February Celebrations

February has been filled with some fun celebrations for our family!

Daddy's Birthday
Ian was very excited about helping to decorate the house for Daddy's birthday. Now that he knows how to blow up balloons on his own (though Momma or Daddy still have to tie them, of course), he wanted to blow up ALL of the 10-12 balloons that we had in the house. Most of them ended up taped onto Daddy's chair.

Ian also wanted to make Daddy a special happy birthday sign using one of his favorite office gadgets, the hole punch. It turned out pretty cute! :)

We made Daddy breakfast in bed, opened up some presents, and went to a pizza restaurant for a lunch buffet. After rest time, Daddy requested that we go to play mini golf together as a family. Our boys thought that this was a fantastic idea!

Ian definitely understood the concept and played according to the rules most of the time (though it was awfully tempting to just drag the ball into the hole when it got close). :)

Ryan enjoyed hitting the ball around with his club but didn't really like it when his ball went into the hole. He'd much rather be hitting or carrying it.

Matt and I had a great time with our friendly competition as well. After being 5 strokes up with a few holes left, I came back ... and we ended in a tie!

We all really enjoyed one of the final holes because it had a water element! It was fun to watch our balls travel down the stream and land very close to the hole. We played this hole at least 12 times since the course wasn't busy at all. :)

After finishing up mini golf, there was a hill that just beckoned for us to log roll down it!

As always, Ryan wanted to do exactly what Ian was doing but couldn't quite figure out how to get his body in the right position. So cute!

We came home to enjoy dinner and Daddy's special request -- brownie mallow bars that Ian had helped to make! :)

We thank God for you, Matt! What a wonderful husband and father you are! :)

Winter Weather Celebrations
While cold, ice, and snow are hardly a reason to celebrate if you live in the northern United States, here in Texas, they're a reason for joy! Matt even got two "ice days" this winter. While it probably wasn't necessary for all the schools to close, we DID have freezing precipitation and, of course, were happy to have a bonus family day! :)

One morning (actually NOT one of the days that was an ice day), the boys were excited to find some snow accumulation on our picnic table and slide. I know these pics will make you northerners laugh .... :)

Valentine's Day
We were excited to join Ian at his school for a Valentine's Day party, though I didn't get any pictures since I was helping the kids to frost and decorate cookies most of the time. :) We were also excited to celebrate Valentine's Day as a family. Grammy and Papa sent each boy a McDonald's gift card to get a special treat. Ryan devoured the ice cream part of his ice cream cone. He didn't know quite what to do when he got to the cone. :)

Ian thought his M&M McFlurry tasted fabulous!

The boys loved playing in the play place when they had finished their ice cream. Thanks for the yummy treat, Papa and Grammy! 

We'll look forward to using your money gift, Grandpa and Grandma, to let each boy pick out something from Dollar Tree! They'll love getting to choose something to take home! Thanks for your thoughtfulness!