Valentine's Day

Our Valentine festivities started with making Valentine mail boxes. Ethan's teacher wanted them to make a mailbox for their class party, so we took a brown paper grocery bag and pimped it all out with paper doilies and heart stickers. Jacob and Asia wanted to make one as well.
A fun little project.

Then it was Valentine cookie making time. Always a mess and always a fun time.
So, since Valentine's Day was on Sunday, Mike and I went out on Saturday. We went to see Avatar and then went to dinner to Jalisco's. Then we did a bit of shopping and then home. Another uneventful V-day. Not a big fan of Valentine's Day if you can't tell. Just another one of those holidays that is just an excuse to go out and buy something superficial to tell someone that you love them. You should feel loved all of the time anyway, right...? I don't need my man to buy me some big expensive box of chocolates and a huge bouquet of roses, just to show that he loves me. I just need him. :) Cheesy, I know.

Anyway, on the actual Valentine's Day we made our own heart-shaped pizzas. I bought the kids their own little box of chocolates and some new red clothes I got on sale and couldn't wait to give them.



And of course, the Valentine hair-do. Too bad Mia's hair isn't quite long enough to do this. (sarcasm). I'm already dreading the day when I'll have to do 2 hair-do's everyday.

These pictures were the next day so it's kinda scraggly! Oh well, at least the do lasted more than one day right. BONUS!

The Broke Tooth Fairy!

Asia has been losing teeth by the mouthful lately! All 4 of her top, front teeth have been loose for quite a while. So she let me pull her second tooth out. There's a whole 50 cents from the tooth fairy. Then she wanted her left front tooth out so I pulled that one a few days later. 50 more cents. Then, just the next day, she decided it was time for the other front tooth to come out. Another 50 cents! At this rate, the tooth fairy might have to take out a loan! And I may have to chew Asia's food for her for a little while! HA! What a cute toothless grin!

Ethan's Baptism

Well, Ethan had to wait almost a whole month to get baptized because his birthday was just 2 days after the stake baptisms in January. He couldn't wait! He would ask me almost everyday if he could just get baptized. He was 8 already, after all! I said he should wait until February so all of the family could be there.

It was a wonderful, busy, spiritual, amazing day. My WHOLE family was able to come and stay with us and attend Ethan's baptism. Mike's WHOLE family was able to attend the baptism as well. That made it such a special day for Ethan. It was so great to have so much love and support there for him. So many other friends came too. What an awesome day!

One cute little story about Ethan's baptism. Mike was sitting on the front row with Ethan and all of the other children that were going to be baptized. ( there were 8 total!) Just before Mike and I were to sing our song, Ethan turned to Mike and said, "Do you have a hanky daddy? I think I'm feeling the spirit." And Mike looks at him and Ethan has tears streaming down his face! What a sweet little boy. That, of course, made Mike all emotional right before we had to sing our song. We barely got through the song, but it still turned out quite nice. It at least brought the spirit in I think!

Another funny story. I put Mike in charge of getting all of Ethan's gear for before, during, and after his baptism, including the changes of clothing, etc. He also had to get all of his own change of clothes. Since this was our first child to be baptized, he forgot a few things! He almost forgot his tie until I reminded him. I should've went through a checklist for Ethan's things because not only did he forget towels for the both of them, he forgot to bring a white shirt for Ethan to wear with his new suit after his baptism! Mike was trying to figure out what to do. He thought maybe he could just go without a shirt, but that looked pretty naked. It would take too long to go home and get one, so Mike decided to fashion a sort of cravat out of his white tie! (I think that's what it's called) Anyway, it worked out ok and he at least had something covering up his chest for the confirmation and pictures later. Fun things to remember.

We didn't get a picture of Mike's whole family. Another time I guess. Thanks to everyone who was able to come and support us. It truly was a terrific day. I'm so proud that Ethan chose to be baptized and to become a member of His church. He's turning into a wonderful little man!

Ethan's Date

The weekend after Ethan's birthday, Mike and I took Ethan out for his special date with just mommy and daddy. He chose to go ice skating. So we grabbed our skates and headed to Tautphus Park. When public skating was over, Ethan still wanted to skate, so we went over to the outdoor rink by the hospital. There was a lot of this:and this:and some more of this:But he always had a smile on his face and just kept on trying and trying:Pretty soon he'll be as good as his momma!

Yep, I still got it! Ha Ha!

After we went skating we were famished. Ethan chose to go to Wingers again for dinner. He wanted to go there last year. So he ordered the same thing; penne alfredo and chicken noodle soup (his favorite.)

