I was hoping to get this up before April, but, alas...

Here are the rest of our crazy February photos...

The middle of the month started with a fun and fabulous trip to Seaside.  My dad hooked us up with a weekend at Seaside, and Misty and her two little boys joined us.  It was loads of fun.  One could snuggle and smooch on THIS...

cute face an awful lot.  He is so so cute, not to mention mischievous as well.

We had loads of fun, went to the touch aquarium, swam lots, had ice-cream, and just good times together.  Although, it ended like THIS...

with poor little S's face in the toilet multiple, multiple times!!

She was over it in a day, but then Mike, A, and I all ended up sick for a day as well.  It was a really horrible two days.  

We spent a lot of down time, trying to chill. There are no pictures from our two sick days.  It was not a pretty sight.  :)  

This is a common look for A these days...she loves to read.  When she gets into a book she is just like me...can't do anything else, can't focus on anything, stays up at night to read, makes herself car sick reading in the car.  She cracks me up, and makes me smile.  

We all felt better by Wednesday, which was a very good thing.  J had a big night; it was the Blue and Gold banquet.   J received his Arrow of Light!  That was a good day.  He worked very hard to earn it, and I was very proud of him.  He now has a goal to earn all twenty Webelos Activity pins (we'll see).

Then we had a great snow day.  The kids got to stay home from school all day long and I had two extra little ones at my house for a majority of the day as the kids were in and out, playing in the snow and warming up.  Here is A getting ready to brave the cold snow. We are a little snow wimpy here. :)

I couldn't get S to hold still for two seconds to get a picture without her growling at me. (yes, she growls at me when I pull the camera out-hahaaa!)  So I snuck these ones.  The first two I think are practically perfect of her...

Until you know the story...hahahaaa!

I told her to throw a snowball at me, and the first shot is her grinning as she is forming her snow ball.  The the second one she is getting ready to throw it.  These next two crack me up, because you can see the sweet, serene appearance of the first pictures is all a facade...she...is...getting...ready...to...nail...me.

And I love her for it!

Here are a few of the kids playing in the snow.  It was D's first real playing in the snow.  He was super cute.  I bundled him up so much he was sweating when he came in.  He had a blast and lasted just as long as the other kids.

My sweet A was awesome, stayed with D, made sure he went down the hill plenty of times, and had so much fun.  She is awesome with him.  By the way, our huge dip/gulley in our backyard is extremely awesome for sledding.

And, yes, they totally ran into J going down the hill. :)  They all were giggling in delight!!

After a full day of playing in the snow we ended up making a trip to the ER with S.  She was having severe stomach cramping and screaming uncontrollably.  So Mike came home from work and took her.  She was dehydrating, low low electrolytes, low potassium, so they think she was having intestinal spasms.  Poor darling.  But all was well. This was the end of Thursday.

Then Friday night we had the beginnings of bronchitis in A.  Goodness, that week was one heck of a week.  I laugh looking back on it.  It was seriously so much that is seemed unreal.  And it amazing between all the sickness we had a great snow day and an even awesomer day with J getting his Arrow of Light.

This is our snowy little town, all a-glow.  What you see here is down town, the business part of our little town.

Our three deer that frequent our yard.

D hanging out with Dad watching hunting or sports...I can't be sure which.

So this is the end of our February.  Thanks for popping in. :)

and the beginning of Feb....

February was...well...full...  We had LOTS of basketball, LOTS of scouts, LOTS of fun, LOTS of travel for Mike (gone about two weeks of the month), LOTS of sickness, and LOTS of snow (for us ;) ).  But we loved it!

Pictures:

These two are sometimes the best of friends and sometimes, well, just the opposite!  LOL

 I love that A is trying to kiss him, and J is trying to do rabbit ears!  hahaaa

Little S was sick from school today. We had pb&j for lunch and she LOVED the heart shaped sandwich cutter.  She staged this shot for me.

After having the first sunny day for a LONG time and all the kids rode their scooters on the deck D decided he needed one too.  So we ran out and got him his first scooter and helmet.  He is so excited.

Here he is "scootering" on the deck. :)  He is pretty dang good!

I forgot to take the camera to S's basketball game.  So I took one after.  They are so cute at this age playing basketball.

I love this picture.  My sweet A plays her sports still a little timidly.  She is too nice on the court.  So Mike was giving her some advice about getting in and grabbing rebounds and NOT passing the ball every time she gets it.  

And the result...She made this shot!  She just got better and better as the season went on.

