Cozy Winter Day

On MLK Day a couple Mondays ago Dan was home from the office and it was like a bonus weekend day. It was gorgeously snowing outside, we had no plans but to play some games, read some books, and maybe squeeze in an afternoon movie together. So we decided to start a fire in our fire place and I must say that was one of the best days we have spent together as a family. I am so in love with a blazing fire in the fireplace. I love the smell and the sound and the heat. It's magical.

So we cozied up in front of the fire and relaxed. All of us except Henry who was up to his 1 year old ways of causing trouble. But who can blame him? He's way too cute...(see below).

A Little Love

We don't do much for Valentines Day, but it's fun to fill the candy dish with Conversation Hearts and decorate the house a little with some red and some pink and some lovey-dovey things. Here is a peek at some ways I've added a little love around the house.

The LOVE letters below are $2.50 Hobby Lobby cardboard letters that I wrapped in yarn. This project although pretty easy was much more time consuming than I had thought. There is a little planning involved as you are wrapping and needing to cover the end caps. I added a squirt of hot glue to the corners to keep the yarn from slipping off and glued down a couple of the ends to keep from having to wrap both ways. I like how it turned out though and now that its done, I'll be able to store it for next year and use it again.

The Valentines card banner was quickly thrown together using a length of pink and white bakers twine, some clothes pins, and 100 year old Valentines cards that were my grandpa Hamacher's when he was a child. I didn't want to use tape or glue or make any holes in the old cards so the clothes pins were the perfect solution.

Lastly, I printed out on card stock a couple of free printables I searched for and found on the web. I don't even know where I found these since they were free and as soon as I found ones I ken I immediately saved to my computer and didn't have any need to link back to the site when I found them. Being home all day most days with the kids makes my want to change things up a bit and holidays is the perfect excuse to do that!

Siblings

In the past couple months Henry has gone from being a baby watching from the sidelines to being one of the kids and in on the action. He is everywhere and the only breaks I get are when he is strapped into his highchair or carseat. Phew...boys are busy and strong and fast and dangerous and tough and heavy and exhausting!

Magnolia got Shrinky Dinks for Christmas and we have been coloring and shrinking those things. We do lots of "craft" projects at home. It's something fun that the girls can do together. Our only problem is the aforementioned boy who enjoys tearing up everything!

It's rare to get a good picture of these 3 rascals together. It's a lot lot lot of energy on my part so I don't even attempt it as often as I should. Usually I just throw them together step back and hope for something mediocre.

One Last Christmas Post

Every year either the weekend before or after Christmas, my cousin, Jackie, hosts some of my moms's side of the family at her house for a family get together. We have lunch and sit around visiting all afternoon while the kids are busy playing. Every year there are more and more little ones and little ones on the way. Rose, Jackie, Michelle and Hadley sat down for a 4 generations picture. We have the same picture from about 30 years ago when Michele was a baby. That picture was of my Grandma Emma, Rose, Jackie and Michelle. Brooke and Julie were the expectant mothers this year and Julie just had her baby girl, Evelyn, a few days ago.

Snow Days

We've had only 1 good snow this winter that lasted a few days and luckily we had some sunshine along with it so we were able to get outside and play. Even Henry joined in the fun and absolutely loved it. He is such an outdoorsman. One afternoon we played in the backyard and then a couple days later we got a little more snow and took the kids sledding at a nearby park. Dan took about 2 weeks off work around the holidays and we all enjoyed having him home with us.

Magnolia was having so much fun sledding. She kept going again and again. Boothe was a little scared coming down the hill but not enough to stop her. What did stop her was getting so tired climbing back up the hill. Henry would start laughing when he got going fast. We have a infant sled with a seat buckle and a rope to pull the sled with so Dan was busy pulling Henry down the hill that way. The hill wasn't very steep so it was easy enough to jog down. Maybe we will get another nice snowfall this winter still and we can go out again to sled. I beginning to wonder why these kids have snowsuits to only use a couple times a year!

December cousins

And here is the last month of a year of pictures of Henry and Raife. Now that Henry is a year, we will take plenty of photos of these boys over their childhoods and beyond but we can't expect monthly pictures together for the rest of their lives! It's been an interesting year trying to take these pictures. When I get the chance in the next couple of weeks I will make a post with all of the 12 pictures of the boys together over the past year.