February: It's a GIRL!

February 2nd we found out we are having another GIRL! We are so excited Lily will have a sister and can't wait to welcome this little peanut into our family!


Now all we need is a name!


Speaking of peanuts, this little one never stops moving.

She is constantly climbing, jumping, running, and laughing. I get tired just watching her. Don't let her tiny size fool you! She is capable of big things and can keep up with her brothers no problem.

Lance is plugging away at Scouts. He and his dad attend each week and work on merit badges at home. It's neat that Scott gets to serve in the Scouts with Lance.

Jude is really into video games, his favorite being "horror maps" in Minecraft, or "scary" games like Five Nights at Freddy (nothing too intense, but there are some good jump scares throughout). No, he doesn't actually play them, he likes to watch videos of other people playing through the levels. He claims he's not scared, but more often then not I'll wake up in the middle of the night to this little visitor:

Bender doesn't seem to mind the company, even though Jude takes over his bed.

Jude got to experience his first Valentine's Day at school this year! (Lance happened to be in San Diego with his Dad and Abbey and missed his class handing out cards.)

This is the first year we've had to put together a box. Jude said he wanted a Minecraft box, so we put together some perler bead characters and I printed out a .tif of a dirt block that I glued to the outside of the box to make it look more true to the game.

I love the creeper poking out of the hole. That was all Jude's idea.

Excited boy!

I love moments like this.

It gives me hope that through all the bickering and tears, they are actually friends and do indeed love each other.

Costco and Sam's Club are some of our favorite places to go to run errands, usually for lunch after the gym. This is a classic Cole outfit: his blue Santa hat that is never out of season, rocking the orange sunglasses. 

Love this kid!


February is Cole's Birthday, so much of my free time during the month was spent putting together his Train Birthday party.

Thank goodness for little helpers!

The kids all wanted a chance to help paint the train piñata. (What else would you have at a train birthday party?)

And  you can't forget the train cookies! We ended up taking these to the party and had the kids decorate them there.

The highlight of our afternoons is getting Lance and Jude off the bus. Cole and Lily especially like to wait in this tree that's right at the stop. Lily has become an expert climber of this tree and if I turn around for even 10 seconds, she's shimmied up a good 5 feet off the ground. This girl is crazy!