Happy Valentines

We had a great Valentines Day.  I love that Will and I enjoy celebrating the holidays; it is such fun.  Here are some things we did.

We surprised Will by making heart cookies.  I gave Whitney some of her own dough and she had a fun time rolling it and pressing it down to make shapes.  She told me that she was making candy canes for Wallace - who came and ate them and thought they were good.

We used some food dye to make different colors of frosting.  Whitney got really into the frosting; literally, just the frosting and not the putting of the frosting onto the cookies.  She frosted one cookie and decided she was done and just wanted to lick the frosting.  Kind of funny for a girl who didn't even like frosting not too long ago.

Then I made a treasure hunt for Will for after work.  I put this little heart note on our front door.

Will, with the help of ever diligent Whitney, goes through his treasure hunt.

He taped the heart clues to himself as he went along; the big heart was on the plate of cookies.  I think Will liked the little game.

And I know Whitney liked the little game.  Here she enjoys the chocolate rose that was part of Will's candy. I think she commandeered most of the chocolate.

Will game me some lovely roses and a wire whisk and an iTunes gift card and some doritoes.  I also got Will a new card game called Ratuki that is pretty fun (but hard to play with small children).   

We took a family picture on Valentines Day.  Look at those happy smiling faces wearing red and pink.  I think it turned out pretty well.

We went out to eat for dinner and just brought the girls to the Mongolian grill with us.  Both of them decided they liked the rice, but weren't big fans of anything else.  So it was a good Valentines Day.

Winter Adventures

Sorry it has been such a long time since posting.  Our girls have been sick for a little while and nobody has felt up to doing too much.  But here are a couple of pictures of some of our Cheney winter adventures.

We went to the park close to our house on Saturday.

Whitney loved going down the cold slide and made me go down it too.  

I thought it was freezing to be outside, but Whitney didn't seem to notice.

Rachel couldn't get over the big mound of snow that separated the sidewalk and the grass.  I was happy for that because she isn't very steady on ground that isn't smooth.  So poor Rachel just walked around and around trying to find a way to get to Whitney.

The real reason we went to the park was so Will could practice using his new boomerang.  He bought it on Amazon with some birthday bucks.  Unfortunately, the park has lots of trees and after a couple of tosses the boomerang landed in a tree.  Poor Will spent like an hour and a half getting the thing out.  We will just have to keep practicing.

Cheney had a very first winterfest this year.  Nothing like a party in the night time of the dead of winter.  Thankfully, we all bundled up and there were fires around the square and heaters to keep everyone warm.  

Whitney enjoyed some free cotton candy.

Here Whitney gets her face painted.

She, oddly, chose an owl.  The poor lady didn't really know how to make an owl, but it turned out pretty good.  There also was bowling and the library ladies were there reading stories and a lady made balloon animals.  So it was fun, if not quite cold.

And here are a couple of random pictures from Cheney.

  

Whitney and Emma dress like queens for the letter 'Q'.  For this time, it was good that Jess moved away because I don't think he would have liked to be a queen.

Rachel enjoying some ice cream.  We tried to give her bites, but she insisted on feeding herself.  Here she holds the spoon upside down and very slowly scoops some up.  I'm not sure how much actually made it into her mouth.  But she didn't seem to care.

Whitney and Rachel both played peek-a-boo under the blanket for a good ten minutes.  Go girls go.  So there is a little update on our lives.

P is for Pizza...and Pigs...and Pickles

I was in charge of alphabet days today and we had lots of fun because I got the letter 'P'.  There are so many    great words that start with 'P'.  But I chose to focus on the very best thing - pizza.

When I worked at the daycare before Whitney was born, there was a pizza song that we would play almost everyday in the toddler room.  It is called 'I am a pizza' and it is a bit addicting.  But I thought the kids might like dancing to it.  Whitney is in the middle of a jump in this picture.

We read a pizza book and did some coloring.  Will was clever enough to get a pizza inside the letter 'P', instead of just a regular circle.  I thought it looked pretty cool, but I am not sure the kids quite got it.

Something I saw online was to do a beanbag toss into a pizza box.  Will and I were both excited about this because then we got to order a nice pizza from Dominoes so we could have the box.  I don't have any beanbags though, so we used a small ball, a ring, and a pair of socks.  The girls had to get pretty close to the box to get the objects inside the holes.