And then the servers came over and brought him an ice cream sundae and even sang Happy Birthday to him! He was a little bit embarassed!Ethan is a very smart little man. He's becoming quite the little bookworm. He has recently finished the first two books in the Wimpy Kid book series and is now cruising through the Magic Tree House series at school. In fact, his teacher has to repeatedly tell him to put his books away because they are moving onto something else! It's become a bit of a problem for him at school, but I'd rather he get in trouble for that than for other things! He loves to play his DS and he loves to conduct experiments and explore the world around him. He enjoys building things with K'nex, Bend-a-roos, Legos, and pretty much anything he can find. He is enjoying playing basketball and even makes a few baskets sometimes. His forte is defense though. It's funny to watch him play and defend the poor boy on the opposite team! He has his game face on and he never even lets the guy move, let alone get the ball! Pretty funny! We love our Ethan and he has become quite a responsible, loving older brother. Now onto the baptism post! Yaaaaay! Finally getting caught up feels good! :)

Ethan's Birthday!

Ethan turned the big 0-8 last month! I can't believe I have an 8-year old! Crazy! He got to have a friend party this year so I let him invite 6 of his closest friends. I let them decide what they wanted to do and when. We had the party after school so they decided to play the wii for a bit, then open presents, and then have cake. That took a total of 30-40 minutes! Here's the cake Ethan wanted. Bakugan:Playing the wii Star Wars:Opening presents:The whole gang:Cake time:

Then it was time to bust open this little guy:The aftermath, trying to grab everything in sight!:

I think the kids had a lot of fun. It was cute when Ethan opened his presents, it was like everything he opened was his absolute favoritest thing in the whole world and said, "Thanks guys, this is so awesome!" Next, Ethan's date with the parents. So fun!

Christmas!!!!

I know, I know. I've taken quite a break from blogging. I guess there are a few more important things to do in my life right now besides blogging! Imagine that! But I need to document stuff before I forget about them, especially our Christmas events.

We went over to the Taylor Grandparents' house and got to make a huge gingerbread house. It was so much fun and the kids loved it. I should say Mike loved it!! He was very meticulous and had to have everything just so! It was cute!

The finished masterpiece:


Christmas was quite the whirlwind, trying to fit everything in. Next year I think we'll make it a little more low-key and not travel so much. The kids remember the little things, right? Well, we tried a new tradition this year and read a Christmas book every night for the last 12 days of Christmas. I wanted to start on the 1st of December, but I only had 12 books! I'll have to start collecting more through the year for next year. The kids really enjoyed that. We would read at night by the Christmas tree. It was so peaceful.

Christmas Eve we tried a new tradition; a candlelight dinner. We did it at Mike's parents house and it was fun to include them. Then we packed up and headed home for some more fun. The kids got to open one present; their new jammies. And then they got the treats out for Santa and his reindeer. Ethan and Asia wanted to put out carrots, grapes and nutritious things for Santa because they didn't want Santa to get any fatter and have a heart attack and die! I think they saw something on TV that said Santa needed to go on a diet or something! It was a good thing because I didn't have any cookies to put on the plate anyway! They put out some water for the reindeer to drink and it turned red because Rudolph stuck his nose in it! They thought that was pretty cool.

Here's all of the loot:

Ethan was the first to wake up Christmas morning. We forgot to tell them the rules the night before about when they could wake up and, most importantly, when they could wake us up. I heard Ethan come upstairs and gasp and get excited about 7:30. Not too bad! Then he went and got Asia and then came and got us up. They couldn't wait to tear into their stockings!
And then the babies fianlly woke up around 8. They were pretty excited too. Jacob was a little more into the opening of the presents thing this year. Mia loved playing with the boxes!
Ethan got a new charger for his DS so he was in HEAVEN!

That night we had the Taylor family Christmas party. It was Kaylene's year to be in charge and she decided to do a progressive dinner. We started at Russ and Joy's for appetizers, then Nathan and Amy's for salad, then Kaylene and Doug's for the main course and present opening, and then our house for dessert. We put the kids to bed with Tina and Shayna babysitting and went over to Robert and Toni's for games. It was pretty fun.

Then we went home to pack up so we could leave for Canada the next morning. We left at about 9am and got there about 5ish for the Nicholas family Christmas party. And even more presents and spoiling! We did the usual up there; went shopping, went for sushi, sang karaoke, and visited. We had to go to the Sugarbowl and sled, even though the snow was almost gone in spots. It was so icy and shiny! The kids went down the hill and up the other side! Fun stuff!

We stayed up there for about 5 days and then headed back just in time to go up to Island Park for another Taylor party. This time we decided to rent a cabin for New Years. So we had 27 people in one cabin! It was pretty fun, except when it was time to go to bed. We had the babies sleep with us in one room. They had a pretty hard time sleeping, to say the least! I think it was a combination of teeth coming in and not being in their own beds for a week that really threw them off. Not the funnest! Besides the not sleeping issue, it was a good time. We played games, watched movies, went swimming, played in the snow, and made hair bows and watch bands. Oh, and we also ate LOTS and LOTS of food!! Here are some of the kids playing in the snow:

And fun times hanging out in the cabin:

It was a pretty fun time, but very very hectic. Not the way I would plan for next year! We live and learn, right! Now onto 2010!!