Happy Valentine's Day!

Only a certain two of our children cooperated in this Valentine wish, but all of us want to wish you a happy day!

They wear their love proudly.

Peter was only interested in eating his Valentine candy.

Haley was not interested at all. But the message is still the same, we love you!

The birthday recap

It was a great day for Peter. I think he loved almost every moment. Except for that time when it was time to open presents and instead of looking on the table to see his wrapped presents he went upstairs and partially ruined his Valentines surprise. Oops!

In the morning his best friend from school came over to play. At the end of the day Peter said that playing with Payton was his favorite part of the birthday.

They played legos, ran around chasing each other and had Peter's birthday treat. Since Peter does not like cake he always gets a rice krispy treat cake. We tried to make them look like little snow globes because Peter collects snow globes.

They did not turn out exactly how I wanted but the boys liked them. Peter also got to eat his favorite chips (Pringles) and angel noodles for lunch. And per his request for his birthday breakfast he wanted a banana and for his dinner he wanted country fried steak. He was so full after dinner that he did not even want his birthday ice cream.

I think he was very happy with his presents. You never can tell with Peter. He received thomas the train stuff,

a stitched snow globe from me, and Peter's favorite (I think) was the Harry Potter legos he received. Oh, he also received a lego helicopter from Payton.He loves Harry Potter right now (it is almost the only thing he plays) and he asked for a Harry Potter game and the Knight Bus. Granny and Grandpa Gray gave him the game and Grandpa and Grandma Rachiele gave him the Knight Bus. One happy kid. Plus his brother profit too.

Another highlight of the day was that dad let the boys watch the non-scary parts of the first Harry Potter movie. They loved the quidditch match, when Duddly fell in the snake's cage, and Diagon Alley. They were so happy that night.

Now for mom's exciting moments. While I was helping Peter build the Knight Bus he looked at me with a huge smile and said, "This is fun, Mom!" Such a sweet kid. When we asked him to help clean up at the end of his birthday he hopped right to it, no fights or anything. He is a good kid. Finally, what I hope to be the birth of a new tradition, the balloon launch. I read in the newspaper about a school in Utah that set off a balloon with a note attached to the finder of said balloon to write back and tell of the balloons final destination. I thought that would be so fun to send off a balloon on the boys' birthday in the same fashion. So, we took one of Peter's birthday balloons, attached a note to it for the person who (hopefully) finds it, and sent it off.

We learned a couple of things from this maiden voyage. First, get the balloons with high float, so that it soars better. Second, make the note smaller so it does not weigh the balloon down at all. Our first attempt the note was way too heavy and big. So, I made a new note and we did it again. I think it is kind of exciting, and so does Peter. At bed that night we were talking about the balloon and Peter said he thinks it popped on the peak of a mountain. I said, "how is a mountain goat going to write back to us to let us know?" Peter thought for a moment then commented, "a hiker will find it." So smart. Happy Birthday, Peter! We love you!

Valentine's Preparations - check!

We have successfully finished making all the valentines we need for school parties. Yea! Now we do not have to worry about that this weekend and it will be all Peter for his birthday. Good thing, I did not want to make the boys glue any hearts on Peter's birthday, it should just be his day. There were so many cute ideas out there this year for Valentines, we could not decide. For their boxes the boys chose owls and puppies, Willy did one of each because he loved them both so much. Then for our Valentines we did the pirates with the heart eye-patch, lions, elephants, penguins, caterpillars, and my personal favorite - the robots.
The robots were so fun to make because we could chose whatever shape we wanted for the body and then the boys loved putting on the gems and glitter. It was awesome. Caleb wrote down cute sayings on each of his Valentines and they are excited to hand them out Tuesday. Willy even made some for his primary class on Sunday and he is so excited to give them away. What fun! Now for Peter. I hope his day is wonderful.

So many things to say

There have been so many random things happen the last couple of weeks that I want to remember. For example, Haley:

Haley LOVES these sunglasses. Cutest thing ever!

Haley is getting pretty good at feeding herself, when she chooses to eat.

Haley still HATES shoes! She loves to be outside but will not walk around in her shoes.

Funny girl.

Cute moment of the three of them playing their angry birds game. Haley loves to put the bird in the catapult and watch it fly.

