Please Pray...

I just found out that one of my friends from the other MOMS group I do (at Lebanon Valley Bible Church) died last night. Deena Tice was only 29, and has 3 young children (pretty much the same ages as my girls). She died of a massive heart attack. I grew up with her (we were in 4-H together)and talked to her all the time at MOMS group. This hits me hard b/c she was basically the same age as I am with 3 young children. Please, please pray for her family because she will be so greatly missed. She was a very devoted mother and wife and a wonderful friend to have.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Valentines Day is such a fun and special day in our household. I love to do fun things for the girls throughout the day. When the girls woke up Thursday morning, this is what they found at the breakfast table: Then, we had a fun playdate with Kara and Joshua Locker. We made a fun lunch of heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and mac -n-cheese, and of course had red punch for drink. After lunch, we decided to make some Valentines for the daddies:) Everone was very creative:)

And the finished valentines:Joshua had so much fun riding on Kaesyn's zebra, I wish I had gotten a picture of him! We had so much fun with the Locker's and can't wait for the next playdate!

When Jared got home from work, we took the girls to get their Valentines picture done at the Picture People. A little late...but with sickness and snow, I figured better late than never! It turned out really cute!

After pictures, we headed to Build-A-Bear...an experience in and of itself:) The last time Jaelyn did this, she was very little and didn't really remember it, so it was like a whole new experience for her! When we first walked in, we had to pick our animal...and we thought THAT was going to be the tough choice of the night:)

The girls FINALLY decided on animals...matching pink and white bears:)Next, it was on to the fluffing station...putting the heart in...sewing them up:

And from this station, we moved on to the brushing and "washing" station:

And we FINALLY made it to the most important part of this whole process...picking out just the right outfit! THIS turned out to be the toughest decision, especially for Jaelyn:) She kept changing her mind...soo many choices, too little time:) After we made our decisions, it was time to dress the bears, which Jared did, and was thrilled I might add, hehehe.

After that, it was time to name our bears...if you look closely in the picture, you will see that Taegan and Jaelyn picked EXACTLY the same bear with EXACTLY the same dress. We tried to get one of them to change their minds about something so we could tell these bears apart, but their minds were pretty made up!

Our Build-A-Bear experience has now been completed...time to take these bears home!

It really is such a fun thing to do for kids, and the girls had a blast. We weren't sure if Kaesyn would last through the whole process, so we are going to take her some other time...not so close to bedtime:)

The next day, the girls told me "that was the best Valentine's Day ever!" which made me feel really good that we could do that for them. I love you Taegan, Jaelyn, and Kaesyn...you are all so special to me!

Not to totally leave Jared out of this...we had our own Valentines later after the girls went to bed...Jared covered our table with rose petals and since dinner was over, we had candle lit dessert with our favorite desserts (mine being tiramisu...yummy!) It was very nice...until we had to go referee something in the girls room! Oh well...such is Valentine's Day with kids! Thank you Jared, for thinking of us and making a special night for us as well! I love you from the bottom of my toes! I could not have asked for a better husband!

I hope everyone had a special Valentines Day with those that you love! And big CONGRATS to Ryan and Jena for their special Valentines gift, baby Avalyn...we can't wait to meet her!!!

And the Gold Medal goes to...

Jared!!! For being the best husband/daddy ever!!! Okay, let's set the scene...Friday was Jared's birthday, and Saturday was supposed to be my surprise 30th birthday party...so we knew we had a fun and busy weekend ahead of us. Well, on Friday afternoon, Jaelyn got sick with the stomach thing...then Kaesyn...then me...and then Taegan. It was AWFUL!!! Jared spent his birthday night taking care of us sick girls and got no sleep at all! When I got sick, I was still trying to be optimistic about my party (which I knew was happening just not what it was)...but the more I got sick, we knew it wasn't going to happen. I felt so bad, Jared had been planning for a long time and put sooo much work into it. Finally, after a trip to the hospital to get fluids, I felt a little better, still out of it but at least not throwing up. But then, Jared got it! What an awful weekend for this to happen!! Thankfully, we are all on the mend now! And we are VERY sorry for anyone we may have passed this to!
Thank you honey for taking such good care of us! We love you bunches and bunches!!!

