February

 

February started off with a bang with our big Disney trip! The rest of the month was a little slower, but not by much! As soon as we got home I had one week to prepare for a holiday (Valentines) and two birthdays (Ben and Lila’s) all before I left town again 10 days later. It was wild! And so fun!

Somehow a lot of Valentine’s prep got forgotten. In fact, we got home from our Super Bowl party the night before the 14th and realized the kids hadn’t even addressed their Valentine’s yet! Ah! So late that night we hurried and got them done. We ran out of time to make cool valentine’s boxes, but I convinced the boys that it would be super funny to take their Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns to use- and thankfully they were on board! So our actual Valentine’s was more chill. I had a cute breakfast for them complete with little gifts at breakfast. They all got a new shirt, that they were all thrilled with (Lila’s was a dress that she immediately put on). It was nice to have a fun little festive moment before school!

After school it was the craziness of piano lessons and karate, with a super quick dinner. We even postponed our traditional chocolate fondue until the next night since Papa had dropped off donuts. They had a great day. I love all these guys so much! (Their dad too!)

The littles helped me deliver stuff for Relief Society on some of our nicer weather days. I laughed at how perfectly they are dressed. Lila is in a tutu dress, has 3 bows in her hair, a purse, a necklace and glitter shoes. All of these were her choices. And Davis is dressed as Spider-Man per usual.

Right after Ben’s birthday I took off for my girls trip to Charleston, South Carolina! It was so fun! I love this tradition so much, especially that I got to attend this year after missing the last one due to being too pregnant to go (I had Lila about 30 hours after they got home). This time it was our turn to plan, Heidi did most of the work and it was absolutely perfect! Charleston is so charming and was a great place to hang out together!

We did a lot of exploring the city and enjoying the beautiful architecture. We had amazing food and did a little shopping. We explored little art galleries and breathed in the sea air. We spent one afternoon at the beach and even though it was cold and breezy it was amazing to be at the beach!

Mostly we loved hanging with all our cousins and each other! We stayed up late every night talking and laughing. Heidi and I put together a “little known fact” game for us all to play one night. It was hilarious! Everyone submitted something and almost no one got them right! I think Kelly won with 7 correct guesses (our of 28!). I think we all learned fun things about each other!

One really cool story from the last night of our trip- last fall Aunt Karen got a check from a life insurance policy grandpa had taken out for grandma back in 1951 for 2 grand. It was weird and crazy since she’s been gone for 30 years. They decided to use the money for a nice, fancy dinner together on the trip. So Heidi researched and planned and found the best restaurant to host us. They had a private room for us, a special menu printed, white table clothes and three forks and spoons- all that jazz. We got there a little early to make sure everything was set up correctly and I was telling Kate the story about the life insurance and how “dinner was on grandma!” And right then the song, “Georgia on my mind” came on. Once we realized that was the song, all our eyes filled with tears. I just know it was Grandma saying HI! I think it was her little way from the other side to send us some love and let us know she was there too. I still get chills when I think about it. She’s gone, but not really. And I love that our family has stayed so close and we’ve formed all these great relationships with our cousins. I think she’d love that. 

Anyway, I made it back home and was so happy to see my kids and Ben! I missed them! Ben held down the fort beautifully and even installed can lighting in our family room while I was gone! He even managed to get Lila’s hair in pigtails a few times. 

Davis is so nice to Lila. Most days her favorite game is “I want was Davis has”. He’s been sweet to share his costumes with her. I love how well rounded she is, she’s super girly and loves pretty things, and also loves a good superhero costume and playing with cars.