Valentine Surprises!

So if you follow me on facebook, you may have figured out we are doing 14 days of surprises to celebrate Valentine's day this year. EC was so sad about taking our Christmas decorations down this year and she wanted to know what we were going to celebrate next. If you know me, you know I LOVE snowmen and snowflakes, but I could tell just those things were not going to cut it with EC. Plus, this "winter" has not been very cold or snowy. So we decided to get our Valentine decor out right after our Christmas decorations finally came down.

Then, when I was researching Valentine ideas on Pinterest, I saw this:

I knew what our focus would be this holiday! So I decided to go all out and include little treats that I have been picking up since Christmas. Bo and I have also written sweet reminders or words of affirmation on hearts for them to read and hang up each day.

Day 1: We came back from Aunt Debbie's and daddy came home very early that day, so we kicked off our celebration as a family! We had a good time reading their first Valentine, using their new kiss straws, and baking cookies. At one point AB ended up with a plate full of sprinkles = happiness :)

Day 2: We celebrated by making valentines as a family, which included valentine's with "hidden messages" the girls had to paint with watercolors to reveal their notes!

and the girls each received a new Valentine book!

This girl does the cutest stuff before she falls asleep... I love that she still loves her tiny doll and I kick myself for not doing her Dinosaur Train party this year. 

They even had a special date night with daddy thanks to CFA's annual Daddy/Daughter date night.

Day 3: The girls snuck in a tea party, enjoyed sweet reminders from daddy, and even got a few tattoos before church ;)

Day 4: EC's heart was full of knock knock jokes. These are her absolute favorite things right now. Every time we get in the car, stop for a second during the day, or right when we say it is time for bed, both girls break out the knock knock jokes! AB received a new book that she likes to refer to as her "Caillou" book. We also enjoyed a fun playdate with friends and then a new swim class! I think the pictures are on my phone...

Day 5: We had friends over at our house today to make valentines! Also, Grandma sent the girls a new book as their surprise today, The Day it Rained Hearts. It was very appropriate for today since the kiddos spent time working on valentines for those they love! The painting may have gotten a little out of hand ;)

But we have started some cute cards, thanks pinterest!

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but I think these two girls love each other! Or maybe it is just AB loves "the baby". She loved when Mila was on the floor and told her daddy tonight, "I kiss the baby's head!!"

And speaking of AB's cuteness, I definitely have my hands full. We made a trip to Joann's this afternoon. While I was looking at a pattern book, AB got up, stood in the middle of the shopping isle, smiled at me, and started saying, "I'm a smart baby!" She said this over and over and over with the cutest little grin ever! Monster!!! Of course, everyone walking by had to tell me how cute she was. One older woman even brought her grown daughter back to "see how cute" the girls are... Oh heavens! I am in trouble!!

PS I will probably come back and add the missing pictures to this post, just FYI if you see an update! Tomorrow is going to be crazy busy, so it will probably take me a few days :)

20 week ultrasound pics a few weeks late and new panties

So I realized that I never posted ultrasound pictures of the little guy! In my defense, See Baby forgot to email them (they delayed them because they knew we were doing a gender reveal party and didn't want us peaking :) I did remember to call after Christmas and request them. So here they are!

You can see one foot is above his head on the left of this first picture. At the beginning of the ultrasound he grabbed his right foot with his right hand and held it the entire time :) So sweet!

Why are guys always so proud of this shot? I am glad we don't have any questions about whether he is a boy or not! The ultrasound typed only a B instead of boy because she was helping us keep it a secret and didn't want us counting key strokes. Which I did not even thinking about it. Glad she also labeled the legs so I had no clue!

And his sweet profile!

We have been super productive around here lately. Instead of dwelling on my endless to do list. I decided one night/early morning to email it to Bo. Just so he could really know what was going on in my head. Guys just don't look at things the way we girls do sometimes. Since then he has been super helpful at helping me get stuff checked off! I am oh so grateful for him and for sending that email. It was just what we needed. Plus holding bible study at our house helps motivate me to get things accomplished and not leave projects laying around.

