Happy February!

Happy Birthday to this cute kid!!!

She has been counting the days until this great day.

She is such a light in our lives.  When she smiles, she makes everyone else smile.  We love you Desi!

She got a sweet surprise for her birthday.  Granny, Gramps, Kelly, and Chris ordered a ice cream bar delivery.  She was so excited!!!  

This girl cracked me up.  Nana and Grandma gave her some money to spend on a present and she immediately found this huge dog and feel in love with it.  She had to wait 5 days and each day she would go into my closet to check on the dog and I even found her trying to hide playing with it before her birthday.  She was so excited that she had to bring it along on our special birthday date.  It was so adorable!!

She has planned this date for weeks and she wanted to go to Outback for dinner (what kid wants Outback? ha ha).  Then it was so cold outside we went to the mall to walk around and she wanted to play in the kids section.

Playing on  the toy car machines

Testing out the massage chairs

We were planning on going skating on Desi's birthday because she wanted to test out these bad boys she got for special day.  But it was cold her and everything shut down (some stores, businesses, schools, etc.)  East Texas is so funny when it comes to cold weather.  So we went to Skate Ranch the next day and she absolutely love it!  She got the hang of them real quick!

The delicious cake!

This cute boy loves school and completed all his handwriting.

After dinner we like to gather in the living room to read a book.  Dad is reading the book Granny Gangster (our old babysitter Sable gave it to the girls for Christmas).  This is a typical evening in our household.

Ashlyn made this delicious meal and had everyone make faces on their french toast.  She is so creative and loves to include everyone.

Ashlyn is really into a new talent of sketching and Derek and I have gotten to do some cool sketches with her.  This particular Sunday was the lips!

Because the skating rink was closed, the girls created their own in the garage.  I was so impressed with their creativity and doing it in the cold weather. They had a blast!

Another masterpiece by this girl!

It's a cliff

We went hiking when the weather was a bit warmer.  It feels so good to be out in nature.  I think it feeds everyone's souls in our family.  We all love it and I enjoy the conversations that occur when we walk together.

Claire finished her First Grade School!  She was so excited!!!

She is really progressing and learning so much.  If you haven't heard Claire read to you, it is a must.  She is a very good storyteller with her voices and fluctuation in her voice.  I love it!

For Valentine's this year we gave some flowers and notes to some elderly ladies: Evelyn (our neighbor) and Ms. Cheryl (the girls' piano teacher)

Brinley has gotten into sketching and drew these feathers.  She is doing an amazing job!

The weather is warming so we pulled out the hammock. 

The kids had a Valentine's Day Party and made these amazing Valentine's Box and there is so much creativity.

We had friends over to play and the kids play so well with their friends!  We are so grateful for them. 

CANDY!!!!

Valentine's 

We got this sweet package from Nana and all our aunties!   We are grateful for the Valentine surprise and goodies!

Derek and I love our date nights!  This was one of those fun magic nights were we spent the evening playing pickleball and then when it got too dark, we went out to dinner.  I am so grateful and look forward to our weekly date nights.  Derek just love soaking up our time together.  It is the day of the week that we look forward to and then when it is over, we look forward to next week.

Brinley looked so cute and comfy I couldn't help but take a picture of her.

All ready for Valentine's Day

I was sad to miss their faces in the morning when they saw the kitchen because I was at the gym, but Derek snapped this photo for me to cherish their faces.

We decorated cookies

Then we went and heart attacked our good friends houses and our sweet babysitters!  We wrote on the hearts things that we love and admire about them.   We are grateful for wonderful people in our lives.

Later that evening we had a Family Valentine's evening.  We make a delicious salmon meal where Emmett escorted everyone to their chairs and then we had a family dance party and Ash taught us a line dance.  It was a lot of fun!

Funny guy

Emmett is learning to read.  I am really impressed with him!  We just opened the book and he started reading.  He has been working hard, but has been more natural for him. 

Desi finished her handwriting

This picture makes me laugh.  I absolutely love it when she laughs!

This girl is always crafting and making things from YouTube!  She made bookmarks that are animals

There was a homeschool play that was called Pete the Cat in Lufkin.  It was cute and funny.  It was fun to watch play as a family. 

Oh beautiful hiking!

I went to a homeschool conference in Lufkin with my friends.  I am really lucky to know these amazing women who are on this journey of homeschooling.  This timing has been good for me because I have recently been feeling burned out.  It was a great was to get motivated again and be with friends.

This girl was devouring this book.  She couldn't stop reading it.  We watched Star Wars as a family and she went out in the cold weather to the hammock and just read and read.  She really loved this book!

Claire creates a lot of pictures and she is such a little artist.

The weather was going to be cold again and we didn't want to be stuck inside all weekend, so we took a day trip to Tyler which is about 2 hours away.  It was a fun day!  We started off at the children's museum, when the the local college planetarium where we watch 2 movies (about the planets and the other was about Aurora (Northern Lights)), ate BBQ and topped it off with some custard ice cream.  It was one of those days where everything was just right.

They had these marble tracks

BBQ

Silly Derek

The kids made a fort in the toy room

The kids were so excited to get Letters from Trevor and Bethany!!!  They are so sweet!

Look how creative and beautiful they look.

Bethany is so talented!

This is my drive in the mornings to the gym.  It is absolutely stunning.  I am realizing how much I love sunrises and sunsets.  It just brings me so much wonder and reverence.

You can't really see it in this picture, but the crescent moon is in the picture too.  It is very tiny, by the light pole.

This is one of my good friends Kristi who has taught my girls for the past 2 years and this was her last day of teaching them.  She is so incredibly sweet and loving to my kids.  I am grateful for her as a friend and teacher.