February Little Things

 2.1.16
We were talking about Grandma coming to babysit while I go to a rebuild event.  Eva got so excited and said "oh, I love her!

I love seeing flowers blooming at McKinley Drive, they are beautiful but they make me miss being there more.

Ally finally passed off her last safety skill at school, she finally mastered tying her shoes!  I have to admit we didn't practice with her, she practiced and practiced all on her own

2.10.16
The kids were playing outside, Eva came in sad about some disagreement with Ally.  A few minutes later Ally came in and gave Eva some flowers she had picked.  Eva said "these make me feel better.".

These kids make me laugh, as soon as we start Netflix the assume the position.  They love these cute camp chairs (now if only we had a three seater).

2.11.16
When Eva is mad or frustrated she will grunt/grow while holding her head and stomping her foot.  I am glad she has found another outlet for her frustration besides a full blown tantrum.

2.12.16
Last night Ally let Colton sleep with her special 'StarTeddy'.  This morning Ally told me that Colton told her he liked 'Star Teddy' so he could sleep with it every night. [This only lasted two days before she reclaimed 'Star Teddy'].

These two have started fighting, not my favorite development.  One minute they are playing so cute together and the next there are tears and fighting.  Oh sibling life.

2.12.16
Eva likes helping me bring the garbage cans in off the street. She loves picking which color can to bring in first. Today while bringing in the can she told me "I old enough to help with garbage cans!".  Apparently we have been telling her lots of things she isn't old enough to do.

Eva loves rearranging our utensil drawer.  She was so upset when she noticed I put them all back in their right places.

2.13.16
Colton climbed out of his crib for the first time.  I highly suspect that Ally helped or encouraged him but she denies it!

Ally loves to take pictures with my phone, she is always trying to take my phone. She is obsessed with trying to learn my password.

2.13.16
Eva loves singing and usually sings Jingle Bells, The ABC Song, or No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.

2.15.16
The girls went to Grandma;s to spend the night,  Eva's Monkey Blanky was accidently left at home.  Eva told Grandma "I upset!". (much better than a tantrum) Grandpa was kind enough to come back and get her blanky so all was made right.

  

Crazy faces at breakfast.

2.25.16
Ally said "don't tickle me", Eva rushed over and said "Don't tickle my sister!".

I am so proud of Ally, she does amazing on her spelling tests.

2.25.16
Colton got into the bathroom twice today.  Both times he was "cleaning: the toilet with Ally's toy broom.

We have a climber, and I am not too happy about this development.

2.27.16
Eva said "My tea party ruined!" after COlton tried grabbing everything off her table.

2.28.16
Eva says "Hey baby" all the time (sound more like "hey bebe")

I am loving the blossoms everywhere, this is a gorgeous spring.

Colton is such a handful at church.  It is a good thing he is so handsome because I spend all three hours wrestling with him.  We are counting down the days until he can go to nursery!

Eva found some scissors and used them on a couple of books.  I was so mad! She was convinced it wasn't a big deal and we could fix it with some tape. We were able to fix one but this Dr. Seuss book will never be the same.

Potty Training

During Ally's week off of school we attempted to tackle potty training with Eva.  She had occasionally shown interest but never really wanted to get rid of her diapers.  I bought princess panties and we jumped in.  She was pretty excited about being a big girl and getting to wear panties.  The first two days were hard but we finally had a little success by the end of the second day.  

Unfortunately it went all downhill from there.  It turned into a battle of wills and this girl is stubborn.  By day 4 I just threw in the towel.  I was disappointed but I realized it is not the end of the world and this was just not working right now. We will try again, someday..

Grandma's Birthday

We had a little family party for Grandma's birthday.  I cooked dinner and then Grandma opened her presents.    The girls get so excited about celebrating birthdays, it is a lot of fun.  

For Grandma's birthday we forgo a traditional birthday cake in favor of ice cream! Always a fun time to show Grandma how much we love her.

Walk to the Creek

This morning Steve and I wanted to go for a walk with the kids.  We were trying to decide on the best place to go for a hike/walk when I realized the best place to go would be out at The Ranch.  So off we went to enjoy the break in the rain and the tall green grass.

We pulled out the hat from Colton's Halloween costume to try and keep the sun off my fair skinned boy.  The hat didn't last very long but he looked pretty cute in it.

As we walked along the hay field toward the creek we checked out different trees that burned.  I thought this burned out stump looked pretty cool, it burned hottest from the inside out.

Ally proudly holding her treasure, a super long screwdriver.  We think it must have fallen out of one of the PG&E trucks when they were fixing the power lines.  This girl has a knack for finding "treasures" sometimes their value is debatable, but she has a skill for finding things.

