Valentine's Day 2017

We celebrated Valentine's Day on the 13th this year.  Joseph was on call the 14th and we wanted him home for our celebration.  I had visions of taking a picture of all of us in red and pink, but by the end of the day no one was in their original outfits from the beginning of the day.

Dinner was a big disappointment for me, but I just kept reminding myself that I made the dinner for Joseph because I love him and NOT because I wanted to eat this food.  Actually, I liked all of the food except for the mail dish...I made him meatloaf.  I have only made meatloaf one other time in my life and it was 5 months ago when I was going to be gone for dinner and Joseph mentioned wanting meatloaf.  (I find meatloaf very gross sitting in its own grease and simply the idea of it grosses me out.)  When I made the meatloaf 5 months ago I did a good job, too good, because Joseph and the kids raved about it.  When I asked what Joseph wanted for dinner on Valentine's day he said meatloaf so I cringed and made it.  We also had stuffing, roasted carrots, and fruit salad.

Here's my valentine with his meatloaf dinner.  For dessert I made a strawberry dump cake...another dessert with Joseph in mind.  I would have gone for chocolate, personally.  The dump cake was a white cake mix with a can of strawberry pie filling mixed in it.  It was okay, but I didn't think it was anything special, certainly not something special enough for a holiday.  It did have cream cheese frosting on it so that was the "fancy" part of the dessert.

Each year we give our kids small Valentine presents and this year was the same.  I forgot to get pictures of the big kids with their presents.  We gave Kimball some "vintage" football cards from the early 1990s.  He loved them, especially when he found a Bo Jackson card in one of the packages.  Rebecah got a "How to Draw" book and she loves to practice drawing animals.  A few months ago Rebecah got a Ty Beanie Boo stuffed animal when she was going through some medical tests and treatments that weren't fun.  Ever since then Lincoln and Annika have been eyeing her Beanie Boo so we gave each of them a Beanie Boo of their own.  (Can I say that I think they are a little ugly with the huge eyes?  I'm not sure why they are so popular!) We gave Annika the pink elephant, "Sugar" and Lincoln a panda, "Valentina".  They LOVE their Beanie Boos.  

This is a classic picture of Annika and shows just how "spicy" she is.  She love, love, LOVES to carry around bags.  

Here is Lincoln with his Boo.  He is in his pajamas.  We have to dress him and Annika in multiple layers so they don't get cold at night.  Lincoln is wearing his "fancy" pants.  That is was we called them so he would start wearing them.  Lincoln LOVES Frozen and is obsessed with the characters.  He loves Sven and Olaf, but also likes to carry around Rebecah's Elsa and Anna dolls, too.

Here's my sweetest valentine.  She is a dream come true.   

The morning of Valentine's Day I made white chocolate cranberry scones for breakfast and they were a big hit with the big kids.  Lincoln and Annika didn't really care for them, but they rarely want anything other than milk and a little cereal for breakfast.  I also gave the big kids special Valentine cookies and a Valentine in their lunch boxes.  The school also did a Valentine gram fund raiser so I bought them each a Valentine gram as a surprise.

Eden--4 Months

Eden turned 4 months on Sunday, February 12th.  I can't believe she has been with our family for 4 months. She really lives up to her name--delight or delightful. She brings us such joy.  She continues to be a sweet, mellow baby.  She is just so content.  I have never seen such a chill baby, but I am extremely grateful that Heavenly Father sent us a perfectly wonderful baby.

At Eden's doctor appointment on Monday, February 13th she weighed 12 lbs 7 ounces and she was 24 inches long.  She is about the 25th percentile for her weight.  She is right between Rebecah's and Annika's weights at this age.  Rebecah was a pound heavier and Annika was a pound lighter.  It's interesting to compare their growth.

Edie has started laughing and it's so fun to make her laugh.  She isn't really rolling over yet...I think she is too chill to care about rolling.  She is sleeping through the night about 1/3 of the time.  She had a cold/cough for a while this past month so that set back her sleeping through the night.  She almost always sleeps through the night after days when she is awake most of the day.  She went from sleeping almost constantly when she was first born to sleeping just a few hours the entire day.  One would expect her to get grumpy from not sleeping, but she rarely gets grumpy.  Anyway, I thoroughly enjoy the nights she sleeps through the night.  She is sporting a small bald spot on the back of her head, but what can I do when she sleeps 12 hours on her back.

She handles tummy time like a champ and will hang out on her tummy for 45 minutes to an hour multiple times a day.

Rebecah is still my right hand woman.  She is so good with Edie and Edie loves her for it.  Edie also loves her daddy as the photo shows.

Annika is in the cheesy smile stage but she loves to pose for pictures:

I just love this beautiful girl.  Here is Joseph with his two small girls.

The rest of these are just random shots from the last month.  

Eden still hates bath time so we always snuggle in her towel after her bath so she can calm down.

When Lincoln and Annika were born a good friend sent me matching pink/blue snow suits for them.  I don't feel like I have gotten enough use out of them so this time around I'm using the pink one for Edie's bedtime jammies since we tend to keep our house on the cool side.  She is always toasty warm when she sleeps! 

We sure love this sweet girl.  I love her dark fluffy hair and the way she is so vocal when she's happy.  I wouldn't trade her for the world!