Things I love on Friday

I love Sara. Sara loves dogs. I love that I caught Sara eating and drinking like a dog.

I also love poor Kate, crashing on the couch after going on a really long bike ride.

If I only had a brain

Lately, when Kate gets in trouble she's been saying, "My brain told me to do it." It always makes me laugh.

Left behind

This afternoon Jerry called at about 4 and told me his friend wasn't using his tickets to the Jazz game tonight. Immediately, I start thinking of who I could get to babysit the kids. Then Jerry said, "I've always wanted to take Matt, do you care if we go tonight?" No, of course I don't care... sigh...

Things I love on Friday

I love snuggling under a blanket, reading a book and listening to the rain outside.

I love this conversation:

Matt: Mom, is hell a bad word?

Me: laughing

Matt: Some kids at school say it is.

Me: Well, yes... but...

Matt: Elliot's last name is hell.

Me: Oh, I think his last name is Hail. That's not a bad word. And then I explained to him what hell is.

I love when Matt brought home some homework that involved cutting and gluing so Kate wanted to do some to. And then Sara wanted to sit in Kate's booster seat and join in. She was so happy to be a "big" kid.

I love that Kate wanted to line up her dancing girls and take a picture: And I love it because it reminded me of this:

Green with envy

Green is pretty much my favorite color. I know sometimes I say orange because it's bright, or purple because it suggests royalty, but pretty much it just comes back to green. That probably explains why my entire house is painted green and I sort of want to repaint part of it to a more olivey green, but I remember too well how much work it was. Anyway, last night I was looking through some stuff for a color wheel and I found a sheet about colors and personality. So here's what it says about green:
Like: Lucky you! Tolerant, relaxed and balanced, you are well adjusted and mature, a born wife and mother. You are not mean but you like money and the advantages it brings. Respectable and loyal, you may yet have a wandering eye. But that's just as a sign of your universal tolerance. You are the backbone of society.

I'm not sure I get or like the wandering eye part, or the backbone of society part, but the rest of it's not so bad, right? Here's more:

Dislike: You are immature and unsure of yourself. On the whole you're unsociable. You don't like getting involved emotionally. You can't bear small talk, the give and take of communal life.

Oh, come on now. Please don't tell me I'm immature and unsure of myself (though it may be true) I don't want to know! I definitely don't like getting involved emotionally. That is definitely true, but you would really have to try hard to convince me that's a problem. I can bear small talk, but I prefer to just let the other person talk. So maybe what it says isn't so far from the mark. What do you think? Don't worry I won't be offended, remember, I'm not emotionally connected to your answer. :)

What's your favorite color?

Don't burn the house down

The following is one of my favorite family traditions. Matt was asking if we were going to do this again this year and it made me happy that he remembered it and remembered that it was fun. I know some people think Valentine's Day is just another way for stores to make money, and it certainly can be, but it can also be what you want it to be. We took cookies to our neighbor and the husband went off on this soapboxof how Valentine's is just a day for husbands to get out of the doghouse for a day. My first reaction was wanting to grab back the plate of cookies, but I resisted and then as Jerry and I got in the car I said, "That's the same person who always buys his wife a gigantic boquet of flowers and once took Valentine's Day off of work so the two of them could get a couples massage, right?" It was the same person. I hope they enjoy those blasted cookies. It might be the last time we give them any. Anyway, like I said yesterday we made cookies:

Then we had heart shaped donuts for breakfast:

Then, my favorite part:

A candle light dinner of heart shaped pizza. I love this!! While we ate we played Would you Rather...

And for dessert, we made chocolate covered strawberries. Yum! It was a great day.

Things I love on Friday

I love that one day this week Matt and Kate were getting along so well and Matt said, "Kate, lets never fight again." I smiled to myself and Matt saw me and he said, "We say that a lot, but it doesn't really last." I love that they really get along quite well.

What I really love on this Friday is my family. So the following is for them in honor of Valentine's Day:

Jerry: More than anything, thank you for letting me be who I am. Thank you for encouraging me in running and coming home from the gym so I can go and taking care of the kids while I'm gone. Thank you for letting me be stubborn, for a while at least, and then calling me on it. Thank you for letting me vent and then I can just be done with whatever was bothering me and I don't have to worry about it anymore. Thank you for letting me stay home with the kids, but then allowing me a few moments of complaining. Thanks for thinking what I'm thinking and finishing my sentences, especially lately. Thanks for taking care of our family, and leading us and doing everything a father and husband should! I love you!!

