Valentine's

We started preparing for Valentine's day rather early this year. We made valenine's for some family for FHE one night.

We also made some delicious sugar cookies that did not get pictured.
I found this craft idea in a library book and Caroline and I decided it would be a fun valentine's activity. (that didn't get finished until Feb 15th)

Our castle! We haven't decided exatly how to use it yet (a mailbox, a bank, lots of possibilites) But Caroline had a lot of fun making it. She picked out the colors and did most of the painting.

We also did some chocoalte dipping that week. And no, Caroline didn't sample along the way, why do you ask?

Valentine's day itself was great. We exchanged valentines and candy and Dave and Caroline made me breakfast AND dinner! Doesn't get much better than that!

Best Snow Ever

We woke up this morning to hearing happy squeels from Caroline. She burst in our room and said that it had snowed. I didn't remember hearing that it was supposed to snow overnight, but sure enough - about 4"!

It was a really great morning. Dave delayed work a few hours and we played and played! The weather was just perfect - no wind, no falling snow, not too cold - just a crisp, clear snow covered morning!

And the snow was perfect too. It was soft and powdery and packed nicely.

In fact, the snow was so nice that we were finally able to make a successful snowman! A family first for us! Before they always looked like little snow pyramids.

Caroline named him "Charlie"

Making snow angels

We noticed our snowballs stuck to whatever we threw them on, so we made snow wall art!

Dave created our snow dog in the front yard.

(DumDum eyes and Hershey kiss nose in case you were wondering)

After playing and hot chocolate, Dave had to go to work :( He was a little bummed, but he said he didn't have much work to do, so Caroline and I went with him! We went to two houses that he had to install some lights in. Caroline and I picked up trash and tested outlets and for our hard work, Dave took us out to lunch at Neely's BBQ - yum! Around lunch time the weather turned rainy and yucky so we've spent the rest of the afternoon at home making cookies. Great Day!

Icy weekend

We had another cold storm come through this last weekend. No snow, but plenty of freezing rain, sleet, and ice. Most everything was closed down on Friday, so Dave got the day off!

Every single branch, twig, and leaf was covered in ice. Icicles hung from Everything!


We probably looked like big desert-dorks marveling at it all!


I wish I had been able to get better pictures - these are just from our yard on Saturday. But the tree-lined roads were beautiful, especially Sunday morning. On our drive to church when the sun was out, everything sparkled like crystals! It was breath-taking!

We spent most of the weekend like this: Cozied up on the couch! Lazy but warm and happy!

Invisible

If you spend a day with Caroline you'll inevitably hear her talking to or about some invisible people.
This isn't something I'm unfamiliar with - my little brother had a bunch of invisible friends, girlfriends, and pets and it used to crack us all up. I'm also told that my Dad had one imaginary friend he called "Click" that they even had to set a place for at the dinner table.

So maybe it's hereditary. But with Caroline they are not imaginary - they're just invisible. (Invisible makes her seem less like a loon and more like she has a super power: The power to see invisible people.)

One other major difference: they are not invisible friends - they're invisible siblings.
According to her (and she has stood by this for several months) she has 7 brothers: Joe, Kevin, Nick (yes, the Jonas Brothers names) and Scott, Smitty, Rich and Dave. (names from Imagination Movers)

Joe is her favorite and we hear about him rather often. (I also have a brother named Joe. He is not invisible.) Caroline's brother, Joe, accompanies us in the car wherever we go. He also usually plays the male role in any pretend games (the prince, the groom, the pirate)
Caroline has 2 invisible sisters: Brooke and Holly (names of two of her cousins in AZ) They usually attend the tea parties and fancy balls.

When I asked if I could take their pictures, she said sure!

with Brooke and Holly

with Joe (he's tall)

I think this whole thing is both awesome and a little sad. Maybe I need to arrange more play dates? It's usually pretty funny (and convenient that she's figured out a way to play "by herself") but sometimes, it's a little problematic. She has been known to blame things that go missing or broken on the invisible siblings.

A fruity activity

Last week we hosted a Mother's Group activity at our house. We made cereal jewelry and it was super fun!

There was definately more eating than jewelry making going on, but we kind of saw that coming. Caroline insisted on making a bracelet and necklace for herself, a bracelet for me, and one for Dave too.

Group Hug!

It's been really nice to have this group since we moved here. We've done a lot of fun activities and made some great friends.

Manicure

Caroline had a bad habit of picking at her nails. I would tell her that if she let them grow, then I'd paint them real pretty. It worked a few times, but usually she'd peel them the day after I painted them.
Then one day she saw glittery nail stickers at the store. She really wanted them so I told her if she let her nails grow I'd buy them for her. I really didn't think she'd remember, but a couple of weeks later she accidently scratched me and I looked at her nails and was surprised to see white tips! I told her I was proud of her and she said, "So we can go get those stickers now?!"
So she picked out the biggest pack that had hearts, stars, animals, sparkles, and flowers and we did her nails. I told her I wanted to take a picture of her nails and she posed as thus:

Love this kid!