Be Mine

Last week I started decorating for Valentine's Day and wanted to share some pictures. I look forward to putting a few things out because after Christmas our home seems sparse so a few touches here and there brings life back to our house.

This is the banner I use on the front door. I added the zebra ribbon and red. It seemed like it needed a little extra something.

Rosebud heart wreath by the back door...

Here are a few pictures taken in the den. These Valentine pieces either came from Target or TJMaxx. I found the little hearts at Wal-Mart a few years ago.  The baskets are what I put their Valentine's goodies in and place outside their bedroom doors on Valentine's morning.

Here is a cute new frame I found at Dollar General. It sits in our kitchen window.

Found this appliqued hearts table runner at Target right after Christmas...

My favorite new find...a LOVE banner.

I found this on Jessica's blog, Thesearethedays.blogspot.com. She has an etsy shop and is  making and selling these right now. It has the cutest details on it. I hung it on our mantle. And yes, that is still my garland left from Christmas. I took all the Christmas decor off of it but left the white lights. McKenzie and Matt begged me to keep it up. They really hated to see the tree go so I compromised and left the garland, but it will go when I take the Valentine stuff down. It does bring a little life to the den, though.

And just for fun, this picture cracks me up...

McKenzie made this sign for her door. She is really growing up!

100th Day of School and Upward Basketball

Yesterday, Matt celebrated his 100th day of school! Wow, time is flying! They celebrated with a "Beary" special party. The kids were able to bring their favorite teddy bear and have "beary" snacks. Matt took Puppy since that is his favorite stuffed animal. Matt had a great time. He was so cute telling me all the things he got to do with Puppy. They played games with their stuffed animal. One game sounded so cute. It was the limbo and both he and puppy got to go under the stick. One of the moms baked a chocolate cake for them to eat at snack time. They also ate gummy bears and Teddy Grahams. When I picked Matt up at lunch time he told me that Puppy was very tired and needed a nap.

Last night we began our 5th Upward basketball season. David is coaching McKenzie's team again. We lost our first game (the score was 28-30) but we have a good little team and they played really well last night. We were very proud of them. Here are a few pictures...

More Snow Fun!

Monday was more fun in the snow!  The schools were closed and I got word Monday morning that my work was closed also, so we bundled up and played in the snow!

First a few scenery pics...

The first thing the kids wanted to do was build a snowman.  That is, until we actually started building a snowman.  Then I was trying to find out where my help went.

Matt came to help me for a minute.

 I took a break to throw a snowball at Betty.

 These are two pics put together to show what happened next.  Matt took up for his mother and blindsided Dad.

 McKenzie wasn't interested.

 After it was clear that I wasn't going to get any help, I popped a couple of grapes in for eyes and a carrot for a nose and our vertically challenged snowman was complete!

 Betty started preparing a hot lunch for us and the kids and I walked around the neighborhood.

We stopped at the Williams house and a huge snowball fight ensued!  Turns out Matt is a relentless warrior!

  Who knew?

 Snow angels!

 The hot lunch finished product.  It was very good!!!

 After lunch, Jordan and Justin invited the kids over to go sledding down the hill on a real sled.....and a real cookie sheet.......and a real plastic container top.  Their neighbor, Bonnie Brunt, took them out to a hill next to their neighborhood.

 Way to give all you had, Justin!

 "Pull, mule!"

Next is our tour of snowmen.  You saw our pathetic entry, but below are some really good snowmen and snowwomen.  Let us hear your vote for your favorite.  I'm serious.  Post a comment.  BettyWard is getting lonely in the comments section of our blog!

 This is the creation of our neighbor, Allie.

 This is in front of Wendy's.

This is the Vance family including the big snowman, then the four smaller snowmen representing the family including a little snowdog.

 The Flautt family.

 This was the tallest snowman we saw - by far.

The Williams.

 

The fun-loving snow-woman!

This gentleman snow-cowboy is next door to the bikini-clad snow-woman, but he is politely looking the other way.