The Power of the Post

It's Murphy's Law. Spring is on our heels and our neighbors haven't seen snow in six years, with the exception of occasional flakes in the air. I guess we cursed Tennessee in blogging about our excitement for spring's arrival, because within the week we were experiencing the coldest and snowiest day here in years. Despite this we loved the weekend. The kids went crazy playing in the "snowstorm" on Friday and it's aftermath Saturday.

We live in a cove which has been so great for playing safely without worrying about traffic. The neighbors' kids all came over and assisted Ryley and Kadyn in building a snowman. The best thing about playing in the snow, however, is warming up afterwards with gourmet hot chocolate and marshmallows- Love it!

Breakfast is Served

Ryley is six years old and nearing the end of her kindergarten career. She has grown in many ways this year, physically adding an inch or two and becoming second shortest in her class as opposed to first (she has Mom and Dad to thank for that.) She has also grown in maturity and self reliance. Recently we have found her on Saturday mornings "cooking" up breakfast for the entire family. Steven and I have had the opportunity of sleeping in until 7 AM while Ryley prepares breakfast for Kadyn and Thatcher. She can get the bowls and spoons, the cereal and milk, and does a great job preparing each order without spilling a drop. The other morning Steven decided to go out and join them for breakfast, but on this particular morning Ryley and Kadyn had decided to broaden their breakfast choices. Luckily Steven entered the kitchen before "breakfast" was enjoyed, but the truly funny part is that both girls couldn't see anything wrong with their order.

Hidden Treasures

It's officially day 70 of winter and Memphis, TN has yet to see one speck of snow. I know, all of you in the West, Mid West, and East have been buried up to your eyeballs this winter with more white stuff than you'd like. Don't worry, we see the news and we know your pain - last winter Colorado Springs saw more snow then ever before and we were lucky enough to be there to witness it.

So, do you want to know one of my favorite parts of moving to a new house? It's all the fun hidden surprises you find over that first year of living in your home. Hopefully they are good surprises; not like a termite infestation, or lightning strike (which did happen to our neighbors), or tornado disaster (but a funnel cloud DID pass over our house last month).

We didn't move until the end of June last year so by the time we arrived things were beautiful and green, but we had missed spring. It had never crossed my mind when purchasing the home to ask if any of the foliage in the yard blossomed with flowers. Still, it's an important question and one to keep in mind next time you move! Anyway, back to my point.

With the lack of winter and the current warm tempuratures we have had the greatest time seeing plants and trees in our yard begin to bloom these beautiful blossoms. The kids have been going crazy, each day running out to check for new buds and more blossoms. As spring continues we will keep you posted on any further blossoming activity.

Holiday Happiness

The Children's Museum of Memphis is pretty cool, so when the girls asked if we could return there over President's Day I quickly agreed. They have enough stuff in this Museum to keep kids busy for hours (five hours to be exact for our kiddos). Even after five hours they have to be bribed to go home. My latest persuasion resorted to watching a movie when they got home. I know, that's awful, eh? I'm not big on T.V. either, so on the days I offer I think they realize that Mommy must really need a nap! It was a great day though and I find myself more and more grateful for holidays now that Ryley is in school and we're given those extra moments for her to join us on weekday outings.

Valentine's Memories

Did you know that Valentine's Day is one of my very favorite holidays? I love it. I love the candy hearts, the fun pink towels you proudly display in your kitchen and bathroom, and the fun card/candy isle at the store that is covered in all shades of red.

I love thinking back to Mrs. Koslkovich's first grade class where we made fun Valentine's Day heart pockets and hung them on the wall so that fellow students could put a Care Bear or Strawberry Shortcake Valentine inside. You would wait anxiously at your desk- not looking over at your own pocket because you didn't want to be disappointed, but hoping that it was filled to the brim with Valentine's wishes. Of course, it always was, for in first grade the rule is, 'only bring something to share if you have enough to share with everyone'. Ahh, the days of our youth. (I turn thirty this year so I actually have a right to make that statement!)

With my love of Valentine's Day our family continues to celebrate with excitement. We always make dozens of sugar cookies and decorate them with fun icings and sprinkles and then distribute them to neighbors and friends. This year we also tried some cupcakes so that we could display them on our fun cupcake holder that we recieved at Christmas (thanks mom).

Steven fondly remembers his Dad traditionally giving special Valentine's cards to all of the kids. With six daughters and a son it probably became a difficult task to not repeat cards! He must have done well, because Steven has proudly continued the tradition in our family ever since Ryley was born. We had a nice dinner and this year Steven got to celebrate the night on call (nothing says happy Valentine's day like orbital floor fractures). The girls and I attended a family Valentine's dance at the church. Ryley and Kadyn LOVED running around the gym and dancing the night away. I didn't even know they knew how to break dance until that night!

Isn't Four Fabulous

Sorry for the delay in posting. Our hope is to post something each week but sometimes time seems to go faster than we can keep up with. We'll keep trying though.

Last weekend was really great. Kadyn turned fabulous four on Saturday and therefore received the opportunity to plan out the entire day for our family. Steven had a mandatory weekend conference but played hooky on this special morning to enjoy breakfast together and watch Kadyn open her presents. Her "wants" this year were some Disney Princesses and the game of Checkers. Once cleaned up for the day we headed out to the new Incredible Pizza Factory, complete of course with pizza, and many other food options along with rides, games, and inflatable jumping houses. Thatcher stayed at a friends house due to my inability of juggling three children in an out of control and very busy environment. After arriving back home, and catching our breath, we attempted a trip to our favorite park but only lasted thirty minutes due to the cold weather that has recently settled in. ( Alright, alright, it was only 50 degrees, but that is pretty cold for us.) We came home to decorate her birthday cake and in between waiting for icings to set I attempted to teach Kadyn how to play Checkers. Daddy arrived home soon after and once our tummies were full of birthday cake and ice cream we put Thatcher to bed and snuggled up together to watch "Oliver and Company". It was a very fun day. Good planning Kadyn!

Game Day Grouchies

Our little ones have, unfortunately, been sick for the past few weeks. We taught them to share things so well that they decided to make us proud by passing on their illness from one to another. Now, I'm not complaining. If anything, I've realized how rarely they get sick and how blessed we have been this winter to be so healthy. Having said that, Ryley stayed home from school one day last week in efforts to recover, and in my efforts to keep them all happily occupied we had our first annual "Game Day". Those of you who know us well know we LOVE games. You can't beat a good game of Candyland or Hungry Hippos each day. It was very fun but I did find that by the end of the day I was a little grouchy inside. That feeling doesn't happen real frequently so when Steven came home and asked how my day was I honestly replied "I'm feeling a bit grouchy inside today". After going upstairs and seeing the room filled with games he said, "Well, if I played all those games in one day I would be grouchy too". That made me feel better, and the fun moments of our first annual game day made it all worth it.