Rachel decided to make the game more challenging by knocking over the box.  Take that you silly old box.

Then we did an activity I was especially proud of because it used so many 'P's.  We Painted Pictures of Pizzas onto Paper Plates.  I painted them brown ahead of time for the crust and then the girls did yellow for cheese and red for pepperoni and green for peppers and olives.  Both the girls loved the painting and spent a long time on their 'pizzas'.   

We made pizza for the snack.  I made some homemade dough beforehand and the girls got to roll it out and put on toppings.

They turned out pretty good.  Whitney even ate her slices and she usually doesn't like eating at alphabet days.  We also had pears to go with the pizza so it could be a little healthy.

While the pizzas were cooking, we made Pig Puppets.  I didn't get any pictures of the making of the puppet because I kept having to check on the pizza.  I had never made smaller sizes and I wasn't sure how long they would need to cook.  But here is a picture of the finished products we made today.

And, just for kicks, 'P' is also for pickle.

I ate a pickle the other day and Rachel wanted a bite.  She had to hold the pickle herself.

Look at the happy face.  I don't think she knew what she was getting herself into.  Anyway, we had a great 'P' day.  I am lucky that I get to skip 'Q' next week and someone else will have to plan it.

Seriously Cute

So we really haven't been doing very much here in Cheney.  The weather has been cold and the snow outside has become pretty icy.  So I have been trying to keep the children entertained indoors; here are a few seriously cute pictures of some seriously cute kids.

Whitney got some new shirts and pants for Christmas.  One of my favorite is this 'Seriously CUTE' shirt.  Whitney seemed to really like it too because she doesn't often sit and smile for the camera.

Rachel in her new jacket.  I wonder what secret has her smiling.

Playdough is a wonderful invention.  We have been playing with it a lot with the cold weather.  Here Whitney helps teddy bear get a turn smashing the playdough into the table.  I'm sure teddy bear was thrilled.

We gave Whitney a big W and Rachel a big R to paint for Christmas.  Whitney did a great job; she loves painting.  Rachel even painted most of her R before getting bored.  We plan on hanging the letters over their beds in their bedrooms.

It was opposite day.  Whitney had a red top and purple pants and Rachel had a purple top and red pants.

Grandma Keeler sent matching dresses for the girls for Christmas.  They wore their dresses to church and looked simply adorable.

I have some little weights for exercise that have recently turned into phones.  Will and Whitney had quite the conversation for awhile.

We got a package in the mail the other day from Will's parents.  It had lots of neat things, but what Whitney was most excited about was these high heel shoes.  Here she spends a little while learning how to put them on.

Then she clip clopped all over the house.  We haven't let Rachel try hers though because her walking is still only so so and that is with no shoes.

Along came a night of who can knock daddy over.  The girls took turns 'pushing' over Will.  Will was very good at making faces and pretending how very strong the girls were.  Go Rachel Go!

Teeth brushing time is always a chore in this house.  We try to make it more fun for the girls or they just scream.  Whitney got to 'pop' my cheeks after brushing her teeth.  How exciting.

So those are our seriously cute pictures.  I really love my daughters; they just make my day brighter.

Goodbye 2012

We had a fun New Years Eve down in Pasco.  We weren't originally going to be down there for New Years Eve, but our Cheney friends we were going to hang out with were too sick, so we stayed in Pasco.  And we had a good time.  We went to the community college that has a big shebang called First Night.

Whitney helped the clown during his performance, so she got to have a clown nose.

There also was a juggling performer who was pretty good.

And a karate demonstration that was pretty cool.  I am not sure Whitney was really interested in watching the people break the cement blocks, but I thought it was fun to see.  This was the teacher breaking like seven blocks with his elbow.

Whitney's most favorite thing of the night was this bounce house.  There were actually two bounce houses the kids could play on, but the other one was a lot more popular and had like a twenty minute wait, so Whitney just stuck with this one.

My favorite part of the evening was this concert by a group that uses recycled objects as instruments.  One of the members was a great singer and they all danced and played well and it was pretty awesome.  Rachel was intrigued by the loud noise (and Whitney manged to sleep through the whole thing).

We celebrated New Years Day with a chocolate fountain.  Yummy!  Happy 2013 Everyone!