VALENTINE'S DAY

Our Valentine's Day was pretty basic and nothing spectacular...Unless you count a family trip to the grocery store. Yipee! I didn't realize it until we were getting out of the car, but oh my lanta, it was so cold outside. And the rain that chose to start while we were scurrying though the parking lot didn't help either. It did end up snowing Valentine's night and President's Day, but nothing too significant that tampered with the streets.
The night before, Brooke wanted to make a card for her daddy. I was showing her how to cut out a heart at ended up making a few extras. I thought she could do all sorts of cute things with the different sized hearts, but she ended up just drawing squiggly lines on one big one and wanted to throw away the rest of them. I couldn't let that happen to my hard work, so we scattered them around the fireplace. Yes, I'm fully aware that it's a tad bit cheesy.
When Brooke put on her holiday festive outfit, it reminded me of something she wore a few years ago. I decided to post a few flash back photos of the kids. Looks like I've made them pose in front of the fireplace more than once. Our first house didn't have one or else you'd probably see pictures from there, too.

Valentine's Day 2007

Valentine's Day 2006

What a difference 3 years makes. Even though her hair is still thin, at least it finally has some sort of substance to it. And she still loves wearing little skirts and tights. I can't imagine how big she'll look in 3 more years.

BUILD A HORSE

We went out to Memphis the day before Valentine's to have some fun with Brooke's friend, Carrington, at Build-A-Bear for her birthday. Nana and Pa sent the kids some money for Valentine's Day so they were excited to get to go somewhere different to spend it. I loaded up the car with stuff to occupy the kids, and seven of us piled in and set out for the hour long ride.

Brooke has had her eye on this horse for over a year. We planned on taking her to Build-A-Bear around her birthday, but Nathan's plane ended up getting delayed, we were all starving, and then ran out of time before the mall closed. Good thing I never told her about it.
She'd never actually built anything there, just bought outfits since the animals she has were gifts. All of those outfits and accessories are soooo stinking cute. But, boy oh boy, do they add up quick!
Cole didn't care anything about building a stuffed animal, but he waited patiently until the girls were done to go to GameStop. It might have helped that he'd already been warned that he'd better be good or else...

A quick pit stop to chillax after the great video game hunt.
And of course the trip isn't complete without a ride on the perfectly placed carousel in the front entrance.

Cole was disappointed that Jamison couldn't check out his new video games after the drive back home, but it sure didn't stop him from playing one anyway. I think he had it all set up before I even got everything out of the car. When it comes to video games, he's all business.

FEBRUARY 11th- CAMO BELT

Apparently I can't seem to keep things straight lately. My brain must be rattled from all of the snow days the kids have had off from school...Or maybe I'm just losing it. I couldn't figure out how I got so mixed up on the order of my posts, but then I realized I just got mixed up on the different weekends that it snowed. I thought I built the snowman on President's Day but it was actually the weekend before when we got a bunch of snow. Not that this really matters to anyone else but me, but still...I had to set myself straight for the record. Now that that's all settled...

Cole finally got that camo belt that he's been eyeballing for the last 6 months in karate. He's gone from white to orange to yellow to camo in a mere 6 months. Yep, it takes no skill at all. Our frustration with the program is beyond words at this point...Or at least any nice words...Or anything that I haven't already mentioned on here before. A quick click of the bold colors will serve as a refresher if needed.

Nathan paid for the belt the day before and told the school that Cole would be taking a "break" for a while. Even though I really wanted him to, he didn't tell them that it was because their program is so ridiculous and not at all what they sold it to be. He holds his tongue and just lets things be much better than I do.

And there it is...The infamous camo belt. Tah-dah! He hasn't cared to go to any practices for a while now because he says it isn't fun anymore, but he still really wanted that camo belt. So now he has it, and we can all move on to something else...Like baseball.Brooke actually took the next two pictures. She filled in for mommy and played paparazzi for a couple of minutes. Cole was so annoyed that she was standing out there with him.

The graduation date changed 3 times because of all the snow that kept coming and going randomly. The night they finally had it, Nathan wasn't able to be there. Cole was pretty disappointed about that...Especially when I was the one to come to the mat and tie on his new belt. That made me feel real good.

I was trying to stick my arm out and take a photo of the three of us together. I guess I was zoomed in too close and this was the outcome. Look at those eyes!

We did our best at home with the self timer on the camera. Ten seconds just isn't long enough when you're trying to mad dash on your knees, strategically position two kids in front of your belly bulge, and perfectly drape your hair around your fat face. But we tried and the kids thought the crazy scrambling was hilarious.

Goodness, he looks so big.

Cole, we are so very proud of you and everything you've accomplished in karate! Your skills and abilities are so impressive and absolutely amazing!!! We hope you always carry them with you, and they give you an advantage to be that NFL football star that you're dreaming of being one day...Or anywhere else life takes you. We love you!

