Valentine Love

Valentine's Day this year was low key as usual, just the way we like it.  Starting on the first I hid hearts around the house one for each of my loves (including Tyler) and they had to find their heart with a special I love you reason.  The kids loved finding their hearts each morning and even Sawyer would spot his out and giggle when I read the reason I loved him.  I think it made all of them feel very special for the first 14 days of February.  On Valentine's day the boys each got a matchbox car with their heart attached and Rilyn got a new little pet shop figurine.

The Friday before the kids had their party at church and got to give Valentine's to their friends, play games, and eat lots of sweets.

I took the kids to grandma and grandpa's afterwards so Tyler and I had a night alone and had a great breakfast together the next morning in Palmer Lake.  Both of us drank too much coffee so couldn't nap afterwards as we used to pre-kid.  I'm telling you I miss nothing more than eating breakfast and coming home to go back to sleep on a Saturday....anyways....

Since Valentine's Day landed on Sunday we went to church, napped, and then got take out Sushi.
Can you believe this vegetarian girl eats sushi???  Not much and I'm pretty picky but Tyler loves it and it makes me happy to watch him enjoy food again.  My favorites are the cooked ones ha.

So, Tyler and I ate sushi and then kids had frozen pizza and a movie.  It was the best of both worlds.
The kids were happy and entertained and so were we!  We did have them all try the sushi, but gags all around.

Ryder trying the sushi

Sawyer loved dipping the chopsticks in the soy sauce

Also, Tyler knows me so well and came home from picking up the food with two king size snicker bars yum!

We keep this holiday low-key but like to do nice things for eachother and spend the day with our 3 little loves.  I'm always up for celebrating love!

Superbowl Victory

Obviously we had lots of fun cheering the Broncos onto a Superbowl victory this year!  Tyler has now said, more than once, it was the happiest day of his life and I'm pretty sure he means it.  The kids really get into it since their daddy and his friends do too and they loved watching the game.  Ryder keeps asking when we are going back to the Superbowl because in his 3 year old mind we actually went to the Superbowl and we won.

Here are some pictures of Tyler's best day ever...

Sickness

Phew...the last 3 weeks have been a little rough around our household.  Generally, our kids are pretty healthy and we are thankful for that!  They get the usual colds, but we still haven't even had to use an antibiotic and last year we had zero sick visits...so grateful!

But, 3 weeks ago Sawyer started not feeling well and two days later we realized it was Hand, Foot, Mouth disease.  Of course, they are super contagious days before they show any symptoms so within a week the other two also had it.  All the kids experienced it differently and it was a lot just to keep up with who needed what.  Sawyer had a fever and blisters in his mouth and on his hands and feet which made him really uncomfortable.  He didn't sleep for 3 nights, which obviously means mama didn't sleep. Rilyn had stomach cramps, a sore throat, a fever, and a very light rash.  Ryder just seemed to break out in the rash and blisters, but no accompanying symptoms.

We had lots of baking soda baths, popsicles, tea, and jello.  And were lucky to get some warm weather so we could at least play in our backyard.

Typical Colorado weather...popsicles outside one day and hot tea and board games with snow the next.

The kids ended up with nasty colds from the virus and so far Ryder and Sawyer have had pink eye, which is also a symptom of the virus.  Seriously this has to be one of the worst viruses to get.  We've been stuck at home the majority of the 3 weeks so we don't get anyone else sick.  Ryder still has some bad spots from the rash, but I think they are almost healthy enough to be around other kids.  Once Saywer's pink eye is gone I'm hoping we are officially over it.

We are ready to see our cousins, friends, and family!  Also, mama is ready for them all to go to Grandma Decker's so I get a little time to myself!

January in Review

I can hardly believe that it is February already.  January definitely flew by and I'm just now realizing it.  I didn't get around to blogging in January once...so I thought I would do a quick review in pictures.

The kids started to get super antsy with a lack of sunshine and warm air, but January proved to be a fine month to play outside.  Minus the fact that none of our toys have 4 wheel drive.

We stuck mostly to walks around the neighborhood where all we had to contend with was mud and not so much snow.  The dogs were grateful at least.

We also experimented with a lot of different talents and/or professions.  Like Rilyn says, "I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up because I am good at so many things."

Dance

Rilyn practicing her ballet moves with a free video from the library.  Ha way cheaper than dance classes. Some people might call it poor people ballet I call it genius!

Engineering 

Rollerskating

She got these for her birthday and they were quickly banned from inside the house.

Tantrum Throwing

Oh wait he has already perfected that...

Lining Up Things

Oh wait he has already perfected that...

What child doesn't normally line up their puzzles?

Drawing

Rilyn's latest obsession is taking drawing lessons from Youtube; however, it ends up in lots of tears since she can't make her drawing look EXACTLY like the professional artist teaching the lesson.  Trust me it's as fun as it sounds.

Texting.

At least they got this one down.  What else do you need to be able to do to be successful in life?

Rilyn had her kindergarten open house!  What??? Super crazy this girl is getting ready for school.  I only handed in half the paperwork though because really I still want to homeschool and maybe Tyler or Rilyn won't realize and we can continue with our happy I have all kids at home with me life! Wishful thinking.  

At least she really loved the classroom because it has a pretend washer to wash baby clothes and that is way cooler than the bin I designated as her pretend washer here at home.  

If she goes to school, I'm going to have to take care of HIM by myself and really I need her here to calm this crazy kid down.  She is his safe place and whenever he needs her she is right there with arms wide open.

The boys have been doing boy things like skeeball and light saber fighting.

We also obviously cheered on the Broncos to a Super Bowl spot and are very excited to watch them WIN this weekend.  I think it was my really awesome nail polish that secured that last win FYI.

We joined the YMCA so we spent some time there.  It's great to take the kids swimming and to the childcare so I can workout especially on Mondays because they get to run around in the gym and play in a bouncy house so not only am I physically exhausted, so are they!  

So, according to my iPhone photo dump that is what our January looked like!