We dressed ourselves....

Need I say more?

Hearts

Yes, I really do think things taste better if they are cute.....and what's cuter than hearts?! We celebrated Valentine's Day with the kids (though we did do a "date night" the night before, which was SO nice!). We had heart shaped pancakes, heart shaped pb&j's, and you guessed it, heart shaped pizza. We made heart shaped cookies for all of our valentine's too.....and I really enjoyed all of the reject cookies!! It was a fun day and boy, do I LOVE these kids!

Valentine's Day

We had a fairly successful photo "shoot" for Valentine's Day.....the kids were very cooperative.....I'm quite sure that was due to the HUGE lollipops bribe :)

Kids

I find my self busy with with the kids lately......our days are full, but not with anything that's too exciting to report. With life as busy as it is, I'm sure I don't write as many things down in the baby books as I should.....and things are forgotten so quickly that I am doing a "recap".....both Jake and Mia are at such fun ages! Both have their challenges, but they keep us smiling!


MIA
Climbs anything and everything
Is a binkie addict
Has still never slept as more in a 24 hour period as her brother
Is down to one nap a day
Loves the words stinky and NO
ADORES her brother
Says "hiiii" to you like she hasn't seen you in weeks....and it's only been long enough for you to throw a load of laundry in the washer
Puts her head on my shoulder just before I put her in the crib.....a little slice of heaven
Has the sweetest kisses and hugs......if she is in the mood to share them
Is gonna keep us on our toes!!
LOVES dogs and babies
Does not like it when mommy leaves
Melts my heart each and every day...



JAKE
Has really awesome language skills but says "yittle" intead of "little"......part of me hopes he never outgrows it, because it's so cute!
Will do anything if you let him watch a show
Is finally eating dinner after nearly a full year of protest
Says "I love you mommy/daddy" often....and in the sweetest voice you've ever heard
Starts most statements with "well, ya' see"
Thinks knock knock jokes are hysterical....with or without the punchline
Could live on pickles.....and french fries
Does not transition well
Thinks that "please be gentle with your sister" means.....okay, you can tackle her one more time
No longer naps.....and thoroughly dislikes "quiet time"
Does not like to participate in group activities....even if it's something he likes to do
Has mood swings similar to those of a teenage girl
Would sit and listen for as long as someone was willing to read to him.
Can officially beat me in the game, memory
Thinks any variation of the word "toot" is pure comedy....and says it as often as possible
Knows the difference between a phillips and a flat head
Thinks that "please hurry" means go as slooooow as you possibly can
Is protective of his sister if someone ELSE is being mean to her.....though the same rules don't apply to him :)
Is the sweetest little man I know
Gives the BEST hugs

Ellen Show

Julie and I took Mom to see the Ellen Show as a 60th birthday present and it was SO much fun! We spent the weekend near Burbank.....did some shopping....had some good food.....and then headed to the show on Monday. We arrived at 1pm for a taping at 4pm.....there was a fair amount of waiting around, but they did a good job of keeping us all entertained! We saw Juliana Marguiles and Kevin Nealon (who was hysterical)....and did a lot of dancing!

Here we are in the audience....Julie is on the left, I'm on the right....and mom is in the middle of us.....behind that really tall person :)

Brian had the kids all day Sunday and took the day off from work on Monday to stay with them as well......in 10 years at Clorox, I think this is the first time he's taken a day off for something "just because". It was also his first time having the kids by himself for any extended period of time.....he and the kids had a great time and he ROCKED the whole Mr. Mom gig! I came home at 10:30pm on Monday and was pleasantly surprised to find the house clean, the kids bathed, and flowers + a homemade card. I could not have been happier!

New Do

As you all know, my kids do not excel in the area of growing hair........Jake was bald (I mean no more than peach fuzz) until he was about 2.....comparatively, Mia looks like she has luxurious locks. Even though her hair is fine and thin, it is difficult to manage and as Grandpa Craney so kindly stated recently, she just has a bad hair day......everyday. In any case, it's a big deal that she finally has enough to pull it into a "piggy". I'm not sayin' it's a good look, but it does qualify as a hairdo!! If only she'd keep a bow in it!!

