Valentines

Every Valentines we try and fill the door with things we do to bring more love to our home. Brynn loved putting up the hearts each day for us.

This kids love the angel food cake for Valentines. We added strawberries and whipped cream to the cake. Yum!

We had fun red beans and pink rice for dinner for Valentines. We decided to eat on the floor for fun.

The kids are excited to wear red today for Valentines and to open their presents from us.

We had a fun candlelight breakfast with heart pancakes.

Kevin did a great job making them!

Brynn had fun making her valentine bag at preschool.

Ashleigh chose to make her Valentine box like a present. She did it all herself.

Kamren wanted to win the funniest Valentine Box award at school and he did! He made the box as girly as he could get it.


The kids love getting their dollars from grandma and grandpa.

They couldn't wait to open their mail.

Green smoothie boy! I've been making green smoothies for the kids each day to get them to eat more vegetables. Kamren and Andrew love them. greensmoothiegirl.com is the place where I learned this. I love the smoothies and it feels good when the kids are eating more veggies.


We are having a Super Saturday at church and this is one of the things the sisters will be making. It's so fun to make something new.

I made this for the girls room and they love it. So easy and so fun to make.

I put this downstairs on our bookshelf. It's nice for the reminder to have more faith.

I made this towel for Ashleigh for her baptism in June. I will give it to her for her birthday along with a poem. She can use this right after she gets baptized.


Ashleigh and her dad had a great time on their date to the school luau. They also had fun going out to eat of Ashleigh's choice to McDonalds. It was fun to help plan it.

Ashleigh loved all the snacks at the Father/Daughter dance.

Kamren just recently started Judo on Saturdays and he loves it.

Getting ready for Connor... We decided to build shelves in the girls room and have Connor stay in there for a while until he converts into a bed because the girl's room is much bigger. The girls can't wait to have their little brother sleeping with them. We'll see when he cries in the night if they like it that much.
This whole week the kids have been out of school because of a power outage. We had fun one evening at a waterpark.



Curls, curls, curls. One of my friends watched the kids for us and did their hair really curly and they loved it so I tried it for Sunday.

Brynn plays with my hair every night. She loves to get her hair done and she loves to do hair.

Twins! It's so cute to see the brothers in matching sweaters. I could just eat them up!

What we're up to...

ANDREW IS INTO...
Andrew was tired of his high chair and wanted to be like his siblings so we changed him into the booster. He is much happier at the table.

Andrew loves to have reading time with daddy. He is into truck books right now.

Andrew is into marbles. He loves to put them in the lid, dump them out and pick them up again. He loves anything round to play with.

KAMREN IS INTO...
Kamren loves the Valentine sugar cookies we make every year. The kids had fun decorating them.

It was quite the event to make them altogether this year.

Kamren is into yummy treats. We have a tradition to make these chocolate truffles around Valentines Day every year.

Legos, legos, legos. Kamren is so creative. We love his new creations everyday.

BRYNN IS INTO...


Brynn is into dressing her brother up and having lots of laughs. Andrew doesn't mind it one bit. What a sweet brother.


Lately she loves to have braids in pigtails. She is so cute in them.

Brynn loves her friend Sage. They play together every Friday while I go workout.


Brynn loves to cook and one afternoon she helped me make 10 cups of freezer jam. We made mixed berry jam this time and it's yummy. I love the no cook, low sugar jam.


ASHLEIGH IS INTO...
I make my bed like this everyday and one morning I saw Ashleigh make her bed like this. It's amazing how much they watch and observe all that you do.

Here is the bed Ashleigh now makes every morning. Brynn wants to do the same thing. It's so cute!


Ashleigh loves to have dates with mom and dad after the kids go to bed. Her birthday is April 15th so every 15th of each month she gets 45 minutes extra to stay up with us for a date. She chose to play games and color. We had a blast with her. All the other children get a date too each month.

Ashleigh was invited to a fairy party and she had fun getting dressed up for it. Thanks to our neighbors she has a fun costume to wear.

Ashleigh loves to have everything match and she loves to accent her outfit. This time she added the flower.
Ashleigh loves to get her hair done and try new things. She is really growing up.

SONJA IS INTO...

My oh my Connor is growing. I am now almost 30 weeks.

My friend inspired me to have some meals on hand because my mom is not coming right when the baby is born. I had fun making 25 freezer meals last week. Whew! I'm done. I made several meals of chicken parmesan, egg souffle, chicken chili, pizza, lasagna, chicken enchiladas, and french toast souffle. I know that I will love these when the baby is born and I'll need to nurse during dinner time preparation.


I got this on clearance years ago and I can't keep up with the dirt on the cream because it's a high traffic area in the home. A friend inspired me when she painted her bench black so I did the same.


I love this look much better than cream and it hides the dirt.



Our fridge is 17 years old and it was freezing our produce, things were breaking inside and I could never fit everything in the fridge so Kevin bought me a new one. Yippee!

And of course the color is black. It matches all our other appliances. I love it and it fits everything!
I had some extra black paint from painting the bench and hutch so I decided to use it for something else. I've had this trash can for eight years and I love it but I wanted to change the look so I decided to go with black.

It's always fun to have a new look.

KEVIN IS UP TO... being the best husband and father ever!

This is what we've been up to this past month. We are loving the fresh new snow fall that we got this past week.

Happy New Year

We celebrated the new year with getting a new bench. Our family is expanding and benches seem so much easier than chairs. We are all enjoying them.

One of my favorite parts of starting out the new year is going through my Christmas cards from Christmas. The girls helped me cut out all the pictures and put them in a little photo album. They have so much fun looking through them during church. We are so grateful for all of our friends and family. We feel so blessed to have them.

Here is the pregnant mama. I am 25 weeks here. I continue to have back pains and now knee pains, but I'm so grateful all is well with the pregnancy. I can't believe how tender hearted all of the children have become since they found out I was expecting. Kamren is always taking care of me on the ice and making sure I don't slip. Ashleigh helps with Andrew and does her own laundry now. Brynn gives Connor kisses all day long and prays for him constantly. It truly is a blessing to have a new addition coming soon.

Ashleigh is growing up so quickly. She asked me to put her hair in a bun for school. She looked so beautiful with her flower and her bun. She even borrowed one of my scarfs. I love scarfs! My friend got me into them last year.

I decided to try and make myself a nursing cover by following a blog and I did it. I was so excited I could do it.
I started making these little cross stitch feet when Kamren was born and I decided to make one for each child. Kamren's foot is blue, Ashleigh's is pink, Brynn's is purple, Andrew's is green and Connor's will be brown.

I had so much fun making this car seat cover for sweet little Connor. I'm getting so excited to meet him.

These are the quilts and bedding I made for the girls for Christmas. It was so fun to learn how to make a simple quilt from a friend.

Ashleigh has the green backing and Brynn has the pink one. I love watching them play with their dolls and getting them ready for the day.

We are having fun sledding on a simple hill at a friend's house. I had so much fun watching the children play in the snow. I love all the seasons here.

Brynn loved making snow angels on the lake!

Kamren loved doing all the stunts in the snow with his sled. The other day I asked Kamren to shovel the snow in the driveway with dad and he didn't want to but then he went to be obedient. After he finished he walked across the street and started shoveling the other neighbors driveways. He continued this for several homes. Kevin followed along. That afternoon a neighbor came over in tears of gratitude for the service. I thought Kevin started this service but Kamren said the spirit told him to serve and this neighbor really needed it that day. I'm so grateful for his example.

Well, Andrew isn't having fun in the snow today! It's a little chilly!