Love Day 2009

In honor of Valentine's Day this year (and will be a new family tradition), for Family Night we wrote love notes to each other on these hearts and posted them all around our kitchen/eating area. It was so fun to see and read these notes and be reminded of our love for each other during the week before Valentine's Day.  And we had a stack of extra blank hearts to write more love notes throughout the week!  We had hearts EVERYWHERE!  It sure made our Valentine's Day extra special this year!  

The kids were very thoughtful and sincere -- here is just a sampling (if you can read them).

We had to keep the hearts just above this little guy's reach -- although he looks a bit discouraged in this picure.  He really was quite happy!

I borrowed this idea from my cute, creative friend (thanks Melanie!) for a fun Valentine's Day dinner.  It was a huge hit!  The kids voted and it was unanimous--this, too, must be part of our family Valentine's Day tradition. We had heart shaped pizza and Love Potion.  The kids think that we need to have dry ice in our drink for every meal now!

The Happy Gang!  Notice Eli--he couldn't take his eyes off of the "smoking" love potion! Happy Valentine's Day to all of my sweethearts!  

Soldier Hollow

To kick off our Valentine's weekend (do we do that?!), we spent an evening at Soldier Hollow with a group of neighbors and friends. What a blast! It is located in Midway and has 6 well-groomed tubing runs. And a tow rope to boot! So it is ALL fun and NO work! This year we tubed at night, which was great, but a bit chilly without the sun. This picture was from last year....being as I was BIG with child (just days before Eli was born), I was the designated photographer. So this outing was particularly fun for me since I was able to enjoy the slopes!

Note to self....take family picture BEFORE the fun begins. We had only half of our children and one of them was tired and done!


We were able to have Papa come along for the fun! A big thank you to Grammy for staying home with the littlest man, Eli.

And because I was thoroughly enjoying myself and because he was too fast for us, this picture is of Davis and his buddy last year. Looked pretty much the same--same helmet, same snow clothes, but probably a bit taller! He was extra cautious with his healing collar bone.

Another picture from last year of the girls and Daddy.

Maren and some of her cute pals in the lodge sipping hot chocolate!

And this was the holding tank--warming up with a movie and waiting for the rest of us! We even recruited a little friend!

Can anyone say comatose?  I think we wiped her out!

What a great outing!  We had a fabulous time--with our wonderful family and friends. Thanks all!!

Our Star!

Star of the Week
"Starring" Miss Natalie Quist

Kids get such a kick out of being the Star of the Week at school and Natalie was no different! Oh, the anticipation! Usually, the little star is on or around their birthday. However, being as Natalie has a summer birthday, she was able to be the star last week. She VERY carefully sifted through all of our pictures for just the right ones! With little help from me (just organizational mostly), she put together her poster for school. Great job Natalie! At the end of the week, she got to share a treat with her class. Being as it was Valentine's Day week, we opted for something other than c-a-n-d-y! Who doesn't love pencils and stickers?!


It was so fun to reminisce with her as we put together her poster with pictures from the last 6 1/2 years. Natalie is such a fun girl with a beautiful smile. She is so good at many things. She loves gymnastics and jumping on a trampoline (any trampoline because we don't have one). Did I mention that she is awesome at roller blades? Natalie is really good at riding her bike. In fact, she taught herself how to ride her bike at age 4! Natalie loves school. She is an excellent reader! Natalie is almost reading small chapter books. She is very good at math and is a very good student. She has an amazing ear for music and picking out tunes on the piano--and she hasn't even started piano lessons! She absolutely LOVES singing with her new choir group. She is the best big sister--she and Millie love to play together (mostly) and she is so attentive to and helpful with Eli. And of course, she is the best little sister--she adores Davis and Maren. Natalie is always willing to take our dog, Roxy, on walks. She loves Buttermilk Pie (her choice for her 6th Birthday treat), Dad's Special Spaghetti and water! Even though the Star of the Week has come and gone, Natalie Jane will always be our STAR! We love you Natalie!

A visit to the Planetarium

Who are these goofy kids with the silly glasses? OK-We'll claim them. We took a trip to the Clark Planetarium a few weeks ago. We saw the movie "Fly Me to the Moon" in 3D (thus, the glasses, if you were wondering!) on the IMAX screen. It was hilarious to see the kids trying to grab at objects throughout the movie.

Maren brought her friend, L, who also sported Chuck Taylor's. It wasn't even preplanned!

Millie with her stylin' glasses! What a smile!

Maybe these glasses will be the next BIG thing?! I know that I didn't look this cute in my glasses!

Dancing on the moon!

Natalie really got into it!

Yay for no school days so we can do things together as a family.
We all had a great time!