Love is in the air!

With Valentine's arrival, Mommy was a crazed Pinterest (online pinboard) finatic.  She had a lot of "ideas" she wanted to make for gifts this year.  Our house turned into a mini-Michael's craft store.  The above photo is one of her favorites for a project listed below~ more to come on that.

As much as my parents LOVE us boys, they chose to have a dinner out on Valentine's Day. This meant we were able to spend our evening with Grammy!  We opened presents and had fun.  Note~ in case you are curious, yes, I am wearing the SAME Valentine's day shirt from last year b/c Mommy forgot to buy me a new one.  My spoiled brother has a shirt on that reads "Lock Up Your Daughters!"  So true, so true.

One of Mommy's creations was this soap pump with a photo of Cooper and I playing in the bathtub.  She laminated a favorite photo, crammed it into a soap pump, and added clear soap.  This was a favorite gift for some of the recipients.

Jenny made this adorable ribbon with our handprints for Mommy and Daddy.  They proudly hung it in the entryway and promised to hang it each year.

The true challenge of getting some of the gifts ready were us, of course :)  Mommy asked us to kiss, so at first, we both attempted to kiss the camera....

I then figured it out and attempted to kiss Cooper, but it landed on his nose....

I finally knew what Mommy wanted and you can see by looking at my face how I felt about it.  Seriously, I have to kiss Cooper ON the lips!?!?!   The first photo in the blog (black and white) was the finished product for our Hugs and Kisses candy jar gift. 

Cooper and I sure are loved and spoiled.  We received lots of candy, gift cards to our favorite "treat" places, dollars (2 dollar bills from Great-Grandparents), sunglasses, lunchboxes, coloring books/story books, new kid plates/silverware, and water bottles, PJ's and more!  Thanks to our family who sent us special Valentine's gifts!!

Hey... I am ready for Florida~we booked our trip this past week and will be heading to Captiva in April!

Cooper now resembles the rapper Pit Bull with his sylish sunglasses.

A full view of his shirt which completely fits him perfectly with that cute, stinker type of a face.

Here was my Valentine treats to my preschool friends this year (Mommy made these and the idea came from Pinterest).  The sign reads.... Have a yummy Valentine's Day!  Love, Caden

I gave my teacher a vase that Mommy made using pencils and crayons... the vase was rectangular shaped, so the front and back had pencils glued to it and the sides had the colorful crayons.  We added an ABC ribbon around the vase, put fresh daisies in it and my teacher loved it!  This was a "part Mommy/part Pinterest" idea too.

Daddy's gift was a fun one.  We made him a basket that says "We love you because...." and inside were gifts that described why he is so loveable.  Some of the ideas were: You are Sweet (candies), You Rock (Maroon 5 CD), You are Handsome (some new shirts), You are Hot (Starbucks coffee), You Keep Us Close to Your Heart (personalized dog tags with our names on it), You are Handy (handwarmer packs), and more.  He loved the gift and we had fun putting it together!

Mommy made these I dig you gifts for her Kindergartners.  They received a real shovel with candies inside of a bag.  She thought they turned out cute. 

We sent our cousins a candy dinosaur Valentine that reads "Have a dinomite Valentine's Day" and we put a Subway gift card with it.  The spikes are butterfinger hearts, yum!  So there you have it!  We had a great Valentine's with a lot of busy craft making activities. 

Cooper dealt with another upper-respiratory infection last week, but he is now on the ammend.  He battles these infections all winter long.  The nebulizer is a common treatment for him.  My parents think he suffers from childhood asthma and hope he will outgrow it.  Grandpa had asthma when he was a child and Great-Grandma says Cooper has the exact same symptoms.  Luckily, it is seasonal and once spring arrives, he will be fine during the warmer months.  Just another reason we should be living somewhere tropical!

While Mommy scrapbooked all day on Saturday, Daddy took us to Grammy's house for the day.  It was my first ice fishing experience and one that resulted in no fish.  We still had fun with the auger and tip-ups.

Cooper thought the power auger was a ride-on toy and when he got his mittens wet, Daddy came to the rescue and allowed him to use his gloves.  What a Dad!

I had my last skating lesson today because we will be heading north next weekend, so I will miss the official last skate.  I have learned SO much in the short 8 week session. 

I balance well and only fall a few times each session.  I do airplane arms to help with this (I skate mostly with my arms down, but they still have me practice airplane arms).

I listen well to my coaches-they are very patient with me and caring.  We play follow the leader, red light/green light and "What time is it Mr. Fox."  These games make skating so much fun!  I have 1-1 or 2-1 support since I am one of the newbies on the rink.  The lessons I attend are for figure skaters but since hockey doesn't start until age 4 or 5, Amanda (our babysitter who is an amateur figure skater and runs the clinic) let me join the group. I feel like this headstart was just what I needed to spark my interest in skating and potentially hockey next year.

Cooper loves coming to the rink too and if they made skates small enough for his feet, I am certain he would be out there skating in circles.  He is a natural athlete which sounds crazy since he is only 1 1/2 years old.

