Valentine's Day 2017: hugs & kisses

Valentine's Day means our annual cards - DUH!!  Ha.  Jimmy likes to get mad at me because he thinks the fact that I make these and send out to friends and family is crazy - but you know what!  I love the tradition and it's so fun to get texts and emails from friends and family saying how much they love the card!  Who doesn't love snail mail either??!  Must be the ex-Hallmark employee in me, but it's pretty fun and I love looking back even now at past cards!

Here is our 2017 card:

Let's just say that Charlie really wanted to wear that mustache...but the aftermath of it was a little dramatic and he should be really happy he's not a girl and won't have to be getting his upper lip wax because MAN were their tears.  Guess he won't be wanting to put that mustache back on any time soon!

Check out our previous cards here:

2016 & another 2016 :) | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

Since Valentine's Day was on a Tuesday this year, it was just an average day in the Carter household...sprinkled with a little extra love though!

Maddie was up early with me and found me downstairs working out. She was HANGRY and pretty much whined at me until I finished to make her breakfast.  Ha.

But she was pretty happy when she got to open her small Valentine's Day present - SHOPKINS!  To be honest, I have no idea what these are but I figured she'd like them right?  Well turns out, Charlie knows exactly what they are (even though we have none!) - I guess from Kids You Tube weird videos that people open toys?!

\

Charlie got a pretty cute Valentine's day lego puppy (which of course, he begged Jimmy to put together before school!) but I didn't snap a picture.

Mikey - well he just got lots of kisses for Valentine's Day and got to wear his brother's old Valentine's Day outfit!  Perk of same birthday month, 4 years apart!

Older kiddos had their Valentine's Day parties at preschool at 3:00, so I left work a little early to go celebrate with them.  My dad ended up coming too because he wanted to see their new school.  I hung out in Miss Maddie's room first and watched her eat, met some of her new friends and watched her dance in her new red cowboy boots that Nana got her.  So sassy!

About halfway thought, Jimmy and I switched and I headed over to Charlie's room to hang with him.  There are more kiddos in his class and he's on the older end, but he is loving his classroom for lots of reasons.  Lots of new, fun activities, a cool playground and of course, the iPads! So he had to show me all of that!!  It was fun to get to have a party so quickly after starting there.  I will say, it did make me miss their old school a bit because we were friends already with so many of the parents there...but just like Charlie and Maddie are making new friends - we will too, right?

I signed up to bring veggies to both their classrooms and came up with this fun Valentine's themed veggie arrangement because you know what a #pinterestmom I am.  HA.  That was sarcastic.

We took the big kids home after their parties were done and Charlie and went to HyVee to get some flowers for Mikey's day care lady (because she's the best!) before we went and picked him up.  Right when we were pulling into her driveway, she called and said Mikey had thrown up twice.  Poor guy.  We got him and took him home.  I fed him right when he got home--- and then he puked up all over me.  Oops!  So then I was trying to figure out if he has a stomach bug or reaction to the medicine he started taking for his ear infection.  He was up a bunch last night, but had a few wet diapers (YEAH!) and I've been nursing him for 5 minutes every 30 min to an hour instead of waiting and doing longer feedings - so that is seeming to help!  I am staying home with him today to make sure he's ok and talk to his doc when I can give him his antibiotics again.  I hope if it's a stomach bug, he's the only one it hits - we don't need everyone to get sick!!!!

We did celebrate with some pink pancakes and breakfast for dinner (thanks Molly for the fun idea and tradition!) and then after everyone was in bed, Jimmy and I planned on catching up on the bachelor.  Well, since Mikey has been sick, I literally haven't been sleeping AT ALL!  So instead of having a romantic night together - I passed out at 8:00.  Sorry Jimmy!  We will celebrate on our date night Saturday - I promise!!

Here's to another Valentine's Day in the book - even with not a lot of excitement and sick kids, I'm so thankful for my Valentine's :)

2010: 

Weekend fun: Wichita, Presidents Day fun

After gymnastics, we headed straight to Wichita for a quick weekend trip to visit Lauren and David and see baby Landon again - and we were planning on meeting Katie, Barry and their kiddos there too (they drove up from Oklahoma).

It was an easy drive for the most part and the kids were good - it's always a hit or miss when you try to drive during nap time - crossing your fingers that they will nap.  Luckily, both kids were pooped from gymnastics and did nap!!

We got there right at the same time as Katie and her family and the kids started playing and we started loving on Landon.  Katie's boys are just 6 months younger than our kiddos- and they had a good time, even though I felt like Charlie and Maddie bullied James and William the whole time (sorry Katie!).

Time flew by and the boys watched the KU vs. Oklahoma game in their awesome theater room (luckily KU won for Jimmy's mood) and the kids just ran around after each other and showed Lauren all the places she is going to need to baby proof in a few months when Landon starts to crawl and get into everything - ha!  Isn't that the truth!?

