Fairy Tale Land

This Friday I took the kids to Crown Center to see the Fairy Tale Land exhibit with Aunt Val and cousin Sophie. The exhibit was soo cute! They had an area made from each fairy tale that the kids could play in and explore! It quickly got very crowded so I will not go again unless I have Brandon or Gigi with me to help with the kids. I was trying to feed Benjamin and Bella needed a lot more supervision with the amount of people around and all of the things to be guided through. Let's just say we were all ready for naps by the end of it!

Here are the girls in Cinderella's Carriage!


Bella loved peeking over the wall.

The girls were a little timid about going into Sleeping Beauty's castle, but loved the draw bridge and pretend water!

The girls are enjoying all of the open room to run in this extra space. I love the way it's painted!

For lunch we went to Fritz's. It's a fun place for kids to eat and watch the trains go around and deliver the food to tables. We got a great table right next to the glass display case to see even more trains right at our table. Bella loved playing with the phone that you order your meal from. I think she was concerned about our order! Haha, she kept jabbering while reading the ticket and then would say "byeeeee!" and hang up.

Of course, the hats are a huge hit!

Here are the girls sitting in the little train right outside the entrance as we left! We had such a fun time Sophie!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year for Valentine's Day we had such a fun dinner party on Saturday night with a few other couples and NO KIDS! These are a few of the moms that come to our play dates, but we made a rule that we're not allowed to talk about the kids for this one night! We got dressed up and headed over to the William's house for an elegant night! We all brought our wedding photo albums to share with each other! Such great memories and stories came from that! The fun thing about this meal was that most of her recipes came from a cook book called "Inter Courses" that she got for her wedding. Each recipe included an ingredient that was a natural aphrodisiac. :) Jeremy and Amie made a delicious spinach artichoke dip, stuffed mushrooms, chicken on kabobs, rice, salad, bread, chocolate cake, ice cream, and chocolate covered strawberries! Wow, it was to die for!



On Sunday, we had Benjamin's baby dedication at church. I can't think of a more perfect thing to do on Valentine's Day! It was a very sweet time for our family. Benjamin received his first Bible from Gigi!



Brandon did great and got me some gorgeous red roses! I love you! Happy Valentine's Day!

Library time

Each Monday morning the kids and I go to story time at the library. Ms. Joni does such an amazing job with the kids! We start with bubbles, the welcome song, playing an instrument, doing scarves, and finger plays, then we have a story, parachute, and a craft all centered around a theme!

I have to be honest though, Bella was the child that was hesitant to participate, needed snacks to keep her attention, and the one that would run off and escape through the curtain! Basically we were the ones that everyone thought "Why does that mother bring her?" haha, But, the last couple of times I have been cutting off all snacks and giving her a huge pep talk all morning before we get there about listening and sitting on the carpet square and being nice to the other kids. She is doing SOO much better you can ask Emily!

This week the kids made "Valentine Mail Carrier" hats! So cute! We love meeting our friend Samuel there each week and this time Luke came too!

Benjamin's 3 months old!

Each month goes so fast! Our little man is such a joy! He's been sleeping through the night since he was about 9 weeks old. He is smiling and laughing all the time! He loves grabbing for the toys hanging in his play yard, swinging, looking at his black and white books, taking a bath, being wrapped in his swaddle blanket, and playing peek a boo! Some things he doesn't like are laying on his tummy, loud noises (they scare him) and having to wait to eat!


As you can see Bella is full of personality these days but always has a gentle touch with Benjamin!

Family trip to TX!

A couple of weeks ago we made the long drive down to TX to spend time with family and friends. We left on a Friday night and drove half way to Norman, OK and stayed with our wonderful friends, the Kennedys. The kids did great and woke up to find their friends True and Selah ready to play! Then we made a stop in Dallas, TX to see Brandon's youth pastor when he was in high school and his wife Jill and their three wonderful boys! At last, we made it to Barry and Christie's house in Crawford later Saturday night. We spent the week hitting all of our favorite places and having a great time!

We got to see our cousin Carrie and her four kids Cami, Cullen, Corrin, and Camri. They were so excited to meet Benjamin for the first time!

What a bunch of cute monkeys!

Brandon, Benjamin and I enjoyed a wonderful night and two days in the charming town of Salado! We stayed at a bed and breakfast and went shopping in the cute little shops and ate at a couple of good local eateries. It was a great pace of life, we may have been the only life in the one street town! We loved it!

I got to visit a few of my amazing friends while I was down there! I had a great lunch with Stephanie at Food for Thought! Yum, the tank is still my favorite! Then I enjoyed picking up Common Grounds frozen Milky Ways for Ashely, Kami, and myself. The Common Grounds guys were amazed at how many Milky Ways I ordered! (only 4 large) haha, I think I set the record! But, we are pretty serious about Common Grounds! This is Ashley, True, and Selah, Me and Benjamin, and Kami and her new little guy Justice! What a crew! Amazingly enough, I think when we were sitting for the picture it was the most calm the kids were. We had to snap out of our glazed over looks to get up from the couch!