Always & Forever: February 2014

Feb 28, 2014

Loose Tooth

McKayla officially has her first loose tooth (she's been telling me she has one for around 3 months now). She is VERY excited about this and we are all now on pins and needles waiting for it to fall out. I was just as excited as her when I first "wiggled" it and then I got that sad mom moment. I have loved mile stones up until now and loved watching the kids grow, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to watch them really come out of their baby/toddler years. I have tried to really live in the moment and love each age for what it is, but it's definitely getting harder and harder to watch them grow up. It brings on a mix of emotions...love watching them grow and learn new things, hard to know they'll never be that age again. It's like I don't want another baby, but I don't necessarily want my kids to get much older. Thinking about Kayla going to school this year is definitely part of what brings this on as well. I want to keep my "babies" in this innocent, naive, not a care in the world stage of life ;-).
With all that said...I LOVE watching how excited they are about learning new things and I feel incredibly blessed to witness this growth (I still find myself marveling at the fact that the Lord has trusted me to help guide and raise them...what an incredible and amazing role). They will ALWAYS be my babies and I will ALWAYS love, kiss and cuddle them to my heart's content :-). Stay tuned for the tooth fairy...I'm sure she's coming soon!

Feb 24, 2014

Best Friends

I hope this never ends for them...they really are best friends.

Happy Birthday Todd

TJ celebrated his 36th last Thursday. The kids and I took him to dinner the night before (after he got some snowboarding in) at a new mexican place downtown and then to the chocolate store in the avenues for a homemade ice cream sandwich and a mocha. Day of, McKayla made him a special breakfast while Bodie and I decorated the house. He got his breakfast in bed while the kids serenaded him with "Happy Birthday". On Sunday, we celebrated with my family and it ended up being the most gorgeous day...warm and sunny...it was perfect. Along with brunch, we did a couple family walks and played in the sun until it went down.

Bday cuddles from Bodie

Kayla's breakfast (waffles, syrup, LOTS of sprinkles, choc. chips)

Bday cards and balloons

Bodie couldn't wait to help Todd open gifts (literally...I had to rewrap it several times)

It took the whole fam to blow out that many candles (hehehe, just kidding babe)

Walking downtown to dinner

Feb 17, 2014

Valentines Date

On Vday night the kids and I had a date with my mom since TJ was working and my Dad was out of town. It was a nice relaxing evening with a heart shaped pizza, red velvet cookies and 3 people that I love oh so much :-).

Her Vday box from school (somehow I lost the pic of Bodie w/ his...hopefully I can find it)

Feb 14, 2014

Happy Bday Sadie and Happy Valentines Day

Our Sadie Bear turns 7 today! I can't believe she's already been with us for that long. She is such a sweet girl and we are very happy to report that she was able to go on her first walk/hike this week after being down for a year. Her leg seems to be getting better every day and we are very excited to get her out of the house again. On her special day, we sang her happy birthday, gave her lots of morning hugs and some special treats (yes, we LOVE our animals). Tonight I hope to take her on a special bday walk.
For Valentines, we did our traditional heart shaped breakfast (it switches between waffles and pancakes) and had some little treats for each other. The kids are SUPER excited for their school parties and I can't wait to hear all about them.

Giving Sadie her bday treat

Happy girl (of course she ran right to the rug to eat it)

Bubbles for Kayla's friends

Cupcake fish for Bodie's friends

Heart Hair for Kayla

A couple more...

Just a couple more pics from California....

Feb 7, 2014

Life is Precious

Todd and I recieved a very good lesson about how precious life is this past week. I think most family/close friends know the story, but we had to race out to California unexpectedly last Friday because his Dad was very sick. We ended up staying through Thursday and it was an emotionally exhausting week. We are extremely happy and grateful that we came back with good news and it looks like although the recovery will be long, Dad is going to be ok.
Todd spent a lot of time at the hospital with Dad/Mom and I was able to visit several times. The kids were also able to visit Dad once. While home, we all just worked together to take care of the kids and house. It was a very tough week and although we wish Dad didn't have to go through what he did, there were blessings that came from it. Todd and his siblings really bonded together to take care of everything and all the kids really got to know their cousins and spend a lot of time with them (they were all exhausted by the end of the week). It wasn't like when we all get together for a vacation...it was more raw and real. I feel very grateful for the time I spent with my in-laws and the conversations we had. I loved being with my nieces/nephews and loved seeing my kids with their cousins. I feel like I was able to step back and evaluate what is really important to me and in life (we talked a lot about it on the car ride home). Family has always been important to us, but we have been reminded that life can change in an instant and we need to find more ways to see all of our family more often.
Also, a quick thank you more than words can say to all my family and our friends who supported us through this. The prayers, thoughts and love were overwelming!