Our February

 I am getting this down to the last minute to type this. My deadline is before the next month is over. It is March 23rd. This has been a busy month and this week continues to be crazy busy. So, I am trying to type this out as fast as I can. February. What can I say about February 2025? I am not sure I even remember this month. Seriously. So, let's just see the pictures and let them tell the story for us, shall we?

Father/daughter dance! One of Payton's favorite nights of the year. She and Monte both dress up and go to the dinner and dance together. She loves it. I really, really hope she never outgrows this season. She has said she will continue to go when it's time to take Avery! I plan to hold her to it.

                                                             

At the same time as the dance, like the exact night, we (Monte and I) had our 16 year wedding anniversary. Since we wouldn't go out that night, we met up for dinner. Avery joined us as she is with me around the clock, she is. 

It was a good meal just the 3 of us! We are blessed by 16 years of marriage, 4 kids, and 1,000 hilarious life stories we could share. 

Our girl won a bookmark design challenge at our local library and got to have her bookmarks printed out:

She also decided she was ready to part with some childhood items:

Sad to see them go but she was ready. And, therefore, so am I. The memories will stay with me. Christmas gifts and art group creations. It was a beautiful season of life with a tiny Payton. I'm excited to see the creations that are next for her though.

We got outside to play as snow melted:

Read books in bed:

Well, that isn't quite her bed yet. She is still in the crib. She enjoys it nonetheless. She also loves reading in her rocking chair:

We also prepared for a trip to Florida (which I have already blogged, read here, about at this point). But... you guys, I got it all packed so well. Packing cubes have shown me a whole new world. Below is a picture of 3 of us (2 adults, 1 baby) in one carry on suitcase:

And another with a packing cube picture because I just couldn't get over how well they helped us pack for this trip without 1,000 suitcases!

We also packed entertainment backpacks for the flight and Avery got to have one:

Isn't she just the cutest? She loved having a backpack.

At home, she also loves doing dishes right now. It's a daily task for her:

I made sourdough flatbread and needed to use them up so I made taco pizzas on the whim. The kids said they were the best and want them again soon:

Snow came this month and we got a few snow days out of it! I still tried to send the kids out to play each day:

We also get out in Monte's parents side by side, which is currently parked at our place:

Someday, in the middle of summer, we will miss that snow! Meanwhile, we spend the rest of our snow days indoors together:

                                                         

Riley finished up basketball. It was the end of Y basketball for him as he has outgrown it. This was so bittersweet for me. I have loved how this group challenged and shaped him. I am excited to see how next year goes for us as we try somewhere new.

For Valentine's day it was a school pajama day. Payton wore pajamas and asked me to put hearts in her hair. They turned out well but didn't withstand the crazy of a school day. Was fun to try:

Payton and Riley finished up archery! We have always enjoyed this time:

A random picture of Avery I found:

Along with these pictures of her sleeping:

                                                             

                                                          

                                          

I never pass on a sleeping baby picture. I will greatly miss this season of life one day. It's coming for me sooner than I think, I know this from experience. One day you wake up and your child is closer to being a teen than from being a toddler. 

Speaking of changing seasons, we sold our queen bed. I think we have had since we got married and it's been a guest bed. But, we no longer have a guest bedroom now as the kids have all spread out. We needed the space for our kids to have their own rooms and, overall, the change has been good.

For the super bowl I accidentally made a sourdough loaf that looked like a football helmet! The kids loved it:

And then a few more random pictures of Avery and I as we go through our days while the kids are at school:

She loves big sis's animals:

                                                             Fake sleeping:

Real sleeping:

                                                              Pretty sure she took this picture:

The beautiful baby I get to share life with:

And, to end this post, I took Riley on a 1:1 date. This is such a rarity for any of our kids lately. It's just so busy or we are all slowing down together. But, one random day, we found a spare hour and so Riley and I ran out the door.

We found a dessert food truck. I have never seen it before and have yet to see again. But, we stopped and we definitely did not regret!

We also went and found a geocache we have found before. Then we spend 20 minutes trying to put it back together, it was wrapped so tightly!

That's a wrap on February! Hope yours was as good as ours!

Spring Break 2025: A Trip to Florida

 We took a trip! Our first big family trip ever. And... we survived. We also had a great time and hope to do another trip again some day. Maybe. This is really the trip that almost didn't happen. We had been planning this trip for about a year. We told the kids about it at Christmas. The night we were supposed to leave we went to the town we would fly out of and spent the night. And a snow storm hit. I had gotten 3 of the 4 kids to sleep (Riley was still awake) and we got a phone call. 

Our flight had been cancelled. Not delayed, cancelled. My husband was on the phone for hours in the middle of the night trying to reschedule with no success. The next day we went back home with no other choice but to leave later in the week. We considered cancelling the trip and going later in the year. In the end, we paid the extra money to switch over to another flight line and then extended our trip a bit to come back on the same flight line. Also, in the end, it was still a trip worth our time and money. The memories will last and I am hoping we only remember the good from this trip!

I have learned, more than words can say, my pictures seem to paint a better picture of our life. So, with fewer words and a ton of pictures, lets paint the story of our trip that we will remember for a lifetime and will be a tough act to follow up on. Doesn't mean we won't stop trying though.

Spring break 2025, the time we went to Florida:

                                                     

The flight went well and the views on my side (with Jayden and Avery) were gorgeous as we went to land:

                                                 

                                                 

                                                 

Our first stop on our trip was the beach!

During this trip we actually stayed 3 different places (thanks to the rearranging of our flights after the flight was cancelled). The first location had the best views:

                                           

                                           

                                           

And we ate almost all our meals outside on the patio with that gorgeous view:

                                                         

I don't seem to have tons of pictures of the subsequent places we stayed. But the second place was huge (3 floors) and the kids loved sitting outside on the patio underneath the house:

                                         

We came for a back to the beach bash and it was so much fun. There were vendors and live music and professional sand castles being built:

                                                          

We took the kids on a pirate cruise. They all became honorary pirates on this ship:

We even saw a dolphin on this cruise:

They had story time:

And were given guns:

Also, some face paint, if you didn't notice in any of the above pictures:

So much sun, we had to put on sunblock everywhere. I grabbed this funny picture. The kids helping dad get sunblock on:

Of course we took tons of pictures of Miss Avery. One of the only kids that will sit still and pose for us. She may never actually remember this trip but she had a total blast living her best life:

She got a doll from the souvenir shop that she named "baby" and was attached to:

I also have so many beach pictures. The kids asked to be buried one of the mornings and that brought on so many giggles. People walking by loved to stop and watch them being buried, too:

There were tons of shops with big chairs for picture ops so we had to do:

One afternoon we went mini golfing at a location where you can also feed alligators!

Riley really wanted to fish in the ocean and so we tried to make that happen. Our first house had a dock and a fishing pole. The grocery store next door to the condo had fishing bait so he was all set:

Payton joined in for some fishing, too:

His first and only catch, although he claims to have had a bigger fish but lost it at the last second (although he saw it):

One day was really rainy so we headed to an indoor activity park complete with trampolines and slides and an obstacle course way up high in the air:

                                                  

One evening the two littler kids were worn out and ready to go back. But the other two wanted to stay out. So we walked and the beach walking trail and took pictures every where we could:

And then one last burst of beach photos:

And that's a wrap for our family trip at the beach. We will always treasure this time:

Our return trip home was extremely early, a 7am flight. One last photo I have of our trip... the views of the flight in the dark as we left Florida:

We are so thankful for this trip and opportunity to try new things with the kids. Maybe another time we will make it again!