Trista Update

Here are some recent pictures of Trista. She LOVED playing Parks & Rec basketball this winter and some recent pictures from her classroom.

PE at school

Listening to a book in the library

Party time!

Silly girl at her Valentine's Day party!

Practicing with her coach and Jordan

Dribble, dribble, dribble

Looking to get the ball to Andrew

Good defense!

More defense

She likes to bring the ball down!

The little things...

Things like this make my heart full!

We found these sitting on the counter...they are Valentine's Day presents from Trista to her babies! Too cute and done all by herself!

Ashley is one of her babies, named after Shane and Beth's little girl.

Alexia is her other baby, named after Darren and Ashley's girl.

So incredibly adorable (and thoughtful!)!

Little thoughts right now...

Things I am loving right now:

1. Our healthy family: We have had the common cold but nothing out of the ordinary! Tanner has been healthy the longest...SHOCKER!! We are so thankful for good health!
2. Tanner getting dressed in his suit to go to daycare...priceless! Helps that his little lady is there too, but seriously, it is great to have your kids happy to go to their "places" each day!
3. Rummy: Trista is a rummy princess! The two of us play every night; she is getting pretty intense so watch out!
4. Trouble: Since Trista rules rummy, Tanner's game of choice right now is "Trouble." This game seems to take forever sometimes but luckily Trista plays with him quite a bit too.
5. Our wood fireplace: Man are we warm this winter! I love snuggling up on the couch with a book when it is 77 degrees in the great room! Curt has finally quit opening windows right when I am in the comfort zone so that helps too!  And, I also love that the bedrooms stay more comfortable (around 68-71) so we all still sleep good. The fireplace hasn't let us down yet, even when it was -24 the other morning we were all warm and toasty inside. AND...the greater benefit is our heating bill. We are paying less than what we did at our old house (2200 SF) and now we are heating double that space (counting Curt's shop which has gas heaters in it)! Rock on fireplace...we'll keep you!
6. Winter: I am loving winter because it is getting closer to spring! I wish we would get more snow because it is way too dry, but maybe it will come with the warmer, spring storms.
7. Movies: It takes a good movie for me to sit still long enough but I watched 3 in the past week. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. All very tense...which I knew from the books, but there will still parts that made me question watching. Overall, very good and intriguing!! After about 20 minutes you don't even notice the subtitles any more.
8. Sports: Tanner is done with wrestling but he was pretty cute, once he figured out you don't have to take turns in the matches (just practice). Trista is still playing basketball and does pretty good. It helps that she is a head taller than all the other kids (and a little on the aggressive side to put it lightly).

I'm loving lots more things, but these all come to mind at this moment!

we're suckers...for Valentine's day!

I usually am not too "into" Valentine's Day but it sure has been lots of fun with the kids this year! We decided to make some unique and creative valentines for the kids to take to their schools. Trista also had snack day at school this week so we may "Cupid Clusters" which basically consisted of yogurt blast Cheerios, dried strawberres, held together by some melted white chocolate. They turned out pretty yummy and definitely festive!

Miss Trista's Valentine (version 1)...she didn't like the picture I picked out so we have 2 versions!

Mr. Tanner

Both kids have Valentine's Day parties/activities at their schools on Monday, so I have to figure out a way to make it to both (and they are separated by 20 miles)! Tanner has been busy selling cookies for his school, they are raising money for their playground flooring. He asked each person individually if they wanted to buy cookies, it was very cute. Who could pass up a 4 year old boy asking "Can you buy some cookies for my school?" We hit up the fire station on Monday night at their monthly meeting and that really boosted his sales! His goal was $50 of cookies and he hit $300!! Trista is busy reading and writing, I also taught her how to play rummy this week so we have nightly rummy matches now! Both kids enjoyed the snow this week but it looks like it is going to be warm this weekend so it will likely be gone by Monday!

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!