Catching up Through March

In an effort to capture some everyday memories and call myself caught up through March, I'm going to put up a bunch of pictures that have some sort of meaning or memory for me.

Joy, Luke, Alison, and Juli playing football -- more often Shawn!

Leah &  Joy love playing Littlest Pet Shop together.
They always have a creative story and dialogue going.
On rare occasions they decide everything needs organized.
Obviously, it's been awhile since they felt the need!

Every morning the kids say to Shawn, "Wave to you out the window!"
If the curtains aren't open, they go behind them.

Visiting Grandma Wally at her care center.
The kids know they will say their names and ages at least 5 times.
That's okay.  We love her and she loves us.

We got Luke a subscription to Teen Titans for Christmas.
He was so exited to finally get it in the mail.

Leah modeled some of the freebies we received for hosting
a Johnsonville House Party with friends.  Free is me!  :)

What the girls' floor looks like when I wash their sheets.

I just love how Luke plays with Savannah and can make her laugh.
He's a wonderful big cousin to have!

 

Happy Birthday to Me!

As I was looking through pictures, I discovered there isn't one of me during my birthday celebration.  I think it's pretty funny and just what happens when you have kids.  All the cuteness steals the show and the 38 year old lady gets forgotten.  :)

The kids haven't been to Benihana's so we decided to make it a fun family outing.  I just took this line from their website, "Watch as your personal chef performs the ancient art of Teppanyaki, preparing a meal that will dazzle your eyes as well as your taste buds."

We enjoyed the "show" and the food, once we got to that part.  We learned that you shouldn't wait to use your free birthday certificate on the last day of the month since that's what half of Chandler must do.

If the kids weren't so hungry, they would have appreciated the fact that we started dinner around the time they would have been in bed.  Luckily, once we were seated, we had a very nice waitress who brought the kids some fruit.  Again, what about the birthday girl?  It was past my dinnertime too.  Sheesh!  :)

That was a Close One!

Just before my birthday, Joy was getting into cabinets in the school room to get something to make a special card for me.  She heard something "rumbling" and jumped out of the way.  Thankfully, she jumped the right direction to avoid heavy oak cabinets from falling on her.  I remember holding those up as Shawn drilled them securely into the wall.  They aren't light!

I guess I weighted them down too much and/or something strange happened.  The cabinet just about peeled right off the wall, leaving most of the back still attached.

We are very thankful that the loud crash we heard was just a cabinet crashing and not smashing precious Joy!

Plenty of junk to find a new home for!

Disney on Ice in January

We were able to attend Disney on Ice on January 19th, compliments of Bargain Believer.  The promotion company gave our family free tickets and gave me a set to give away to a reader.  All I had to do was write a post telling people how to get discount tickets to the show.  I couldn't pass that one up!

We had great seats and enjoyed doing something unique together as a family.  It seemed like just about every Disney character was there.  My favorite parts were when the princesses and princes skated.  They definitely have talent!

We sprung for the overpriced souvenir bucket filled with popcorn.  The picture of it is our only tangible trip down memory lane.  The camera made it to the show, but the memory card didn't.  :(  Grrrr!

Maybe someday this picture will be enough evidence to prove to my kids that we really went.  I'm sure the kids will forget about it soon, like most things we do.  They say odd things like, "Remember that guy who was wearing a green shirt by Fry's, with the cute little girl in the pink dress walking beside him, on the day we had peanut butter and jelly for lunch and went to Chuck E. Cheese, who almost hit our car with his shopping cart, but then he didn't?"  Ummm, no.  That didn't happen, but . . . well, maybe it did!?!?  I sure wouldn't remember!

Then, when we say, "Remember when we went to Jamestown?" we get blank stares.  Actually, just today, Joy said, "Is that where Dad grew up?"  Huh???  Sometimes I have to wonder why we do these things and decide it's for momentary pleasure, not memories.  We had plenty of temporary fun at the show and currently, I think we all have memories other than the bucket.  I hope they remain!  :)

February Highlight - California Trip

I'll fast forward through February, which is really rewinding at this point . . .

We spent mid February in California visiting the Gilberts.  This time our big plan was going to Knott's Berry Farm.  We bought season passes for the amusement park and the water park, so we have more fun in store.

Carter, Luke, Joy, Claire, Leah, & Brianna posing with Snoopy.

Luke, ready to bump somebody and thrilled to do it.

Cute girls waiting in line.

Shawn won Joy a giraffe, shooting basketball . . her favorite animal.

 

 

We were there for Valetine's Day, so we made a special dinner.  We had mini heart meatloaves with a variety of red foods -- Jello, red potatoes, Cherry 7Up, and . . ummm, orange carrots.  Hey, we needed to get more nutrition in there somewhere!

Valentine's Day dinner at the Gilberts.

Then, we made up a new game to finish off the night . .  Hug and Go Seek.  One person hid while everybody else tried to find them.  If you found the person, you quietly hugged them and hid with them.  Soon, everybody joined in on the group hug until only one person was left out . . the loser.  :)  We played in the dark, though the lights were on for this picture.

Hug & Go Seek on Valentine's Day.

We had great fun, until sickness hit almost all the kids.  We ended up leaving a day early because of this . . .

Luke feeling awful toward the end of our trip.

Joy, attempting to sit up and watch a movie.

Leah held strong, until we got home.  :(  Shawn soon followed.  It was a high fever that just kept going and going.

Don't worry, we'll be back to enjoy cousins and Knott's again before you know it!