A million pictures taken by my very old phone in the month of February. Here we go, folks!
Emmerson started her first season of softball and thanks to her big brother, she was very prepared. She's taken right to it and is having a blast this season!
Her team is the Pink Unicorns.
And all of her best friends from school are on it.
Taylor is always like a little tornado during every practice and game. Usually she is trying to climb up the most sketchy ladders on the playground equipment which keeps me constantly on my toes. But I did sneak this cute moment at Emmerson's first game when Taylor wanted to be with Em so much that she held her hand through the fence outside the dugout.
This ball player is up and running, too. He is on the Dodgers this year for rec. To be clear, there are no Dodger fans in this household... but I do think this boy looks pretty handsome in royal blue. He is also playing on his Stallions team again this season.
Multiple practices a week and games/practice on both Saturday and Sunday are definitely keeping our calendar filled. These two have been such good sports with the few late nights we've had so far at the ball field. Here they are happily pretending to be dogs sitting atop the tables.
This month, Dustin built this sweet shelf for Donovan's room using a very old shelf top that my Dad had handmade for my brother in 1984. Such a sweet thing for him to have in his room to display his ever growing collection of hats and bauble head dolls.
Dustin's coaching season at the high school is busy these days, too. That means that I am rushing home from work to get Taylor in the afternoons and parking myself right here on the driveway until it gets dark each night. The neighbors usually find their way over to our house and the kids have such a fun time playing. Last week was all about chalk drawing, learning how to skate on rip-sticks, and playing four square.
Emmerson and Donovan have been reading like crazy this month! Emmerson read her very first chapter book all by herself. And Donovan has suddenly taken to the Harry Potter series and he won't put it down! He's read through the first 3 books this month and is about half way through book 4. He is absolutely reading obsessed and it blows my mind.
Here we are on a typical weekday evening... tired, silly, and loving every minute of the chaos.
Except I must say, I am quickly reminded of how challenging it is to parent without my other half. Last Saturday morning as I rushed to get Emmerson ready for pictures and the rest of the kids ready to go to her game, I let out a big "uuuuuugggggghhhh!" groan when Taylor ripped out the pigtails I had just laboriously put in her hair. Guess who is now saying "uuuuuuuggggghhhhh!" (with teeth grinding together on the regular.... you guessed it. Three year olds keep you real humble, let me tell you. She even told me, "This is what I say when I am fus-tated." Insert eye roll here.
Thankfully my man is always back in time for bedtime tuck ins. I took this picture the other night when I realized amongst all the chaos of this time of night that I am really going to miss these wild and crazy routines when they all become so independent that they no longer need our help anymore.
The sweetest girl dad ever also loves to read to his daughters before bed every night as I crawl into Donovan's to read beside him. These days are long and often exhausting... but I truly am so very thankful for them.
We enjoyed a sweet Valentine's Day mid-month. We kicked it off with some small gifts for our little valentines. One of which was Taylor's Paw Patrol hat which fortunately I bought! We had been buzzing through Target one day picking up a gift for Donovan's friends' birthday party and Taylor was begging for me to get her that hat when she saw it in the kid section. I tried to distract her from her incessant begging by saying, "Not today, Tay... we'll see, maybe for Valentine's Day." Well, fast forward two weeks later and Valentine's morning, in walks Taylor asking, "It's Valentine's Momma, where's my hat?" This child and her memory. Emmerson got a set of perler beads that literally became the thing of the long weekend. We all had fun working on it together. Donovan got a new shirt and the Harry Potter movies.
We opted for breakfast at a fun local spot.
And then spent the rest of the day being pretty lazy at home. Dustin and Donovan had a baseball practice in the evening so the girls and I got dinner ready for our valentines.
Heart shaped pizzas were on the menu. Neither of the girls like pizza. In fact, they don't like anything I make these days. But we have a new family rule that goes like this: Every night when we sit down we have to say, "Thanks Mom, for making us dinner"... and then take one bite. If we hate it, we can just sit there and not eat anymore. But we can no longer comment on how disgusting it is or how much we hate ____. One of the girls has taken to the new rule... one smaller one with the very strong will, has not. :)
We still had a blast making them and seeing how they came out.
There is no way I would rather spend the day of love than with these cuties!
We also got together with our cousins for a big family birthday party combining all of the January and February birthdays. We always love going to Uncle Jonathan's and Aunt Jill's house. Their backyard makes us feel like we're on vacation and lucky for us, it was a gorgeous, sunny day.
Ed and Renee brought over some fresh shrimp.
And we had soooo much dessert including our very favorite Grammie cake!
Happy Birthday, guys!
Oma brought the coolest candle ever that rotated and then opened up with a bunch of candles inside. It even sang happy birthday in a high pitched electronic tone. The even better part of this scenario came when Uncle Dustin took the candle after it had been extinguished and hid it deep inside of the bathroom cabinets of Aunt Jill and Uncle Jonathan who were haunted by the never ending birthday song for hours after the party ended until they finally realized Dustin had hidden it. Good times, good times.
I loved finding a whole series of these pictures in my camera roll when the girl cousins took my phone and opted to take cousin selfies for days inside Taylor's new princess castle.
And also, for the record: I am not okay with my beautiful, first born niece turning 10 a few days ago. I just can't even believe it!
One last selfie. Here I am, yesterday. I was able to sneak away for an entire Saturday to go to a math conference in San Diego! I have been so fortunate to learn so much this year and especially enjoyed getting to see many of my favorite math edu-heroes in one space. It was awesome!
Now onto a new month, a new week, a whole lot more baseball/softball.
I am ready for it!
