Best Month Ever (February, of course!)

I joke that I don't bother to diet during February because there are too many celebrations.  Between Valentine's Day and birthdays (me and Nathan two weeks apart), it feels like we are constantly eating. This year that held true for sure. As always, the month started out with - a snow storm! We got 14" of snow! (Ok, trying to be enthusiastic about this but, let's be honest, I hate winter.)  Chloe had two snow days in a row so there was a lot of family time, and a lot of shoveling! 

Next came the celebrations!

Nathan and I went out to eat for a late birthday lunch at a Thai restaurant and then celebrated Valentine's Day at The Cheesecake Factory. 

40th birthday selfie!

For the month of February, I lead out with the crafts for Cradle Roll. I went with a "love" theme for the crafts :) 

 Some more randoms...

Megan and I are twinsies! 

My friend Katie brought her daughter, Jordan, for a visit.  The girls LOVE babies so they were beyond excited to see her.  They talked about her for days afterward. Now whenever Chloe is trying to tell me someone has red hair she says, "They had hair like baby Jordy." LOL. Katie made some play dough for them and they had a blast making spaghetti and meatballs with it. 

It was super cold all month so when we went from -30 to +30 (a 60 degree difference!) we decided to go sledding on the new toboggan (grandpa and grandma came with us). The girls had a blast. Good thing momma in all her wisdom made them come in because it was way cold on that hill!

We got to have lunch with my family at Olive Garden. It's always great to see everyone between big family events (well, we were missing part of the group!).

Chloe's "100 days of school" project for her preschool party. She was so proud!

We ended the month with a birthday treat for Nathan. We made chocolate lava cakes with ice cream and strawberries. Yum! Yum! 

Obviously, February was way better than January. Lots of fun, food, and love :) 

January! Randoms! {fake enthusiasm}

This is my least favorite month of the year...all the cold and snow. It feels like we go such long stretches where we're just existing and hibernating. Work, school, errands, shovel snow...repeat.  With all of this routine it's really fun when we can break it up with something different.

January 3 we had my family Christmas in Lansing. It's always extra fun when we can spend the night! We started the afternoon with a lunch of soup and sandwiches. I made potato soup and cookies. Despite *thinking* I had the lid on tight, some of my potato soup sloshed around and got into the carpet in my trunk. Here's the silver lining: because it's been so cold I haven't been able to get in there and really clean it up so every time I open my trunk, the delicious smell of potatoes and cheese wafts out. You'd think it would smell bad by now but it doesn't - like opening the fridge and smelling something yummy.

After lunch we opened presents and got photos of the kids.  I love looking at them all together! It's cute how a few of them looks so similar - I have to do a double-take sometimes! For dinner we dined on leftovers and had a little belated birthday party for Blake who had turned 1 just before Christmas. Megan and Chloe were in heaven - they love birthdays and parties and STILL talk about Blake's party. So funny. 

The rest of January was spent playing with our new toys, baking, and getting back into our exercise routine. We also got to see some family! 

For Megan's birthday we're doing a medical theme. The girls are crazy into playing doctor and nurse with their medical kits so we thought it would be fun. They don't really watch Doc McStuffins but they got a set for Christmas so we had fun taking Megan's pictures all dressed up for her birthday party invite. 

The girls went sledding for the first time ever! Our house sits on a hill and it's a total pain to mow the lawn, but I always tell Nathan that at least we'll have a great sledding hill in our back yard. The girls loved it. They were scared to death the first few times going down (I went down with each of them and I have to admit that I forgot how scary it can be when you really get going) but it's all Chloe could talk about all week afterward. 

We made the best out of the cold, snowy weather, although we are really hoping for a less intense winter than we had last year.  At least January is ending with some sunny days and we are thankful for each one of those!