Investment

For a Sunday afternoon craft, I made Valentine's Day card holders with the kids.

To make this...

...it required this:

p.s. I had picked up for about ten minutes prior to this picture.

p.p.s. Verdict: WORTH IT!

The beauty of tradition

Would you believe that its become a Christmas tradition to take a picture of my sister Hannah pretending to punch our mom in the face?

(The addition of brother-in-law Matt in the back is just a bonus.)

All about a Danish

Our little Dane turned three on January 14. Three year old birthdays are so much fun because they GET IT. That means that they understand that they are awesome, that they can say things like "I get to go first-take that from you-eat that-make a general nuisance of myself- because it's my birthday!!" and that the events of the day (or days as our family seems to do) revolve around them.

I always make the kids a special breakfast, lunch, and dinner for their birthdays. Knowing that Dane loves pancakes I asked him what he wanted for his breakfast. He paused to think and said, "Syrup." Later I asked what he wanted for dinner and he said, "Soup." This floored me because making him eat any kind of soup is a full assault battle. "What kind of soup?" I asked. "Syrup soup." Hey, at least the kid knows his own mind!

Dane truly had a wonderful birthday. He loved his cake, he loved his gifts, he loved going to Chuck E. Cheese, and he loved all the special attention. I love birthdays too, it's a chance to really dote on one of the kids and go out of the way to make them feel special. My mom always made a big deal out of our birthdays and they are some of my best childhood memories. I am hoping to repeat that with our kiddos. In a house full of kids it's a big deal to have a day or two devoted only to you! OH, and thank you to all our wonderful family who spent the day with us and made his day special. Grandma Julie, you were missed!

I included many pictures of his birthday as well as the shots I took for his third birthday. I think I have a couple of ones that are good enough to avoid the JC Penneys. Of course the photo shoot ended up with him tantruming and crying in time out but hey, you can't tell from the photos!

Happy Monday folks!

will I ever post again?

Yes, I will. Someday. When I have time.

In the meantime, here are a few random pictures taken over our Christmas break. You know, that break that was almost a month ago.

On tap for future blog posts: Christmas (maybe, if it isn't Easter already), Dane's 3rd birthday, and my attempt at taking Dane's 3 year pictures myself. That super fun process ended up with him tantruming and being sent to his room. Good times.

My baby is 7 months old today. SEVEN MONTHS?!?!?!? Guess it's time for another one. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!