Randoms

 The kids playing with Jane's Christmas gift.

Sweet Jane is always coloring.  This day, Lincoln had fallen asleep in his bouncer and she colored something and left it on him as a surprise for when he woke up.

 These two are a hoot.

 The best of friends.

 It makes all the hard days of motherhood so worth it to see my children all playing happily together.  They love coloring together at my craft table.

 They always play dress up and then play pretend together.

 Sleepy baby.

 This day, Lincoln all of a sudden just went in and gave Jane a big hug.  It was the cutest thing.

 This boy played so well on the floor by himself up until about a week ago when he decided that he's bored and wants to be able to move.  I think he'll be much happier when he's crawling, although I'm so afraid for when he does because he's already super busy, and I'm pretty sure he's going to keep me on my toes every minute of the day!

 This was at Natalie's orthodontics consultation while we were waiting.  We decided to wait until all her permanent teeth are in before we pursue braces.

 Again, they were playing dress up and had the cutest conversation and pretend play going on between the three of them.

 We went to the zoo on the first Saturday that was warm of the year.  They had the llamas and alpacas out, so the kids got to pet them.

 Lincoln is a total daddy's boy.  When daddy's home, he wants nothing to do with me and reaches for dad.  :)

 It's hard to get a picture with three children looking and smiling, but it was a great day at the zoo.

 More pretend play.  These kids for the most part play so well together.  I love that they are good friends and I hope it will always be this way.

 My happy baby.  Jane always shares her toys with him.  He'll be crawling before we know it, sniff sniff.

 I hosted a little Valentine's get together and invited two good friends over.  It ended up that the chocolate covered strawberries I had ordered were delayed because of bad weather, so I went ahead and had the party and we ate homemade sugar cookies and then I hand-delivered the berries to them when they arrived.  These ladies-Angel and Lindsay-mean the world to me.  I miss being in the same ward.

 My friend Lindsay, shown above, hosted the cutest Valentine's tea party for the little girls.  Jane was in heaven next to her best friend Addie, Lindsay's daughter.  All the moms brought mini appetizers and then we served our daughters.

 Addie poured the tea (pink lemonade) for her and Jane.

 Just before Lincoln turned six months I started him on rice cereal.  He loved it until he got really sick with RSV, and now he has a really hard time eating it for me.

 Silly Jane loves having baths with Lincoln.

 We went to the family Valentine's dance at the kids' elementary school.  It was so cute watching them dance together.  Jane thought it was a dress up party, so she wore her princess costume.  ;)

 They even had a hula hoop contest.

 My little Valentines on Valentines Day.  Since it landed on a Sunday this year, Rob and I celebrated the Friday before, since it was his day off, and went to Bonefish Grill and then to out to get gelato.

 It's not easy getting four kids ready for 9 am church alone!  Poor Rob has to get up at 5 am every Sunday and leave by 5:45 for bishopric meeting and then ward council after that.  He's the ward clerk, so he has to be there for both.

 On the evening of Valentine's Day, Rob made the most delicious pasta and then we had chocolate fondue as a family with lots of yummy dippers.

 Jane wanted to show off her play dough.

 Natalie went to some friends' (Jovie and Joslynn's) birthday party.  It was dog-themed, so my friend Angel painted all the kids' faces all cute, they got to decorate their own mini cake, choose a little stuffed animal dog and have an adventure with it.  It was too cute!

 I joined the birthday bunch-a group of good friends who happen to have been my counselors in the primary presidency when I was in the other ward.  These ladies are so fun!  We all have birthdays-one a month-in January, February, March and April, so we figured we'll go out for dessert once a month together to celebrate!  This time it was Stephanie's birthday and we got the most amazing chocolate cake and Salted Caramel Ice Cream Cake.

 Poor Jane was walking on the tennis court a few weeks ago and slipped on a patch of ice.  She of course had her hands in her coat pocket, so she couldn't catch herself and fell right on her face.  Her front tooth took the brunt of it and is completely grey and dead now.  Dang it!

 Grandpa Bell came the week after Valentine's Day to visit and ski with Rob and the kids.  They went up to Taos for Friday and Saturday and then we spent Sunday and most of Monday together before he had to leave.  This was when poor Lincoln was first coming down with RSV, so I stayed home with him while they went hiking on Monday.

Lincoln started in with a fever on Sunday and I just thought it was a weird virus, but then three days later he still had a really high fever and was coughing really hard all the time.  I had seen a friend on Facebook post about how her baby had RSV, so I started to worry that it was that.  So I took him in and sure enough, he had it.  They went ahead and gave him antibiotics because they said he also had bronchitis, even though they normally don't give medicine for RSV.  I was so glad they did, because it definitely made a difference.  He was so miserable all week with the high fever, cough, runny nose, congestion, and labored breathing.  It was really worrisome for a few days.  It was an emotionally and physically exhausting week, so we were so glad when he started to smile and laugh again.  It was so hard seeing him all miserable like that for so long.

Rob's dad took this pic of our crazy fam while he was here so he could send it to Chelsea, who's on her mission.

 Daddy's buddy.

 I just had to capture how my sweet baby sleeps.  Always with his arms out.

 Six months old and so darn cute!

 He loves playing with his feet when I change his diaper, which he has a habit of exploding out of.  Thank goodness for washing machines!

 He always grabs his foot and sucks on it immediately when I undress him.

 Not sure what Natalie was doing here, but Blake had Dr. Seuss Day this past week at school, so he asked me to make some cat ears to go with his hat.  He came home in a bad mood, surprisingly, and when I got to the bottom of it, found out it was because someone had laughed at him because of how he was dressed up.  Come to find out, it was a little girl in his class who I'm sure has a little crush on him (he's talked about things she's done before), so I explained that she wasn't laughing to be mean.  She was trying to get his attention and thought it was cute and silly.  Sometimes Blake gets a little too touchy about things, even though he's quick to dish out the teasing and humor.  Love these kiddos!

 Jane is such a great play mate to little Lincoln.  She's so helpful when I'm making dinner to keep him occupied and happy.

 This morning while I was getting ready for church I came out to see this.  It makes me smile at the fact that my kids love being together.  They are the best of friends and the worst of friends, but luckily more often than not, they are the best of friends.

Maya is Jane's little friend.  Our neighbor Mary watches her grand niece Maya on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we like to take turns having Maya come over and then Mary has Jane over to play with Maya other times.  They play SO well together and I just have to smile when I hear them in Jane's room playing princesses together.