New kicks

This girl was soooo excited to wear her new shoes that Grammy got for her for Valentine's Day. I totally get her excitement - I still remember when I got my first pair of high top pink converse tennis shoes. What an exciting memory for her! Thanks Gram for the fun shoes!

The key to our hearts

Don't get me wrong Emmeline and I love jewelry and flowers,  but a great meal is right up there with the others. We celebrated Valentine's Day with some delicious steak and crab and the kids feasted on heart shaped pizza. Emmeline caught a whiff of the steak and decided pizza wasn't going to cut it. We apologize now for the poor boy who takes her out on a date. He better start saving now. We had a couple new kiddos for our annual dinner and were missing some of our favorites. We sure hope the DeTars will be feeling up to join us next year as we realized they brought the crab crackers in the past. We worked pretty hard to get the crab out, but it was well worth it. 

Meals and Mats

Tonight we had fun heading to Chick Fil A for family night. The kids had a blast getting balloon animals and playing games. We celebrated Grandma's birthday the day before, but they joined us for a birthday milkshake.

Next we scooted off to wrestling practice since Daddy was at a tee ball meeting. Jack and Emmeline were introduced to the smell of the wrestling room. They were troopers and were busy making valentines for their friends. Towards the end Emmeline decide she kind of likes it and wants to try wrestling. Oh my! I hope this is a short phase. I'm thinking the talk the coach gives at the end about scrubbing and showering at the end of practice might detour her or maybe showing her a picture of cauliflower ear might help. 

Hot Air

I wish I would have snapped a picture of Alamo's MPR, but I was too busy helping full and tie some of the 3,000 valentine balloons. My fingers are going to be hating me tomorrow - who am I kidding they hated me at 10 am this morning. It was all worth it when I walked in to the kids classes and saw how cute it was to be filled with balloons and all the kids excitement. It was an exhausting and fun day! 

Anyone notice anything about  Caden's balloons??? What are the chances with 10 different people filling and tagging balloons quickly that Caden got all blue balloons. If you were there watching the process you would be as amazed as I am. Crazy!!!

68 Valentines later...

Wow!!!! We have been busy in our house. It is a good thing we got started last week since we had so many valentines. It is amazing how throwing an extra 20 into the bunch makes, especially when he wants to write is name on each one. It was pretty cute to see him write his name so many times. Here are the valentines the kids decided on this year.

Have I got a surprise for you....

The kids were excited to get a card in the mail and I was super excited to finally tell them the secret I learned WEEKS ago!

Emmeline was the most excited and stated... "I know it's a girl so they can be just like us with two boys and a girl." So there you have it. Emmeline has declared Baby #3 is a girl. We are super excited to meet the new baby in September and find out!

Not for the weak

Raising kids and especially a daughter is not for the weak. WOW... is all I can say. It is heartbreaking to see your 6 year old so up in arms and torn up over things at such a young age. It really is incredible the difference between boys and girls. My boys don't seem to notice much of anything, but Emmeline is very quick to pick up on what others have and what she lacks. It kills me to see her compare herself and find herself not smart enough and unworthy. We have also come to hear A LOT OF WHINING which is starting to drive us all CRAZY! We are trying to ignore it as I think it is a way that she is exploring to get attention. I felt like Emmeline needed some special time with us and then I thought  a Daddy Daughter Date would be even better. She was so excited that she was going to have special time with Daddy and he even brought her flowers. It melted my heart to see her so excited. I tell you if it is this hard at 6 I don't want to imagine the teen years. I am praying daily on how to help her and I am actively searching for  a great book for myself and her on how to handle all these feelings she has. I'm guessing the Bernstein Bears must a have book about all this - they have a book for EVERYTHING!