Valentine's Day!

We had an an extra special Valentine's Day this year!  

February 13th:

The kids made their own valentine boxes.  Emmett helped make the puppy on Nate's box!  

What brotherly love!  Nate passed out Paw Patrol valentines, and Emmett passed out mustache and zombie valentine's this year!

  I feel blessed beyond measure when I look at this photo!

  Puppy love!

For breakfast the kids ate heart shaped Kashi cereal, pears, and a yogurt smoothie with a fun straw!

Graphing candy hearts...

 For lunch we ate heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, strawberries, tomato soup, and a Baby Bel cheese with heart punched out of it.

 Building with toothpicks and heart shaped marshmallows.  I should have taken a photo of Nate when he stuffed more marshmallows than I can count in his mouth!

 Cupcakes and X and O pretzels for snack!

 Nate LOVES playing Tic-Tac-Toe!

 Making a heart with his hands...

 Look at that smile!  What a handsome guy!

 Free art with Valentine's art supplies!  Nate took so much time making his art.  I thought he was making a sweet valentine for someone special, but when I asked him what it was he replied with "a stinky sock!"  He always makes me laugh!

 My love bug!!!!

 Once again...He is such a clown!

 Emmett tied all the balloons to his his light saber and made a bouquet!

 This is Emmett's valentine holder that he made at school.  It was a house!

 February 14th:

We went to the MOA with close friends!  I was so excited to celebrate Valentine's Day with the kids!  They are so special to us!!!

 The guys took Autumn and Emmett on the big rides, and I took Nate and Kallie on the little rides.

I didn't snap a photo of this, but Kallie convinced Nate to go on the swings for the first time.  He was so scared, but ended up LOVING it.  Kallie felt so proud that she had helped him to be brave!

  I couldn't resist!  (It is just a malt, not coffee.)

 At the end the kids met up and went on one last ride together. I absolutely LOVE this photo!!!!!  These kids are bestest of friends!!!!  This photo just illustrates their friendship and their innocence at this age!  It doesn't get any better than this...

 After the mall we headed back to Barb and Jason's where Katie and Barb prepared a delicious lasagna dinner for all of us!  It was such a fun night!  We ate great food, the kids played, and the adults played Pictionary!  We shared many, many laughs!!!

 

 The guys...

  The gals...

 The goofy kids...

Nate, What we love about you...

I am disappointed that I have not wrote this post yet.  Nate's 5th birthday was on January 19th, and it is over a month later and I am just now sitting down to write.  Why?  Probably because the task of writing why I love my children is not the easiest task.  It is not easy because my love for my children literally consumes me.  My children are the "beat of my heart, and the pulse in my veins."  The fact that I would have to narrow down my thoughts and feelings to just one blog post is almost humorous.  How can any mother limit her love to just a few bullet points?  I can't, but I will still continue to try.  I just want my boys to one day understand how great our love for them really is.

Nate, what we love about you...

• We love that you are our son!  Our love is unconditional!  It requires nothing from you!  We love you simply because you are you!  We have learned to love like this because of the love Jesus has for us!  We can only hope that you will love God and love yourself throughout all the years of your life!
• We love your smile and your eyes!  Your smile is what motivates me to wake each new day.  Your sweet voice is so fun to listen to, and the sound of you and Emmett laughing together is the most beautiful sound on earth!
• I love your hands.  My favorite thing to do when holding you is to look at your hands.  I know that may seem strange, but your hands will change so much over time.  Your hands are what you use for everything you do in life.  There is nothing more precious than to see your hands folded to pray!
• As a mother I love to hold you close and feel the top of your head on my cheek.  Simply breathing you in when you are near is what gives me energy!  You are one of the most affectionate boys we know.  You always want to cuddle or sit on our laps.  You are always giving or asking for kisses and hugs!
• We love your kisses in the middle of the night!  Almost every night you wake up to go potty.  Before going back to bed, you come to each side of our bed, kiss your Dad and I on the cheek and say, "I love you."  I really don't know of many children that do this.  It makes my heart melt every time!
• I love your hugs and cuddles every morning when you wake up.  You go to bed around 8 pm, and wake around 6:15 am every morning.  You have never needed very much sleep.  I am always drinking my coffee and on my computer at this time.  You always wake up, walk out of your room holding your Eddie and polka-dot blankie.   You walk over to me right away and sit on my lap.  We share kisses and hugs for a few moments before you go rest on the couch and wait for your daycare friends to arrive.  If only you knew how much I love these moments!!!
• On the weekends your Dad and I will often still be sleeping when you wake.  On these mornings you will crawl into bed with us.  Sometimes you fall back asleep and sometimes not.  On the mornings when you fall back asleep, we often lay and stare at your sweet face.  I thank God for the gift of you!
• We love watching you play with your toys.  Oh my word, do you LOVE your toys!  You play for hours all by yourself at times!  You even prefer playing with your toys more than you do watching a movie!  When you play you are always so calm and peaceful.  You have a wild side, but it rarely shows unless you are with a large group of kids.  You still love your cars, but this year you have fallen in love with Paw Patrol and Toob animals.  You are kind of like a collector when it comes to your toys, and you get very emotional if we have to throw away a broken toy or something that is old and worn.
• We love that you love playing games!  You could sit and play board games all night long!  You often go choose a game and ask us to play with you.  You are also a master at puzzles!  Memory, Tic-Tac-toe, and Paw Patrol are your favorite games right now.
• We love that you are excited to grow more and head off to Kindergarten!  I love that you are not afraid, but I don't love knowing that our days together are nearing the end.  You are getting older and asking so many questions.  You are always so eager to learn and really enjoy doing projects for the daycare.
• We love seeing you learn to swim this year!  We are also excited to sign you up for baseball in the Spring, and piano in the Fall!
• We love hearing you ask all the time if we can go to Grandview Lodge.  Your Dad and I are so excited that we have found a cabin where we can have a place of tradition to return to each year!  We are just so thrilled that you and Emmett feel the same way!
• We love seeing you dress yourself!  Some of the outfits you choose provide us with a good laugh, but your independence is something to be proud of.  This year you learned to zip up your jacket on your own!  When you start Kindergarten we will teach you how to take a shower!

