Random February

We got a fun surprise in the mail one day- our invitation to the Forman Panaca Family Reunion. We've never been able to go because of living so far away, but we're excited to hopefully make it this year. My favorite part obviously was the picture at the bottom of Grandma Forman holding a shotgun with the caption "Be at the family reunion, or else..." We sure love this feisty grandma of ours and can't wait to see her again!

Jacob had some fun surprises this month as well. One afternoon, he received a fun package in the mail from Aunt Nettie and the cousins. They had made him an awesome 'lei' for his baptism, completely filled with candy and coins. He thought it was amazing!
Our friends the Bassetts also stopped by with a really fun candy bar poster they made for Jacob's baptism as well. This kid sure had a fun month and felt very loved.
I guess it was the month for fun mail surprises! My amazingly talented friend Jordan made this adorable 'supergirl' cape and a skirt for Emily. I had done some bracelets for her new niece and she sent this as a thank you. Emily absolutely loved it and wore it around forever. It was hard to convince her to let me take it to wash it. We're saving the skirt for her birthday in March.

I don't know about other moms, but I love bed-head hair. It's so cute to see the wild, crazy hairdos the kids wake up with sometimes. Judging by the looks of this hair, I'd say Emily had a pretty good sleep!
Matthew is still going strong with the tinker-toys. He loves these things. This was one of his latest creations, a 'cage' for his animals.
We've been trying to squeeze in all those last dentist appointments before our flex-spending account ended for the year. So between all the kids' appointments, Emily and I had a lot of time to spend in the waiting room. Emily loved the little table and chairs and especially the books. The funniest thing was that every time we'd get to the dentist office, the first thing Emily would do is pull off her shoes and socks. She must have felt right at home, because she would NOT keep them on for anything! I'm sure everyone at the office probably wonders if she ever wears shoes. She doesn't do it anywhere else, but apparently she likes to be barefoot at the dentist office.

Caleb and Matthew have come up with a new game they like to play. It's called, "Mixed-Up" and involves two boys and one clothing item- either a shirt or pants. It's pretty funny to see those little pajama pants of Matthew's completely stretched out to the max- it's even funnier to watch them try to walk around that way. These boys are crazy but they sure have fun, and they think it's hilarious.


Matthew had a 'sports' day at preschool. All the kids got to wear their favorite team jersey to school. Matthew was thrilled to be able to wear his "BYU" or "B-I-U" jersey as he calls it. I got this jersey from a friend back in Philadelphia and all three of our boys have worn it and loved it. Thanks again Deborah!

Vicky's Baby Shower

In February, Jeff's office had a surprise baby shower for his partner Vicky and their technician Joey's wife who were both due to have a baby the beginning of March. So Matthew, Emily, and I went up to Jeff's office to join the party. Everyone enjoyed a delicious catered lunch, and had fun watching Vicky and Tanya open gifts. Jeff's office manager Linda did a wonderful job of putting together darling decorations and favors. The only bummer was that we ended up getting a blizzard that day so most people had to take off a little early to pick up kids who were dismissed early from school. It was still a fun afternoon and we're excited to meet these cute new little babies!

Caleb's Basketball Season

Caleb had the chance to play basketball on a team for the first time this winter. It was organized by some parents in the school and it was just for the kindergarten students. It was only an 8-week season with a few weeks for practicing and a few weeks for games. The practices and games were always on Wednesday nights and not too long. It was perfect and Caleb loved it!
All the teams were a mix of both girls and boys. The coaches for each team were volunteer parents. It was fun to get to know the players and their families. It was so fun to watch the kids and see their improvement over the weeks. The games were really fun and non-competitive, but the kids still learned a lot about basketball, rules, etc.It was always pretty entertaining. Sometimes it seemed like the kids forgot all about basketball in their hurry to get to the other end of the court- it was a full on race sometimes!
Caleb's skills really improved over the 8 weeks. I was impressed with his ability to dribble, pass and shoot. He was the top scorer in a few of the games and was always good at getting his pass to his teammate.
Not everyone made it to all of Caleb's practices, but I think everyone was there at most of the games. There were a few times when Jeff was working and I had the kids alone, but for the most part Jeff was there too. It was sure fun to cheer Caleb on. The kids loved watching the games! And I loved how Emily always insisted on bringing her purse and other little accessories with her each week.



Caleb was a little sad when it came time for the basketball season to be over, but he was ok with it when he found out he could play again next year. Next up is baseball for all three boys!
We got lucky that some of our good friends, the Taylors, had a little girl on Caleb's team. Katie & Caleb are both in kindergarten and great friends at school and church. They also have another little girl, Kendall who is Matthew's age and these two are also good little buddies. Matthew & Kendall did a good job of keeping each other busy during the games. Plus it gave Karalee and I a chance to visit with each other while we watched our kids play.

Blue & Gold Banquet

Jacob's scout troop/our ward had their Blue & Gold Banquet this month. It was a Carnival theme and they did an amazing job putting together a potluck dinner, desserts, and a whole carnival setup with games and activities. Jacob absolutely loves scouts and had been looking forward to the banquet since January. Jeff was just grateful that he wasn't in charge of it this year.

