I pink puffy heart Valentines!!

Valentine's day is probably one of my favorite "holidays." My mom and dad always made it so fun and such a special day growing up. From pink eggs, to Valentine baskets full of goodies. I don't know how they did it all those years, because I was just exhausted from doing basically the bare minimum this year! I tried to make the day extra fun for the kids. The Saturday before Valentine's day, we headed over to some friends house for a little Valentine's party. The kids decorated sugar cookies (I think Brooklyn used up at least half a bottle of sprinkles, yum!), and the adults played Kinect and the Wii. Fun times!

On the morning of Valentine's the kids ran into my room and surprised me with homemade cards (thanks Erik!) and yummy chocolates. During the day, I just tried to make lunch a little more special than usual with heart shaped pb and j, heart canteloupe, heart sugar cookies, and of course, pink milk. We sat down and watched "Despicable Me" together (instead of just eating lunch then going down for naps). For dinner I made heart shaped calzones, caesar salad, and pink milk. Then to top it off with dessert, we had a yummy chocolate chip cookie pie. Mmmm! I love our little family!!

Check out all those sprinkles! And that was AFTER I took off the excess.

Nice job Troy! He was a little more interested in just eating the chocolate candies.

Sitting down to watch a mid-day movie. Troy was saying "Happy Valentine's Day!!"

Brooklyn showing genuine love for her brother. :)

The dinner table, minus our yummy dessert. Mmm, warm, gooey cookie with melty vanilla ice-cream.

Best Friends

Every Monday, Troy (and Brooklyn) gets to play with one of his "best friends," Thomas. These two have so much fun together! They're only about 6 weeks apart in age, so it's perfect. I do a swap with his mom, so they're at my house every other Monday. These are just a few pictures of them playing in action.

I was washing my bed linens, and they decided to have a "sleep-over."

These boys LOVE their trains!

Brooklyn and Troy are also the best of friends (and sometimes the worst! lol). But they really do love each other, and Brooklyn acts like a second mother to Troy. They are both going to be Mommy's big helpers when baby #3 gets here in June!

Right before church, picking out their fruit snacks/treats. I love Brooklyn's face here, she looks quilty of something...

And the winner is....drumroll please

GIRL!!! Baby #3 is a beautiful baby girl. We are so excited to have another sweet, spunky, energetic little girl join our family. Troy still thinks he's getting a brother, so I guess we'll have to keep trying!

Oh the memories we make

A couple months ago, Southwest was having FABULOUS deals on flights to Boise. So I called up my parents and told them to get out here and visit their grandchildren!! They thought that was a great idea and told me they'd call me back with dates so I could book their flights. When they called, they told me they had changed their mind, but would rather fly me and the kids out! Umm, ok, twist my arm! So, off we went to Boise. The kids were SO excited to see Grandma and Grandpa!

Ready to fly off to Boise! They were so well-behaved and easy. Even though we had the early morning flight.  

The first thing Troy went for was one of the big tractors. He was in heaven!

Nothin' beats big marshmallows on a fork. What a healthy snack.

Got a little hair-cut while we were there.

Troy had his first professional hair-cut, and wasn't too fond of it. He wouldn't wear the cape, so he had hair everywhere. It was actually pretty comical.

Brookyn and Liv.

She wanted a picture with the turtle. lol

One of the kids favorite things to do: remove all the cushions and build a fort. Or just lay on them and watch cartoons.

Playing house with cousin Aundrea.

We're a couple of dorks. We just couldn't get a good picture of both of us.

I'm loving the quadruple chin. Nice.

So we enlisted Brooklyn to take one for us and this is what we got.

Ya think I need some sunless tanner or what?! Mom, Mel, Me, Elena, Brooklyn.



Please just look at my mom and the kids. Don't pay attention to the pale creature on the right.



Troy had Grandpa wrapped around his little finger.

A great past-time and way to tire them out for bedtime. :)

Brooklyn has always been such a climber and loved climbing up to the tree-house and the BIG ladder on the fort. Scared me to death. Gotta let them go sometime though right?

"I did it!!"

Ever wonder how my dad gets the kids to swing so high? This is his little technique.

Cousin Hailey, and Brooklyn

Most of the Paternoster cousins

At the grandkids party.

Our last night in Boise, there was the most beautiful sunset. I had to capture it!

       We had so much on this trip and weren't really ready to come home! We enjoyed time with Erik's family too, but somehow I managed to not get very many pictures!! Grandma and Grandpa Paternoster held a great party for all the grandkids, while the parents went out. They had so much fun! And when I picked them up, I saw the fun all over their faces (chocolate, suckers, etc). lol  Thanks to all our family for the fun times!!! Can't wait until the next trip.