**Long Post Disclaimer: I know month long posts are lengthy, sorry.
I'd rather post every week, but life gets in the way of my best efforts to be consistent.
I'm grateful for a full and wonderful life to write about and share though!**
For our family, February was jam packed with a lot of life for being such a short month.
Ellie has been enjoying photography!
She has a good eye for it and a beautiful, artistic perspective.
She took all of these pictures in the back yard one afternoon.
Zara looked so different after getting groomed!
She is an adorable puppy!
She loves to sleep at our feet, head scratches and being held, go for walks, play fetch in the backyard (they call her the black bullet because she is so fast), and eat table scraps outside during dinner. She's been a great family dog!
(Prayers are answered...we were nervous to take the plunge).
Here are some of Ellie's "after shots" of Zara's Make over.
Rob and I loved watching Ellie in her dance
performance called Back Stage at NCDC.
She is beautiful dancer!
She's also developed some great friendships on her team, which has been a wonderful blessing in her life.
Superman Sterling turned 4!!
Ryan and Sterling were adventure buddies one day.
Ryan has always loved feeling prepared with all of his hiking gear, and Sterling loves learning all of his brother's ideas about adventuring around.
Brenna is a happy, delightful, energetic and creative little girl.
She makes everybody smile at the store, I love it.
This is her with her new pants on her head, it was her own idea.
Her hair is finally coming in, and it is curly!
I love it in pig tails, but she won't keep them in.
We had a very direct, very wet miracle in February!
California is experiencing a horrible drought.
All the members of our church fasted and prayed for rain.
The following Sunday, we met in downpour!
The meteorologists reported the storm that was headed North shifted 600 miles to downpour right where we needed it!
It's truly astounding what the Lord does for us when we combine our faith.
During the four day downpour we enjoyed time together inside playing games by the fire. :)
We're hooked on kettle corn too, and pop it often. Yum!
A big Costco run!
Notice Brenna's shoes are off.
I got smart after loosing a few shoes to Brenna's attempts at making shopping trips exciting by kicking off a shoe when Mom wasn't looking!
At the store, and in her stroller too. Now when she rides we take them off first.
We spent more time at the church than usual helping the Young Women in the ward with a big Valentine's girls camp fundraiser. They delivered the goodies we made with a singing telegram of, "A Bushel and a Peck." It was super cute.
Ellie has been spending more time in the kitchen, even making entire meals for the family sometimes! She's awesome!
One of her specialties is Cinnamon Toast.
Rob was on call on Valentine's day, so we had a dinner date at home the night before.
The kids watched a movie upstairs, and it was better than a restaurant!
We could chose our own music (a CD I made for Rob of some of our songs a few years ago), we enjoyed complete quiet, and no interruptions. :)
True love is truly the best.
Valentine's day morning we had pancakes and boxes of chocolate with the kids.
Trevor loved his "FUNKY MONKEY" box.
Very appropriate.
Cuties!
Ryan made everyone a Valentine and wrote them a sweet letter.
He surprised us with them on Valentine's morning, it was so precious.
Happy Valentines to our favorite kids!
On Valentine's day we had a cool field trip with our Charter School to an ECO station were we met some pretty interesting and rare animals.
Ryan especially loved it!
This iguana cage said, "Stay away from the Iguanas, they fling their dung!"
Look out Trevor, he is eyeing you! :)
This bird talked like a pirate, it was hilarious.
The bird would would say "Ruff" like a dog and would say "Aargh!"
The bird would would say "Ruff" like a dog and would say "Aargh!"
Afternoon snack on Valentine's day included candy heart sorting activities. :)
Messy face and in a bow...for a minute.
We had a super fun outing to the mall for Trevor's birthday. Here are some more cute pictures from it for our wonderful Grandparents...
Trevor's Birthday was a bitter-sweet day.
He had a great day, and it was fun to celebrate with our handsome, growing boy!
On the morning of Trevor's birthday when Rob was on call in Sacramento,
I went out to the car during church all by myself to get some stuff from my car for my lesson for the Young Women about the Plan of Salvation.
I got a text from Rob that said simply, "My mom has leukemia."
The lesson I gave took on a whole new depth of personal meaning.
How grateful we are for Plan of Salvation and for prayer!
We know Barbara has been strengthened and carried through the last month and a half in the hospital as she has been through two intense chemotherapy treatments.
She has been such an incredible example of courage and faith in facing up to her trial she has been dealt! We hope to be like her.
We shed many tears and have since as we have mourned for her, but when we talk with her she is full of optimism, gratitude and faith. What a beautiful, strong character she has!
We bought her this orchid even though her weakened immune system makes it so we can't give it to her. It is a daily reminder to us in our kitchen of Grandma Soulier and helps us remember how precious each day of our lives are. We love you forever, Grandma!
The day after Trevor's birthday, was President's day. Rob had been on call and busy all weekend, so we enjoyed a super, fun family day for his day off!
Three big holidays in one weekend!
Our day began with breakfast at
McDonald's.
Then we went on our first big family bike ride since we got our new bikes for Christmas!
The weather was beautiful!
We rode to a new trail that had a little bike jump, and a new playground we'd never been to before.
We live in biking heaven! We can bike to 5 playgrounds within just 15 minutes of our house as well as a whole paved trail system through Roseville's protected open space.
We feel blessed!
It was one of those precious, red letter days. Especially after such a big, emotional weekend.
It was nice to enjoy outside, and take time in the afternoon to talk and have quiet time to process and pray for Barbara.
Other February things:
Play dates, Jenny and Ellie made some super sweet Lemonade! :)
I can only imagine Sterling's dreams after falling asleep reading,
"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs..."
We are enjoying his sweet baby face as much as can, he's growing up too fast.
Kids are falling asleep all over the place sometimes!
Sterling had a check up at the doctor's office including shots.
He was super brave!
He loves the Thomas the train that goes around the ceiling at the office. :)
Trevor learned about money and time this month, and he made a store for the Preschool kids to come and buy their snacks. Teacher Sharon had to shop at "TJ's" too when she came.
Ryan did a report on Paul Revere and made him on a horse out of Lego's for his visual aid.
He also has remade several of his favorite Lego sets during quiet time.
We had a wonderful date to the Sacramento temple.
We are grateful to live so close!!
We're doing better on having dates with the kids.
Ryan got to go to Smash Burger with Dad, and he made it sound so awesome that Trevor chose to go there too!
We are grateful to live so close!!
They sure love one on one time with Dad, and the rootbeer and fries.
More pictures of Brenna by Ellie.
Ryan loves to keep the house clean. He is always picking up! We're continually grateful he got Rob's "clean gene."
One day he found all of these headbands of Brenna's while doing his usual rounds, and came in wearing them. :) He makes life so fun!
Brenna's obsession right now, besides keeping Ryan busy cleaning up, is wearing everybody's shoes but her own.
We had Preschool Co-op at our house the month of February. We rotate by month since it's only once a week. The big kids are awesome "big buddies" and it's super fun to have Benson and little Ryan over.
They love "Teddy Bear" songs at movement time.
Magformer creativity.
Ellie learned three new Rainbow loom bracelets online; the pencil, the starburst, and the feather. She also made up some of her own. She's spent hours creating all kinds of color combinations. Super fun!
If you're still reading...you must really love us. :)
