February snapshot

Whoosh!  February flew in and flew out so fast!  Here's a snapshot of what happened:

Sarah learned how to make muffins from a box mix in one week, wrote a paper about it and did a 5 minute presentation for her class.  She worked hard and we are so proud of her.  She also became really enthralled with a game on the Nabi (like a kid ipad) and we've had to limit time on it after she began neglecting more important things to sneak time to play it.

Whitney keeps growing and growing.  Really, she's just 6 1/2 years old in 10 year old clothing.  She has been particularly struck with "Frozen-itis" and struts around singing "Let it Go" with total abandonment.

Spencer is still crazy about running as fast as he can and anything to do with superheros.  He also has a growing addiction for angry birds.

Michael is signing more and more everyday, particularly in the context of "Signing Time."  He can sign pretty much an entire episode without even looking at the screen.  He can spell his name in sign.  He also is making a renewed effort to make vocal sounds though they are so so difficult for him.  He's also borrowing a lighter-weight walker to get him more interested in walking.

Brooke survived falling down the stairs - twice - when Michael went down to the basement and left the door open.  She's an efficient and quick crawler now so she would go after him and tumble.  She's also had several scary choking episodes from kids leaving toys/knicknacks/paper/erasers/etc lying on the floor.  We've borrowed some baby gates to keep her fenced in until we can keep her safer around here.  She has the most adorable smile.

Both Michael and Brooke have been sick this week with really bad colds.

I took the 3 oldest kids to ski class and took one myself while Tim stayed home with the babies.  It made for quite the adventurous day, especially at the end when Spencer and Whitney were too tired to carry their skis and get off the ground to get on the bus to take us back to the lodge (so we missed it and I had to make the half-hour trek myself back to the lodge to fetch the car only to return and find Sarah had decided to abandon Whitney and Spencer and go looking for me), Whitney freaking out on the bunny slope and me having to take her skis off and have her walk down, and Sarah riding the lift with me and flying down the hill perfectly. Family bonding.

Valentine's Day Tim made the kids a special valentine breakfast and made special valentine's for each of them.  I did the same at dinner, setting a romantic table with special heart-shaped pizzas, martinelli's, and valentine's.  The kids weren't sure what the candles on the table were for and asked if we were supposed to blow the lit candles out after singing a song similar to "Happy Birthday."

The annual "Valentine Making" Day.  We got an awesome box from the Bellamy side of the family with lots of Valentine love inside.

Yep, Tim is pretty much the favorite one around here.  I came down stairs one morning to find everyone sitting around him like this laughing and having a good time.

Tim got these beautiful flowers for me after a string of pretty difficult days.  He is so thoughtful and kind.