ABC's

Jake recognizes letters and has been able to sing his ABC's for awhile now.....he saw this "learn to write" board and REALLY gave it a good try! He traced over all of the letters and was SO proud of himself!

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year with the Braga crew.....which we've been doing for quite a few years now! We celebrated the New Year on East Coast time, which worked out great.....we did a countdown, Uncle Shaun lit off some fireworks, and the kids ran around with the abnoxiously loud noisemakers that I brought....and conveniently left at the Braga house (sorry, Karen!).

Day Trip

We made a day trip to this man-made sled run not too far from us.....it was torture for Mia to watch and not be able to go....next year she'll be tall enough~

The first time I've seen a bounce "pillow".....it looked like a basketball court sized blow up pillow on the ground. I want to know who comes up with these ideas?! In any case, they loved it.

A baby cow was born while we were there and we were able to see it soon after.....Jake, who is not much for animals, informed me that he would like a cow. BTW, Jake is also at that lovely stage where he wants pretty much every single thing he sees.

Cheers to hot chocolate....it was COLD out there!!

Who knows how much money we spent on this little outing, but it turns out Jake would have had juts as much fun if we'd have taken him to Starbucks for a cup of hot chocolate....that was definitely his favorite part. I will say that they hot chocolate tasted like they'd melted hershey bars and added a splash of milk. Sugar high doesn't even begin to explain the rest of our afternoon.

They had music playing and you know how Mia loves to boogie.....her dance moves were hysterical in her snow suit....if only the pics could do it justice.

Discovery Museum

Brian took some time off after Christmas, so we've gotten to have some extra family fun! We went to the Discovery Museum and they had a blast.....by far, their favorite part was the water room. They were COMPLETELY drenched by the end, even with the aprons on and could have stayed in there for hours.....pretty sure Mia deafened a few people with her shrieks of joy.....and I'm just really glad that we made the water room our LAST stop at the museum, as there's no way we could have taken them dripping around to all of the other fun things there!

Traditions

It may be obvious that I'm big on holiday traditions.....but this one is all Brian's idea and I love it! For the last 3 years, we have baked goodies and brought them to our local fire station to give to the firefighters on Christmas Eve.....it's a small crew and they are always so appreciative. We hope the kids will eventually understand that the firefighters, police officers, etc. are working to protect us instead of being home with their own families.....and that they are always there if we need them. I wish I'd have had my camera to take a pic of Mia, walking around the fire station and climbing on the truck in her tutu pants + her fire hat. But here is one of Brian and the kiddos outside the fire house.

Christmas Dinner

ALL of the girls with Grandad

And with Gramma...

And all of the girl cousins.....it is rare that we were all there, so it was great to get a picture. The most amazing part was that we weren't all in black tops and jeans.....we're really mixin' it up this year! Wish I'd had more time to visit with everyone!!

More family pics...

Christmas Eve morning

We celebrated Christmas Eve morning with my family.
Grammie and Gramps got the kids some cool books where the
book actually records their voices reading the Christmas stories to the kids!

Jake and Mia both loved opening all of their gifts!

Jake picked out these cars while we were shopping for Mia's Christmas gift together. He bought one for all the "boys and dads" and planned this car race....he was SO excited about it. He picked out the wrapping paper (he even wrapped his own) and then told everyone as they walked in "I got you a blow up car.....we're going to race them.....it's a surprise". Apparently we need to clarify just what "surprise" means with Jake ;) In any case, we all had fun.....and he did win at least ONE of the races, which he was thrilled about.

Christmas morning...

Jake leaving some gingerbread cookies + milk out for Santa....he was pretty excited!

Still half asleep, but checkin' out the stocking loot!

One of Jake's favorite new toys was the skateboard ramp from Mia!

And of course, the monster truck that Santa left.....
too bad he didn't leave any ear plugs in Mommy and Daddy's stockings.