Valentine's Day

     Valentines was on Wednesday which is our busy day.  It's their short day of school and we have speech therapy and piano lessons.  We had hot dogs for dinner, and that's about as fancy as we got.  I have capture Valentine's Day in all its messy glory at my home.  Daryl was sweet and got flowers for the girls, but then Luke was mad he didn't get flowers too. 

Harper drew this Love Monster at school last week.

Emery made some festive Emery hearts.

Here's Avery with all her Valentine paraphernalia strewn about her.

This is Harper enjoying her hot dog with all of hers and Emery's Valentines strewn about the island.

This is a picture of Luke taking the only bite of hot dog he would eat this evening.

Emery too only enjoyed one bite of hot dog.

Luke cheesing it up for the camera.

Harper and Emery saying hot dog! for the camera.

Luke trying to steal Harper's rose.

He really wanted it.

Avery let him hold her rose and all he really wanted to do was smell it and hold it.  It made him so happy.

Emery looking sweet.

Harper with her first grade class on Valentine's Day. She is the front row in the red shirt and glasses.

February So Far

          The first full week of February was pretty crazy.  On the first Saturday we noticed that Avery's jaw seemed pretty swollen, so Sunday morning she and Daryl got to go to the ER to be tested for mumps.  The mumps test takes about three days to come back, but regardless of the outcome they advised us that Avery needed to stay home from school for a week and to avoid pregnant people and babies.  So Avery and I spent a long week at home together while Daryl was out of town for work.  Thank goodness for Amazon Prime.  Avery was fine, and we spent a lot of time doing her schoolwork together. Long story short is that Avery didn't have the mumps and just some random virus.

           We did a few fun things before the mumps crisis descended.  Daryl and I took Avery and Harper to their school's skate night at the ice rink.  Harper actually didn't ice skate, but cruised around on this little seal that someone else skating would push around.  We counted about five different people that Harper got to schlep her around the rink.  The girls had a great time, and Daryl and I froze.   Emery got goop in her hair that I got to cut out, and Luke enjoyed preschool.

 

Harper being pushed around on the rink by Avery.

You can see that Harper is riding around on a seal.

Don't they look cute? 

Luke doing science preschool.

Luke takes science seriously.

Poor Avery all swollen up, but not with the mumps!

Emery got gak in her hair which I had to cut out of her hair.  I can't find the piece of hair I butchered though because her hair is so thick.

Harper's rendition of Dax cat.

Emery's snowman from preschool.

Happy Birthday Harper

  Harper turned seven this January.  She was very excited presents, and was grumpy that on her actual birthday, which was a Wednesday, she had to wait until after piano lessons to open presents.  Hence her less than festive face in their first picture.  We had a proper birthday celebration on that Sunday with cake and candles, and Karl, Aimee, and Tyler. 

Harper grumpy that she had to wait so long to open presents.

She was really excited to get the Shaun the Sheep movie.

She was surprised to get this sweet Barbie convertible.

She loved this novelty blanket she got too.

Luke too was happy that Harper got a Barbie car for her birthday.

He plays with a lot when she's at school.

Here's the gang on Sunday.  Tyler, Harper, Luke, Avery, and Emery.  

Luke really wanted to blow out the candles.

Karl had to forcibly remove him and he was not happy.  He was crying all through it.

Then his sap of a mother relit the birthday candles for him to blow out making everything all better.

January

  I must admit that January is my least favorite month of the entire year, so I was pleasantly surprised when it just flew by.  We didn't really do anything too exciting this month.  We just regrouped from the craziness of the holidays.  The girls were excited to have an overnight stay with their Aunt DeAnna and Uncle Brad that included watching movies and copious amounts of ice cream. Enjoy the pictures that highlight some of what happened this month.  

Emery picked this shirt out the day that she spent the night at DeAnna's.  It was quite the coincidence. 

Here's Luke throwing popcorn over the banister.  He was having a great time until I came in and ruined it.

The popcorn mess from above.

Harper and Emery were actually really excited to help clean up the popcorn.  I'm not sure if what Luke is doing really could be called cleaning.

Harper lost a tooth!

Emery was sick a couple of days and one of them she tucked herself right into our bed to rest and watch television.

The family hangs out in our bed a lot actually.

Daryl was putting more RAM in this laptop and apparently this was very interesting.

Harper and Emery hamming it up for the camera.