An extra day

It being a leap year, having an "extra day" today made me feel motivated and when I feel motivated I usually get a blog done! A couple other things I accomplished today were: vacuumed and dusted downstairs, played lions with Kate, let Cole change into his jammies at 1 pm, laundry put away, had scripture study, chased kids around pretending to be a bear, and let kate and cole make the pancakes for dinner. Just a few of the super important things today. Tyler took the car to work which is fine, we usually just walk to where we need to go when he does (park or grocery store being the main places we "need" to go to) but when it's blizzardy snowing outside that also means homebound. Which I really didn't mind today, it was nice to have a stay inside and play day. Some days being stuck inside makes me go crazy and I think of an errand to run just to get out of the house, but today was fun. I feel blessed we are all healthy and that my kids have such great imaginations and easy going personalities. They make every situation better!

Other things that have been happening lately...Cole is still completely loving preschool. He's had a lot of fun things going on lately, like this day last week - Beach Day. They could wear swim attire to school and they did lots of fun water related indoors things. Yes he was quite cold walking to school, it was probably about 30 out. And check out my tulips coming up behind him! At least a couple inches tall. Tonight they are covered in 4 inches of snow, poor things.

Last weekend was a huge treat, Tyler and I cashed in on a present I gave him for Christmas, a getaway to our family cabin. We left the kids at mom and dads and headed up for a very fun couple of days. It was so beautiful and peaceful, exactly what we needed.
Can I just say how wonderful this guy is?? I could absolutely not have chosen a better husband, father, provider, etc. to be with forever. I found my high school journal while we were home and a list that I had made when I was 16 of what I wanted in a husband. It's so amazing to me that he fits every single quality I listed, some of them very specific, and I remember back then putting some things down that were "would be nice if he does this, but not a deal-breaker" type of things. He even had all of those! I am such a lucky girl to have the exact right guy for me. I love him so much!
Keeping with my goal/tradition of making a pie each month, this month I tried a custard pie called the "Tyler Pie". It was our 10th President John Tyler's favorite pie, so I made it in honor of him (President's Day this month) and my own Tyler, who loves custard pies. I spent forever on the crust, what with the pre-baking, etc., and it came out a little overdone but the custard part was perfect which was what I was most worried about. However, it was SUPER sweet, it tasted like a pecan pie without nuts. Not really my favorite, but glad I tried it!
I took the kiddos on a 3 mile walk the other day when the weather was nice and we ended up at Farmington Pond, which can usually be counted on for fowl to see and feed. These were NOT nice geese, I was actually taking this picture while heading towards Kate to stop the vicious birds from attacking my fearless daughter (Cole is behind my legs sort of whimpering). They were making this mean honking sound, like they were so hungry they wanted to take a bite of us, which they did shortly after this shot. I went to take Kate's hand and lead my children to safety, and one of them pecked at my foot and then bit my pants leg and was holding on! I was so mad at it for being so aggressive around my kids I kicked it off and we left the pond straightaway. I like the little ducks that just quack at you from the water so much better.

Just loved this face she was making at the bar the other day, I was getting her snack ready and turned around to see this. Cracked me up! She usually doesn't wait so patiently.
Here are my kids doing P90X! Tyler does it once in a while, and this morning Cole just asked if he could so then Kate had to de-shirt and join in as well. I was actually suprised with his attention span, he lasted for about 20 minutes, just adjusting the workout to how he wanted to do it, then when he was finished he ran and took a shower all by himself which he's never done before! He's so proud of his big muscles now.
We had a super fun family day in Salt Lake, one of the things we did was go to the new Natural History Museum. Cole's been talking about going to a dinosaur museum and this was so much fun. They had several spots on the floor like this where you could see through to an exhibit below that you could also walk over. It threw Kate off at first, she was walking so cautiously like she would fall through :) Yes, Cole is wearing sunglasses.

They also had this fun dress-up/play area for younger kids that we stayed at for a good half hour. Kate dressed up like a hummingbird and Cole was a wolf.
She was crosseyed for awhile trying to figure out what this long orange thing is on her head.
This was a fun water/river where they could put things in at the top and they would float down and then catch them with their nets.
Valentine's Day was so fun this year, I had 13 kids over at our place! Tyler had to work sort of late so I invited some kids from the neighborhood over for dinner and then hanging out so their parents could go on a date. I'm definitely doing it again next year, we had a blast. This was later in the night when a couple kids had left and everyone started to get a little crazy, we finally put a disney show on :)
Every Valentine's morning I love doing a little treasure hunt with clues for Cole (and now Kate) to find his bag of treats, this year it ended up in the tub. It was fun.
Heart shaped pancakes for Valentine's Dinner!!
Playing at the park.

My Valentine's Day present this year - a new piano!!! I walked upstairs after being gone for a few hours and there was a piano in my front room! I was totally surprised, I had no idea. I had wanted one for years since we moved in, but just hadn't happened. I love it and am excited to have music in our home as the kids grow up. Cole can play EIEIO while I play the rest of the Old McDonald song, and also the Jaws music which when he does Kate says "shark!" and they both go running to hide.

Here I am at 20 weeks. Feeling wonderful - not sick anymore, and not too large and uncomfortable. He's kicking around so much more, just starting this week. I love it!
Another fun preschool day was pajama day! You can't beat that. He has his knee pads on because he loves rollerblading to school.
Coming up in March, we have a HUGE birthday on the 11th with my sweetie turning 30, and then I'm taking off for a week towards the end of the month with mom and Tegan to visit Christine in Dallas and Park and Jenn in DC!! It's going to be a great month!