The month of love...

February is a fun month.  I never really think about Valentines Day, but once it comes around, I realize how much I like it.  

The kids had fun making their Valentines boxes for school…  Miles of course had to do something that included basketball and Morgan wanted her classmates to have to put their hand in a monsters mouth.  I think they turned out adorable!  

About a week before Valentines Day, I decided I wanted to put on a mystery dinner for the kids.  It ended up  coming together nicely, so we decided to invite friends to join us…  The kids were so excited about it all week (which helped me stay excited about the extra work it took preparing it).  

Here's the kids table.  Morgan LOVED decorating and getting things all ready.

The adults got their own table… That was arguably the best part of the night :)

The mystery menu….  Each person sat at the table and filled out their menu in the order they wanted their courses to come.  Only they didn't know what each course was until it came.

For example, one course option was: "Tug on my heartstrings covered in Roses are Red with a side of Cloud of Happiness" which was spaghetti and red sauce with a side of garlic bread…  

Some of the kids picked the course called "The Cold Shoulder" first, which was an ice cream sundae.  The kids that picked that first thought it was so cool to get their dessert first :)
For drinks they could choose between "Pucker Up" which was pink lemonade or "Bubbly Puppy Love" which was orange crush… 

The utensils had fun names too - "I pick you" was a toothpick, "two paths in the road" was a fork, "dagger through the heart" was chopsticks, etc.  The ones that ended up with a toothpick had a hard time eating their dinner, but it's their own fault, they ordered it :)

I forget how much kids appreciate things like this.  Their favorite part was drinking out of a fancy plastic goblet.   I need to be better about doing these things.  Sometimes I think about how much effort is needed and I shy away from "extras" to avoid the work, but then I remind myself that I only have a decade of doing this stuff before they are too big and don't want to, and really these things are what make being a mom extra fun.

*Notice how mad Will is in this picture because his salad came first instead of ice cream*  Well, what did he expect, he ordered "Toss the Bouquet" for his first course…   He didn't appreciate the game until his ice cream came. 

There's a smile :)

The rest of the month has been stuffed full of friends.  I can't even fully express how much I love our neighborhood.  The kids have so many fun friends that it's hard to find time to be with each of them.  Not a day goes by that I don't give thanks to our Heavenly Father for leading us to this great neighborhood.  It's been such a blessing to us.

Some of my favorite February friend pictures:

In n Out after watching David's playoff game.  (We'll take any opportunity we can to watch basketball!)

Middle of day PJ party at Tommy's house.

Meg pretending she doesn't love Matthew attention at church…  But she really does love it.

The cutest kids ever!

Mike and I were feeling brave and took all these little people out to Johnny Rockets for dinner.  It actually wasn't a disaster if you can believe that.  

Maybe they were so good because we let them each eat a sugar packet…  See Miles in the back dumping his entire packet in all at once…  Good times.

baptism and birthday boys

Miles recently turned 8 years old… Part of me can't believe he's 8 and another part of me can't believe he's only 8…  He's such a great little man!

Grandma and Grandpa Beckstead took him out for the traditional birthday lunch.  Of course Miles picked Panda Express.  It's his very favorite place!  Then, since he's 8, they went and picked out his very own set of scriptures. 

Miles has been begging for new KD's (Kevin Durant basketball shoes) for months.  He was so disappointed when he didn't get them for Christmas so we just had to get them for his birthday.  I didn't realize just how much he wanted them.  His reaction was priceless when he opened them.  He also got a little hymn book to put in his scripture case.. That's all the kid asked for.  He's so easy to please!  

On his birthday, Mike and I checked Miles out of school and took him to lunch…. You'll never guess where he picked…  

Later that day I went back to the school and took a treat to Miles' class.  He was so excited to see us.  He had Meg sit on his lap, he showed her his desk and took her on a tour around the room.  I know someday he won't be excited to see his mom and little sister in front of his friends, so I'm living it up while I can.  

Check out these cute soda's the primary presidency delivers to the kids on their birthdays…  We have an amazing primary presidency - esp the counselor that came up with this cute idea :)  You should have seen the looks I was getting at Walmart pushing a cart around with 90 of these bottles in it.  People thought I had a problem.   

The most exciting thing about turning 8 is that Miles' was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  What a neat time for him and our entire family.  

Luckily everything went according to plan and Miles had a special day.  

Miles was baptized and confirmed by Mike.  Sometimes it's easy to take for granted the fact that there is a worthy priesthood holder in our home, but what a blessing for our family.  I'm so thankful for Mike and the great man he is!  I hope Miles grows up and lives worthy of that just like his dad.    

Grandma and Grandpa flew in to be part of the action.  Grandpa gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and was a part of the group of men that confirmed Miles with the gift of the Holy Ghost.  So wonderful to have them here for all the important events of our lives!

Miles loves the scriptures my parents gave him.  He's been reading them in bed with his little highlighter at night… So adorable.  

Miles wrote a little testimony before his baptism that I thought was super adorable…  

Playing with Grandma!  

It was great to have Kurt here because we were able to celebrate his birthday, as well as Mike's and Miles'.  They all have birthdays within a few days of each other….  

Blowing out the candles on their 7-layer dip…  

Mike in his new birthday hoodie...

Playing with Grandpa's new headlamps...

It was a busy, somewhat stressful, but very enjoyable week.