Matt: You are such a great part of our family. I love the way your sisters love you. They really look up to you for so many things. You are constantly teaching them something. I have to tell you about this fall. We had such a great time together. Kate and Sara would take their naps at the same time which meant that most days you and I could hang out in your room and play legos. I really loved that time. You would tell me about school and we'd practice reading words or simple math problems. My job was to find the lego pieces and you would build whatever you were working on at the time. It was a great way to spend time with you that I knew was limited. Now, Kate doesn't take naps and Sara destroys your legos and then eats them so your door is always shut. It makes me a little sad. I feel like your more closed off from us, but you are happy in your room with your legos. I will miss you when you are in school all day next year, but I'm so glad we've had this time together. I love you!!

Kate: You are the family clown and I love it. You are so silly and you are always making me laugh. Sometimes I wonder if there is a serious bone in your body. You truly enjoy life. I love the way you are so good to Sara. You always share whatever you are eating with her. I don't even have to ask. You always want to go into your room as soon as you hear she is awake. I love when I hear you two laughing when it is bedtime. You will make a good mommy someday. I can see the love in your heart when I watch you with your sister. I was so proud of you in gymnastics this winter. You were so scared of doing a pullover but each time you would get a little closer and then you finally did it. Good job doing something that was hard and a little scary. You can be quite determined when you want to. I'm so glad that you like to be around people and you are starting to want to be social. You will have a great time in preschool next year. I love watching you tap dance. It is so fun. You are so darn cute. Oh, and your eyes, I melt every time I look at them. You are a beautiful girl. I love you!!

Sara: I love your determination. I love how brave you are. I love when you wander all over the house. I love the way you want to do whatever your brother and sister are doing. You really have a mind of your own. I know you know some things you shouldn't be doing like throwing food off your high chair or standing up in the bathtub, but you continue to do them and look at me with that look. You know. I know you know. But for now we'll let it slide. I'll forgive you every time you let me snuggle with you and you give me a kiss. I'll forgive you until you hit me in the face, repeatedly, despite me strongly saying "no. we don't hit.", and then I'll shake my head at your independence which I haven't yet seen in my children. Clearly, you don't take no for an answer and I think someday that will get you far in life. But for now, remember that your brother and sister adore you. I adore you. Your daddy forgets everyone else the minute he walks in the door and you say "Hiiii." and grab your blanket and a book and snuggle with him on the couch. You've got us all wrapped around your finger and we didn't even know it was happening. I love you!!

In this picture, Sara is tearing a book apart and shoving the pieces under Matt's door. Silly girl.

Good job, Matt

Every day at school, Matt does this one math worksheet. The first 2 or 3 kids who get it done right get to be the checkers for the rest of the kids. Matt has really wanted to be the checker. One day he was done in time, but had one thing wrong. Today he did it! He got to be the checker. He was so excited. Good job, Matt! I love you.

Need no reason to celebrate

Of course I believe you need to reason to celebrate or have a party, but I have to say Valentine's Day is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. Now, let's be honest here. Paying 10 times as much for flowers on February 14 versus February 15 is ridiculous, so we don't take part in that, but I love celebrating love and friendship. We've developed some fun family traditions which I'll post later and I'm so excited for them. Almost as excited as Christmas because they will cost a lot less and there's virtually no stress! We've also been reading Valentine storys, making cards, doing word searches, etc. It's been really fun. And it's nice to have a little mid-winter pick me up. Kate had playgroup at our house today and we decorated cards and ate m&ms and conversation hearts. The best part was hearing four 3 year olds say m&ms. Who knew it was such a tricky phrase. A couple of days ago the kids made door hangings, they had fun. I love when we do a craft and then after we're done they still want to paint, color, cut, etc. Oh how fun to be a kid again!

Matt thought he was so funny because he is barely peeking through his hands with one eye.

Things I love on Friday

I love when I pick a child up from a nap or night time and they've been laying on one side of their face and their cheek is warm and they let me put my cheek on theirs.

I loved on Tuesday when I put the girls to bed early and I got to spend some time talking and reading with Matt. And I loved the night I heard noises coming from his bedroom and I peeked in and he had his hands in the air so they made shadows on his wall and he was playing good hand shadow vs bad hand shadow.

I loved on Wednesday when Matt was at a friend's house and Sara was asleep and Kate and I were both so tired from her being up for truly half the night and we took a nap together on the couch and I woke up first so I could just hold her and look at her.