We ordered some pizza, ate that and in the mean time, the Ruddick family headed back to Oklahoma and we started to settle in for the night.  Maddie is literally obsessed with Landon.  We couldn't get her away from him and from the looks of it, he was pretty interested in her....

...except when she started getting all up on him.

But seriously - I'm SOOOOOO disappointed at myself for not demanding that we take a picture of the three girls and all our babies.  Like I'm the picture crazy person and I should have just made everyone sit down and do it because I'm so mad we didn't get a picture of all the kids!! GRRR!  The crew is multiplying over again and it needs to be documented!

After we put the kids to bed, we all went downstairs to have some wine and watch some TV.  And then we got too old and tired and it was time to go to sleep.  I slept with Charlie - which was "interesting" but after a while after I got in there, he settled down we had a good snuggle sesh.  

The next morning, Charlie was up early (as usual) and we all got dressed and met Ali and her gang at the Donut Whole - which was DELICIOUS. Oh my goodness.  All kinds of delicious cake doughnuts.  We got fruity pebbles, red velvet (in honor of Valentine's Day!!!) and even one with gummy worms on top - talk about delicious.  So we got to meet Baby June and then Nelle, Maddie, Henry and Charlie got to run around and act like crazy kids together.  Being with Ali and her family always makes me feel so NORMAL, which I love so much.  Like yep, it's ok that my kids are a little crazy and maybe don't listen to me all the time.  Because hers don't either and I love them and her for that.  She's a great great gal with an amazing family.

We headed back to Lauren's to chat with them for a little bit before we headed out. Luckily for Charlie (and all our sanity), we only got about 40 miles out of town when Lauren called to say David found Charlie's backpack that we left and all his cars and guys - pretty much the ONLY toys he's obsessed with and plays with.  Oh jeez.  So we turned around and she met us half way (thank God for great friends!) and the toys were saved.  We are horrible at leaving toys places for sure.

After a quick bite to eat, all the little people passed back out about until we got to Kansas City.  

Thank goodness!  But seriously, are kids just not the sweetest when you stare at them while sleeping?

I also came home to some fun Young Living Essential Oils that I'm excited to try!!!

While it was Valentine's Day...my sister had offered to cook dinner for my whole family, so we headed over to her house and enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner with salad and some dessert - thanks Aunt Lulu!

Of course we capped off our V-Day with the most romantic thing ever - watching the Tanner and Jade bachelor wedding - yes we did.

As for Monday?  The stock markets are closed, so I have the day off and my kids school was closed too - so we got to spend the day together.  I did want to run to Hobby Lobby and my dad offered to come over and hang with them - which was so nice and made my shopping trip more fun, but also more expensive!  I might have spent too much money at Hobby Lobby and IKEA already on Friday for our entryway details, but then bought some more for the buffet in the dining room.  I'm a fan (just need to remove the price tags!)

I came home to these three watching a movie and couldn't help but laugh at this scene.  Hahahaha.  And where are my kids clothes??  I'm glad that my dad decided to stay clothed!

After lunch and a nap, we were excited to have some girl time to just hang out while waiting for Charlie to wake up!

It was so nice that we headed to the park....for about 15 minutes.  Haha my kids.

But then we stopped at Sonic happy hour and everyone was happy.

I love that Maddie got up on this chair by herself to enjoy her slushie and look "outside"

Such a big girl now - and such a great weekend.

We loved spending time with friends so much and glad that our kids travel well too!  And the day off was an extra bonus - even if I did spend too much money - at least I got some cute decorations on sale :)

Happy Valentines Day!

My cuties and loves posed for a cute little Valentine's Day themed shoot for me a few weeks ago and it couldn't have turned out any cuter.  I couldn't believe they both sat there and SMILED.  Somewhat normal smiles too - ha!!  Maddie's really into saying "Cheese" right now and I love it.

#candywasusedtobribe

These two and this guy... (how cute are these pics of him and our babies)...

...they have my whole heart and I'm so blessed to have them!!

Hug your special someone's extra tight today and spread the love!!

Valentine's weekend fun

Guess what?  I'm doing a recap of what we did last weekend on the NEXT weekend.  yes, I'm feeling accomplished friends!!

We kicked off last Friday morning (Friday the 13th) with our annual Valentine's Day party picture in the kitchen while I'm holding Charlie...and now Maddie.

However - Charlie was NOT having it at all.  As you can tell from the picture below.  However, my sweet little girl?  She and I were all smiles! 

#toddlerproblems

Here is a shot of our pictures from 2013 and 2014 - TIME FLIES.

Valentine's Day treats for school?  Ha ha.  Well, let's just say Maddie is already feeling the second child thing because there was NO way I was even going to think about making Valentine's Day cards/presents, etc. for her infant classmates.  What's funny is, when Charlie was this same age two years ago we had just started at the YMCA downtown and I had a class list of everyone's names and I went all out to make each kid a personalized treat. WHY.  Because I was seriously so excited to have my first kid's Valentine's Day and I'm pretty sure that no other parent did that and all the other parents probably secretly cursed me - as that annoying mom.  

