Happy Day of Love

For Valentines, Hubby and I decided to do something we have never really done before.  We bought tickets to a show!  Not a high school, $5 show...  We are geeks in most ways possible and we're excited to see Alton Brown towards the end of the month.  We are getting a babysitter, driving over an hour, and paying more than 10 times the amount...  Nothing says "grown up" or "love" like that :)  So, since we haven't celebrated Valentines Day yet, I am going to dedicate this post to my children.  Few things say "love" more than tears and snot on your shirt, sticky hugs, or cuddles on the couch.  Since my baby turned 2 yesterday, I got kinda nostalgic and went through some old pictures.  For your viewing pleasure, I found pictures of all my children ages 1 and 2.  For comparisons sake :)

AGE 1

Kari

Kaitlyn

Dylan

Kelsey

 AGE 2

Kari

Kaitlyn

Dylan

Kelsey

I am not sure they look like, but they are mine to love and hold and squeeze and cuddle.  So, who ever your valentine is, give 'em some extra love today!  And don't worry, I will do my best to document mine and hubby's trip later :)

Gone Fishin'

Today is my baby's birthday.  Today she turns 2.  It is sad she is growing up.

For Christmas, Santa brought each of the kids a board game of some sort, and Kelsey got the fishing game.

I was actually surprised at her dexterity.

Although there may occasionally be a bit of cheating going on.

Tonight there won't be cupcakes and presents...  we are putting it off for a day or two.  For now, I just sit and look at cute she is, and how fast I feel like the time has gone, and how old it makes me feel, and how sad I am that I suspect she is my last, and how much I want just a baby, but no more toddlers or teenagers, and how much I want to reverse the clock, and make all my children go back to the time when they would lay in my arms and cuddle with me for hours, and fall asleep.

This is a normal reaction to a birthday, yes?

Happy Birthday Kelsey Gayle!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

... the kids built a "boat".  By laying out every single blanket known to man, they covered most of the basement floor, and only had to "swim" in a few places".  

I climbed up on the stool in the corner to get the picture above, and the kids thought it was funny...  So they all came over to pay me a visit.

Love his eyebrows!  They totally make the face :)

Mom!  Mama!  Mommy!  Mama!  Mom!  Mommy!  Ma!   A La Stuart Style.

Kaitlyn was the most concerned with the "boat".  She had to keep all the blankets spread out.  She didn't want any "leaks".

Apparently, the thing to do on a boat is to lay down.

Happy eyes!  Check out his eyelashes!  I'm jealous!

One of my favorites of the day!  Hi Kaitlyn!  Between the bubble gum medicine and the ibuprofen, she was feeling much better!  Is anyone else tempted to not give their children medicine before you go to the doc?  I am always concerned by the time we get there, nothing will be wrong anymore, and I will look like an idiot.

Aaaaaand thats my cue!  Nap time for a tired toddler.

I was even a nice mommy and let them keep it out over night to play with in the morning.  It was nice to have a relaxing weekend at home.

Skiing

Hubby likes to ski.  Have I told you hubby likes to ski?  Well, in case I haven't told you before, hubby is a ski lover.  He wants to ski pretty much any chance he gets.  Guess where we live?  In the south!  Where it hardly ever snows!  (More on that later :) )  He was verily disappointed when we went out to Utah in November.  It was early in the season, and things just didn't work out.  When there was time, there wasn't snow, and when there was snow, there wasn't time.  As we boarded the plane to come home, hubby turned to me and said "You realize I still have to go skiing, right?"  I did.  

After Christmas, and a few weeks into January, the planets aligned and Mercury was in the third house, and things worked out for hubby to go up to our nearest ski resort, Obergatlinburg, which is about 6 hours away.  He offered to take me along for a stay-cation.  I could take the littles and browse the shops in Pigeon Forge, while Kari (and possibly Kaitlyn*) went skiing.  *He asked Kaitlyn if she wanted to give skiing a try, but she wasn't interested.

 The weekend before we left, Kelsey got a mysterious fever.  It got up to 102*, but she never seemed to show any other symptoms.  No ear pulling, nothing exiting her stomach at a rapid rate in either direction, she was still eating and drinking....  In all my pediatric expertise, I diagnosed her with "the grumps" as the only other symptom she exhibited was the inability to sleep and therefore was clingy and grumpy.  It lasted about 5 days, and on the day she started feeling better, Dylan started to feel worse.  THEN, Kaitlyn came home from school crying that her ear hurt, and that put the nail in the coffin.  Browsing stores?  Maybe.  Dragging sick children around?  Not gonna happen.  Keeping sick children happy and quiet in a hotel without their own comforts?  I can think of better things to do.  

So, I bailed, and sent hubby and Kari on their way.  There was plenty of snow to keep them occupied.

In the past, hubby has put Kari in a class for the first half of the day, so he could ski some of the harder stuff.  This time, he didn't have to!  Kari stuck with him, and they did all of the green and blue runs together.  She looks totally at home, doesn't she?  They lasted about 7 hours (including lunch) before they left.

After skiing, they decided to give ice skating a try.  Kari did well until she fell and pretty much did the splits.  At that point, they decided they were done.  

After all that cold, they headed back to the hotel indoor pool, and spent about 30 minutes with the crowd before they called it a day and went upstairs to bed.

