Happy St. Patrick's Day

Poor Drew...the teacher in me comes out around any holiday and I love planning fun things to do (or eat) as a family. So St. Patrick's Day was no different.

I never realized how a green pepper, when cut in half, looks like a shamrock. So we did some shamrock stamping. Jenna also liked using the pepper to smear the paint around. :)

Although this isn't exactly St. Patty's Day related, I had to include it. Grant's had lots of congestion in his chest, so the doctor prescribed that he do the breathing treatments for a week. Grant had to do them last year around this time as well. This time around though he's handling it much better and it's not as difficult. We've found he enjoys watching a few silly music videos, so I'll play those during his treatments. Usually he's sitting on my lap, but a few times Jenna has asked to hold him, which is so sweet.

St. Patrick's Day morning - making our rainbow pancakes (notice the bowls of pancake batter that I'm working on tinting). I'm not sure what the kids were doing, but I'm guessing they were "helping" me.

The first trial run rainbow pancake...not too bad.

Ready to eat our rainbow pancakes - Jenna snuck in a silly face. :)

The rainbow pancake complete with whipped cream clouds.

After making 6 or so rainbow pancakes, I just used up the rest of the colored batter making regular shaped ones. So Drew got a rainbow pile of pancakes.

We also made mint chocolate chip cookies and tinted the batter green. Jenna was very helpful in licking up the extra better on the whisk.

Our lunch - shamrock shaped sandwiches, shamrock shaped green jello, rainbow fruit kabobs, and a shamrock green pepper slice (which neither of the kids had had before...and neither of them liked it. It was worth a shot.)

Grant enjoying his green cookie

Shoveling it in!

Jenna liked them as well

Of course we had to get some pictures taken with our green shirts on. I didn't have a green shirt for Grant, so the green stripes in his will just have to do.

I love how they're "snuggling" in this picture!

Sitting so well and even both looking at the camera

Now the family shot

Jenna also made a craft. She's really into using scissors and is getting better at it. So I let her cut 3 of the colors, while I cut the rest. (I would have let her cut them all, but we might still be cutting if that was the case.) Then she glued cotton balls on a semi-circle paper plate for the cloud. It didn't turn out exactly how I had pictured it, but she enjoyed it.

I just took down the St. Patrick's Day decorations tonight and will be replacing them with Easter! I can't believe that's only a few weeks away! Time to start planning now!

January

I thought I'd add some more random January pictures...

Grant LOVES helping me with the laundry. He'll hear me start the water and coming running, screaming at the top of his lungs. It's hilarious!

We enjoyed some time outdoors. It was actually chilly, unlike most of our winter (not complaining!) - notice her rosy cheeks.

More rosy cheeks...

Jenna dressed herself to go outside - Daddy's gloves, Grant's boots, and no pants. Hmmm.....

Grant loves climbing in the cabinet under the sink.

We took Jenna to see Beauty and the Beast at the movie theater. She wore her Belle dress for the occasion. This is our pre-movie shot.

She was in heaven - a huge movie screen, popcorn, AND "lenomade" (pop). Can it get any better than that?!

Random picture of Bailey celebrating Jenna's birthday. Note his excitement.

Serving Daddy breakfast in bed on his birthday. Drew and I worked out the details the night before so that he'd purposefully stay in bed while we made his breakfast. Jenna loved the idea of surprising Daddy with breakfast in bed.

They love playing in the kitchen sink and it keeps them busy while Mommy's trying to cook dinner. :)

One day Grant was having a rough morning, so I put him in "time-out" in his room. He cried for about 5 seconds before it became silent. When I went in a few minutes later, this is how I found him...curled up between the changing table and wall, snuggling his teddy, fast asleep.

Precious!

Jenna doing some ballerina moves for us.

This was precious. After baths one night, the kids went into Grant's room and Jenna read him some books. It was sweet to watch her read to him and for both of them to sit there together. We quickly grabbed the camera to capture a video of it. Melted our hearts!

They bring such JOY!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jenna!

Jenna turned 3 years old on January 2nd! I keep asking myself, "How in the world do I have a 3-year old already?" She's growing up way too fast!

On the eve of her birthday, Drew and I blew up balloons to cover the floor in her bedroom. I had seen the idea elsewhere and thought it looked like fun. We snuck in her room late to drop off the balloons and snap a quick picture...


When we walked in her room in the morning, she seemed dazed and was just sitting on the floor staring. Haha! Then she finally "woke up" and enjoyed playing with the balloons.

Grant even got in on the balloon fun.

Then Jenna got breakfast in bed with her "You're Special Today" plate. Since we didn't want a huge mess to clean up, she just got a donut, which she only licked the topping off and didn't even touch the actual donut part.

She also got to open a present in bed - a Veggie Tales puzzle. She's really into puzzles right now and is quite good at them. Plus she loves Veggie Tales.

When we went downstairs, she got to open the rest of her presents. This one's from Aunt Cathy - a princess purse with some fun jewelry and colored hair clips. Can you tell she's happy about it? :)

We also got her a My Little Pony.

"B" got her some Wikki Stix and alphabet cards to go with them. Wikki Stix are waxy pieces of yarn that are flexible and will "stick" to the card surfaces, but you can also peel them off and use them again. These will be great practice for her alphabet. She played with them for probably the next half hour after opening them. Lots of fun! (And the pink strand in her hair is the colored hair clip from Aunt Cathy, plus her colorful necklace).

Our big present to Jenna was a new bike! We thought she could get some practice now so that she's able to ride come Spring and Summer. She's already doing a GREAT job riding it and just needs to work on her steering.

A few weeks later we had a Princess themed birthday party for her with extended family. I debated whether to have a party with her friends, but realized she's still too young to truly appreciate that. We'll hold off a few more years for that.

Jenna's not a fan of cake, so I tried making a variation of an ice-cream cake using ice-cream sandwiches as the base. I think it turned out pretty good.

Jenna wanted to wear her Belle dress for the occasion. Perfect for her Princess party!

I thought this was funny...her card had a mirror on the front, so she was looking very intently into it trying to see her reflection. :)
Paw-Paw tickling the birthday girl on her Princess mat from Uncle Brian and Aunt Kelley.

Jenna got a Rapunzel doll from Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw, which she LOVED!

Happy birthday sweet Jenna!! We love you!