Valentine's Day

 Ever since Jenna was born, and before, I have really gotten off my game of documenting our life with my camera.  I used to be so good at always taking pictures and keeping up with life.  I've decided to recommit myself and get clicking.  The above pictures I turned black and white and put them in Anna's room.  They look great in there.  I'm posting some house pictures in a couple of weeks and will reveal the end result then. Anna has now lost SIX teeth.  It's amazing that girl can eat apples of carrots but somehow she manages.  Anna is doing great in school and has even started to tinker around with the piano.  Her heart is so pure.  That girl is a straight arrow.  She always has been.  She knows the rules and is always sure to follow them.  Love her!

 This little Jenna is my heart!  She probably gets one million kisses a day from me.  I simply cannot help it.  I just adore her.  She is sitting up without support now and is on the brink of crawling.  I love seeing her try.  She is getting really active now and her cry has changed from a cute newborn cry to an ear piercing scream.  Lovely!

 I know I already posted these but I thought I'd post the color version.  These went in my laundry room and look adorable.  Love those messy kids.

 Brothers for life.

 She is really growing up.  It's amazing how much she's matured this year.

 We had a great Valentine's Day.  Last year, we were alone on Valentine's Day.  Josh had his last interview on V-day last year.  It seems like that was a life time ago.  So much has changed since then.  We had to start the day off right with pink heart-shaped pancakes, of course.

 This is Daniel's new "cheese" face.  Awesome....

 The kids and I decorated our reading room with hearts and love notes for Daddy-O.

 We got little packages filled with love for each of the kids.

 For Josh, I decided to get him a little gift for each of the five senses.

 This is Daniel's window he decorated for Josh.

 Sweetness.

 Flowers for Daddy's valentine.

 If you can tell this is a heart shaped pizza.  It was actually really good, even though it looks kind of crazy in this picture.

 My girls.  So glad I have them.

Soccer Season Party

I have been so far behind in my blogging that I can't remember what I've posted and not.  These pictures are from over a month ago when we had our end of season soccer party.  The kids loved playing soccer and were sad that it came to an end.  They did great and really improved over just a few short months.  With Josh being the coach, we were both glad to have a break.  It was fun but it is definitely good to have a break.

 They all got trophies with their names on them.  They thought it was AWESOME, let me tell you.  Even if they hated soccer, they would do it again just for the trophy.

 Even Coach Josh got a trophy for doing such a great job.

 Goooooo Panthers!!

 Landon Mauler was our assistant coach.  He and Josh are great friends and it was fun to watch them coach together.  It definitely makes it more fun when you're with people that you get along with so well.

 The cupcakes at the party were about 60% frosting, 40% cake.  The kids loved them but yuck.  I am not a frosting girl, at least, not like that.

 Is that not the happiest face?  Love her!

 Showing off his trophy!

 Sweet kids.

 I'm trying to remember to get as many photos of the four kids together as I can.  When Anna and Andrew were little, I only ever took separate pictures of them because it was so much easier.  I regret it now because I love seeing them all together.  It's amazing how I can see each of their little personalities in every photo.

 We've started a babysitting co-op with some of our friends.  It's been AMAZING!!  I would totally recommend doing this to anyone.  We have four families who are in our group.  We go on dates twice a month for three hours at a time.  That means that you only have to babysit once every two months.  Now, that's a deal.  I LOVE IT!!  They are all such cute kids too.  We're making some great memories here.

"Life"

I feel like I often blog about the events that go on in our family's life but leave out the every day details that make my heart smile.  The events are fun, and we make special memories with them but it's the little things that happen every day that make being a mom wonderful.  Sometimes, it's the little things that happen every day that make being a mom incredibly difficult.  I guess that's life though, and I don't want to miss out on "life" in my blog.
I've been telling myself a lot to stop and take a picture of the small, funny things around my house that I want to remember.  Like when Andrew stuck his suction cup toothbrush sideways on the counter and then put a toilet paper roll on it.  Or how every time I get ready to turn the dishwasher on, Daniel has, without fail, already put the soap in.  There's also the billion times I've been out by myself and I put my hand in my pocket only to discover a pack of fruit snacks, a pacifier, and ten ritz crackers smushed to smithereens.  None of that is really worth talking about but that's just it.  All of those things have made me smile inside and think, "I sure am glad I have kids."
We've been really having a hard time with our kids getting along recently.  It's been TOUGH!  I am seriously dreading the teenage years with all my heart if this is what six-years-old looks like.  Phew.  We've made some progress though and even though they are baby steps, they are baby steps in the right direction.  Every time one of our kids doesn't freak out when the other one does something that annoys them, I just beam.  They are small victories that will add up to a lot one day.  Josh and I have SO many things that we want to change about ourselves as parents. Each time we take a baby step in the right direction, I know it's progress.  We're not even close to perfect, or even sane for that matter, but we are trying to make it.  Life is busy and hard and challenging.  At the same time, life is fun and exciting and joyful and we feel incredibly blessed to call one another family.

 These are pictures we took for our laundry room.  I hung a quote above them that says, "The most memorable days usually end in the dirtiest clothes."  I found that quote years ago and now that I have a house, I was finally able to make it a reality.  I plan to post some house pictures soon.  I realize that I never have.  We are coming up on our one year anniversary of owning this house.  It is very hard for me to believe that's it's already been a year.  Time is flying!!  The kids LOVED getting all muddy to take these.  We had to remind them several times that this was a ONE TIME THING!  Surprisingly, they haven't gotten back in the mud without me knowing.  Who knows, maybe they're listening to us after all....

(Love those rolls, btw).

Dr. Lee aka Coach Lee aka Daddy

 Josh began teaching at FSU for the first time about a month ago.  He only has to teach one semester a year, and so far, everything has gone well.  He comes home after a long day of teaching completely exhausted.  His class is an intermediate accounting class and he has about 130 students.  I love asking him a billion questions about his interactions with his students.  It is so interesting to me.  Before the first day of class, we memorized all of his students names with their faces.  We hooked it up to our tv and spent hours memorizing who was who.  On the first day of class, he went around and was able to name all of his students.  They thought that was pretty cool.  Josh said it was MUCH harder than he thought it would be.  These students are mainly juniors so they took their student picture three years ago.  A lot of them look very different now.  Some have different hair color, facial hair/no facial hair, glasses/no glasses.  It was hard but he was glad he did it.  These pictures are of him on his first day of teaching.

 My handsome Dr. Lee.  ;-)

 I love this picture because Andrew looks like half of Josh.  So cute!

 Josh is also coaching the kids soccer team.  Anna and Andrew are playing on the same team, the Blue Panthers.  Their two good friends, Cody and Austin, are also on the team with their dad as the assistant coach.  It's been fun to watch how they've improved over the last couple of months.  I'm really interested to see how they will be in a few years when they've had some maturing and practice.  The games are a lot more fun than I thought they'd be.  I feel surprisingly more competitive than I thought I would.  I really, really want them to score!  Haha!

 It seems that game days have been surprisingly cold.  We've bundled up and Daniel is constantly asking for hot cocoa.  ;-)  I love this little hat on Jenna.  Such a cutie!

 Andrew has gotten much better.  Sometimes he is off in lala land but if he pays attention, he's not half bad.  Andrew is the youngest on the team, so in two years, when he's the oldest, I think he'll be great.

 Like the pink gloves?  You know you have sisters if....

 LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!  HAHA!!!

It's been a fun, super busy few months.  We're happy though.