Wise Donovan

Saturday night we were all hanging out in our room. I was sitting on our bed trying to watch Wheel of Fortune while Howie and Nina were jumping all over me. Being tired and getting a hefty kick in the stomach was enough for me and I took off to Target. When I got back I went in to say goodnight to the kids and this is the conversation I had with Donovan:
Donovan: You were a little upset huh mom?
me: yeah, I was
Donovan: Do you feel better?
me: yes, I feel a lot better
Donovan: Sometimes when I get upset, I go onto pbskids.org and that makes me feel a lot better
me: really? maybe I should try that
Donovan: yes, it will make you feel better too

Also, I got an email from Donovan's teacher that said he was having a hard time listening in his reading class. I asked him about it and he said, "I guess I'm just a curious boy and I get distracted easily." Then I asked him why he wasn't finishing his work and he said, "I'm trying my best, I guess I just work slow." Lovely huh?

President's Day Ice Fishing

I might have accidentally started a family tradition that I don't think I want to commit to. Last year we happened to do this same activity, on the same day, at the same place. Matt LOVES ice fishing, well basically, he loves any kind of fishing. He's been saying how fun he thinks it would be for the whole family to go ice fishing, and I have resisted until last Monday. So we went and it was pretty much a joke. Matt got Nina a fishing rod for her birthday so initially she was excited to be out fishing, but the all kids got bored pretty quickly. They started throwing ice balls into the water, getting uncomfortably close to the holes, bumping into Matt's fishing rod and the usual fighting. Exactly what I predicted would happen, but at least none of the kids fell into the hole like last year. So aside from that non-stop policing, the ice was totally freaking me out. We would keep hearing these loud cracks and I worried that any minute we were all going to fall in. So that was our fishing trip and shockingly we didn't catch anything. Maybe we'll be busy next President's Day!

Nina loving her new Barbie fishing rod.


Matt likes to try to see the fish in the water. To each his own.


Donovan sat for a few seconds with Nina's fishing rod...


So of course, Howie had to try as well.


And this is what they did the rest of the time.

Nothing new going on here

I just felt like adding another post, but I don't really have anything to report or any stories to share. Just another week! Here are Howie and Nina reading books together. Howie has been really nice to Nina lately. He will try to read her princess books or play Ponies with her. When Donovan first started school, I think it was a little hard on Howie since they are such good buddies, but Howie has really come to enjoy playing with Nina.

Oh how she's changed

With us celebrating Nina's 2nd birthday this past week, I was looking through old pictures to see how much she has grown. I wish I could figure out one of those cute slideshows that Jacque and Kim have used, but this is the best we have over here. It seems like our kids are growing up quicker and quicker! We have been warned about this by so many people, and we usually agree and shrug it off, but I'm starting to realize that this is serious!!! I need our kids to still little longer!

Happy Birthday Nina

Nina turned 2 yesterday! We had a family party for her and her uncle and cousin a week before. She got a very cute springy dress and little jacket from all her cousins. Then yesterday we had a very low key party where she opened presents from her grandparents and from us. She got ponies (that the boys play with more than she does)and shoes, jewelry, books, money, a My Little Pony movie, and a fishing rod (guess who got her that one). She loved having people sing "Happy Birthday" to her, it is one of her favorite songs. We think it's crazy that she's 2, she is growing up very quickly. I think she enjoyed her celebration!

Matt made this beauty of a cake!

Valentine's Shout-out

Some of the faces I love...




yeah, Matt's going to wonder why I posted this picture of him. Mostly because we don't have a lot of pictures of just him. He is usually with the kids, me or a fish.

So I just wanted to do a Valentine's Post, but I don't have pictures of anything Valentiney. Nina got a cute bow from grandma Marshall that she's been wearing all week. Donovan has made tons of Valentines at school for us and Howie had a fun storytime today where he got a little pack of treats and a stuffed bunny to go along with that story Guess How Much I Love You. I wish I would have been more on the ball this morning. I guess I still have to dream about the Valentine's morning where I have the heart-shaped breakfast and little treats wrapped all nicely next to the kids pillow when they wake up. There's still time today so we'll see how ambitious I get. Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

I love Nina

This is a picture from back in the summer. I have to admit that Nina has been a pretty hard personality for me to "work with". She is very headstrong, independent and sassy. Some of those are wonderful qualities, but not in a girl who will be turning 2 on Sunday! I don't know if it's just her personality, or her gender, but she is so hugely different from Donovan and Howie. I can't remember them hitting me, spitting at me, calling me names, or saying "no, you stop it!" or "leave me alone MOM!" or "go away stupid". Most of the time I have to keep myself from laughing, but there have been sometimes where I want to pull out my hair! But she is very sweet. She loves to talk to me, everywhere I go. When I take a shower, she pulls the step stool over to the shower, sits on it and talks to me. She gives me the biggest hugs and says "I lub you mom." She is a helpful and funny girl too. I am happy to have a little girl, and I think Heavenly Father is very wise is giving us just one! So in conclusion, even though I post most of the ugly side of Nina, I do love her a lot!

Where have we been???

Holy Toledo! Here we are in Toledo, Spain. Totally gorgeous city!

In front of the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain.

This is the old Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain. This was built in the 1st or 2nd century with no mortar or clamps, just stones. It's not the best picture of the aqueduct, but it is a darn cool structure.

Here we hung out on the beach in San Sebastian. We did not fully participate in the traditional European beach activities though.

And here we are in France. I don't remember the name of the city, but we took a ferry over and got crepes and a baguette.

I wish I could tell you we were in Spain these past weeks, but no, these are from our trip last June. I don't really have a good excuse for dropping of the planet. A combination of things are to blame for me not updating our blog. The biggest one is no camera. Chris and Lindsey lent us their old camera, but I can't figure out how to upload the pictures (confession: I only tried once). Then after our whole break-in episode, Matt and I were looking into moving. We don't really care for our location and that incident kind of put us over the edge. So after 2 weeks of talking to realtors and lenders, we decided we should stay put for a little longer. All that thinking about moving takes a toll! So now that we're staying here, I can try to get my act together again. Since I don't have any new pictures, I thought I'd just use old ones until someone with more patience can upload the pictures waiting on Chris and Lindsey's camera. These pictures are part of our trip. I didn't think many people would be interested in all the pictures of architecture we took. But anyway, I feel better now that I got to post something!