LEAPING through February

February came and went and despite having an extra day this year, it flew by! Here's some highlights:

Morgan is my little entrepreneur.  She started making jewelry and other crafts for sale.  Most are under 10 cents, although sometimes she runs a sale that is "name your own price except zero."




No one can resist this adorable little saleswoman.


Charlie decided to get in on the action by renting his rubiks cubes.


My cousin, Becky, came in town for her birthday.  My sisters and my mom met her for dinner.  It was a laughter-filled evening.


I have been wanting to perform at a local open mic for months.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a local open mic.  So I created my own.  I asked a coffee shop owner that I know if I could play at her store.  I ended up playing a 90 minute set for friends and family.  It was thrilling, and fun, and very gratifying.  So much so that I am going to do it again this Friday!!




Morgan was my biggest fan.  She listened attentively to every song and even danced along in her seat.


Speaking of Morgan, she has started soccer classes at Lil Kickers and loves it! (I didn't tell her to pose this way.  That is 100% authentic sass.)




We all gathered at Grandma's house to watch the Super Bowl.


Charlie was the only one rooting for the Panthers.


We had our first snow day this month.

They built their own forts and had a snowball fight.  Girls against Boys.






I swear this girl never stops cartwheeling!


We tried out the molds I gave them for Christmas to build some impressive walls.


I made a resolution to get caught up on my photo books.  I wanted to make a photo book for each year I've been a mom.  I had zero at the start of this year.  Now I have 8 :)  My favorite part is seeing the kids enjoying them.


If you come to my house, please ask to see one.  I've put lots of blood, sweat and tears into them and they were made to be looked at.


Mark and I went to a concert on the day before Valentine's Day.  We saw Steve Poltz- a very entertaining singer song writer.  He did not disappoint.


After the show I bought his CD and told him that I had covered one of his songs at my coffee shop gig.  He seemed honored.


On Valentine's Day, I decorated the kitchen and wrapped small gifts for the kids.  We ate our meals on heart shaped plates.  They were thrilled.


Charlie loves his baseball and football cards and is learning a lot of stats.


We had another snow day this month and continued perfecting our fort-making skills.






Our snow days also consist of some quiet moments which make me smile.


Uncle David moved back to Cincinnati this month.  We are so, so happy to have him back.  We decided to surprise Grandpa by having him arrive two days early (on Grandpa's birthday).  He thought he was opening the door for the pizza man.






Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!




Charlie dressed up as the Most Eligible Bachelor for Superhero day at school.


I couldn't resist photographing this scene when I stumbled upon the kids playing twister.  Morgan was the spinner.


Morgan does not go to preschool on Fridays so she alternates going to Grandpa's house and staying home with mommy.  On this particular Friday, we had a hairstyle challenge.






The kids had some money burning a hole in their pockets so we stopped by Target after soccer class one week.




We had a very warm day sneak up on us in February.  The whole family took advantage of it and played outside.




We even dragged the bikes and scooter out of the shed.






As I said, this year we had an extra day in February.  Morgan informed me that she would be nine on the next leap year.  I'm not gonna lie- that freaked me out.

Hello 2016

Traditionally, January has always been a month without much action.  The start of 2016 was no different.  We tend to slow down in the winter time and spend a lot of time at home.  Luckily for me, my kids are home-bodies and perfectly content relaxing at home.  I relaxed too, and have not been taking as many photos as usual.  So, not many pictures for this post, but still plenty of smiles.

It did not take us long to cash in the Graeter's gift cards the kids received for Christmas.  In fact, we took them here to celebrate their last day of winter break.


Morgan loves these little toys called Shopkins.  (They'll make an appearance later in this post as well.)


Everyone stayed up to watch the entire Bengals' playoff game.  I can't even bring myself to talk about it.  When I put Charlie to bed that night I told him it was all part of being a Bengals fan. sigh.


Severe bed head.


Hanging with Grandma.


Taylor read the responsorial psalm at a school mass this month.


Taylor and Morgan like to pretend the bed is a gymnastic's apparatus and perform routines for me.




They also like to recreate Morgan's Shopkins using playdoh.


We finally had our first snow day of the year on January 20th.








Charlie's cub scouts had an outing at a Cyclones Hockey game again this year.


They accidentally scheduled it on Princess Night, but the boys were good sports about it.


The cyclones won 6-2 (which meant we got free pizza at Donato's the next day!).



My aunt and uncle won the Reds Caravan Home Takeover contest this year which meant they had a tour bus of Reds personel come to their house.  My uncle is a HUGE reds fan so I couldn't be happier for him.  I came to capture the moments for him.  Of course he had to feed the boys with his delicious wood fired pizza.


Probably one reason why they won was because my aunt mentioned this memorabilia room that my uncle has in his house






It was so cool to see him showing off his collection to people who truly appreciated it.




Here's Tom Browning sitting in his own director's chair that my Aunt's mom had made for him.  He's also sitting under a framed photo commemorating his perfect game.


Mark was lucky enough to come too.


They even made the news.  Check out this link for a great segment: http://local12.com/news/local/reds-visit-caravan-contest-winners


It was a fantastic day.


Taylor was in the school play this year.  I was so proud of her!












Morgan started soccer this month.  She was so excited for her first class.


That'll do it for this month.  I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying this winter :)