How Sarah sees her world.

Close-up.

HI!!!


Heh, heh, heh.

Too much cuteness.

Candy making, butterfly chasing, game playing ...

Studio Ghibli watching, dinosaur researching, Dora annoying, ice cream eating, iPad playing, book reading, dog training, baby giggling, wardrobe clearing, wardrobe planning, frog feeding, hamster catching, and just the teeny tiniest bit of baby napping.

It was a full day.







My big accomplishments for the day - spring cleaning all of the kids' wardrobes. Cleaning out the camper from our first camping trip! Helping Hannah make raspberry suckers. Only eating three spoonfuls of Nutella.

We watched a Studio Ghibli movie that I was wary about - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I was wary because it's never been recommended as all of the other Ghibli movies always are (Hannah's favorite is Castle in the Sky and Ainsley's is My Neighbor Totoro). I don't know why this one never gets recommended. It's by far my favorite. Fantastic female protagonist and beautiful storyline and soundtrack.

A very full day.

Saturday we spent the day in Utah with family. Both sides of the family - one in the afternoon, one in the evening. My girls were in heaven. Gray and Zander just rolled with it.

We got to spend time with Grandpa who is a photographer and loves to teach the kids how to take pictures.


The cousins we spent time with first have lived back east for 8 years, so it was a lot of fun for my kids to get some quality time playing with them. They only live two hours away now!

My redhead brother holding my redhead son.

Having ice cream at the same place my partner and I had our first date. The girls thought that was so exciting and romantic and .... "Wait! Does this mean that I have to marry Grayson because we're having ice cream together here?!?!" No, sweetie, you're fine.

We went by the big Mormon temple there to get a picture taken with a Flat Stanley we're hosting and the kids rolled down the HUGE hill before I could stop them.

It *is* kind of an irresistible hill.

I have no pictures of the girls playing with their cousins at the next house. We got there, I was surrounded by dance costumes and giggles and then they all disappeared for two hours.

So Zander and I played with sidewalk chalk ...

and I tried to breathe and stay calm as Gray zoomed down the driveway over and over on a skateboard.
I will not be an overprotective mom. I will not be an overprotective mom. I will not be an overprotective mom. I will not be an overprotective mom.

Grayson joins in.

I now have three superheroes in training. THREE! I'm creeping up on Professor Xavier's school.

And with that, I'm going to leave you with the awesome cuteness that is Grayson in karate class.

Valentine's Day

Ainsley has Chinese New Year, Hannah has Valentine's Day. A day to celebrate love - she was born for that. So her Daddy has stepped up to the challenge. Every year he gets all of us flowers and last year he made us heart waffles for breakfast.

This year, though, he went all out. Decorated the house with the girls and then quarantined us in my bedroom for two hours. Two. Hours.

He had Grayson come get us one by one and give us the flowers.


Matt lit the candles. (Ainsley was the only one of us who dressed for the occasion.)

Zander laughed at all of us.


Then we got to sit down for dinner.

All of us girls love seafood so he made us a dinner with favorites for each of us - pan fried lemon shrimp, halibut, garlic mashed potatoes, and bacon asparagus. And sparkling cider, of course.

So very good.

The girls said thank you and he said "I like to spoil my girls once a year and make dinner." Which is funny because he loves making dinner, so he does it every night that he's home. Which worked out better for me when he wasn't working nights. I'm just saying, making dinner wasn't unusual for him - making such a fancy dinner, though, was. I'm not a big one for romantic Valentine's Day celebrations. He's winning me over, though.


(Hannah's picture of us. It was a close-up.)

And Zander just laughed at all of us.

10 pictures quick post.

Today was...

Playing under blankets.

Making 'old' paper.
Making pompom bunny tails.
Pulling Zander on a blanket. Everyone's new favorite game.
Checking on the tadpoles.

Trampoline and train play.
I can't even explain this one.

Visiting the South Pole. It's cold down there. If you don't take your own votive candle, you could freeze to death. True story.

Weaving.

Crafting. Zander's even got a seat at the table! Mostly he just giggles, but sometimes he throws stuff. Hannah tried to glue his hand to a piece of paper. We like to make him feel involved. He likes to try to eat paper.

Our day in 10 pictures.