For those wondering...the party is going to be rescheduled NOT cancelled...because it was such an awesome idea and I think it will be lots of fun! More info to come on that, after Jared makes some phone calls!

Pay It Forward

Have you heard about it? Pay it forward? A friend of mine had posted about this and I decided to take up the challenge! The rules? For the first 3 to comment on this PIF post who want to particitpate: You will get something handmade from me, maybe not anytime soon, but sometime within the next 365 days. Here's the catch...if you decide to participate, YOU must do the same on your blog, and make something for the first three people who comment on YOUR PIF post. You never know what you will get! Doesn't this sound like fun?!?

Playdate with Kacy...

Jaelyn is always excited for Mondays...it now means that she gets a playdate with Kacy! Jen and I "swap" kids back and forth on Mondays, and it is lots of fun for the girls. Kacy and Jaelyn are both very girly-girls and they were pretty much singing and dancing around all afternoon. I got such a kick out of the songs they were making up!

We started out with some dress-ups...

and then moved to the doll house...the girls were really getting into being the "mommy" and the "kids"...too cute:

They were so into playing dollhouse that they didn't even want to help me make cupcakes! They came into the kitchen just as I was about to put them in the oven...so I said they could be the official "taste testers" and they liked that idea! Kacy liked the cupcakes, Jaelyn did not...so I ate hers too:) You know...one for me...one for the baby:)

After that, the girls really wanted to watch a movie and they agreed that Sleeping Beauty was the movie for them. Next thing I knew, they both had a sleeping beauty costume on..so the sleeping beauties were watching sleeping beauty!

The movie was not over by the time Jen got here with Taegan, so we decided that Kacy could stay a little while longer so they could finish the movie. Taegan was excited about that b/c she got to play with Kacy too.
They had so much fun and we look forward to getting to know Kacy and her family more! I see some sleepovers in our future:)

Free Family Fun...

Being a one income family...we are all about the free family fun! So, on Saturday we headed to the Family Fun Fair at the Harrisburg Mall. Jared had to work in the ABC 27 booth for a little so while he was working, the girls and I had some fun! First, we played in the play area for about 45 minutes. Since the mall wasn't open when we got there, the girls had everything to themselves and could run all over the place! It was great! Then we walked around some of the booths and of course had to stop and see Mr. McFeeley from Mister Rogers! The girls were very excited about this...they have 2 Mister Rogers DVD's, so they know exactly who Mr. McFeeley is. He autographed pictures for them and we got some tapes of Mister Rogers songs. Yes, that's right...TAPES:) I think they must have had them for a looonnnggg time in storage and were just trying to get rid of them. The girls loves these tapes, but honestly, they can put you to sleep and Jared and I can only take them for so long. But anyway, the girls were thrilled and that's all that matters! After Jared was done with his shift, we walked around a little more and then stopped to see the fish outside of the Bass Pro shop. Kaesyn was completely fascinated with them and kept holding out her arms to hold them...too cute! What a fun day!

First stop...making bookmarks!

Getting an ABC 27 tattoo from Daddy...gotta support the station!

And the finished product:

Finally, we made it to Mr. McFeeley!
Kaesyn was pretty much wiped out by this point and missed the whole Mr. McFeeley experience...although he was nice enough to autograph a picture for her as well!

Looking at the fish...she was fascinated by the outside display...I can only imagine if we had taken her in the store!

Bubble Fun...

We had a free Friday night with nothing to do...so we decided to let the girls take a nice long bubble bath...and we ended up with some cute pictures! This was Kaesyn's first bubble bath experience...and she loved it!