February iMoments

Somehow, Joey has turned into a big boy. His favorite thing to do is play with his cars on the hardwood floor. And he really plays with them like they're cars!

He's also started taking baths in the bathtub. He was a little freaked out at first, but he's loving it now! Almost as much has I love bathtub pictures. :)

Also, at long last, Joey finally has some teeth! If you look closely, you can see his two new pearly whites on the bottom. 

And what do you do with new teeth? Eat!! Ah, eating spaghetti with your hands while naked...that's the life. :)

Claire's first book report...in Spanish! She read the book in Spanish, wrote the report in Spanish, and gave her presentation in Spanish!

We had a cousin sleepover so that Isabelle could join the girls for our stake Activity Days super activity. It's was Eli's first time spending the night at our house, and the boys had a great time.

These big girls also had a great time at the activity, and came home with an FHE lesson all about Esther. 

Ten Months!

Claire has really started to enjoy reading, and one Sunday I could her reading our family history book! It's so much work to do all this blogging and all the formatting of the books, and I'm desperately working to catch up on the "Luke Years" that I didn't blog as faithfully. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. But when I saw Claire reading and saw how excited she was to read all about our family, I remembered why I do it. And it makes me so excited to get it all done!

Milestone after milestone...Joey stands up EVERYWHERE now! He is also a bit of a "toe-walker" like Sophie. Always on those toes! We've started calling him "Twinkle Toes". :)

I'm terrible at keeping plants alive in the house. But my poinsettia from the first of December is still going strong! It's so beautiful on our kitchen table...

For President's Day, we tried a new recipe for Puerto Rican pork roast. We're still trying to find that pork that takes Danny back to the island. This particular recipe marinaded for 48 hours! It was delicious, though a little salty. I think we'll tweak it a bit and try it again.

If we were going to be having Puerto Rican pork, and arroz con gandules, we HAD to have some pan sobao (or Puerto Rican sweet bread). Danny did an awesome job with it. So many delicious carbs!

Watching my babies sleep is one of my most favorite things. And Joey won't be a baby for much longer...

They may not have been on time, but Danny's Valentine's Day flowers were beyond beautiful this year. I've loved them sitting on my piano!

Danny traveled to Seattle this month, and he asked the kids to be a big help to me. Sophie decided she would do dinner for me, and she made the most delicious grilled cheese sandwiches! My kids making dinner?! #parentgoals

And Johnny is toothless!

My kids are dying for spring. We were waiting for Claire to come out of piano lessons and I turned to tell John to roll up the window and this is what I saw! Note the snow on the trash can in the background... :)

Oh my Poseph. He's growing up so fast and he's so much fun! He's always at my heels, all day long. I was doing the dishes and stepped out of the kitchen for a second to grab something. I came back to see Joey helping me do the dishes. I love my little sidekick!

I don't think you'll find this milestone in any child development book...but it's a milestone in our house. Discovering the tupperware drawer! Claire, Sophie, and John will be paying me back for the years I spent picking up their "tupperware work" by picking up Joey's! :)

We've really started to embrace the whole concept of goal-setting in our family. Sophie completed another 20 consecutive nights of sleeping in her own bed and earned her second Beanie Boo, while Claire practiced piano every weekday for two consecutive weeks to earn her Beanie Boo. We're all loving how much more is getting accomplished and how we're all improving on areas that we're weak in. 

Claire's Diorama

Claire's teacher this year, Mrs. Bennion, requires a book report almost every month of the year. But it's more than just a written report. So far Claire has done a poster, and two "characters-in-a-bag". But this month she got to do her diorama, and she was excited! She is reading the Land of Stories series, and so did her diorama on the second book (since that was the one she finished this month). It took some planning, shopping, and help from Mom and Dad and even Sophie...but Claire was beyond pleased with how it turned out! 

