Food Fun

I love my boys and I love making Valentine's Day fun in our house. One of my favorite parts of Valentine's Day for us is the heart-shaped food! This year we were assigned class snack on Valentine's party day for Eli and Micah's class. Micah wanted these tortilla cut-out cookies. The boys had a great time sprinkling them with LOTS of sprinkles. ;-)

 

 I made these pancakes for breakfast.

I also made heart-shaped chocolate cupcakes with ice cream.

The boys' valentines for school.

On several occasions, Eli and Micah have asked what their names mean. (The prompt to their question is often a story in their Bible that explains St. Paul's name change and that his new name means "humble.") So none of us will forget, I made these name signs for each of the boys--each with their name's meaning and a related Bible verse.

 Nana and Papa sent these bubble guns, which the boys have loved.

 St. Patrick's Day is another day I have fun with their food. It was fun to see how many green foods we could eat in one day. Eli and Micah helped me think of some options, which was great.

For lunch, we had apples, celery, green eggs and Green Goddess muffins.

(Joshua got a hold of his muffin before I got a picture taken.)

 

 For dinner, we had broccoli, green fruit salad and pasta with Spinach Pesto. 

And the empty space?

 We reserved that for this cake with green avocado frosting.

Brotherly Love!

Eli, Micah and Joshua love playing with Luke. He's getting a little too big (and wiggly!) for them to hold for very long, but they love to make him smile and giggle. Luke seems to really enjoy them, too. He is constantly looking for his big brothers if he hears their voices in the room.

 On this day, Horton the elephant had to take a bath. Joshua tends to watch the entire wash cycle when Horton is in the washing machine.  Eli (holding Joshua) and Micah decided to sit and watch, too. They were all giggling whenever they saw Horton pass the window.

Our zoo's elephant had a new baby earlier this year. On a particularly warm day, a friend and I took our kids to see the new baby.

 

The big kids got to brush the goats

 and Luke was very patient, spending the day in his car seat and stroller.

(He had just started sucking his thumb regularly before we went.)

 

At 3 months, Luke holds his head up very well and is spending more time being happy on his tummy.

Joshua cracks me up every day. On this day, he insisted on wearing his elephant costume, blowing his lip whistle and playing the maraca. 

If Joshua isn't being silly, he's often playing trains. He loves to line them all up and see how far he can drive them across the floor before the line breaks. On this day he was "counting" the trains.

Train Show

At the end of January, Paul and Grandpa Cheney took Eli, Micah and Joshua to a train show. The guys all had a great time!

The boys were watching the trains go around when there was a derailment right in front of them!

Micah, Joshua, Grandpa, Eli

Micah took a ride on this train and loved it!

Luke's Baptism

Luke was baptized on January 19th, 2014.

 We were joined by Luke's sponsors and their daughter.

Grandpa Cheney baptized Luke, just as he has baptized all of his grand kids.

 It is our church's tradition to have baptism families come to the kneeling rail for prayer and blessing. 

Eli, Micah and Joshua

 Our friends' girls with Eli and Micah

 Pastor Doug prays a blessing over Luke.

 

All pictures in this post were taken by Pam Carlson, a member of Salem. Thank you, Pam, for sharing your talent with our family!

Luke- 2 months

Luke, at 2 months you smile easily and often.

You have started "talking."

You really like your play mat and have started hitting your toys with your fists.

Joshua likes to join you for playtime.

Micah asks to hold you almost everyday.

 

Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas in Texas this year. Waking up on Christmas morning in our home with 3 excited boys was really fun! Joshua opened a remote control school bus--which he loves! I love this face!

Eli and Micah loved their gifts, too. These markers and coloring sheets have been a huge hit in our house. (Actually, anything to do with art is a big hit with these two!)

Joshua loves this Thomas book from his Godparents. We read it daily and he never tires of it.

 This year, we went down to the zoo for their annual Zoo Lights.

  It was amazing and we'll definitely go again.

Most of the animals were in for the night and off display, but this young elephant was out. Our boys loved watching him eat and asked to see him again before we left.

The next day, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Cheney's house to see the rest of our Cheney family.

Luke was awake and got held right away--first by Britton,

 then Aunt Rebecca.

Grandma and Grandpa got a lot of help opening their gifts.

 The whole week our Cheney cousins were in town was fun. The boys really love their cousins and enjoyed playing with them.

The girls love their cousins, too, and Kaelyn never missed an opportunity to hold Luke.

 

We had some nice weather while the Vegas Cheneys were here, so we made a couple of trips to our favorite park.

Joshua loves the tire swing.

All of the kids liked the zip line. This is Britton taking a turn.

Britton and Kaelyn took a walk in the woods and found this clearing to play in. I enjoyed hearing their imaginative play.

Micah and Eli played tag with Uncle Mark, then took a break to climb the rock wall. This is Micah.

No Christmas post would be complete without a little caroling. 
This is Micah (left) and Eli (right) singing their favorite Christmas song this year.

It was fun to stretch out our Christmas celebrations. We are so blessed we get to share our holidays with our wonderful family!

Merry Christmas!

(These were the words Paul made for our Christmas letter this year. I love how they turned out!)