Fancy Night

Nate and I had to opportunity to go out on a fancy date about a month ago. Our Stake does it every year. We had dinner and dancing. We went with some friends. It was a fun night!

Thank you Adalie for taking our picture just before we walked out the door!

Outings

Here are a few of our recorded outings:

 The girls went out on a date with Nate to see our local high school's production of Charley Brown. He said the girls really liked it and it kept their attention for the whole, I think three hour long, thing.

 We are trying to get to the temple once a month so we bought a one year membership to the children's museum in Columbus. The kids go there while Nate and I trade off at the temple. I think it will work out nicely.

 I had the privilege to volunteer at Adalie's preschool on beach day. She was so excited for this day. She is pictured with 2 of her friends, Addisen and Emma.

We have been doing weekly chores with each of the girls and allowing them to earn money this way. On Saturday mornings they each have to clean their room (sometimes during the week too) and one other chore. Then during the week they each take turns setting and clearing the table for dinner.

It has worked out great and they love earning money. We encourage them to save 1/2 and pay tithing, then they want to spend the rest that week. They each decide on something they are saving their money for. Hallie most recently chose a wallet. It took her 4 weeks to save! She was so excited to get it.

Now I have to brag about some awesome finds for our whole family!! We have a local store that had winter clothing, dresses, and shoes on a mega sale. We went 3 different times and bought:

14 long sleeve children's shirts

1 men's dress shirt

2 men's sweaters 

1 tie

1 men's long sleeve work out shirt

1 woman's dress

1 woman's sweater jacket

1 woman's long sleeve shirt

1 woman's high heels 

for a total of $85!!!!! Thats less than $4 an item!!!

Lunch Date--with some extra

 Nate and I have liked taking the girls on lunch dates. This time I decided to document it....ha I forgot to take a picture of me and Adalie. Nate works across the street from McDonalds, so I drop one girl off with him and me and the other go to McDonalds.

 Adalie attacked Reid with kisses while I was making dinner 

 Reid's first time in a shopping cart--to say he was excited was an understatement

 We were at my friends house and Reid had peed through his clothes.....

 Hallie was face timing  with grandma Sally....grandma did a screen shot of her view to show Hallie

Hallie insisted on being in the baby carrier after Reid's turn

Grandma Sally Comes to Town

My mom was able to fly out for a week visit towards the end of January. It was a lot of fun! We stayed pretty busy which was fun!

First on our list was getting my bridesmaid dress for my friend Michelle's wedding this May. The girls (okay Adalie) thought this was so much fun! We were planning to go to Chuck E. Cheese right after dress shopping and Adalie told us, "this is sooo much better than Chuch E. Cheese"

 Next we went to Kirtland, OH and the Johnson Farm to see the church history sites. It is so cool living close to so many sites. Nate and I are currently reading Doctrine and Covenants along side some church history which makes all of these sites come alive. We plan to make it to Harmony, PA next.

 This picture with the beds you can see that there are ropes tied to the posts. They cross to the other side of the bed and serve as the mattress. Every night they would tighten them for more support. This is where the term "sleep tight" comes from.

 This is at the Johnson Farm and right outside of this door is where Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered and then he  preached off of these steps the next morning.

 Kirtland Temple (owned by Community of Christ Church formerly known as RLDS church). It was closed that day (and the last time we came up to the site) hopefully next time we will be able to go in.

Next we went and walked around the Smucker campus. It is so nice! They just opened a new wing a year or so ago and Nate is lucky enough to work in that wing. This is his cute little cubical.

"Daddy's work"

 

 Here is a view from Nate's level. (We all freaked ourselves out looking over the edge)

 

Reid so happy on daddy's shoulders

 

I LOVE this little face! We went out to eat after. (Sadly he does not have that hair anymore. I accidentally cut it all off ) :( 

On a side note, just before my mom came to see us, Reid got really sick. He had a fever of 103.9 for two days. It was awful! The poor kid had double ear infections and it was all we could do to keep his fever down. He was so miserable. We would hold him in our arms and he was lifeless. Finally about a week later he was back to his normal self.

Hangin' Out

My Mom was able to come and spend a week with us at the end of January which was nice! I will have pictures up of that soon. Since then not much has been going on. Just some hangin' out.

 The girls each got a pair of sunglasses for Valentines Day and Reid decided to try them out. He thought he was pretty funny.

It started snowing and Reid LOVES to sit in his high chair and look out the window, so the snow was a big treat for him. He sat there so happy for almost an hour. Ha, it was great for me too ;)

Sadly I did not get any pictures on Valentines Day. The girls each had Valentine parties at their preschools. They were so excited the night before and couldn't stop talking about it. Then the next morning after they got home from school they brought their bags home and were so excited to see everything they got. I remember those days and I can't believe that I have kids already going through that too! Nate made me a bouquet of candy. He is pretty creative! We got each of the kids a mailbox and put their names on them and then the night before Nate and I wrote love letters to each of them. They thought it was so fun to listen to the letters we wrote them. For dinner I made soup and heart sandwiches. They girls thought that was the coolest thing ever!

All In One

Before bed Nate is a lot of different things. In this picture he is a train and a chair and soon to be horse. He takes the girls to bed as Orza the horse. It's pretty cute and when they get to the top of the stairs the girls have to tie him up so they can brush their teeth.

I Like Bugs!

Adalie set a goal to learn how to read this year. She has been wanting to learn to read for months. What did I choose to do up to the point of setting her goal.....nothing (ha, go me). Anyways, she is still in preschool, but very old for her age. She only missed the cut off by 1 month for kindergarten (I'm not complaining). Her preschool does not teach them to read, but she was so ready. She knew all of her letters and sounds so well and was frustrated that she didn't know how to read. Once she told us this was her goal, we got to work and did a reading lesson every night. Well last night she read her first book--I got it from the library in the "learning to read section". She was so excited! I love seeing her improvement each day. It truly is amazing. Nate and I are so proud of her!

This was right after she finished reading the book.

Hallie is also making great improvements. While Adalie is having a reading lesson, Hallie is having a learn how to read, write, and spell name lesson. She also is learning all of the alphabet and sounds. She has come far in the last month as well! She can now recognize her name and spell it, write the first two letters consistently, and knows all but about 5 of the alphabet sounds and about 7 of the letters. 

Its so fun to watch your kids learn and grow, I think I get more excited than they do.