Family Skate Night

For Catholic Schools Week the kids' school had a family night at Skateland.

We had a great time! Both the big kids had fun skating all night long.

They also participated in races and the Hokey Pokey.
We had trouble finding skates for BB, but he seemed to have a good time playing with the video games with friends.

Grandparents are Wonderful!!!

We are SO fortunate to have my parents living in town and my dh parents living just a few hours away. I think grandparents are extremely important and it is fabulous that our kids gets to see both sets so frequently. We have two sets of loving, generous, and fun grandparents who really enjoy spending time with our kids. What a blessing they all are to us and to our children!

This past weekend my dh's parents came down for a visit. We loved seeing them. I didn't get any photos of them this visit, but here is one from a couple months ago on a similar visit. Please keep Grandpa L in your prayers as he is going to be undergoing some treatments soon that may cause him discomfort and distress. We pray that they will make him 100%.

Tuesday was "Grandparents' Day" at the kids' school. I slaved over the lunch (Subway sandwiches and chips). It was fun for the kids. Here is a quick photo we caught between Brother going out to recess and Sister starting her lunch. There is a special place in heaven for grandparents. We are so blessed with ours!!!

March for Life!!!

On Tuesday, January 18, we attended the Washington March for Life event.

I pulled the kids out of school for the walk to the capitol building and protest at the steps. They both did really great and there were no complaints about the long walk or the yucky weather.This is the first year that Sister has really listened to the speakers. She seemed very grown up. I can't believe how mature she's getting.

There were so many people! I never was able to get a photo with all of them in it.

What a blessing that so many people came out to show their support for this noble cause!

I have hope that in my lifetime I'll see a repeal of this deathly decision that hurts children, women, and our nation. Baby Bear was all tuckered out by the excitement and fell asleep on the way back to our van.

Potty Time!

Around his 2nd birthday, we purchased Baby Bear a "Cars" potty because they were on sale and we'd gotten rid of our previous potty chair that we used with both the big kids. I knew it'd be a while before we used it, but it never hurts to be prepared.
Baby Bear has thought it looked interesting, but was never ever interested in even sitting on it. Then, the other day he was complaining about having to go poop. I asked (as I always do), "Do you want to go sit on the potty?" expecting to get the typical response, "NO!" (picture it with a stubborn stance turning his back to me and crossing his arms over his chest).
But, this time, he actually said, "Yes."
After having to take a second to make sure I heard that correctly, I quickly walked him into our bathroom and removed his pants and diaper. BB seemed to be a bit surprised by this as well and wasn't sure he still wanted to try the potty. I sat on the stool next to his potty and talked to him for a while. After a bit, he sat on his potty. Let's just say a while later (about thirty minutes) and several stories, songs, and lots of praise, we had success! Baby Bear went poop on the potty!
Now, don't get your hopes up...I sure didn't. He's sat on the potty a couple more times since then, but not with lots of excitement. I know this doesn't mean we'll start saving on diapers and I'm not in a big hurry to deal with accidents in the middle of stores every day. So, we'll just mark this up to a really great first experience with the potty and we'll see where it takes us.

Poster Making

Recently Sister discovered a site with photos of Selena Gomez (a Disney actress that plays in a show she likes and a movie we love). She got the fun idea of making a poster. So, after a trip to the dollar store for poster board and an hour of finding and printing photos out on the computer, Sister put together this... Brother thought it looked like fun. So, he decided to make one about Super Heroes. Another hour on the computer and printing photos (which my dh really got into and kept asking me to print more and more), he created this...
What a fun, simple project that looks so cute on both of their room walls. Great idea, Sis!

Hatching an egg...

Brother went to a birthday party and in the favor bag were a couple dissoluble/melting "eggs".

We've never done them before and were very excited.

Brother dropped it into the glass of water and watched for something to happen.We discussed what animal might hatch out. Brother was sure it would be a dinosaur.Patience is not a well-developed virtue in this house.

After a long time (about 20 minutes) the boys began poking at it.

They were sure it was broken.Finally (an hour later) it finished hatching!

Brother guessed it was a pterodactyl. It was actually a goose.Brother decided it was just a goose-like dinosaur.

Whatever makes you happy, right? What lesson did we learn? We don't have enough patience for hatching eggs, but the boys are sure cute when they're impatient. (;

Around our house...

Here are my superheroes.

My beautiful dancer!
She loves the new skirt and legging set I found at Costco.
Just a little fun around our house.

We three kings...

A Blessed Epiphany!!!

For those of you who don't know, the Epiphany is when the three wise men (three kings) visited baby Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem after following the star.

This celebration is the end of the Christmas Season.

For those areas that celebrate Mardi Gras, this is the start of the Mardi Gras Season and it goes until Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) which is the day before Ash Wednesday which is the start of the Season of Lent (preparation for the Easter Season).Baby Bear putting his Jesus (Jelly Bean) into his king cake (cinnamon roll) at the Moms' group Epiphany party.Baby Bear decorating his crown.Look at me, Mom!
Ooo...yummy king cake!

Happy Epiphany!!!

Friends, Friends, Friends

We have been blessed by seeing so many good friends this holiday season!

This past weekend we drove up to Seattle to visit Aunt C. We were able to fit all five of us into her condo with her and still find room to sleep and play. Impressive!!!

(Those of you wondering where a photo of Aunt C. is, obviously don't know her distaste for being photographed.)

We also had fun checking out Angela and Dan's new place. Very nice.

Sister visiting before dinner.

Brother visiting while waiting for dinner.

Baby Bear loving his olive fingers.
Angela visiting while cooking us a delicious BBQ chicken dinner!!!

Over the vacation, Aunt S. came to visit.

Erika came to see us all the way from California. We're so blessed to have so many friends who are family!!!

Trains, decorations, and fun!

We rode the light rail train to Seattle the week before Christmas.
We couldn't get enough of the train displays.

This one was in Macy's front window.

The decorations were beautiful.

Then, we took the monorail over to Seattle Center.

Where we found more fun train displays.

We also watched a really cool circus act by SANCA. (Baby Bear really loved doing the "finished" pose and waiting for applause).

We also played around the fountain while we were there.
What a fun and exhausting day!!!
(They were so tired, they didn't even notice they were in the wrong faces.) (;