Some of the things you love...

• Favorite friends: Emmett, Autumn, Kallie, and all your daycare friends!
• Stuffed Animals: Eddie the Cat, and Polka-Dot Blankie
• Foods: Chicken and Fries, Bread with Honey, Carrots, Apples, Baby Bel Cheese, Pizza, and Anything Chocolate!
• Movie: Paw Patrol
• TV Show: Paw Patrol
• Restaurant: Cowboy Jacks
• Toys: Cars, Paw Patrol, Toob Animals, Dinosaurs, and Legos.
• You still love to go shopping with Mommy, and love to play Legos with Daddy!
• You love to sing!  Your favorite song right is "Shake It Off" and the whole Kids Bop CD.

Nate's 5th Birthday!

Nate's 5th birthday was on a Monday this year.  It happened to also land on Martin Luther King Day.  Being that it was Nate's special day and I knew Emmett would be home from school, I did my best to make it extra special.  I made Nate homemade chocolate covered donut muffins with sprinkles for breakfast.  Nate loves chocolate just as much as his Mommy!

 I set up a new dramatic play center.  It was a hot cocoa stand!  This was so much fun!!!

 The kids had all the accessories to act this out.  Cups with snowflake sleeves, and insulated coffee travel cups.  They had pretend cocoa, cotton balls for marshmallows, a play phone, register, play money, etc....

 I was so excited when I found a toy Keurig machine and a gender neutral tea set!  Nate loved played with the little wooden tea bag that came with this set.  He even imagined it was his keys for his car at one point.  Are you surprised?  Nate still has a love for cars!

 The customers lined up fast...

 Who wouldn't want to buy hot cocoa from this sweetheart?!

At one point in the day Nate found the Santa hat and pretended to deliver presents to everyone...

I also purchased a container of 30 soft snowballs!  These were AWESOME!  They were light in weight, but they could be thrown very far.  They also did not hurt when they hit someone.

I set up the tables on their sides to make imaginary snow forts...

Two at a time!  Watch out!

This was Emmett's favorite activity of the day!

 Once I moved the tables out of the table room, the kids decided it would be fun to pretend to go ice skating!  They loved this and shared a lot of laughs.  I am just glad no one was injured!

We were lucky to get outside on this day!

 Big brother giving little bro' a ride in the sled - how loving!

 Nate was excited he found a big chunk of ice...

 We had our favorite birthday tradition...Pizza picnic on the floor with a movie!

Nate requested a GIANT chocolate cake with sprinkles for his birthday!  I could not deny him of this!

Here is is putting on his candles...

 He's five!!!!  This photo makes me teary eyed!

 He loves helping to set the table...

 What a guy!

 I love this stream of photos of Nate with his cake.  He is just so happy!!!  We all sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out his candles.

 That is one BIG piece of cake!

 I also surprised the kids with a Frozen CD storybook, and a Frozen Karaoke CD!

 I asked Nate what he wanted to do on the night of his birthday.  I was surprised when he replied with, "I do not want to go to a restaurant."  I gave him a few options, but he decided to go to Pump It Up.  We quickly ate some dinner, Nate opened his presents,  and then we headed out the door to go have some more fun!

 We got Nate a few sets of Octonaut toys...

 Gma Terri and Gpa Jim had wrapped this present for Nate when they came over at Christmas.  

We saved it for his birthday. 

Pump It Up was such a BLAST!!!!  We all got loads of exercise!  Paul and I even ran around and went on all the inflatables!  It was an place made for kids and grown-ups!  We loved it!!!

 Emmett and Nate about to do the obstacle course...

 Big brother won...

 Nate was not too far behind!

 Emmett and Paul set up to race...

 Paul won!

 So many good laughs!  What a memorable night!

 The boys were sad when it was time to leave...