As our children grow older, I am sure we will all enjoy the sport that is skiing.  For that weekend, I enjoyed a stay-cation at home, where I still had sick, clingy children, but I could banish them to their rooms and each my stash of chocolate...  Its the little things :)

Spelling Bee

Back at the beginning of December, Kari was selected to be in her school wide spelling bee.  It is open to 3rd-6th grade students who have won their class spelling bee.  

They sent a word list home about a week before the competition, and we studied...  I don't really know how to study for spelling competitions, other than have her read and pronounce it aloud and then spell it.  Sometimes I explained what the words meant, but I found that was kind of overwhelming for her, so I stuck to the ones that sounded like something else.

She did really well.  In a room full of people mostly older than her, she got third place!  We were/are very proud of her!

This is right after she got out.  She really wasn't that dejected, I think I just got the shot as she was literally sitting down.

We were very happy to be able to come and see her, and "cheer" her on (there was no talking in the room, which got interesting when Kelsey got bored).  She was a graceful looser in that we know she has a few more years to try again, and this was her first year being able to even qualify.  We are so happy for our smart little girl!

Being Outside

Another joy of being at Pa's and walking outside, is the fabulous pictures I'd like to think I can take.  There is so much red clay down there!

And several deer houses.  These have been constructed over the years from various supplies, and are often filled with old armchairs and pillows.  Ironically, they are decently comfortable.

I don't know how these acorn tops (or if you are from the south, you pronounce them "a-kern") get embedded in the ground like that, so feel free to enlighten me.

A little further in our walk, we come to a fence that I helped to install.  Actually, it is a quite recent addition to the property.  Unfortunately, he doesn't get as much use as was originally intended because shortly after this, Pa got sick, and never really fully recovered.  I took the shot because, in my head....

I thought it would look better like this...  Very old time-y, you know.

When I looked up, I saw this, and kinda fell in love.  It looks like they are covered in a green arch the whole way down, when in fact, they aren't hardly at all.  But I love the look of all the plant life that takes over if not carefully cut back year after year after year.

Just some pretty leaves.  Probably something poisonous for all I know.  I just like the colors.

As we were finishing our walk, and heading back down the dirt road, we came upon some footprints....  Any trackers wanna tell me what animal leaves those footprints?

Well, there is your dose of nature for the day!

Little Stinker

Have I mentioned that Kelsey gets into everything?

And that I continually underestimate what she understands and what she can (or thinks she can) do.

On this particular day, I put down the computer to do something in the other room.  I returned to find this.

Pushing buttons, moving the mouse and everything.

She is such a little stinker!

More Orange

We try to be careful when we go outside at Pa's house during hunting season.  We only go walking during the daylight hours, and we always wear orange.

We don't want to end up like Cousin Boy Band's friend yesterday, do we?

But, going on walks is an essential part of Pa's, so we dress in the customary orange, and go!

Three Generations of orange!

Love these sweet cousins!

They even occasionally let Dylan tag along.  Because we all know how exciting it is for a 4 year old boy to hang out with all girls ;)

Generally he chooses to hang with his dad.

Which I guess is ok.  Since the girls don't mind being by themselves either.  I also love Kaitlyn's photobomb in the background :)

For Christmas, Aunt C got the girls these awesome bows with camo on one side, and orange on the other.  Kaitlyn has already worn hers to school twice.

Who says you can't make orange girly?!?

First Deer

Few things say "Christmas" more than shooting your first deer.  AmIright?  I mean, besides decorations, and trees, and presents and food....  Right below those things would be skinning and quartering.  Right?  Not convinced?  Yeah.  Me either.  Because Pa controls so much acreage, and because he lives out in the boonies, we can hunt right on his land.  About every other year, I allow hubby to get one, because that is about how long it takes for us to eat one.  This year, on our way down, I told him the freezer had space if he found a good one.  Ironically, it wasn't hubby who shot it.  It was Cousin Boy Band.  And the unfortunate thing about all this is that he shot it on Christmas Eve, approximately 1 hour before we had planned to start the festivities....  Here is his momma showing Pa just how big it was...  Looks like a fish story :)

The proud hunter, and his deer!

He was forced to recount his adventures several times...

And can I just say, that while we were all proud and happy that cousin Boy Band got his first one, we may have sorta kinda maybe wished the timing was different.  Right Pop?

And while he has watched a deer be cleaned before, and he was theoretically aware that he was going to have to clean the deer if he shot it, when it came right down to the actual process, he was less than enthused.

Thankfully, with many helping hands, it didn't take too long, and he eventually got over being "blooded"* (although it is safe to say that was his LEAST favorite part).  He was also nice enough to let us take the deer to our processor and share some of the meat with us.  Anyone want some venison?

*Blooded: When you make your first kill, it is "customary" for a mentor/loved one to put blood on you, usually the face.  Yay for hunting traditions.....

Disney Dance

When the idea was first brought up for Santa to bring some kind of gaming system to the kids, Ms. Claus put her foot down and said that it had to be some kind of "active" system, where they did more than just sit...  So, for Christmas, Santa brought the kids an XBox 360 with Kinect.  Each of the kids also got a game from Santa.  Kari got Harry Potter.  Dylan got Minute to Win it.  Kelsey got Disneyland Adventures.  But I am fairly certain that my favorite game is Kaitlyns: Let's Dance, Disney version.

It is a multiplayer game, although it seems to work better with just a few players...  more space.

But I love watching them all play it, and watching their difference in dance styles.

If a 4 year old has a dance style :)