I'd like to say this in Mike's "blue steel" look to me, but no.  Really this was his, "Get that camera out of my face" look. :)

J begged us to let him stay up as late as we do one night.  So we did.  We signed his note, and he has to sign ours...which includes, "no dating or kissing girls until I am 21 years old"  Sweet!!

The kids wanted to do some crafty Valentine Treats.  Here is day one of our mess.

Here are treats bagged.

This little ham is shooting me with his imaginary bow and arrow.

J is posing for his Valentine's Day card. (There is a shot of the finished product a little ways down.) 

S's favorite place to make a mess, or should I say, get crafty.  These are the two steps from the dining room down to the living room.  And they are constantly covered in her mess of papers, scissor snips, crayons, pencils, markers, glue sticks, etc.

Hi mom!

These next few pictures are of Mike's birthday.  It was full of things he REALLY wanted to do. LOL!! (that is sarcastic, by the way.)

He got to coach A's basketball team.

We watched S's basketball game.  She is intense. LOL!

 Mike and I had a 2 hour church leadership meeting (no pictures of that)

 and then we got home to THIS...

Our most awesome babysitter that night was charged with the challenged of getting these two princesses ready for their Daddy/Daughter dance.  They have been planning this event for about a month, and they were beyond excited!  Makenzie did a fabulous job and they both felt about as beautiful as they possibly could.  We got home and I snapped a few pictures and then Mike and the girls left.

They got home around 8:30 and we quickly did cake and ice-cream.

It was a full day, but we got it all done! Happy Birthday, my Love!

Here is the finished product of J's Valentine cards.

This is how we spent Valentine's Day night!  We had heart shaped waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, and then hung out playing games on the ipad and itouch.  I think I probably read while Mike entertained the kids with youtube and Fruit Ninja. 

J stayed home from school "sick" but this day, I think he was mostly playing hooky.  We used the day to do about 1.5 hours of scouts and finished up MOST of his requirements for his Arrow of Light.

D kept himself occupied at the Church during scouts and Activity Days coloring.

Just a blue bird!

And this is just until the 17th of Feb... Coming soon, a trip to seaside, lots of sickness, arrow of light, and snow. :)

Jan and Feb came and went with a bang!

Where oh where did the time go?  Is it really March?

SO here is Jan...in pictures...

Happy New Year to everyone!!

D looking VERY tired.  He must have partied too hard for New Years!

I asked J to wait a sec to get in the car after school, so I could get his picture, and this is what I got.  NICE!

Luis came over and helped me go through a ton of stuff and make multiple runs to the dump!!   This is just ONE of the boxes of magazines I recycled.

D loves his "Rookie Sports" at the YMCA.

Finally took down all the Christmas decorations. FINALLY!

SO this is a precious moment!  D had jumped on J's face at bed time and J was bleeding a little bit because of his head gear.  They were both very sad when we left them in their room to sleep.  When I came upstairs to go to bed this is what I saw.  When I asked D if he was snuggling with J and he said, "no, I was trying to tell him I was sorry and he wouldn't answer." SWEET!

I read this whole series in a week and a half.  And I would have read it in three days had I not been de junking my house as well. 

random shot of S pilfering in the fridge.

Let it snow.  It was melted by noon!

Apple apps store for the imac!  YEAH baby!  Angry birds on the imac!

Super D!

A little Lego Rock Band!

Exhausted.  and yes he is drooling!

Mike is totally enjoying his new toy! a new 3d TV! (To each his own I guess. LOL!)

MMMM!

Our sick J!

Click on this one to see it larger.  I took about 5 pictures of this sunset and pieced it together. :)  Off our deck!

A Valentine's Day kit I was working on for my shoppe.

Crashed on the floor again...the sad life of a fourth child!

My bins.  This is around the 20th of Jan.  I only barely got rid of them (last week) thanks to Miriam!!  I only have 3 out of 10 left!  Wahoo!!!  

a fun and cheap little wooden train I love.  Target $1.00 bins.

hahaaa! D digging something out of his teeth.  and he got it!

just munching!

bills!  (this is a larger than normal stack.  It had all of J's medical bill, statements and insurance papers in it, as well.)

Cute Valentine goody bags I made with my kit.

My scout!  Heading off for Klondike!  He didn't enjoy it that day, but now looks back on it with fond memories!  

One night I walked down my hall and found it turned into a lovely art gallery (only one side of the gallery shown)!  Thank you, my independent, free spirit, and always crafting daughter, S! :)

and that my friends is the abbreviated version of January!