Sunday, February 22, 2015

February Fun!

We have had a fun couple of weeks.  I can't believe how much my girls are getting so big, so fast.  I just love my girls so much!  I may be a little bias, but I have the cutest girls!  They are my life.  Life has been crazy with three girls, but it is worth every minute!

We went to the Children's museum where Ashlyn and I built this arch.  She did an awesome job looking for the numbers and using her strong muscles to built it!  She was so proud!



She also created her own masterpiece.



This week Brinley started sleeping in her big girl bed!  We knew the first night would be hard, but it was actually hard for Ashlyn, not Brinley!  Haha.  Ashlyn bawled and bawled. It was pretty funny!  We are accepting the fact that now she gets up with Ashlyn at 6 am. We used the baby monitor to watch her during naptime today and realized that she plays and reads books the whole time.  Poor Brinley, poor me.  Now I know why I looked forward to bedtime each night.  She is not getting enough sleep!



As I was typing the caption for the picture above, I typed "This girl is into everything." While typing it I decided that I could check on her and here she was in the sink playing with the water "doing dishes".  She is my one kid that I must keep an eye on or else. haha.  There are times that she is just so darn cute and silly that I can't get mad at her. 



Claire is such a sweetheart!  We love her!  She is so patient to put up with our little bunch. 



She discovered her hands recently and loves making funny sucking noises.



We had a tea party this weekend.  It was inspired by my mom going to her own tea party with Katie's family






 We started a new tradition in our family where we sing Scripture Power before we read as a family.  I love how much our girls love the scriptures.  I am so impressed with Ashlyn.  We are studying the Articles of Faith for family night and she taught about the First Vision in great detail.  It was a proud moment as a parent!


I had such a great Valentine's Day!  I woke up to a sweet little girl giving me this sweet card.  I am so amazed at how well she could write and draw a flower.  She is our little artist. 



For Valentine's we invited 4 couples to our house for a fun Valentine's Date Night!  We absolutely had a blast!!! We had delicious heart shaped pizzas and played some fun Valentine's Games.  The games were a lot of minute to win it games: Wives vs. Husbands.  

The picture below is one of the games where one spouse had to put on lipstick and kiss there spouse as many times as they could in 15 sec.  Then you switched roles.  Derek beat me by one kiss.  It was so much fun!


 KISS ME!!


 Our new fav is Indian Food (thanks to Scott for branching me out)! We went to this little restuarant and loved it!!!



I am trying to decide what to do for preschool for Ashlyn next year.  There is a preschool program at the zoo that we were checking out then we had to go around to the different exhibits. 






With my sewing machine that I got for Christmas, I did my first project.  The aprons turned out to be so adorable and the models help out a lot!



My mom made this darling name for Claire.  She is so talented! 



 Our fort



We enjoy going to Home Depot to do the free projects.





We enjoy our neighbors the Van De Graaffs.  We have been doing a lot of things together lately.  We enjoy going to Home Depot, Children's Museum, and Chick-Fil-A.  When we were together (I can't remember where) this lady came up to Mindy and I and asked if we ran a daycare.  Haha. I did realize that we are totally outnumbered. 2 adults and 7 kids. 





This little girl is loving her haircut! 


Sunday, February 8, 2015

This week.

We had a night where we were able to teach our spouse how to drill and fill. Jenny did a great job and enjoyed it. Although she couldn't stand the noise of the drill when she first started. "I hate the dentist."


An hour of hard work during a volunteer clinic. I'd like to recognize Steve Van De Graaff for letting me join him in this venture.



Last Sunday night I was holding Claire and started sticking out my tongue at her. The next minute she couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth! It was so funny!


Selling hot chocolate to save the penguins with the Van De Graaffs!


"Do we have to say the prayer?"


Ashlyn's new look! She's growing up!



Mom took the girls to Home Depot for the Saturday kids craft!



 Blanket fort!


Lazy Saturday morning on the couch! We love touching Claire!


Yummy raspberries!


Sometimes Ashlyn and Brinley play so well together. Jenny and I sure love those moments.


In the mornings Jenny and I work out at 5:45. Ashlyn gets up with us and sits on me while I do push-ups. Then after we are done Ashlyn likes to do "Cosmic Kids Yoga".



I try and do interviews with the girls (well, just Ashlyn so far) 1-2 times per year. Here is this years.



It was dinner time and we had avocados with beans and tortillas. Ashlyn likes to have me (Derek) tell her, "Don't smile Ashlyn." Then she laughs hysterically. Well she was laughing so hard that she barfed. What do you know? Guacamole! I was a little late getting the picture. She sure was a good sport though cleaning up her own puke.


This picture helped me realize how bad I needed a haircut (got one yesterday). Wednesday morning snowed a lot and school was delayed three hours. It was fun to have a morning with my girls. We sat in front of the window and watched the snow fall.


Ashlyn loves writing in little books! Well, this one was mine for school and I told Ashlyn she couldn't write in it. Later I found this and asked her what it said.
This is how she explained it, "Dad I L(heart) YU"

Sunday, February 1, 2015

January Fun!

Ashlyn got a haircut this week!  I have been threatening her for months that we would have to cut her hair if she doesn't brush it and take care of it.  Well she decided to experiment with some scissors after Dad showed her some pictures of little girls that have cut their own hair.  



It has been fun to get back into our routine of going places around Omaha.  We went somewhere new called the Joselyn Museum.  They had a lot of fun activities.

This is like a giant ipad and the kids can paint pictures.


Drawing on the pottery


This little girl loves to draw!  Her new skill is drawing pictures of our family.


Making patterns (or destroying them)



We are loving our sweet Claire Bear!!


Who do you think she looks like? Brinley or Ashlyn?





She is our chunky monkey!


Look how much she has grown in two months


When we came back from Christmas Break, we went to the doctor and found out that Claire had a yeast infection and thrush.  She had to get treated which resulted with a purple month!


Another one of our favorite places to get into our routine Mud Pies
The girls always have a blast!!





Brinley has a best friend Penny Van De Graaff, which is Ashlyn's best friend Hailey's little sister.
We love our neighbors the Van De Graaffs!!
It has been so fun to see our kids grow and become such great friends.

It is funny how much Brinley and Penny look alike.



 We love having tea parties at our house (thanks to Nana for the Tea Set that the girls got for Christmas).



Another time we decorated our window for Valentines and had a tea party outside with the 60 degree weather in January.



Brinley loves laying with Claire under the Sesame Street set.  (Thanks Grandma Martinson).



 The mornings are my favorite with these three little munchins!

( I am going to put this picture in Brinley's wedding video.  She is going to love me. haha)


Warm weather 






I was updating my preschool blog and this is a picture of Ashlyn I found.  
I love this girl!
If you are interested in checking out my blog: missjennyspreschool.blogspot.com
We do lots of fun stuff!

 



This little one is into EVERYTHING!
She is just so darn cute!



Christmas Pictures