I was able to celebrate my second "Caden stays in his own bed" reward by going bowling!  This was my 3rd bowling experience and I was quite independent with getting my bowl, putting it on the ramp, and shooting it down to the pins.  I could have bowled a second game, but Cooper was a wild man out there.  He insisted on carrying his own ball (7 pounder) and usually dropped it a few times on the floor as he wrestled it up to the ramp.  My parents attempted to help him, but he is on a "I WILL DO IT MYSELF" kick.  It's quite annoying actually.

Here was our final scores from the game... Mommy impressed us and herself.  She is really not a good bowler at all and was happily impressed by her 3 strikes and a spare.  In case you are wondering, the bumpers only helped her twice and those two times only contribued to one or two extra pins.  I would like to call a rematch here.  Notice that I beat Cooper by 1 point~!?!?  I will happily claim to be the winner :)

Finally... my preschool had a pancake supper this past week, so Mommy, Daddy, Cooper, Grammy and I went to the event.  We had yummy pancakes and sausage, played games and made some projects and browsed the art hung in this annual "art stroll."  I am standing in  front of my "person" which described me and included my favorite photo~ me in my hockey helmet.  My painting that I chose was hung up for all to see too.  I love preschool and I especially liked having Grammy along to show her what makes my preschool so awesome.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!  Hugs and Kisses from our family to yours XOXOXO!

Life's a Beach

 I did it! I achieved my first sticker chart reward which was a trip to a nearby waterpark.  Mommy somewhat cringes at extrinsic rewards, why... because as a Kindergarten teacher, she feels that kids should follow rules and directions because it's the right thing to do and it feels good.  Speaking from a 3 year old's perspective, I personally wanted something for my hard work.  First sticker chart was titled, "Caden stays in his own bed ALL night long!"  For a few months, I'd wake up in the dead of the night, head to the bathroom to potty, and then stop by to see what Mom and Dad were doing, which was sleeping of course.  To stop the nonsense, Mommy created a chart for me.  Week 1= a trip to the waterpark and Week 2= bowling.  I need one more sticker for bowling and then I am not sure what the bribe will be.

 Besides the waterpark trip, I also got to wear my beach gear to preschool this past week.  We had "Beach Day" at school.  This was a bit confusing to me.  I wondered who came up with this idea when there was snow outside and why didn't Mommy remember sunscreen as usual?  We were allowed to bring one beach toy, so I brought my croc shovel which became a big hit and a battle between my buddies.

This weekend, we celebrated Mason's 4th birthday.  Mason is daycare-Mama Jenny's little boy who is like my second brother.  He had a Hot Wheels themed party at his house... so fun!  We especially liked the pinata filled with delicious candy.  We each took turns pulling a string until the trap door opened and candy came pouring out.  Parents in the room all commented on how genius this idea really is vs. nailing the pinata with a bat.  I think whacking the car with a bat sounds quite exciting myself.

 Two weekends ago, we went to the cities for Lexi's 10th birthday.  We canNOT believe she is actually 10!  To celebrate, we went to Grandma Carla's and Grandpa Jamie's house for a b-day lunch followed by Cooper's 19 month photo shoot with Kristin (pictures should be posted soon).  Auntie Stefanie and Mommy were giddy with excitement over the fact that all four of us are smiling and looking at the camera.  Baby steps people.  We will start the "UGH" cycle once Baby Lindell arrives in May and we will attempt the 5 person smile, either way, can't wait for baby Lindell (do you see him in Karri's belly?)  He is getting SO big in that "bag!"

 Grandma Carla doesn't save anything, well maybe a few things from years past.  One of those few items are dress up clothes from when Mommy was in dance.  We enjoy wearing sunglasses, necklaces, and even some "bling" such as headbands and tutu's.  Here are some silly pictures of us with our cousins.

 Nothing like a dart gun to complete this look!?!?

Before we knew it, we had to dress for pictures and get props ready.  Uncle Jimmy has the step-stool swing "toy" all figured out. What a great Daddy he will be to baby boy Lindell.

 These might be the last snow pictures you will see for a while.  The warm temperatures lately have been a major blessing.  We are enjoying walks in the neighborhood and outdoor play.  I am a bit sad that I can't ride my snowmobile these days and we had snow much fun sledding on the golf course a week ago.  The benefit to our area is we can enjoy all seasons.  Here Coop and I are sledding together....

 Liberty came along too.  Look at our "old girl" with that white face.  She loves to run and especially loves to eat snow along the way.

 Good thing my little brother is built like a tank.  He is easy to grab onto and doesn't seem to mind my girlish screams on the way down the hills:)

Cooper and I love the Marley books, so we got this idea from Snow Dog Marley.  I wanted to see if Liberty was a snow dog too, so I dragged her down the hill with me.  Yup, Liberty is a snow dog!

After a fun time sledding it was time to head home.  Cooper draped himself on the sled and held tight the entire way back!  Maybe next week we will post pictures of us riding bikes, driving the Gator and gardening.  I think groundhog Phil was wrong when he saw his shadow on Thursday!