It was fun to enjoy the night with our friends and ward members, and the kids had an absolute blast. They ran around all night playing games, stacking cups, fishing, shooting nerf guns at targets, playing "Plinko", having fun with their friends, and all sorts of other things.
This is my all-time favorite picture of the evening. Emily taking on Callum Black and Daniel Jensen in a balloon sword fight. (Complete with sound effects- 'hi-ya!") This girl is so funny and she has a huge fan club- so many of the kids in the ward just adore her and always want to play with her. Emily was having the time of her life.

Matthew & Misti

All the kids enjoyed having Dad's dog Misti with us for the month, but Matthew especially loved her and took care of her. He was so thrilled the night we picked her up, and he told me on our way to the gym the next morning, "I can't believe we got a puppy!"
It was the boys' job to take Misti outside first thing in the morning when they work up. Jacob and Caleb were usually pretty good, but after a couple weeks, they were trying to keep track of who's turn it was. Not Matthew. Every morning as soon as he was up, he would run downstairs and go directly to Misti's kennel and say in the sweetest little voice, "Hi Puppy!" Then he would get her out and play with her.
He loved going outside with Misti and loved to spend most of his day just playing with her. Sometimes it was hard to convince Matthew that she needed a break or some time to just sleep!
Apparently, puppies will be more tolerant and patient dogs if they're around kids from a young age. That was part of the reason Dad was so excited that we were taking Misit home as soon as we could. As I watched Matthew over the weeks- carrying Misti around, giving her rides in boxes, playing games with her, and using her as a pillow, etc. It made me laugh- Matthew was definitely breaking her in well, and Misti seemed to love it too.

This was a pretty familiar sight. Matthew hated to put Misti in her kennel, especially if she cried. So quite often he would just hop on in there with her. Good thing we got one that had plenty of room!

Matthew was pretty sad when it came time for Misti to go home with Grandma and Grandpa.

I really loved watching these two together. Misti would sometimes just crawl up into Matthew's lap and sit there. Other times Matthew would pick her up and just hold her. These two were such a great little match for each other.
And this is how Matthew would carry her around. If I ever needed someone to go grab Misti, Matthew was teh one to call. He would run right over and just pick her right up. We had a funny instance at Jacob's baptism where Dad was letting Misti run around for a while afterwards. It was finally time to get everyone loaded up in the car, but Misti wasn't quite ready to stop. Dad called to her but she went running. Well, Matthew just ran over as fast as he could and totally just tackled her right then and there, then he picked her up and carried her to Grandpa. He put a hole in his church pants doing it, but we all got a pretty good laugh. Matthew didn't mess around and Misti knew it too!

I didn't want to invest in real gates since I knew we would only have Misti for a short while, so while we had her we had this awesome set-up of cardboard boxes/makeshift gate to keep Misti off my carpet. Although it looked a little redneck, it did the job. But Misti sure hated it when the kids were in the living room without her. She'd stand up and whine for them until they came back to play with her.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Matthew just sat there holding Misti the night before Mom & Dad left for a good 20-30 minutes, and he was a little sad the next morning when she wasn't there. Now that Misti has been gone for a few weeks, Matthew doesn't talk about her quite as much, but he will say to me sometimes, "I miss Misti. I wish we could have Misti doggy back at our house." It does tug at the heart strings just a little, but I still think we'll wait to get a permanent dog. At least until we have a good set-up and Matthew is old enough to take on more of the dog responsibilities since he seems to be the one who really wants the puppy. Until then, we're lucky that he will get to see Misti every time we go to Grandma's house, and we'll keep a big picture of the two of them in Matthew's room for him to have always. Matthew sure loved having his very own puppy.

Playtime

Mom & Dad Stevens had to leave early Monday morning to drive home, but my parents flight didn't leave until early Monday evening so we had a little more time to play. After a quiet, lazy relaxing morning, we headed out to a fun little gym nearby. It's got a full arcade set-up with games, tokens & prizes- but the main attraction are the inflatables. They have tons of different bounce houses, slides, obstacle courses, etc. We've heard a lot about it, and thought this weekend would be the perfect time to try it out.

The kids had a blast and loved playing on all the different inflatables. Emily was a little bummed she couldn't follow after the boys on a few of them, but she had a blast in the bounce house and going down the giant slide. That girl has no fear! The boys had lots of fun racing around and playing together too. It was nice to have a chance to visit with Mom & Dad while the kids played, and it provided some pretty good entertainment for us too.

As you can tell by Emily's face, she absolutely LOVES it when Matthew picks her up and carries her around. It's not too hard since she sill only weighs 21 pounds, but it drives her crazy! :)

Later on that afternoon, we stopped to pick up some lunch and Mom & Dad took Jacob to the store to pick out one more present for his birthday. He ended up choosing the game "Risk". Ask me if I'm thrilled... It was so nice and Jacob was beyond excited!

We had lunch/dinner at home, then I took Mom & Dad to the airport at 6pm. It was a sad goodbye, and the time went by way too fast, 2.5 days just isn't enough! But we were just glad they were able to make it out at all. It was such a fun weekend with everyone here. Jacob sure felt special and loved, and we loved having time with family.