MORE SNOW, MAN

Yay! We got more snow, man! And this time the snow was more packable and had the ability to make some good stinging snowballs. Thank goodness for puffy coats.It may be kind of on the lame side, but I finally got to make a snowman. And I did say I...Not we, not us...Just me. Me, myself, and I. That's because nobody wanted to help me. Technically Nathan was at work, but still, he didn't help. And the kids just wanted to run around and stomp on everything instead of participate.

Look at how huge this thing is...It's almost as tall as our neighbor's house!Or at least that's the way it looks when you squat down in front of it and tilt the camera up.

I was barely half way done when the kids wanted to go inside because they were cold in their water lined jeans from running around. I think we might actually have to invest in some good snow attire next year. The sopping wet shoes, jeans, and gloves is for the birds.

He may be little, but I think he's cute. And he would've lived a good long life of about a week if Nathan hadn't punted his head off into the yard. Brooke was ticked when she saw his block knocked off because she really wanted to kick him while I was making him. No way! I purposely built him near the garage door on the driveway so he would be in the shade. So what if Nathan had to maneuver around him and narrowly miss hitting my car to pull into the garage. Geez!
The kids have had 9 snow days...So far. Absolutely ridiculous! Half of them didn't really seem necessary, but supposedly the county roads that are 30 miles or so out were too dangerous for the school buses. And due to a serious bus accident several years back, the county vowed not to put the children at risk like that again if the roads were even remotely questionable. Since we have county schools here, anyone can apply to go to any school of their choice if they don't want to go to the school closest to their house. And anyone, no matter how far away their house is, can ride the bus. And you either ride the bus or someone picks you up...No walking home. It's all very odd.I just realized that a couple of things happened before this post, but since I already jumped the gun and mentioned it, and went ahead and put it up. Oops! I really like for the posts to be in order, but oh well.

NOW THIS IS A BIG DEAL

The first part of February has been pretty stinking good. Three things have happened that we consider a big deal in our house.

The 1st thing...

As soon as Brooke jumped in the car on Friday the 5th, she announced that she was selected for student of the month. She was so excited that it was her turn since Cole was selected back in October. Plus, it's extra special to have your picture displayed in the cafeteria.

She had kind of a rough start to the school year as I mentioned before, mostly due to her shyness, but has been improving so well lately. Even though she says she doesn't like going to school, I think really enjoys learning and feeling like she's keeping up with Cole in some way. When we act surprised that she tells us something we didn't know she knew, she'll say, "I'm getting smarter." Indeed.
After Brooke's first report card wasn't so great, I explained to the teacher that she really does know her high frequency words (sight words), but she's just embarrassed to say them out loud. Her teacher has been very patient with her in trying to get her to come out of her shell. I think it also helps that we remind her that she has to answer her teacher if she wants to go to 1st grade. Now she's doing great, and we're so very of proud of her!

The 2nd thing...

Brooke lost her first big front tooth on Superbowl Sunday! I don't know how it stayed in there so long because that sucker was loose for a few of months. I thought that surely it would've been out before Christmas, but she refused to let anyone try and get it out. She didn't care that she could hardly take a bite of anything. She'd just cram her food to the other side of her mouth and gnaw on it like it was normal.

She messed with it all during the football game and then, out of the blue, just popped up in excitement that her tooth came out. It's so strange to see it missing though. She has such a giant hole compared to the little bitty tooth that was just there.No telling how big those chompers will be now. Nathan had big front teeth, I had big front teeth, and now Cole has big front teeth so...She's pretty much screwed. Fingers crossed that they won't be too bad!
This is a big deal. A huge deal. A milestone in our little girl's life. It means that she is really growing up and changing so quickly. We know that braces are already in our future for both of the kids, but we may need that beating stick to ward off the boys sooner than we think because she'll be a beautiful teenager before we know it. Seriously, where does the time go?

The 3rd thing...

We got more snow, man! Sweet! Luckily, school was already scheduled to be out that Monday for President's Day. More about the snow on the next post...

SHOCKING BUT TRUE

The garage is actually cleared out and we can fit BOTH of our cars in there now!!! We did this mid January for some random reason that I can't even remember, and it was finally finished exactly 10 months to the day from when we first moved in. That's serious progress, people. I hope this makes my parents proud!
I didn't get to go through some of the boxes and organize things like I wanted because Nathan just chunked them up in the attic when I went inside to help the kids with something. And a gigantic box of trash mysteriously appeared that I know I didn't fill up. Punk.

He tried to say that he thinks that I could be a hoarder. Have you ever seen that show? Whatever! We don't have to try and navigate through mountains of trash and junk inside of our house just to go to the bathroom. Good grief, those hoarder people require multiple dump trucks to clear out the crap inside, outside, and all through every little nook and cranny of their house.

Only half of our garage had stuff in it...Because we moved to a house that is 500 sq ft smaller than our last one...Within just a few weeks notice...And from another state! Come on!

Thank goodness we did this the weekend before the big snow storm. Whew! Just in time! Now if I could just get the master bedroom room cleaned up...