This was the project they accomplished tonight:

And the girls received a sweet package from Grandma tonight. I'm not sure what all was in it because they opened it while I was gone, but I know there were big girl panties for AB. She promptly tried to put on all 6 pairs at once :)

Always be prepared!

PS Loved hanging out with Mary tonight and doing wedding planning stuff again! It is much more fun to help and not have to make decisions :) Thanks for including me, Mary!

Pipo's 61st birthday!

EC loves any reason to party or bake, so that is what we did to celebrate Pipo yesterday! We baked, ate a "feast", and partied!

She's an icing only kind of girl. 

He even received a lesson on how to play doll house, complete with giants ;) Can't say he had to do that raising two boys!

Happy birthday Pipo!!

It felt like spring this morning & baby names

So what was up with that great weather this morning?

The girls loved being outside in their skirts! Until someone got hit in the face...

"It only hurt a little Annie, it's just a bouncing ball."

AB is not a fan of keep away!

I was hoping we would have more time outside, but errands had to be run and then it started sprinkling. The morning sure was nice though!

So I don't know why, but we just cannot seem to pick a name for our little guy! Names I had in EC's baby book were William Emmett and Jack(son). The boy names I had in AB's baby book were Noah Andrew and Henry. We have also like Smith, Davis, and Miles. I think we are leaning more towards Smith and Miles at the moment because all our other names seemed to have been VERY popular since we first chose them. But I have no clue what the middle name would be if we chose Smith?!?! Then we still like Henry because Bo's dad told us that Bo was almost named Henry, so that is kind of cool. And Miles is still high on the list. Oh, what to do! Well, we will have to pick a name before he comes home... I hear that is required these days. We do love you baby boy, even if we cannot settle on a name for you!

***I need to add that Thomas is on the list too. Not sure if we would call him Tom or Thomas, but we like that one as well :) Poor little guy with too many names!

EC cuteness and projects

I woke up to some EC cuteness yesterday morning. The first thing she said after "I'm hungry. Can we go downstairs?" was "I imagined [dreamed] about baby brother last night. He had blonde hair and baby clothes and tiny feetsies that were the color of our feet." The color comment made me giggle :) See has been asking for a "dark skinned big sister" for her doll house. We have two of every doll for their house except the big sister doll, so of course they want another and EC is obsessed with her having "dark skin". Black, Asian, Hispanic...I'm not sure she really cares as long as it has darker skin than the rest of the dolls.

Of course the girls also wake up asking for daddy. By 9 am they settle down and accept that he won't be home until dinner time. EC was extra excited for him to get home yesterday. They had grand plans to build a bird house! I needed to run to the store, so Bo took both the girls with him to shop for supplies. Unfortunately AB had two hours of "quiet time" and did not actually sleep yesterday, that is not until they packed up and headed to Home Depot! AB then quickly feel asleep and stayed asleep on Bo's shoulder for most of the trip. Bo was left carrying supplies and a sleeping two year old, so of course EC asked to go potty. Needless to say they forgot the dowel for the bird house, but overall I'm impressed Bo survived the shopping trip and made it home with enough energy to build the bird house :) Here is an almost finished picture of the bird house. EC still wants to paint it.

I spent time making hairbows for Valentine pictures for the girls and hemming EC's dress last night. Dez contacted us last week about using the girls as models and I jumped at the chance! We haven't done two year pictures of AB yet, so I'm hoping to get a few cute ones of her by herself. We will see what Dez has in mind!

 I'm also in the processes of giving my rose wreath a facelift in hopes to use it for my door this Valentine's day! I'll let you know well it takes the red spray paint!

Have I mentioned EC is really into decorating this year? We made a zillion of these glitter hearts yesterday. AB wanted more goo [glue] and EC wanted more glitter.

Also, I have been told and instructed that our Christmas flowers (poinsettia) on the front porch are dying and we need to get new ones for Valentine's day. Does anyone want to come decorate my front porch for Valentines day? I'm off to search the internet for ideas for the planter. I have about 5 minutes to spare, wish me luck!