We LOVE to Have Fun!

It is amazing how much joy one naughty little creature can bring.  We have had so much fun with Oliver.  At three months he is cuddly, loving, patient, and curious.  He definitely has a feisty little ratitude, which I love.  Anything left on the floor gets drug out the doggie door and ripped to shreds.  His ear-do is always changing. Sometimes his ears are up, sometimes they are down. Other times he rocks the one up, one down look because they have a life of their own.  We like him no matter how his ears look though.  We are just glad he is in our family.

February started out nice and slow.  My phone magically fell in the bathtub so I was without for almost two weeks.  At first I was panicked but after the first day I grew to love its absence!  Because I was without for so long we missed a lot of get-togethers to which we are usually invited.  We had a good time hanging out as a family instead.  

Both girls enjoy reading so I often find them looking at books together. Lillian can memorize an entire book after listening to it once. Freya enjoys sitting with her and listening to her "read" library books over and over again.

Freya found my roller skates in the back of her closet and they provided several hours of entertainment as both girls rolled all around the house.

 One evening we had a good time beautifying ourselves.

Dad even got in on the fun and painted our toes for us.

The tractor at Papa's broke and the arena was way too hard to ride in so we spent the month grooming and doing barn chores.  

 Beauty is a good sport, ever patient and kind even if she is a bit grouchy.  She doesn't run away so the girls like to let her out to wander around.

They got a real treat when Papa pulled out the witch's cauldron that was used on my great-grandmother's farm in Illinois.  Lillian got a kick out of making sister stew.

After a few months of begging Dad to make her a big girl bed, Freya's dreams finally came true.  I don't know who was happier, Freya or Lillian, because now it is easier for her to bug her sister. They are working on their dad to get him to build them a bunk bed now.  I am not sure if that is a good idea or not!

Once Valentine's Day rolled around relaxation came to an end.  I made the girls a special Valentine's Day breakfast and then went to Lillian's preschool class for her Valentine's Day party.

After school a few friends came over for Valentine's games and lunch.  The first game was a big hit.  They had to load up their spoons with conversation hearts, run across the room, and dump them in their bowl.  Whoever had the most hearts in their bowl at the end won.  The challenge here was that you had to carry your spoon in your mouth, not your hand.

Next we made conversation heart towers to see who could make the tallest one.

After that we played musical hearts.  Every time the music stopped you had to turn your heart over and read what it said. Each heart asked you to do something silly like act like a puppy, or do your favorite dance.

After games we ate our Valentine's Day lunch.

V-Day didn't end there. We continued the Garbini Bistro tradition my uncle Darrell started last year. The girls just love being waited on by the boys!  All of a sudden they get very shy, like they have never met their dad, uncle, or cousin.  It is pretty funny.  I hope we continue this tradition as the kids get older.

Next on the list of Valentine's Day activities was the ward family dance.  We had a fantastic night shakin' it off together.

We stretched Valentine's Day all the way out to Sunday by wearing our heart outfits to church.

That day as while having Sunday dinner with friends, Freya and her buddy Graham decided to eat an entire giant Hershey's kiss together.  Their guilty little faces were pretty funny when they got caught. 

With another great day, or week for us, of LOVE in the books we moved on to Rodeo Days.  We hit up the slack rodeo one day and ate cotton candy. Another day we went to cheer Josh on as he walked with the fire department in the Tucson Rodeo Parade.

Our neighborhood had a rodeo roundup for the kids with face painting, a petting zoo, and bounce houses to help us wrap up rodeo week.  Freya fell in love with the alpaca in the petting zoo and just about hugged it to death.  I had to pry her off so other kids could get their turn.

Lillian has really enjoyed soccer this season because Josh is her coach.  She has been doing well and is learning that there is more to soccer than just scoring goals.  She can be somewhat of a ball hog and has struggled a bit with passing the ball to her team mates.  She is getting it figured out though and that makes me proud.  Spring season Lillian will be moving up to the 5-6 division and I am excited to see how much more she grows.

The month ended with a bang, quite literally, when a lady rammed her truck in to the house across the street from us. No one was hurt, thank goodness.  The incident was pretty exciting!

March will be another fun month as we celebrate Lillian's fifth birthday.  I am sure it will be a blast.  I just hope I can sneak some sleep in between all of the excitement!