Tucker's 2nd Birthday!

Tucker turned 2!  I am terrible at taking pictures during the party & I am so sad I didn't get pictures!  We had all 8 living grandparents at the party!  I really wanted a picture of all of them together for my kids' books, but I of course forgot!

 I planned on doing a big Mickey Party for Tucker, but he's been obsessed with Elmo so at the last minute I decided to join together my Cookie Monster & Lady Bug decorations to make Elmo! 

 I made this giant poster for the front door, but it was so cute we kept it inside.

Whitney & Ivy sporting their matching Elmo outfits. 

 I did some simple fun food ideas.

 Ice Cream Cake (this is all cool whip & Oreos on top).

 Elmo Cupcakes

 Everyone watched a slideshow of Tucker & we had a quiz to put these pictures in order.  I was hoping Vic would win this time, but Amber did!  We also did a quiz all about Tucker & Grandma Van Sickle got 1st & Grandma Miller got 2nd.... 

Vic got 3rd (come on Mr. Dad, you need to do better, ha!)

 I was surprised that Tucker insisted on being blind folded for this.  I guess he wanted to be like the big kids.  He loved it & wanted to do it over & over :)

 Tucker & his ice cream cake

 Cute present bag I made... can you believe I still have Cookie Monster from 4 years ago?!

 Tucker's present from us. (the bounce house, Hug-Me-Elmo was from Grandma)

 And his birthday haul... lots of Elmo fun!  He has been very entertained this week by every last present, but I'd have to say the Elmo train village has got quite heavy use.  His great Aunt gave it to him without realizing what a train loving house we have!

As a side note, here is Tucker's favorite look lately.  "Choo choo pajamas & boots"!

Cabin w/ Vic's Parents

Vic & I have been dating for almost 10 years in April & we took his parents to the cabin for the 1st time!  I don't know why we haven't done it before now.  It was fun!

Here is Grandpa Sutherland & Tommy.

 Grandma Sutherland & Tucker

 It was pretty bumpy because the snow was crusty & somehow Tucker managed to fall asleep!

 Tommy liked to be a little crazy so we went over the big bumps over & over & then all through the trees.  It was nice that the snow was a little crusty because we went wherever we want nice & slow without having to worry about getting stuck!  We haven't gone in at least 3-4 years & I forgot how fun it is!

 Whitney loved the little bumps & still thought she was pretty crazy & brave.

 We of course had to slide down the stairs!

 Tommy was obsessed with digging holes & tunnels.  It'll be a lot of fun when hopefully in a year Whitney will be interested in spending hours out digging too.

 Our second day outside we went cross country skiing.  My kids are calling this mini snow mobile sled "the rocket". They were continually fighting to take turns on this "amazing" toy.

I forgot to take a picture of Grandpa Sutherland skiing.  

I was impressed.  He is almost 70 & did great for his 2nd time trying it!

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we had a little party so the kids could exchange treats & play games a few days before.

 We played Valentine Bingo w/ silly heart toys/prizes, Don't eat (pete) the heart!, and Move the beans from cup to cup.

 Heart Toss... the boys could have done this all day

 Heart Walk... once they won this they got to go decorate a heart cookie.  It helped spread out the frosting madness so all the kids weren't trying to do it at once.

 And finally exchanging Valentines at the end.

 This picture sort of shows Tucker & Whitney's cute box they decorated.

 Here is actual Valentine's Day.  We bought each of the kids a little present.

 Here are some Valentine crafts we did this month:

One of our sweet friends volunteered to have a kid party so lots of people could go on a date.  We were so excited to do something last minute so we took them up on it & Vic & I went shopping,  picked up some dinner, & brought it home for a romantic candle light dinner. :)

January

In January I had a burst of energy to start the year with a fresh new start.  I deep cleaned a lot of things that I had been putting off, including cleaning the light fixtures & vents.  We finally put up most of our curtains, & we built shelves in most of the closets so I could truly organize them all.  We also painted 3 more rooms so we were busy!  On top of organizing & painting, I started to workout again & meal plan healthy meals.  I lost 8 pounds in a month!!! (3 of which I gained back after I broke my foot & got frustrated) ...but still 5 pounds down is better than 3 pounds up, ha!

Anyway, we had to say good bye to our crib for good so I took one last picture before we took it down.  It is such a sad piece of furniture to take down. I can't believe my baby phase is all done! (Besides diapers for another year!)

Vic turned 35!  We had a few friends over & let the kids run wild in the basement while we played games.  We haven't had a game night in ages so that was fun.  He insisted on ribbon jell-o & peanut butter bars.

  The library had a fundraiser for a princess Daddy/Daughter dance date so Vic took Whitney & she LOVED it!  We definitely need things to slow down so we can start doing dates with the kids more often!

Happy New Year!

We had an unusual New Year's Eve/Day weekend. Vic & I were exhausted after go, go, going for a month straight & working way more than both of us usually do so we drove up to the cabin after work & fell asleep by 10!  Here we are playing games with the kids.

 We played lots of games on New Year's Day to make up for the night before!

 Vic bought snowman cookies for all the kids to decorate.

 All the kids were sick, but Whitney had it the worst & she was sleeping most of the day so she decorated hers when she finally woke up!

 It also was crazy cold so everyone stayed inside most of the time!  I couldn't stand going up to the cabin & not going outside so our last day there we went outside for a walk.

 Then right before we left we slid down the stairs a few times!