The last time I updated, it was the day before Valentines-the official day of love. We have had lots of love going around here since then, with a sprinkle of luck, or at least our lucky little lady.
Valentines Day was celebrated with our annual 'fancy dinner/dancing date.'
The love talk must have made an impression (and correlation) with the three year old because he frequently tells me, "Mom, I love you. We should dance together." So, we bust out some slow dances all the time, even as he is in his birthday suit in standing in the bath. But, when you feel the love, you've got to show it!
Plus, I take the affectionate declarations when I can get them, because as the oldest has the teens on the horizon, those declarations have dwindled significantly...and are even sometimes replaced with looks of disgust and or humiliation. But, he won't get out of dancing with his female family members easily. Can't wait till we force it on him next year!
Later in February, Katelee was lucky enough to accompany Dave on a work trip to Atlanta. He had a convention and she got to spend a day with Aunt Anna.
They shopped and had a mani/pedi, went to eat together and met up with Dave later. She was completely spoiled as she stayed at the Ritz Carlton with her pop and got some one on one time at the Coca Cola Factory. She had lots of fun, of course!
Katelee got to miss one day of school, which she was pretty stoked about, but she was back in time to go to Matilda with us.
It was so great...and really hard to not sing a long!
Katelee loves rounding out the birthday season at the beginning of the year (poor Harrison, he doesn't get why it's not his turn for a day, yet. Curse the August birthday!) She has been planning her friend party ever since she discovered that the movie Beauty and the Beast was being released on her very birthday!
We invited a lot of friends and went to the theatre to see it on St Patrick's Day.
We all loved the movie! There is Amelia, Breanna, Capri, Nicole, Pyper, Hailey, Katelee, Brylee, Emily and Peyton. We came back for donuts and presents and then each girl was sent home with a rose. It wasn't an enchanted rose, my magic had all run out, but I'd still say it was pretty awesome.
We had to run to play practice and then we came home for Katelee's birthday dinner (chicken tacos this year) with Shannon and grandma. Dinner was followed by cake and ice cream
and presents. I can't get the pictures to load, but we had a happy little tweener as she was decked out in a new hat, scarf and toting her new luggage set around. Katelee is such a great girl and we are so happy to have her in our family. Katelee is a stellar student and is really smart, she shares a lot of what she learns, like when it was a particularly cloudy day, she exclaimed, "Oh my, there is a lot of stratus today." She is very sharp and thoughtful-we love her!
It was an especially busy St Patrick's day because we had all of the birthday girl festivities and we had to pack up for an early morning flight the next day to head to Napa, California for Brian's wedding.
We were so excited to be a part of Brooke and Brian's special day. Katelee and Brenna were beautiful little flower girls (along with Karlie and another girl on Brooke's side)
We had a lovely dinner to celebrate the happy couple
The dinner may have been a little less elegant than it could have been considering the knife fights that kept breaking out...
But, at least the guests were happy. After dinner, it was time to party and party we did.
The family rocked the dance floor like nothing you've seen before. Brenna leaped across the room, probably knocking out a few wedding party guests and Katelee's face was so red from her dancing moves, we had to keep sending her outside to air out. It may be the last time we are invited to a reception, but it was memorable! Ha!
It gave us an opportunity to celebrate love,
enjoy the beautiful Napa Valley,
get away and have fun. Mostly, we were thrilled for Brian and Brooke and loved getting to make memories with our McArthur family that we don't get to spend enough time with!
No matter the years and distance, it's great to be family.
On my side of the family, grandma had surgery and the kids took cards when we visited her in the hospital. Harrison, opted to take his doctor's bag instead. Other cards were taken to her on her birthday and Brenna's read something like this, "Happy Birthday! So glad you are 72. You are really old. I bet you love old numbers." Isn't it great to know that family has to love you just because you're relations?!
Now on to April, which means dance and dance competitions, Easter, spring break, soccer for two, play practice, scouts, activity days, field trips, school, and the fun that happens around the house. A couple of our house mates have become obsessed with the movie Moana. One in particular believes he needs to be Maui everyday. Maui has a hook and now this little 3 year old has taken it as his job to make a lot of hooks, because you always need one wherever you go. I mean who knows when you will need to fight or change into a magical creature. The unfortunate side effect of this, is that we have few hangers in our house that serve their function now...
Every hanger he gets his hands on, Harrison snaps the top off and makes it a hook. FYI, the bottom part gets pokey and hurts a bit when scraped upon your skin.
It's not the only wierd thing that happens when you play with a three year old, sometimes you find him potty training a blob of plah doh (because that is his baby). At least he looks dashing in his sweater with a tie that he wore to church. Harrison was being dropped off to primary, the children's class when he turned to me, held my face and said, "I don't want anyone to tell me to be quiet today!" Guess we know how well church is going for him! His teacher says he told her "get me to the fun stuff." If he thinks potty training is going to be more enjoyable that church, he has a rude awakening coming to him someday!
I love having conversations with any 3-4 year old, this cute red head in particular. He is quite the singer as we drive around chaperoning the older siblings. He knows lots of songs on the radio, which is unfortunate. At his age, Grant only knew Disney or children's songs I feel like. So, when a song comes on that I feel is inappropriate and want to change it, Harrison yells at me. When I explain to him the words are not good, sometimes he concedes and says, "OH, its a garbage man word." But, sometimes, we argue about it. I tell him the song has bad words and he finally relents and lets out a huge sigh, "Hmph, if you say so." This is typically accompanied by sighs and an eye roll. Really, 3 year old? I think enjoying our family and home and life has a lot to do with love and probably a little bit of luck sprinkled in. Glad we got to have both the last couple of months!
