Fun times

I built a sledding hill for the kids. It took a few weeks of packing and building it, but this is what we got...after todays snow it might be better, this was a couple days ago, but they LOVE it. There are little step slots for their boots on the side and the go all the way over to the fence. Score 1 for Mommy!!

The kids saw on their friends, Ida and Emerson's Mommies blog that they were doing the dishes and it's all they have been talking about. They wanted to do the dishes too! So I let them: and they loved it. Samantha wanted in on the action too (she's going through the naked phase....to bad she couldn't do this during the summer. Everytime I turn around she's got her clothes off)

Snow Day

Right after Jim tackled Ethan

Paige running from a snowball

Paige staring at her snowlady

Daddy helped the kids make a SnowLady

Remembering

After school on friday Paige came home, opened her backpack, grabbed a bunch of papers out of it and hid them. I asked what was going on and she said it wasn't finished yet and it was a surprise.

She has finished it, and it is so cute.

Last summer, Jim surprised the kids and I by sending us up to Ludington where my family has gone for the last 22 years. It was too late notice to find anything but a hotel room towards the outside of town, but it was perfect. We didn't tell anyone in my family that we were going. We spent the weekend up in Grand Rapids with the Boyds and then on Monday drove the rest of the way to Ludington, stealthly sneaking into the resort grounds and up to the Cabin then yelling SURPRISE!! Oh, what fun. Paige talks about it all the time. This is what she was working on:

This is us at Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill's sitting in chairs outside:

This is us at the Beach. At the top is the water and sun, below that is the sand with the beach umbrella and chairs under it, then under that is us on laying on the ground.

This is us at the cabin, sitting outside on the deck

This is the kids and I (she put Jim in too, because she felt bad not including him, even though he wasn't there) sleeping at the hotel. (At the bottom she wrote "Paige was laying on a bed")

How cute is that! She remembers just little details it seems.

Happy Valentines Day!

Prepare for some cuteness. Here are my attempts and trying to get the kids to take some serious Valentines pictures. We all know my kids though, can't take a normal picture! :)

Cold Day Inside

Lunch on a cold day needs some yummy Quesadilla's, french fries and grapes. The kids were very happy and ate 2 more helpings of each thing.

Cold days inside also mean sneaky little girls pulling a chair from the dining room to the kitchen counter and climbing up to get her own banana...

and reading books .

I have this thing called a "Moby Wrap". It's a long peice of stretchy fabric that you wrap around your body and your baby and it keeps your baby strapped to you. Kind of like a papoose. You can put the baby on your front or your back and in all different positions. I love it. I have even put Ethan on my back with it and carried him around. I use it all the time with Samantha. I put her in it as an infant and still now. I use it to get dishes, laundry, meals..etc. Done while she's strapped to me. The other day she wasn't feeling well so I put her in the moby and carried her around while I made dinner. :

Paige said she wanted one for her babies, so I made this:

She kept it on for about an hour:

I'm glad she likes it.

Pirate Party

Let me start this post by saying my sister Katherine is awsome! She provided us with an amazing "Abenture" for today. Yesterday in the mail we got this:

With instructions on a pirate Abenture!

And a great lot of Pirate booty to go with it!

Here are the kids before decorating their cupcakes

Here they are after and now eating their cupcakes.

Paige was having fun putting her Pirate earrings everywhere :

Samantha loving her cupcake with her patch around her neck

Here are the kids reading along with the narration CD Katherine did, Sound effects and all. They sat there stunned for a bit and then Samantha walked up to the computer speakers and looked at them and said "Kaka?"

Needless to say: we had a blast! What an abenture! Thanks Katherine. We had a ton of fun and will keep having fun with it all. The kids were taking turns hiding the treasure chest and then giving each other clues on where they hid it. Ethan might need a little work though:

Paige:" is it in the bathroom?"

Ethan:"No, it's in the closet!"

:) We love you Katherine and thanks for our box of fun!

Songs of Love

I love love songs. I loved them all growing up. There are certain songs that go along with certain guys in my life. I'm not sure if they will ever read this blog, but i'll keep there names out just in case.

Now weather the words have any meaning at all, that's not my point, it's just certain songs that always remind you of someone.

(The music playing on the side are these songs)

Guy #1 : had an odd way of showing his feelings. He flirted, I would flirt back, but we never actually dated. Or so I thought. I met a girl, years later, that when I introduced myself, she said, "Oh yeah! I've heard of you. You dated ______!" So I guess maybe it was more...who knows..I digress. I've chosen two song's for him since it was these two songs that I listened too when he first moved back and that we requested at a dance one time to dance to. They are Chris Gaines "Lost In You" and "That's the Way I Remember It". They will always remind me of him.

Guy #2 was in marching band with me and he was so sweet. I had the biggest crush on him. He was so nice. He was always talking about and listening to Dave Mathews band, so any song by them. But I picked "Satelite".

Guy #3. Very wonderful guy. He became my best friend for a long time. I could talk to him about anything and I actually flew him out to go to my Senior Prom with me. He told me about this song he had heard on the radio and everytime I hear it, I think of him. It's Joe's "I Wanna Know".

Guy #4. This guy is someone I have known for a long time. He's still a friend. He's the guy that you have in your journal when you're 12 and say things like

"I am SO going to marry ___"

"Mrs. Heather ________"

" Heather +_____= Love 4ever!"

:) He's one that if you knew me at all, you knew I had a HUGE crush on him. I was and am still a HUGE Harry Connick, Jr. Fan and I remember on our way to a dance one time, we were with a group of people and he heard this song and said "this song rocks" So it will always remind me of him. Harry's "Just Kiss Me".

There are more, but I don't want to bore you.

Now for Jim: Jim's and my actual "Song" is by Lifehouse, called "Everything" Jim is a huge fan of music, so we always listened to it on our dates. He might hate me for telling this, but on one date, he sang me a song (just to be funny of course): It was Lionel Richie "Destiny". Cute. These next songs are songs that Jim and I have loved. Listen and enjoy!

Help!

My friend Mellissa needs help. Please read this and let us know if you have any ideas.

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