snow, ice & valentines

I figured I better get some of these pictures posted before this month is over!  It's already starting to warm up and we've had unseasonably warm weather the past week.  The snow is already melted and everything is now a muddy mess!  But first, back to some of the last days of winter!

We took the kids sledding at Payton's Papa's farm.  It was a perfect place to sled and the weather was so gorgeous!  They had a blast!

Sledding with Angie and Payton!

My sweet boy

This was the crew!

For the longest time Andrew has begged for a fast sled!  He loves this one he can go on his tummy.  I got it on sale at the end of the season last year and he loves it!

Mommy had to take a turn!  It's fun to be a kid at heart sometimes!

Andrew got to ride the snowmobile with Chad and he was just in heaven!

Kerigan's turn!

We got to go to our cousin Evelyn's birthday party and she had an ice skating party!  None of the kids had ever been ice skating and it was so much fun!

They all just had the best time, even though they fell a lot!  Ha!  Andrew and Jayden stuck together the whole time.

First time ice skaters!

I was so proud of Kerigan too!  She couldn't wait to get out there and never wanted to stop!

Kerigan with the birthday girl!  Her big cousin Evie!

Look!  No hands!

I love the way she's looking at Grandpa here

Some grandma time!

The birthday kids!  These two were born 4 days apart!  We will never forget when Andrew was born early and everyone was expecting Evie to be born as she was overdue!  Craig called all his family and they all were so surprised to hear from us!  Ha!

We had a special Valentine's Day!  The day before was wear red day for the American Heart Association so we all wore red!

I had posted it on Facebook and many teachers and kids showed up the next day at school wearing red- it was so sweet!  This is our awesome nurse Jess.  She called us in the morning and had us come down and she had gotten special heart cookies for Andrew and I and she was wearing red!  She is so thoughtful!

After school Ga Ga and Papa came to surprise the kids with Valentines!  They were so happy!

And Ga Ga surprised mommy with these!  These are our amazing sugar cookies and we were just talking about how my mom doesn't make them anymore but she used to surprise me with them in college.  So when she brought these in I could have died!  I was so excited and they were sooooo delicious!

This is the best mama ever!

She knows the way to my girl's heart is through strawberries!

The kids were so excited to bring their Valentine boxes to school.  Kerigan kept saying she wanted a Sofia one, so we did a castle and put a picture of her and Sofia from Disneyworld on the front.  She loved it!

Of course Andrew wanted a Skylander box!  I had no clue how to do a Skylander (and it had to be from the new trap team!) so there were no ideas on Pinterest.  So here you go, the first Skylander trap team box- it is the character "Snapshot."  We did our best and it turned out pretty cool!  Andrew and all his friends loved it!

I got to sneak down to Andrew's class party for a bit.  They were having ice cream sundaes and opening their boxes.  Here he is with his two best friends Eli and Gavin.

This cracked me up- we went to pick up Kerigan after school and he put his box in her car seat when I went out to get her!  Ha!

This was the aftermath the next morning.  And just another reason why I shouldn't sleep in and let these two out of my sight!  Ha!

They loved playing the games Ga Ga got for them!

Andrew brought this home from school and I thought it was so sweet and asked if it was for me (of course, since it says "I love you the most!"  Ha ha!)  He said, "Nope!  It's for Ga Ga!"  Ha!  So there you go, mom!

As everyone is posting pictures of their spring break vacations this week, I am a little jealous because we don't really get a spring break so we have a work week ahead.  But we are planning a little getaway next weekend to meet my mom and Jim when they get back from Arizona and we can't wait!  Spring is definitely in the air!  I love this time of year!

cozy winter days

I forgot to add these to the last of my Disney updates.  I had to post about this!  

So while we were at Disney, we took our poor kitty to the vet to be boarded.  Mom and Jim were going to be with us, and I felt that she was too little still to be home alone for 10 days.  I had friends who offered to check on her and feed her, but I just thought she would tear the house apart!  Plus she needed declawed and spade, so we just did it all at once.  We were at a show at Hollywood Studios when our vet texted me this picture and I about died!  It was just pitiful!  

The first thing we did when we got home from the airport was go pick her up.  Our vet's daughter is in my class at school (the beauty of a small town!  Everyone knows everyone!) and she was happy to meet me anytime so I could get her, even though it was a Saturday!  Here we are on the car ride home.  We were SO happy to have her back!

Papa and Andrew went with me to get her.  She had this awful cone around her neck so she wouldn't mess with her stitches.  I hated it (so did she!)  We all couldn't wait for her to get it off!

But we all just enjoyed her and tried to play with her a lot!  She had to have the cone for another week.  

She even missed Craig!  Ha!

So happy to have our kitty back!  We say all the time how lucky we are because she is the sweetest and most well mannered cat.  She lets the kids drag her around and she never bites or scratches.  She is so good with the kids and we just love her!

Papa and Ga Ga had come back a few days before we did, so they met us at home and brought us goodies since we hadn't been to the grocery store in over 10 days!

The kids were so excited about all the food!  Ha!

Andrew and Papa both love salami, so he got a bunch for Andrew and this is what he did with it!  Ha!

The weekend after we got back we started in taking down the Christmas decorations.  It was not fun to have to have that job after our trip.  Part of me wishes we would have done it before we left!  Notice Belle in the windowsill!  Ha!  She loved climbing up the tree to that spot.  Now she's stuck and wondering how the heck she's going to get down (and back up again!)  She misses her tree!

Ga Ga and Papa stayed for dinner and we got Papa Murphy's.  The kids love the mini pizzas they can make themselves.

It was tough to hit it hard and go back to work and school 2 days later but we managed!  Luckily the semester ended mid January and we had an early dismissal so I got to take my little man out to lunch!

Right before Andrew's birthday, Kerigan got sick.  My poor baby she never gets sick!  I stayed home with her and she layed on the couch like this all morning.

This was my view.  I hated to have her sick but snuggling with Belle and my sweet daughter all day sure made me happy!

We only got disturbed when her temp started spiking up to 103+ even with Tylenol.  She was so lethargic and burning up so I just threw her in the car and called the doctor's office from the car.  I told them I was either going to their office or the ER and they told me to come there.  

Turns out she had strep!  Her first time (and I hope the last!)  It got her down!  She only ate about 16 oranges and did drink some water, but she was down for the count all day and night, and most of the next day.

She was asleep by 6pm that night.  Poor thing!  Thank goodness she perked up in time for Andrew's party and had been on antibiotics 24 hours and fever free so we could go ahead with the party plans!

After everyone left after his party, we started getting snow!  Sunday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland!

We got 12+ inches overnight!  It was so pretty!

The kids couldn't wait to play in it!

Andrew built a fort!

Here he is digging a hole!  Ha!

They came inside and cuddled up to watch a movie!

Lunch by the cozy fire!  And with all the Skylanders!  Ha!

We found out we had a snow day that Monday so the kids were so excited to have a sleep over in Kerigan's room!  This picture just melts my heart.

Snow day fun!  Hideout under the counter with the iPad and snacks!

They have loved tearing the house apart on these cold days when we can't go outside!  At day care Kerigan has been having an under the sea theme, so they were pretending they were at the beach and this was their sand castle!

Daddy's new gym at school is almost done so he took us up there to run off some energy and see the progress!  The kids loved having races and running around!

Andrew loved the weight room!  Ha!  I can just see him in here working out someday!

Another day we had an early dismissal due to more snow!  We loved coming home, putting our pj's on for the rest of the day and cuddling by the fire with Belle!  It's so fun when it's snowing and evening activities are cancelled and we all just get to stay home together!