L-O-V-E

For FHE before Valentine's Day, we focused on showing more love in our home. We helped each person in our family feel that by writing down the things we love about that person and sticking the notes on their photos. Then we played a Minute-To-Win-It game with straws and sweethearts. Logan killed Grace in it, and I killed Daddyo! ha! 

We thought it would be fun to do a different kind of valentine for school friends than usual. We made pink slime and put it in these cute containers with stickers on the lids. They looked super cute! Unfortunately... most of them ended up either going dry before the Valentine exchange or leaking excess liquid all over. Nice idea, but we won't be doing that again... They sure were fun to put together though!

 Valentine's Day is one of our faves around here. I LOVE making each meal special and fun with heart-shaped foods and hand-written valentines left in their mailboxes.

 For dinner, we had heart-shaped cinnamon rolls (from a pop-can, not from scratch - - no time for that!), eggs and smoothies.

Of course the Invisible Man did a quick drop-off too. Because it's tradition!

 I am the luckiest to have 4 people in my life who love me unconditionally. It's a good day when we can openly tell the people in our lives that we love them. We sure love Valentine's Day!

All the little things

A mishmash of iPhone photos, end of January through mid-February.

Playtime with his pal, Jess-Jess.

Playdough with Logan on a sick day home from school.

 This crazy boy jumps up and down while he plays video games. He ends up a sweaty mess, but at least he is getting some exercise! 

 Future city planner.

 Grace received an award at school for being a kind-hearted friend. Her teacher is so impressed with her and tells me stories often of times Grace quietly does the right thing without being asked. She also got to have "pizza with the principal" the next week.

Logan also received an award for finishing his ST Math program! It was a really big deal because this program is supposed to take all school year to complete, but he (and 2 of his Kinder friends) finished it in January! 

 Sweetest baby boy.

 I got the chance to leave Boston with a sitter while I went to Sacramento for the day. It was AWWWWESOME.

 Logan read the scripture for FHE.

 Boston and I met some little friends at "Maker's Space" to do a craft. It was really fun for a few minutes... until he had meltdown after meltdown and I finally took him home for his nap...

 Lots of lunchtime pics with this buddy of mine.

 Noodle fingers.

I don't remember what this was all about, but it sure looks yummy, doesn't it?

 We had a week or two up in the 60s and low 70s! It was incredible! We spent lots of time outside, playing in the backyard, biking in the front yard, jumping on the trampoline, running the RC car, and Boston even climbed a tree (with a little help). What the?!

 This sweet girl went off to her mission in Nebraska. We sure will miss you, Cassidy!

Logan Has a Birthday {6 years old}

Shoe size: 1-2

Favorite things to do: playing video games, eating cheese sticks and any kind of treats, driving his RC car up and down the culdesac, making people laugh, being with his friends.

Logan's favorite friends: Oliver Hanchett and JP Croshaw
Logan's favorite movie: Lego Star Wars
Logan's favorite toys to play with: BluTrac, Hot Wheels cars, Star Wars ships
Logan's favorite color: Blue
Logan's favorite thing to do with Grace: Play video games
Logan's favorite number: 6
Logan's favorite thing to do in Utah: swimming at Nana & Bompa's house
Logan's favorite book: 5-Minute Lego Super Hero Stories,
Logan's favorite games: Blockus, Bop It, Sharks & Minnows, Dominoes

Logan is our middle child in every way. He is our energy-filled, bouncing all day, quick-emotioned, reaction-causing, screen-loving, persistent, loud, silly, lives-for-fun 6 year old. One of Logan's best qualies is his desire to make people laugh and not take things too seriously. He's been developing a lot of new skills in Kindergarten and has really come a long way especially since the fall. His brain seems to constantly be doing math problems and he can count/multiply without realizing that's what he's doing. He is always amazing me when he works out math problems out loud! Logan's reading skills have really come a long way since the beginning of the year. In the beginning, he didn't want to try and sound things out. It would overwhelm him and take too much time so he would tend to get discouraged and give up quickly. Now he can read almost 100% of the kindergarten sight words without much hesitation. I love when we're reading together and I can hear him whispering each sound in a word before putting it together. He has a quick brain and is a fast learner. If we can help him with his confidence in his abilities and his follow-through even when a project is hard, he can achieve anything!

Logan is very explosive with his emotions. He bounces from emotion to emotion very quickly, but when he does it can be very intense. Thankfully, if he goes into his room for a time-out, he can "reset" his mood quicker than probably anyone in our household. I love that quality about him! On the other hand, when he is unhappy or feels unfairly treated, he will cry and whine until the cows come home. If friends are here playing and he doesn't get his way, it does NOT end well. He won't see reason and forgets any peace-making abilities, so I usually have to just call off the play date completely. We have had many, many difficult playdates and have had many talks about it. It's been a really tough year in that area, and I've had to do a LOT of apologizing to moms (and teachers).

Logan is also our wild-card. We can go into a situation having planned ahead for what our kids may need and how they may react. Grace and Boston are easier to anticipate... but Logan is always a wild-card. We can have a great time doing some fun things as a family, but the moment we get back in the car we often hear from him "This is the worst day ever. I had ZERO fun." He doesn't like things to come to an end, and he seems to be a "cup half empty" kind of boy at this stage in life. But like I said, he can also be on-top-of-the-world happy when things are going his way! So he sure keeps us on our toes, and I've been able to grow and stretch so much more as a mom these last few years with him. I'm thankful for how quickly he forgives me and my mistakes in dealing with his energy and his intensity. It's always a work in progress!

Happy Birthday & good morning!

He insisted on opening one gift in the morning before church. Grace let him open hers which she bought with her own money: Star Wars Hotwheels cars!

Breakfast of champions: eggs and kodiak cakes.

For dinner, it was another of his favorites (he likes food): cafe rio wraps.

  I wanted him to have a super fun, random, colorful cupcake (just like Logan boy) for his birthday so I made them tie-dye! 

 Opening presents from cousins, grandparents and mom and dad.

 Instead of doing a birthday party, we took Logan out for dinner while Grace and Boston stayed hom with a sitter. He picked "Logan's Roadhouse", of course! It was really fun spending time with him, just the 3 of us. He is the funnest, sweetest boy when his sibling aren't around, hehe.

 Logan thought that eating peanuts and throwing the shells all over the floor was the very best part.

 Donuts!

We love you Logan!! We're so happy to have you in our family and keeping us laughing.