The girls both have a rest time in the afternoons after lunch and chores. We start out on their bed together for catechism and memory verse practice. Then we all split up, and they take turns either staying in their room or going to the upstairs playroom. Anyway, rest time started out as just looking through books, and then they slowly started getting toys out, and I was fine with that. But when rest time turned into make-a-huge-mess-in-your-room time, I decided we needed to be more structured with it. So now they pick a popsicle stick from the rest time jar and it tells them what they may do. There are so many choices which helps for them to be diverse in their play each day. Examples: listen to books on CD, read books in your bed, dress up your build-a-bear, tea party, LeapPad, cook in the kitchen, etc. Today's for Kate was Tag books, and Vivian's was dolls and dollhouse.

Neither of them are napping anymore (Unfortunately, Kate stopped falling asleep during naptime around the time that we made her throw away her pacifiers. I had a feeling that it would happen that way...). But they both still need some time alone to regroup from the busy morning and also to learn to occupy themselves. And let's face it, they need time away from each other. And I need to get some chores done, do a little to prepare for dinner, and be alone myself (timed perfectly during H's nap). It's a nice time during our days.

 It won't be long until he's able to join the big kids for bathtime, but for now, Vivian loves to help wash Hank at night while Aaron is saying goodnight to Kate.

I overheard her saying, "I'll save his wee-wee for Mommy to wash." ha!

 This picture cracks me up. This is exactly the same kind of face that I would be making if Aaron tried to explain guns to me.

 We relaxed at the house until Hank's afternoon nap, and then the girls went out to get our nails done. We then picked up the guys and headed out for lunch.

 Abby was so sweet to give the girls lots of attention. 

 funny faces!

We were all sad to see them go on Saturday evening. But they live in Greensboro, which isn't far at all, so we'll be visiting them soon, I'm sure!

Aaron has 4 uncles and 2 aunts on his Dad's side, and his family is very close. I'm thankful to be a part of it!

Our small group tried our own version of the Harlem Shake last night

 I found these doilies on the cheap and we made simple Valentines this year with them. I wrote the standard VDay greeting on about 80 of them, and then glued Scripture on the back of each. I watched a romantic comedy during the process and it turned out to be a relaxing (late) night.

 The girls wrote their names on them and added a few stickers.

This part of the process wasn't the easiest. The girls got tired and distracted after a few and I couldn't believe how many we had left! So we broke it up into different sessions over two days. We did only about 5 at a time. 

Vivian did this Valentine at preschool and the teachers mailed it to us. It's the little things :)

The Scripture on the back of our valentines is one that the girls have learned this year:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7

And this is the rest of the passage:

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

(1 John 4:8-12 ESV)

I distinctly remember my 11th grade Government teacher asking us in class one day to write down an answer to the question, "What is love?" (it must have been VDay because otherwise this has nothing to do with Government!)

I remember it because I was stumped. I had no idea what to write. I wanted to be profound but didn't even know where to start. I think I ended up with a cheesy quote from a movie (actually, I remember exactly what movie and what the quote was but it is too embarrassing to admit haha)

Anyway, this passage answers that question perfectly. It defines love. And I'm thankful that I've been freely given this love that surpasses all the rest.

There is one great Love: Jesus.

 Happy Valentine's Day!

 Hank's first tea party.

His last? Probably not :)

 This is tough for me. 

I have loved having the girls' hair cut short in a bob for the last year or two. 

It's easy, cute, dries quickly, and requires no "fixing."

But Aaron really wants their hair to grow long, so we're on our way now and haven't cut it for months. I definitely don't like the in-between stage but I think now that I can get Kate's into a ponytail it's adorable. The ponytail keeps the hair out of her face completely, so I love it.

Vivian's is not quite long enough yet to pull back all the way, so we're still waiting. But what's the point of growing it out just so you can put it up? 

I never really had long hair growing up, so I didn't learn how to do anything with hair. I know how to do a simple braid, and a ponytail for them. That's it. 

The other day Vivian asked for a french braid. I laughed. So either I need some hair lessons for little girls, or to just cut it to the cute bob again.

There's always this lingering question in my mind: I don't know ANY little girls their age with short hair cuts. EVERY little girl I know or see has their hair grown long. Why is that? Is there something about it that I just don't know about or realize? A secret little girl code that everyone lives by?

To remind us:

and one

this guy did the cupid shuffle like he invented it

i won about 200 tickets on this game.  I spent about 10 dollars getting those 200 tickets.  I got a plastic spider and a three pack of sweet tarts to show for it!

two hops this time...

This was an awesome idea by Chuck E Cheese...pure chaos

 I took lots of pictures today...I'll understand if you're shaking your head at me for posting too many of them. Of course I couldn't leave any of them out! Blame Aaron, he bought me this camera :)

He is napping from 9-11, 1-3, and 5-5:30. The morning nap is the most on-time nap he has...the others sometimes get pushed back if we stay out past 1 p.m. on our errands. Bedtime is around 7 each night.

This is my favorite baby schedule :)

New for Hank this month: we are getting a little more serious about baby food (breakfast, lunch dinner...many times we skip the lunchtime one, though). He does pretty well with it but sometimes gets fussy if he's in the high chair for too long. When we first started out, he would get mad that I wasn't letting him hold the spoon, but I think he has figured it out now that I won't give in. He hasn't refused any foods yet.

Hank celebrated his 6 month birthday with his first tooth! It came in starting Wednesday and Thursday.

He is starting to sit up...he can stay up for a while but you can't trust him yet, he'll tip over! 

He has a bottle when he wakes around 7 or 7:30, then again around 11, 3, and at bedtime, 7 p.m. He also takes a few ounces around 5 a.m. to hold him until waketime at 7 :) :) I've started to not even pick him up at that time, though...just hold the bottle in his mouth until he finishes and then roll him right back over to fall back asleep.

He's drinking between 5 and 7 ounces at a time, although sometimes at the 11 a.m. feeding he isn't as hungry and won't drink as much. I think that might mean that I'm giving him too much to eat at the breakfast table...?

His hair is coming in thicker now and is growing fast.

His eyes are still blue.

He weighs 17 lbs, 14 oz. (50th percentile)

He is 26 inches long. (25th percentile)

He is a smiley baby, laughing some also if we tickle him in the right spot or if V or K are in his face doing funny things.

For some reason he loves Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and will smile if you sing it. Kate uses this as her default interaction with him, and loves to see his reaction to her singing. She also uses this to calm him down in the car if he's crying. It makes him stop every time! I'm not sure why that song is so special for him, or how we even discovered that it has this affect on him!

We've had only a few little hiccups with Hank: a stomach bug that lasted 3 weeks that affected his diapers, two ear infections, wheezing while breathing (bronchiolitis) 3 separate times, and a bad case of the spit-ups all day every day of his life. But despite those things, he has been such a content, sweet baby for our family. The stomach bug didn't phase him a bit, just me. The spit-up doesn't bother him at all, just me. The wheezing didn't make him fussy, either...we just felt so sad for him.

We also have had a little spell where he was flipping himself over at naps or middle-of-the-night wakings and not able to get back to his tummy, so we had a few weeks of frustration with that.

Hank loves bathtime, his exersaucer, chewing on things, and cuddling. Since he's pretty content most of the time, he doesn't have his pacifier much outside of the crib. Hopefully we can keep this up.

He can only roll from front to back as of now.

Another way we celebrated this past week: we used up the last of the diapers that family and friends gave to us before he was born. We were so thankful that they lasted 6 months. Now I'll be adding diapers to our grocery list!

Kate