Then there is Peter, he is such a cool little kid. We have been counting down to his birthday this week, 4 days and counting. He is excited. He also had another special countdown and school, he recently celebrated his 100th day of school. Pretty big stuff.

So, for dinner I made him his favorite sausage with pancakes. If you cannot see my cleverness I spelled out 100 for him. He kept grabbing more sausage and remaking 100. It was very cute.

Peter and Caleb also celebrated something special together at school. They were both recognized as Student of the Month. They were so excited and happy to be up on the board together. Peter was recognized for caring and Caleb for self-discipline. Also on the same day that Caleb received Student of the Month he also rocked a literacy test at school. He came home with the results of his SRI (reading test done by computer) and they were phenomenal. Not to brag but he improved from his old test by almost 200 points and he had the highest score in his class! He was so happy.

One other mentionable thing about Caleb is he finally has a permanent teacher for the remainder of the school year. Oh what a roller coaster this third grade year has been! To make a long story shorter; his first teacher quit right before Christmas break. Then they hired a new teacher to start after Christmas break. She taught them for one day then she quit too! (I won't even post the picture we took with her.) ARGH! For the next 2 weeks these kids had a substitute until the teacher pictured above could begin teaching. Her name is Senora Call and she seems really good. She is a native so the students will hear the real deal accent in Spanish and they are back on track to learning.

Finally my sweet William. Oh this boy is a wonderful kid. In this picture he is holding a boat that his primary teachers made for each of the kids from their lesson on Sunday. He was so excited about it. He is one of the best sunbeams in Primary which makes things a little easier on his teachers. But what is even more important than the boat in this picture is that this Big Boy is wearing underwear! You heard that right, he is on his way to no diapers! Yahoo! We are so proud of him and his progress. It has not been all perfection but he is doing great. He is learning to go on his own every now and then and is gaining control of the whole idea. He tells me every now and then that, "potty training is hard," but he is doing fabulous. What a great achievement!

My 3 favorite sounds

It is official! I have determined my three favorite sounds (at the age of 35). I know, things could change. There are a lot of sounds out there that I like. The sound of a working fridge, a working truck engine, kids jumping into a lake, my kids singing a song to themselves, the crackle of a fire. Those are all good sounds. But as I was feeding Haley today I decided on my top three.

1. The sound of my children happily playing together
2. Peace and Quiet
3. The sound of the doorknob turning which tells me Rob is home from work

Kids happily sharing and playing together; with laughter, talking, creative imaginations coming together, and them being content (what brought them together? The ever wonderful LEGOS). Beautiful!

The Peace and Quiet of my home when we are reading a story together or when it is nap time or when all are asleep. It is relaxing.

And how could I not like the sound of knowing that Rob is home to be with us. To help us - yes, but also knowing that he can just hang out and hopefully enjoy the time too.

My house has been full of these sounds yesterday and today. It is nice.

Finally some snow

We finally received some snow that the boys could actually go out and play in. Peter and William were very excited to practice quiditch (sp?). Harry Potter is very exciting for them right now. They got all bundled up, got their "broomsticks" and they were off.

It was fun to watch. Caleb loves reading HP, playing HP lego, but not so much playing real HP. So, Caleb got bundled up and chose to shovel the sidewalks. What a cool kid.

But since the snow was not very good packing snow the kids stayed inside to paint their snowmen. It was a fun project for all. I even let Haley get in on the painting action and she loved it! And I must say hers turned out very cool.

Stay tuned for the update on Caleb's roller coaster third grade year. I am waiting at least until next week to make sure this teacher sticks. Have an awesome week!

Random cuteness

Well, it is supposed to snow today. We will see if we get anything worthy of playing in. Until that time comes I wanted to share my two youngest and their cute ways. First, William. He is a sunbeam in primary now and he loves it. There are only 5 sunbeams (4 active) and William and his friend Carter are the most well behaved little boys. The other two sunbeams are crazy and will not sit still, they cry and get taken out all the time. But my Willy B. is the best. And he loves it!

Now for Haley. It is impossible to get a decent picture of this girl.

She will not hold still. But I have to remember her learning to blow kisses. It is so sweet. She will only do it when she wants to and only to people she really trusts. But it is adorable!

I love her. She is S L O W L Y starting to eat more big people food which is nice. And her favorite thing to eat by far is chocolate. She loves music and dancing and reading books and splashing in baths, hers or her brother's.