Here it is, in all it's diorama glory: Red Riding Hood's Royal Library! Complete with the Big Bad Wolf Rug and gold sign stating it as "Library, Place of Books". :)

I don't know when we got into book reports and dioramas. I swear it was yesterday we were singing the backpack song along with that crazy, yelling Dora the Explorer! It's simultaneously exhilarating and painful to watch Claire grow up. But golly, she's so smart and beautiful it's hard to be too upset. :)

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake Adventures

I have come to find that I really enjoy making cakes. It's a stressful endeavor for me, because I want perfection. But it's hard to practice much, since then you have to eat a whole cake. Don't get me wrong, we could totally do that. But Danny and I would be morbidly obese in what, a couple of months? :)

So when we made plans to celebrate Grandma Candy's birthday, my birthday, and Isabelle's birthday all together on a Sunday evening, I volunteered to make the cake! I've had this salted caramel chocolate cake pinned forever, and this was the perfect occasion to try it. 

I was irritated when my sponges weren't level (despite my having created and used my DIY cake strips), and I was seriously worried that I had under-baked them. But I pushed forward. The frosting was by far the easiest and most incredible chocolate frosting I have ever made, and I will never make another chocolate frosting again! I got the cake assembled and was pretty happy with how it turned out on the outside, but there was no way to know how it was in the center until we cut into it. I was dying for a perfect profile shot!

So when Grandma Candy called and said she was too sick for our cake party, I just about cried! After throwing a little bit of a tantrum, I decided we'd just cut Grandma Candy a piece and take it to her. I was having some of that cake! We cut her piece, and I held my breath as Danny lifted the slice. It was gorgeous! Probably my best cake yet!! And the flavor? Oh my goodness, it was divine. Simply and without fanfare the best chocolate cake I have ever had. I couldn't have been happier! The kids were pretty happy customers too. :)

Now I just have to find more opportunities to practice more cakes! Or maybe just do this one again. :)

Church History Museum Visit

Way back in December, Grandma Candy got each of the families groupons for ice skating at the Gallivan Center...the idea being that we would use them for Rachel's birthday celebration. But when we got there on the 22nd, it turns out there were blackout dates on the groupons for the two weeks surrounding Christmas. So Grandma Candy ended up just paying for us all to go that night...but that left us with groupons still to use. Fast forward to February when there was literally only one night left that we could use them before ice skating was closed for the season. We coordinated with Jenny and Matt, arranged our whole evening around skating, and made our way to the Gallivan Center. Danny and I were running about 20 minutes behind, and so got there later than Matt and Jenny. As we presented our groupon, we were told that the rink would be closed for public skating in 25 minutes to accommodate a private party. WHAT?! We were totally annoyed, but we figured 25 minutes was better than nothing. 

We got the skates on the kids (no small feat...pun intended) and got them on the ice. Ten minutes later, they call for everyone to exit the ice for the Zamboni. Ok, it was not worth skating for ten minutes!! Annoyed beyond all, we returned our skates and were all feeling extremely disappointed the evening. Then Danny and I decided to call an audible and head to the newly renovated Church History Museum. It was awesome! We started out with a movie of the First Vision in a 270 degree curved theater...it really felt like we were in the Sacred Grove! It was a wonderful experience to share with not only our children, but Matt and Jenny and their family.

The first floor of the museum has been completely redone, and has exhibit after exhibit of different aspects of the Restoration. Many of the exhibits are interactive, and the kids loved that. The printing press replica that printed the Book of Mormon was incredible!  

Upstairs there was an Angel Moroni that used to be on a chapel somewhere in Washington, DC. And a scale replica of the pulpit from the Conference Center. I had to take a picture of Danny behind that pulpit. Is is too weird to say "you say it first here!"? ;)

It wasn't the night we expected, but sometimes the greatest memories and experiences come as the result of a detour. :)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a bigger deal than it's been in the past this year, on account of the fact that we had THREE Valentine's boxes to make! John knew from the get-go that he wanted a Minecraft box, and he was very specific about his design. I put my thinking cap on (Pinterest was only of minimal help, this time) and with a copious amount of printed pages from Google images and some modge podge, Johnny ended up with a pretty awesome box! Sophie wanted a panda box, and we were able to find a template (for a Cricut machine) and I used my superior cutting skills to cut it all out of felt! We even designed some ears that would stick up. We copied the template for Claire, only made hers a puppy. Both boxes turned out awesome and both girls were very happy! And I was one happy Mama that not only did they turn out good and my kids were happy, but that they were done! :)

Danny came home a little bit early to help with our big Valentine's dinner...mostly because he was integral to the process. He's the guy that makes the pasta! This year we made our chicken parmesan with fresh fettuccine...and it was incredible. I screwed up, however, and didn't buy enough jello to make the jiggles the kids so look forward to. Oops. Next year, guys! :) We invited Grandma Candy to join us again this year. We just love it when she shares Valentine's Day with us! 