So this year - I decided to let Charlie pick the treat.  And since Maddie had an ear infection and had to go to the doctor the night that we were planning on going to pick out his treats together - it was a dad/son trip instead.  And Scooby Doo fruit snacks is what his pick was.  And he couldn't stop talking about them for 3 days.  Oh Charlie Carter.

I searched Pinterest for an idea or a rhyme for Scooby Doo and there was nothing.  So I did this to package them up ---

and then they ate/decorated cookies at their party and danced and laughed and ate some more...

...life is good as a 2.5 year old...

That night?  Jimmy went off to church and I hung out with my two Friday night dates.

So we took way too many funny selfies.

And mom cracked open a beer.  Because yes, it was one of those weeks.

Oh no you didn't.... 

And then Charlie began his new obsession - trying on my shoes.  This kid.  Yep, never in pants I swear.

The next morning I made my best attempt at being festive. So I made pancakes and made them pink.

They were not perfect, but guess what?  These two loved them.  

Even Maddie in Christmas PJs.  We are so cool.

Then after a bid for our backyard (umm...yeah that hit hard), my parents came over to watch the kids and off Jimmy and I went for our day date of shopping and basketball.

Our first stop was IKEA and I had a blast - but after we got about half way through...Jimmy started acting like Charlie and it became a lot less fun.  Oh men.  But we didn't leave empty handed that's for sure.  We did make it to Kohl's to get some new clothes for our kids that don't seem to stop growing and we scored some ridiculous sales.  So awesome!

And then we headed to Barley's to watch the KU game.  After months of eating super healthy, let's just say we went all out and my stomach was KILLING later in the night.  

Then we got home and of course played with/put together our new goodies!!!  So fun!  Charlie loves the craft cart and the new shelving unit for the playroom is amazing!

While not the most exciting weekend (Sunday followed up with church, grocery store, a MUCH needed pedicure and girl time with 2 of my best friends, taking dinner to a friend's house to meet a new baby and dinner at my parents), I had a great time with the people I really love and that's all that matters and it was a perfect Valentine's day weekend! 

Hope you and your Valentine(s) had a great weekend too!

Happy Valentine's Day 2015!

If you haven't been following us for very long, you aren't aware that while there aren't many things I go above and beyond for due to pure lack to time/energy/etc., I do always have Halloween and Valentine's Day cards.  And guess what?  It keeps getting more fun and fun by the year with adding these kiddos to the mix.

You see, it started with the dogs in 2011 and has just blown up from there.  2013 was a real winner with my chubby Charlie as cupid.  Check them out!

2014_2013 (my FAV)_2012_2011

This year, I had to think of how to incorporate a toddler boy and a sweet baby girl.  A quick search on Pinterest and I found my inspiration.  Then it was just finding time to get a few materials, set it up and get the kids to smile.

HA.  You think that would be easy?  Oh no.  So, of course, I procrastinated.  I actually bought the materials in a timely manner and my wonderful MIL had bought Maddie the cutest little Valentine's Day outfit that I knew she was going to wear - and guess what?  Charlie just re-wore his Valentine's Day shirt from last year.  Because (A) it still fit and (B) that's how we roll.

I picked up a semi-homemade banner from Wal-Mart, got some red lipstick, drew a sign and there you have it.  Then it was just time to get the kids all dressed and get them ready to smile.

Yeah - that was easier said that done.  So earlier this week, I finally convinced Jimmy to help me and this is what we got.  Some pretty cute and funny pictures of our sweet kiddos.  And a kissing booth.  And a crate that Maddie didn't want to share with her older brother AT ALL.

This is her saying "Get the heck off my crate"

And of course, when he gave it to her - she was very very happy.

And FINALLY showed us her kissing face!!!  Such a little ham she is.  I love her!  And that sweet little boy that was actually a very good sport!!

The next step was to assemble the card.  Normally, I go through costco.com and get the cards delivered right to the store...but that takes about 5 days or so...of course I didn't have time for that, so I used the one hour Walgreens card options again (just like I did for Halloween - seems to be a trend, eh?).  But after a coupon code, they turned out just fine!!  And while I am trying to keep the costs down (so I feel ok with keep doing this), I only sent out a few, but I'm sure our family and just a few friends were happy to get a fun little Carter family tradition in the mail!!

Plans for Valentine's Day this year?  My parents are babysitting during the day and we are going SHOPPING.  I have a list about a mile long for stuff that I want at IKEA, Target, Home Goods and Bed Bath and Beyond and then we are going to grab some lunch at a bar and Jimmy will watch the KU game (so will I!).  A good mix for the day.

Then maybe some Valentine's pizza for dinner and then to watch a niece's basketball game with the family...sounds like a GREAT day!!  Hope you have some fun plans as well!

Ps here is a glimpse of my attempt for our annual before school Valentine's Day picture.  Charlie was NOT having life at this point- such is the hard life of being 2.5??!

And a blast from the past to show you how fast things change!!