Happy Birthday, Katie!

Katie turned 30 on Wednesday and we celebrated on Saturday night with a big party.  It was a great time!

School Days

Two weeks ago Lila's class got to lead the singing in chapel.  Lila is third from the left in the first row.

Thursday night was the Curriculum Fair at Lila's school.  All of the projects and papers were on display for us to see.  I was SO impressed with Lila's work.  She's been writing her full name and lots of other words, plus coloring, painting, adding and building.  I was amazed with everything she can accomplish and so proud of her!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was Lila's Valentine's Day party at school.  I helped out with the party which I always enjoy.  The kids decorated their Valentine boxes, made a heart picture frame, passed out Valentines and played some games.  Cara had Muscle Club yesterday and brought Valentines for her friends.

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Ian bought flowers last night to give to a girl today!!!

I know, I know!

It's been WAY too long, I know.  I'm surprised I haven't gotten an email from Momoo reminding me how much she enjoys the blog. Sorry, Momoo!  A lot has been going on, but I haven't taken many pictures.  I'll try to fill you in on what's been going on.

Two weeks ago I had sibling pictures taken of the kids.  They all did a good job and we got some cute ones!

 Sorry that these are crooked!  It's a "view and share" CD and I can't edit.

We've been having exceptionally nice weather this winter and have even had a few days close to 60 degrees! Unfortunately, we weren't able to take advantage of those days and get outside, but the girls and I did play in the backyard for a little bit today.

Excited to be outside!

Blowing bubbles

Now, since I've been extremely neglectful of the blog I'll try to fill everyone in on what's going on with us!  Ian is gearing up for the transition to high school.  He and I went to Academic Night on Tuesday where we got to hear all about registration and the courses offered.  There are more students and more courses at this high school than there were at my college.  That's not an exaggeration.  Ian is very excited about the opportunities for a variety of art classes.  I was excited that the stressed the importance of turning in homework every day.

Lila is registered for Kindergarten!  We decided to keep her at the same school where she has been going to preschool. Several other kids from her class are continuing at that school and she is very excited about next year.  A couple of weeks ago her school had "Step Up Day" and she and her class got to visit the Kindergarten classroom for an hour to find out what it's all about.  She is loving dance class and is very excited about her dance recital in June.

Cara has had a big month! She is potty trained!  Well, mostly.  She still wears a diaper at nap and bedtime and only goes #2 in the potty instead of the diaper about half of the time.  But she wears underwear all day every day including when she is dropped off at play school, the gym daycare and the church nursery and hasn't had any accidents.  She caught on right away and has done really well.  I started potty training her on a Thursday and she went to church that Sunday and was accident free for 2 hours without me around!  She talks more and more every day, pretends constantly - her favorite thing is to say she is Snickers the dog, and tells stories.

I have been planning a big Junior League project for the last few months which took place last Thursday.  We educated parents about the importance of early childhood literacy and gave them practical tips and tools for reading and interacting with their children and were able to provide them with Literacy Kits - books and activities to reinforce the books.  It was challenging as many of the parents spoke little or no English, but we serviced over 40 families at this first time ever event and it was definitely a success.  So, that's been taking up a lot of my time.  Along with job searching and general life craziness.

No excuse for slacking on the blog though.  I'll work on being much better.  January is kind of a blah month.

Speaking of Junior League though, I'm selling raffle tickets if anyone's interested... :)

Merry Christmas!

 Santa came to our house!

 The kids on Christmas morning

 I'm not sure Cara really understood everything, but she had fun opening presents.

 Lila really wanted a Doodle Bear and Santa knew Cara would want one too, so they both got one.

 Drawing on her Doodle Bear

 Me too!

 Ian really only wanted one thing for Christmas- the new Skyrim XBox game.  He was getting a little worried when he had opened most of his presents and hadn't found it yet, but then he got it and the gaming guide too.

 Studying the gaming guide.

 Lila only asked Santa for one thing this year, a Fur Real dog.  It's a fake dog that acts just like a real dog.  It doesn't seem to make a difference to her that we have a real dog.  She was SO excited when she opened it.

 Cara's favorite present this year was her new "cuter".  It a My Own Leaptop and she loves it. She's carried it with her everywhere, she hasn't even let anyone touch it to set it up!

The kids dressed for Christmas Dinner.

Christmas Eve

The kids were at Chris's house during the day on Christmas Eve and opened presents from Chris's family.

Later that day we all went to the family Christmas Eve service at church.  It was Cara's first time sitting in church with us and she enjoyed it.  At least she enjoyed the carols. As soon as one was over she would yell, "another song!".

After the church the kids and I went back home for a Christmas dinner of crab legs, cheese potatoes and asparagus. Then the kids got to open one present before bed - Christmas PJs.

Dance Class Christmas

Lila had her last dance class before Christmas break today.  All of the girls got to wear their Christmas outfits and parents could come in and watch the last ten minutes of class. They did one tap and one ballet dance for us wearing reindeer antlers.  Lila loved bobbing her head to make her bells jingle!