After dinner, we exchanged Valentines. It was hard for the kids and I to come up with something for Danny since he's not eating sugar and really trying to watch the snacking...so we made him a big card. I made up the poem myself! :) The kids loved working on this for their Dad. They love him best of all.

Danny got the girls big bouquets of flowers this year, with a little box of chocolates. Johnny got his HUGE box of chocolates, and he was over the moon! And Joey got his first Valentine...a little puppy. Danny ordered my flowers and they were supposed to be delivered that day, but as of 8:00 that evening they were somewhere in Tennessee or something. They obviously didn't get to me on Valentine's Day, which was okay...but Danny was rather upset about it. 

We got Grandma some tulips and some chocolates, but her favorite part of the day was spending time with her little Valentines. :)

For dessert we tried a from-scratch pudding cake. It turned out really yummy! It wasn't my favorite of all desserts, but Danny and the kids loved it. And it did go very nicely with our dinner.

I'm so grateful for this amazing family of mine! We miss Luke every time we do these fun family holidays with all our traditions, but we know he's aware of us and doing what he needs to be doing. I love my husband, sweetheart, and best friend more than any words could describe. And I love him all the more because of these five babies he gave me. I have the opportunity in my life to give more love than I could have ever thought possible, and miraculously enough to receive more love than I thought I would ever receive...all because of all of these Valentines. I love them so!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ten Months

I know it sounds so silly. I say it every month! But it makes me sadder and sadder as I write each one of these posts. My baby is growing up and I can't seem to do anything about it! My only consolation is that he's just about the cutest thing, and he keeps getting cuter every month. I don't know how much more baby-cuteness we can handle over here! It's probably best that he become a toddler and start being naughty. It'll put the universe back into balance. ;)

Joey has become so much more adept at all the milestones he conquered last month. He's crawling everywhere now...and can get where he wants to go better crawling than in the walker, so that's all but been retired now. He pulls himself up onto anything and everything, and he's always standing in his crib when you go to get him. He loves working the doors and drawers, and has mostly managed to keep his fingers free. He loves when the kids will play with him, and he hates it when they leave him behind. Most mornings, Joey starts bawling as soon as all the kids pile out of the car for school. Poor kid, he's going to spend most of his life chasing those older sibs.

We haven't weighed him yet, but we're feeling really good about his eating. He has four bottles of formula a day, and those are mostly 6-7 ounces each. He has all but left behind the baby food, which the exceptions of the pouches. He LOVES the pouches! His favorite foods include yogurt melts, pizza crust, string cheese, and chicken nuggets. Oh, and anything we're eating for dinner! :) We'll take him in for a weight check in the beginning of March and see how he's doing, but I don't think anyone's worried anymore. 

Here's our Po-Po at 10 months:

*Size 3 diapers

*Really needs to be in 12 month clothes, but Mom hasn't quite gotten there yet :)

*Got his first two teeth! Yay!

*Babbles like crazy

*Says "Mamamamama" and "Dadadada", and we suspect he might know which is which

*Loves playing cars on the hardwood

*Waves "night-night"

*Still loves his blankies, and soothes himself by taking a corner and rubbing it under his nose

What will another month bring, Broseph?! More unmitigated adorableness, I'm sure. We love you!!

FHE with Friends

One of our friends, the Thomsons, decided on an impromptu Family Home Evening with Friends and invited us to join them. We were supposed to meet at the church and they would even be providing dinner. It sounded so fun!

Well, someone told the bishop (oops), and apparently no one is supposed to be in the buildings on Monday night. Danny couldn't in good conscience let this awesome night happen at the church, so we offered the preschool instead. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but we had a blast! The Thomsons, Julianos, Covingtons, Fields, and Smiths were all there. Lindsey Thomson gave the kids a lesson, and Tom Thomson handled the games for activity. Watching the kids knock over water bottles with tennis balls inserted into nylons and then worn on their heads was hilarious. And our group won for the biggest pair of balloon antlers! :) 

We love our neighborhood!