I couldn’t imagine what a nightmare that really would be.

The other days of the week, we didn’t do anything that was really picture worthy, but we enjoyed being together as a family. Kyle did finally get the opportunity to shoot his new gun at a gun range. Our neighbor took the week off also to be home with his kids, so he went with Kyle to try out the gun. It was a cold day, so their shooting time didn’t last long, but Kyle thinks it shoots straight, even through his shivering!

Valentine’s Day

I know, it has been almost a month ago that I wrote and Valentine’s Day was that long ago, but time has just gotten away from me. Anyway, this year I wanted to try some new things for Valentine’s Day. Not for just Kyle and myself, but for the kids as well. For the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, every night I would cut out two paper hearts for each child and write things that I love about them.

The boys didn’t really care very much about the hearts, but Celeste looked for the hearts every morning to see what I had written. Those were the best seven days, I think. She was happy every day and was really in good spirits all the time. I wish I had a reason to do something like this for her all the time because she loved it!

I also made strawberry heart shaped pies for dessert. They were so yummy and I had such a good time making them. The kids said they would have preferred the pies without cream cheese in them, but I loved the “strawberries and cream”.

Overall, it was a nice Valentine’s Day. Kyle and I were supposed to go to our church dance, but our baby sitter fell through, so we spent the evening watching a movie instead. I hope everyone else had a Valentine’s Day that was enjoyable in their own special way.