Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day weekend was eventful to say the least!

On Friday we went to TWO Valentine's Day parties, both at parks, and back to back! First was with our friends/playgroup from church. We are going to miss our fun friends!

Then we drove out to Long Beach to a Valentine's Day party for Natalie's school. It was super fun! Although, it was nap time for Seth so that definitely made things hard. A couple times the poor kid laid down on the grass like he wanted to go to sleep!

Natalie and Caleb joined in for a few rounds of a version of capture the flag. 

Jenna got disgustingly dirty. Seriously, she was rolling around in the sand, and she looked like an orphan. (She is wearing one of Caleb's socks that got left in the car because she got a nasty gash on her foot at the first park that we were trying to keep clean. Right.)

Seth being his chill self.

After that party we went to the beach. More on that later.

That night after the kids were finally in bed I made their valentines. We made and sent like literally 50 valentines this year and so my creative juices and patience were waning by this point, but I knew I wanted to do poems for everyone this year. I only had two in mind though (Kent's and Natalie's) so finding the other three took some time, but I prevailed! 

Kent got home late that night and we were all SO happy to see him in the morning!! He surprised us all with valentines and everything too! The kids were so thrilled with their adorable cards and yummy candy, and understandably my poems were just not as cool. Ah well, maybe I will try again some year. My cards from Kent contained coupons for house projects! =o]

(Caleb had to remake his valentine for Kent because it accidentally got sent to a cousin. He was devastated for a while. But he perked up after some delicious pancakes. Poor kid!) 

I gave Kent our 2014 blog books. Yes, two!

We opened our valentines from grandparents. 

We made our classic valentine's chocolates! Well, me and Caleb did. =o]

We played a ridiculous game of flag football. Our family needs to learn better sportsmanship!!

And... we packed boxes!

That night Kent got us heart pizza from Papa Johns and we watched the movie he had got the kids- "How to Train Your Dragon". Everyone liked it, especially because the unit we just finished in history was about Vikings!

On Sunday night I made a nice dinner, and also a special dessert of peach crisp for Kent. It took us ten years, people, but he finally told me that he didn't really like chocolates for Valentine's Day! LOL!! 

Here's to LOVE! I love my family!!

Jenna's 3rd Birthday!

By the time Jenna's birthday finally rolled around, she was beyond excited! The anticipation just builds as each January birthday passes. I feel like Jenna has grown up so much since Christmastime. Maybe it's because she is having fewer accidents. It definitely has something to do with the way she talks (an expanding vocabulary? more clear pronunciation?) and the way she moves her hands when she talks. She is just so observant and in tune with what's going on around her. Especially with people! I have so much hope for the future that all that rambunctious curiosity and spunk that caused SO MANY HORRORS as a two year old can be channeled into something phenomenal! If anything, I will say this: Jenna is the wild card. The only thing I know for sure is I never know what I'm going to get when it comes to Jenna. I'm trying my best to LOVE her and hang on for the ride! =o]

Again, Kent was out of town so we spread out the celebrations and Jenna came along for our birthday shopping trip. To no one's surprise she wanted all things pink and Frozen =o]

Here are the party preparations the night before.

The morning of Jenna's birthday she got up early and helped herself to the Frozen yogurt she had picked out to have. We also had blueberries and Swedish pancakes. 

Three ponytails because she is three!

Frozen shirt, Frozen pants, Frozen socks!

Her very own Book of Mormon! The little red one from Uncle Derek was promptly handed down to Seth. =o]

Here she is decorating an Elsa book kit thing she got.

A big event was changing her crib into a day bed for her birthday. It wouldn't have taken us so long if we hadn't had to scrape off the 17 Dora stickers she had snuck into bed and applied the night before. Believe it or not, blessedly, she had only started climbing out a couple weeks ago. Even though we are about to move we decided to just go for it now, and I'm pleased to say there hasn't been even a hiccup over it!

Seth was so pleased with himself climbing up there! 

Next we went to the hospital in San Dimas where remarkably each of the kids was born. It is on my SoCal bucket list to visit the hospital and take this picture so I thought her birthday was as good a time as any to go!

Then we went to "the blue park" as Jenna calls her favorite park and had a picnic lunch and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine! 

During quiet time we looked through all of Jenna's special books and I again felt guilty about not having them up to date. But the kids didn't notice, or at least didn't say anything so I'll just make sure to show it to her again when I get around to them. Probably this summer! lol!  

Then she opened another present and she and Caleb went outside to play while Natalie and I hit the books for a bit. 

We made cupcakes. Major crises were averted throughout the process. 

Jenna and Caleb went back outside to build forts. We are going to miss our yard! (Though I'm sure it will not miss us!!)

We decorated cupcakes. Major crises were NOT averted several times. SO MUCH MESS for not that much fun!! But they love it so whatever! =o]

These are Frozen fruit snacks. Classy, right? 

And then, because Jenna is the Mini-Me MacKay, we went to Chic-fil-A again. If Kent had been home we might have been able to convince her that somewhere else would be fun, but Caleb holds too much weight with her for me to sway any opinion. I swear, that kid can get her to do stuff (good and not so good) that no one else could!! They are best pals those two! 

They made friends. =o]

Fun times!!

When we got home we opened more presents because she had only opened the ones from me and her siblings. 

 

Then we did cupcakes and ice cream! She really is such cute little girl! 

Seth was ecstatic to get cake and ice cream again! Lol!

Then on Saturday Kent came home and of course had a few additional gifts up his sleeve. 

He and Jenna went out on a date! She had been looking forward to it and talking about it literally for weeks! When she saw that he was wearing his flip flops she had to go change into hers so they could match. What a girl! 

One of the stops they made was to Babies R Us where they bought her yet another new blanket. (WHY did we ever buy a white blanket?) Natalie insightfully pointed out that Jenna's blanket is just a comfort object, not a friend, so she can just replace it anytime with a new one. If it is possible, Jenna adores her "new pretty softie blanket" even more than the graying shredded rag she had been carrying around previously. The picture doesn't do it justice people. She didn't even give it a second glance as I unceremoniously walked it out to the trash bin. Yes, it was THAT bad.

She also got a birthday blessing from Kent the next day, and did an adorable interview with me. So there you have it. Jenna is 3! 

Happy Birthday! We love you Jenna!!