At the creek the girls had fun throwing rocks in the water and running around.  

It was a beautiful day, sunshine, lots of water in the creek and green grass.

Just after leaving the creek we came across a patch of Miner's Lettuce.  The girls are used to seeing it around Grandma's house and Eva asked if she could try some.  Of course I agreed, and my extremely picky eater finished her piece and went back for more.  I guess that is one way to get her to eat her greens!

The hayfields are beautiful with thick green grass, burning off the dead grass and starthistle make fore a beautiful spring.

Per her request, Ally on some old farm equipment.

The ground beneath this tree burned so intensely that even after almost 6 months nothing will grow.

When we were almost back to the car we let Colton out of his backpack to stretch his legs.  He quickly found a walking stick and looked adorable walking along behind everyone.

Back at the car Ally got out the soccer ball for a little hayfield soccer.

Sisters looking for ladybugs.  As soon as we got out the blanket for snacks they both took their shoes and socks off.  I can't really blame them, I love ditching my shoes whenever possible.

I can't quite remember exactly what happened, but Eva was very upset.  She got a pouty look on her face and stomped around like this.  

Playing in the Yard

During Ally's week off of school we had a picnic lunch in our driveway.  It was cute how excited the kids were over something so simple.  It was fun to soak up some warm sunshine and the kids were in heaven.  

I love that we have a gate across our driveway (not very common in our neighborhood).  We live on a fairly busy street and I love that the gate keeps the kids from running out into the street (my country kids aren't always the smartest around roads and cars).  It makes playing in the yard much more relaxing for me!

Today after we dropped Ally off at school we stayed outside to play before lunch.  It was a beautiful sunny day and Eva and Colton loved playing in the yard.  

It started out with Eva being a good big sister pulling Colton around on the tricycle.

Unfortunately for Colton she got tired of him having all the fun and reclaimed the tricycle.  

Eva loves this tricycle, she peadals it all around and keeps her "treasures" in the back.

Watch out, this girl is going places with her shades and her tricycle.

Creek Day!

Monday was a beautiful day, and since Ally has the week off from school we decided to go play at the Ranch.  We headed off to the creek to play in the sand and the water.  

Eva didn't want her skirt to get wet so she took it off and played in her shorts. 

She had so much fun playing around, I had to capture this silly yoga like pose.  Love my Eva.

She abandoned wading in the water in favor of making mud pies.  She sat there playing in the sand/mud for a long time.  I love that my tutu wearing girl isn't afraid to play in the mud (though those shorts may never be white again...).

Colton was so happy to be free to run around.  He liked playing in the sand too.  He also apparently liked trying to eat it.

He won the award for messiest kid by the end of the afternoon.  The sand was dirtier than I thought it would be, there was still a lot of ash in it making everything extra dirty.

Ally is always in heaven when we play outside.  She loves wandering up and down the creek (as far as we will let her go) and searching for treasures.  She found quite a few clam shells to add to her collection.

We didn't want to leave but Ally had her first T-ball practice of the season.  It was a beautiful day at the creek, well worth the missed naps.

Valentine's Day

After our fun picnic at McKinley Drive we came home to have a little Valentine's Day celebration (after naps of course).  Since Daddy had to go back to work on Valentine's Day I thought it would be fun to have a family party before he went back to work.

The kids in their party glasses and necklaces. I just love these dollar store heart glasses. 

Colton was the one who loved the glasses the most (and to think I almost didn't buy him a pair).  Steve wasn't too fond of this look but I loved how proud he was of his bling.

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Ally's class had their Valentine party on Friday.  I found some cute ideas on Pinterest and I let Ally choose one she liked.  I thought I had only pinned simple Valentine Cards but these ended up being a bit labor intensive.  Thanks to a lot of help from Steve, Ally and I got them all done.  I loved the way the turned out.  I may re-think the homemade Valentines next year.  We will see.

Friday morning Ally was hard a work making something, when she was done she proudly showed me this 'giant ninja' she made especially for her friend Cody.  I thought she made Cody a special Valentine, but Ally corrected me and said she it was just a ninja for her friend.

Ally made this cute Valentine bag at school, I thought i was a pretty cute (and simple!) idea.

Earlier in the week Eva made this adorable Valentine Elephant at story time.  Lots of love day festivities  all around.

Actual Valentine's day was rather anti-climactic.  I was up most of the night with kids, we were late to our regional conference (thankfully just a broadcast in our ward) but we made it.  

The girls had made Valentine's (store bought this time!) to hand out to their friends in Primary.  Eva was so excited to hand out her own Valentine's after seeing Ally do hers.