Valentines Day and Savanna's Birthday

A friend gave me the idea to do a fun family candlelight dinner for Valentines.  A lot of work but luckily my sister, Colleen was here to help out.  We had the boys be the host and waiter.  When Trent came home, he was escorted by Lane to his room to change into his suit and then excorted to come and pick up his dates (Me, Savanna, and Amelia) at the Master bedroom.  Then we had the kitchen closed off with sheets and Brayden was waiting to seat us at "Cupid's Restaurant" (the kitchen).  We had it decked out with lights, candles, and made menus.  We even broke out our nice china to use.  We had some delicious chocolated dipped strawberries and then the menu consisted of:

Caesar or Spinach-strawberry salad

Bubbly Love Potion

Salmon

Garden Green Beans

Mashed Potatoes

Strawberry cream cake

Then a fun night of dancing...I know, kinda cheesy but quite fun.  I think it will be a good tradition.

 

Savanna is 3...Finally.

 

I have been thinking she has been 3 for a while now.  She acts so old.  She is quite a character and makes us laugh a lot.  She is so fun.  She is a great helper and hard worker.  Quite independent and a bit of a dare devil.  Her favorite food is yogurt and smoothies, favorite color is pink and favorite thing to do is play with her dolly house and pony cards.  She's actually happy doing whatever everyone else is doing.  She has the best laugh and you can just look at her silly and she will crack up. 

 

Oh, Savanna.  We Love You!

A trial of cake pops for FHE that we were going to try for Savanna's birthday but not

our favorite so we made her a cake instead.  It was entertaining though.



We have such an awesome family!  I love you guys.  Speaking of which, I don't have any pics of my amazing husband.  He is the best.  We all adore him and he works so hard for us.  We are a super lucky family to have him for a dad and husband.

IT'S A BOY!

Everyone is pretty excited that the new baby will be a boy...I think Lane was the most relieved.  The dinner conversations are interesting as the boys are trying to name him after a Star Wars character.  This will definitely not be an easy task to please everyone. 

Catching Up (3 of 3)

 Christmas!!!

 

When Amelia does Savanna's hair...

 

Never ending treats in December

 Had to get my beautiful cinnamon rolls

 

Christmas Eve

 Sound asleep after a long day.  We wiped them out at the church gym and all were asleep by 8:30pm.  Trent and I were in bed by 10 pm and everyone got up at 7.  Sweetness.

They all slept in a fort they built the basement.  So cute...that's Lane in the middle making sure the girls aren't scared.

 Trent's fault. 

 The neighbors have already asked the boys not to shoot the birds at their bird feeder.

 He has named himself the Lego Master Genius.

 

Our Service Tree

This month we made a service jar with strips of paper with daily acts of service.  Each day we would tape the strip to our tree after we completed the service.  It went really well.  I think we found a new family tradition for Christmas time.

On Christmas Day we forced the kids to come with us to a Nursing Home and visit the elderly.  We made some yummy treats and let the kids go around to say Merry Christmas and offer them to the residents.  By the end, they didn't want to leave.  It was a neat experience. 

Catching Up (2 of 3)

Happy Birthday Amelia!!!  My little girl is now 5.  I have seen her become so much more grown-up just in the past couple months.  She is so excited to go to school but for now we just do our own school and "special days" at home.  She had a small party with 5 friends at the Montshire Museum of Science.  She was queen for a day and had a lovely time.

 

 This is Katie, one of her friends at the bubble stations, and she is inside the hula-hoop bubble.

 Her favorite station is the Leaf-cutter ants. 

Her favorite gift was her first set of fake make-up given to her by one of my friends.  Her and Savanna were in heaven, although a little scary looking.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Brayden!!!

Brayden is now 9.  His first words when he woke up on his birthday were, "The big 9 mom.  Now I get more responsibility".  I had to laugh.  He was king for the day and had a fun time.  We went bowling and he wanted Dunkin-Donuts for his cake.  Brayden is one happy boy and such a great helper in our family.  He is growing up too fast and for sure...addicted to legos (ninjago and star wars).  He LOVES school, scouts, and basketball.  Is there anything he doesn't love?  I think just book reports. He is just one awesome kiddo.



Walking in a Winter Wonderland...might be cold, but it is beautiful!

Catching Up (1 of 3)

I actually have a good excuse for the lack of posts the past couple months.  We are happy to announce Baby Shelton #5 due in June.  November and December were pretty miserabe months due to morning sickness, but around Christmas time, I began to be functional again.  I've just been dreading the blog since I'm so far behind.  December is always a crazy month with birthdays and Christmas.  I think I will break it up into several smaller posts to avoid the hassle with pictures being out of order.  Here goes.

We finished our basement.  The boys now have an awesome bedroom and there is a decent play area in the basement...perfect for Trent's ping pong table he bought for Christmas.

We had fun finding our Christmas Tree.  My husband is so manly.

 Amelia was in the Nutcracker Ballet.  She was a little mouse and did a great job.

 

 

 Goodbye Greta...Greta was a great dog but after some slight destruction and the thought of a new baby with her bringing ticks in the house, I didn't have too much trouble saying goodbye.  I found her a new home where she is working for the state with Autistic children. 

This is what resulted from Greta somehow getting into the house while we were out to dinner one night.  Guess she didn't like the tree take the place of her bed pillow.