Happy Valentines Day!

Lots of love on Valentines this year! The night before, John took just the girls out on a special Daddy date...a mexican restuarant with cheese dip and then yogurt...the girls couldn't have been happier! On Valentines Day, we started off the morning with a breakfast of the girls' favorites--monkey bread (made in heart shaped muffin tins), rice krispies and "pink" milk! The kids got new beach towels for the special day, so they got to enjoy their breakfast as a little picnic on the new towels! Ella enjoyed her Valentines party at school and had a blast going through all of her sweet cards from her friends when she got home. Audrey's was the week before so she brought hers back out to check hers out too! We ended the evening with a heart shaped pizza and some ice cream!

Walker at 4 Months!

Happy 4 months Walker! He is just the happiest little thing and has really turned out to be my most "go with the flow" child. Everyone says the third has to be that way, but I truly believe that is the nature of his personality and I hope he is always as laid back as he is most of the time. He continues to grow right on schedule, despite the fact that everyone has to comment on how big he is. It is one thing for me to call him my "chunky monkey" but for other people to make comments like "Wow, he is huge" or "What are you feeding him" drives me crazy. I mean really, would you say those things to another person?

His stats at 4 months...
16 lbs., 5 oz (67%)
25 1/4 inches (57%)

At 4 months...

• Walker smiles...all the time. It melts my heart and I can't get enough of them.
• He has found his fist and tries to get the whole thing in his mouth to chew on it.
• He rolls from side to side but can't flip himself over all the way. I'm thinking it is only a matter of time.
• He loves riding in the Baby Bjorn which makes it fun to have him more a part of the action now.
• He is still a horrible sleeper at night.
• He squeals with excitement everytime his sisters come in to his sight.
• He loves to kick his legs.
• He'll spend quite a bit of time in the exersaucer which is a nice change to having to either be held or laying flat on the floor.
• Still no luck on trying to get this one to take a pacifier. I know that I will be glad when I don't have to wean him from it, but it sure would be nice in the middle of the night to have something to soothe him!

Can't believe how fast it is going and I can't imagine life without our little dude!

Duck Derby

The city has an annual duck derby where you can purchase little rubber duckies and decorate them and then race them through the lazy river at the Natatorium. It was our first year to participate, so we got two ducks for the girls to decorate. They had a blast "bedazzling" their ducks. We didn't win the best decorated (some people must have spent DAYS working on theirs), but we got a ribbbon for participating which made the girls happy! We can't wait until next year so Walker can participate too!

Audrey's Princess Peacock trying to take the lead...we came in second in her heat.

Ella's "Cutesy Patootsy" is the one in the center with the big pink feather.

Cutesy Patootsy...we tried to give her the Rapunzel look

Princess Peacock!

Spreading the Love

Our Sunday School class decided for our February Outreach event we would bring Valentines to a local Assisted Living center. The girls worked hard creating some homemade ones and then worked on a few coloring sheets too. We had an amazing turnout with 45 people (kids included) bringing all different valentines and goodies for the residents. They were so appreciative and loved seeing the kids. John and I were especially proud of Ella who was very excited about handing the valentines and sugar free candy out and was eager to make sure every single person received one! Only an hour of our time, but it was such a treat for us to get to spread a little Valentines love and teach our kids about serving. We can't wait to go back to visit again!

Ice Storm 2011 - Take 2

Another day off from school with the ice storm, but the girls had fun being explorers. Thankfully, the Valentines box from Mimi and Papa J arrived early, so the girls had fun with their headlights exploring the house in the dark and wearing their new summer pajamas (yes, it was 10 degrees outside). It is fun to have snow every once in a while, but today Ella started crying when she saw it because she really wanted to be able to go to school and dance!

What John Has Feared

Our house is filled with pink...and purple. We have Barbie dolls, baby dolls, purses and dress up clothes. We own every princess item they make and it is clear when we go into Target that Ella and Audrey have no interest in the "boy aisles."

When we found out we were having a boy, John envisioned the future of Walker's existence in a house full of big sisters. He would be dressed as Cinderella, be the guinea pig when the girls were practicing their makeup and would be forced to play with all the Barbie dolls that clutter the game room.

Today, it began. Ella found some pink pipe cleaners and fashioned them into a crown and placed them on Walker's head. You can see from his expression, it didn't phase him a bit. Poor guy.

Daddy and Kiddos

We had to get some pictures for the girls' upcoming Donuts with Daddy events at school and could not find many with just John and Audrey. It seems like when Audrey came along, John always ended up on the side of the table with Ella and I was with Audrey. Of course, Ella couldn't stand to not have her own picture with Daddy, so we made the rounds with all the kiddos!

Audrey has become one big Daddy's girl! She can not stand for him to go to work, leave the house, or get out of her sight at all!

Daddy's first girl

Superman with Super Daddy