Daphne is 6 months old!

Sweet Daphne, I can't believe we've had half a year with you!

Daphne is, unfortunately, feeling pretty pathetic right now :( Paige thoughtfully gave Daphne the gift of a bad cold and cough (maybe more than that - we'll see at the doctor's office tomorrow) and I can see Daphne's bottom two teeth getting ready to pop through. All of it is making her quite miserable.

Not that you can tell in these sweet pictures!

On happier notes:

• Daphne has a new nickname: Booey. You'll have to ask Meredith where it came from, because I have no idea, but it has stuck.
• Daphne has been eating solid foods once a day for about 2 weeks. She's had applesauce, green beans, prunes, squash, and chicken. She definitely prefers the sweeter stuff - we're not surprised - look at the rest of her family! :)
• Not sitting, but we are practicing! We use the Bumbo for the most support, and surround her with pillows for the least support.
• Enjoys rolling around, playing with her feet, chewing on everything, cuddling and being carried around. Oh, and her paci!
• Daphne is a more flexible sleeper than any of our other kids have been, probably because she has to be. She'll sleep in the car seat, in her crib, at church (sometimes), in someone's arms, or in the Becco.

Happy 6 months, baby Daphne!

Unplanned NC Trip

We just returned from an unplanned trip to NC for 10 days (for my aunt's unexpected funeral). Despite the hard and emotional circumstances, it was nice to see all of my family (plus Jason's parents, and some friends).

...And in another unexpected twist, Jason's parents got sick on Tuesday (while Jason was on a 3-day business trip), so the kids and I packed up and headed to Grandmother's house. It was a little stressful for me, but we made the best of it and we all ended up enjoying spending some time with Grandmother and some friends we wouldn't have otherwise gotten to see.

We were glad to make more memories since we don't anticipate going back until December!

Valentine's Day 2016

Happy Valentine's Day!

We always give the kids a small heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's day, plus one other small present. This year, they each got new puzzles, which they loved! I also made them a special breakfast of "snowmen donuts" - powdered sugar donuts in the shape of snowmen. (No picture, but it's on Pinterest if you want to see!)

Me and my Valentine before church today :)

After church and lunch, we opened our "secret family valentines," which was the first year we did this and it was definitely my favorite part of the day (explained below):

For the secret valentines: At the beginning of February, I put out stickers, stamps, scrap paper, etc, and told the kids that we were making secret valentines for everyone in our family. Anytime they wanted, they could make one and put it in the box, and we would open them on Valentine's Day. They worked very carefully on their valentines for everyone and they were so sweet.

Our little loves!

First Place Finish!

Russell's AWANA club does a grand prix every year using little pinewood derby cars. He didn't participate last year, but this year both he and Jason made cars. (The dads had a race too.)

They got the cars in October (I think?), because the race was supposed to be in November but was snowed out. Here they are when they were just beginning to work on the cars:

The race ended up being in late January. They hold it at church and had a brand new racetrack this year. Each car raced 3 times.

Russell's car decoration was entirely Lego (of course) and he did it all by himself - even when it had to be modified on the spot at the race because it was too wide for their parameters. And he ended up with the first place trophy for car design! {Now, it did not win any of the 3 races...} We were so happy for him!