My Valentines.

Just wanted to post an adorable picture of the loves of my life. I told these guys at the dinner table on Valentine's night that I was the luckiest out of all of them. I had four valentines, and the four of them all had to share one, how lucky am I!?!?!

Girlfriends, already?!?!?!?!?!?!

Ok, this is going to be a long story, and the details are already slipping away, but it needs to be put to paper so it is never forgotten, heheheheh. Last Sunday at church, two different girls from church attempted to get Kale's attention in just the few minutes it takes to walk from his classroom to the car. Both of them happened to be beautiful platinum blondes, and Kale managed to successfully blow both of them off. This bothered Mark very much. These were cute girls, and Kale was clueless! He quickly prompted him to say hello and other common courtesies. Mark talked about it for the next 45 minutes. About how Kale attracts the ladies but is totally clueless and nonchalant. "Come on kid, pay attention, these girls are cute!" So, fast-forward about 4 days.....

Last night at the dinner table, out of the blue Kale starts talking about a girl. She had a black dress with white buttons, and hair like mommy's, and blue eyes like mommy's. But she's not in his class, she's in the class next to his. I'm trying to figure out who in the world she is. I know the girls in his class, so I start asking questions.

"Is her hair brown like mommy's, or blonde like Jack's?"

"Like mommy's."

"Is is straight or curly?"

"Curly."

So then I start running through names of girls that I know are in his class, (and this boy is terrible with names.) He said no to all of them. So I ask,

"Is she in your class?"

"No."

"Do you like any of the girls in your class?"

"No, none of them have eyes like mommy's."

Talk about melting my heart! It's glad to know this kid knows what he wants! Then he just starts this monologue about how he wants a girlfriend so that he can married and wear a ring like daddy, but he doesn't like any of the girls because they don't have eyes like mommy's. He says he wants two girlfriends. One of them to be mommy, and one to be a kid like him. (Isn't he adorable?)

At this point Mark is panicking.

"Kale, it's okay to have friends that are girls, but you don't need a girlfriend until you're ready to get married."

"But I want to get married dad, and wear a ring."

Mark is getting really deep at this point, going on and on about how he doesn't need a girlfriend until after his mission, etc etc. I tried to reign him in. Honey, lighten up! He's five, and it's adorable! Maybe he was being too concerned, and maybe I wasn't concerned enough, but we both got a great laugh out of it. And you sure can bet we're going to find out who this mystery girl is on Sunday!

Luke's hair

So, when my little Luke was born I was thrilled that for once I had a baby with hair. Granted, it wasn't much hair, and frankly he looked like an old man. He had a perfect ring of hair around the largest part of his head, with none on top, whatsoever. Well, it's been growning, and growing, and growing, and what used to be a perfect circle of a curl at the base of his neck has now turned into a tail. It's adorable and hideous all at the same time. Mark keeps threatening to cut it off, and I insisted that he wait until I got a picture of it. So, here is the picture of my 9 month old's tail. cute, eh?

New Year's Day sledding

My dad organized a sledding trip on New Year's day. We had so much fun! We spent about an hour and a half running around all the snow in my dad's yard, then drove to the school in town and sled down the hill. Kale was so brave! He started out on the smaller hill, and after only 2 runs, he wanted to go higher....and higher. He finally made it all the way to the top of the hill, all by himself. About halfway down, he rolled right off the sled, got up, and climbed right back to the top of the hill. I was completely shocked. Kale is normally a big chicken, and he wouldn't even let me ride with him! "No mommy, I don't need you to ride with me." Jack, who is usually my daredevil, he wouldn't even go near the sled run. He and Mark spent the entire time on the playground. Some kids from our church showed up right when we got there, and it was so much fun watching them take the run, and getting some air!

This is Robert and Kale catching some air off of their big run down the hill. You can't really see Kale, but he's in there, you can see his red mittens....

Janice and Luke, trying to keep warm

My sister Kate and her boyfriend Robert, and their two dogs, aren't they adorable!

My dad, me, and my Lukie

My boys, love 'em love 'em!!!

Kale is five!

I'm having a really hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that my baby is five years old! It's less about him being that old, and more about me being at this stage of parenting. I'm going to have to be the responsible adult now. Get him to and from school, pack lunches, help him with homework, etc etc. Maybe its too early for me to worry about all this stuff, that I should wait until September, but it has really been on my mind. I remember so well MY parents when I was just five/six years old, and its hard to accept that that is who I am now.
Kale's birthday was great! We had a teeny tiny party the day before his birthday, with just our family, cake, and a few presents. On Monday, his actual birthday, we took him (and Jack and Luke) to a movie, and his very favorite restaurant. It was a very last minute decision, and I'm so glad we did!

Christmas morning

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from Christmas morning.....
Here is Luke with Aunt Heidi and his first Christmas ornament.

This picture is hilarious. It is Kale and Mark, sitting at opposite ends of the table, each assembly a lego kit, heheheh


This is a picture of the living room early in the morning, before the boys came upstairs
This one is so funny too! It's Kale, reading the instructions, trying to figure out how to transform his Optimus Prime.


This isn't a very good picture, but I love it. Jack got a Little Einsteins Rocket, and he just runs in circles around the house, flying it up and down, up and down.
This is another not-so-good picture, but I had to show these adorable hats my mom made for all the grandkids.



Mark, Kale and Jack all got cowboy hats, I love this shot of Kale.

Jack's drum from Uncle Casey and Aunt Jeannie.


Look at all the boy toys!

Stockings!!!

Aren't these stockings beautiful! My mom cross-stitched one of these elaborate stocking for EACH of her grandkids, what a treasure! Luke's wasn't finished this year, but we'll be proud to show it off next year.