winter creative energy

it's february in spokane and we feel really cooped up. . so we have been trying to get creative inside:) spring please hurry! first off bath tub paints. . .

making butterflies in her wedding dress. . . .of course!

third grade science sound unit. . . make your own instrument.

naked painting in the laundry room. . .

kinkade's musical instrument. .

the boys after celebrating and learning about chinese new year made dancing dragons and then made a video of them.

more butterfly crafting in the sunlight. . .

lots of play dough. . .

play dough cooking. . .

more painting.

bath tub paint time.

this is what you will find the boys doing most of the time - they read . . read. . read!

love.

valentines day was full and eventful as always for the mcmurrays. . . we can't do a holiday without a trip to the doctor's office and a few tongue tricks:) . . .details to come. . .

the kids came downstairs to heart balloons hanging to set the mood for the day!

grammy of course had a beautiful table set with red tulips, heart pizza for dinner, we started the day with heart sprinkled maple bars , and a special valentine on the back of each chair from mom - each valentine promissed a special date with mom - five guys for k&k, milkshake and fries for emery pearl, and cupcake and movie date for lulu!

the boys did home-made valentines again this year with melted crayons. . . they turned out really cute, pat and patty left gifts on the doorstep in the morning i love this picture of lulu when she ran out and found her gift!

girls picking out their valentines!

every year since we have been married my mom gives aaron boxers and they are always snoopy or superheroes!

the boys had a Valentines talent show for their party at school. keagan and tyson played a duet on the piano and kinkade was the production manager for a dance group and did silly tongue tricks . . see below "the clover!"

it wouldn't be a holiday if we didn't make it to the doctor's office . . .emery ended up having a double ear infection, sinus infection and eye infection. . .uggggggggggggggggg!

mel joined us for valentines dinner at grammy and grampys so of course she got jammies too!

i love my white tulips, daisies, jasmine vanilla candle, and really sweet notes from the kids! the most fun gift was a dvd mel made for grammy and me from the kids!

i loved going to the boy's talent show and when i was there i got to witness the secret valentine game. . . prior to the party each student wrote a secret valentine about themselves, then they were collected and passed out randomly. at the party each student got to go up in front of the class and read the secret valentine they had and try to guess who it was in the class. of course kinkade got keagan's secret valentine. . so i took a picture because his writing cracked me up:)

Go Bucs again!

ready to go to support those bucs!

i had to add this picture from 2 years ago. .. . . they are growing up too fast. . .

more and more writing and drawing

every table and floor is scattered with artwork and writing. . . lucia is loving learning all her letters and writing, writing, writing. .. warms my heart!

sweet moments

i love this photo. . my favorite thing is when all my kids enjoy each other. whenever we start to read it is like a magnet and they all just come and snuggle in. but my very favorite is when the boys read to the girls.

the girls and i came home to sweet valentine notes from daddy and a really clean house. . it was the sweetest!

lucia reads her note all day long. . over and over again.

we have had sunny days and it has been spectacular! the girls run to get our their bikes and chalk.

every friday night we have pizza night family movie night. we get out the big quilt snuggle up and eat lots of popcorn and watch a movie. love it! the moments are not all sweet believe me but that makes the good ones even sweeter!

forever family day 4!

we celebrated lucia's forever family day with tres leches cake and and looking through all the pictures from the trips to guatemala. lucia we are so proud of the little girl you are becoming sweet, loving, theatrical, energetic, imaginative and just simply still a sunshine! we gave lucia a little nativity scene from guatemala since she loved it so much from christmas.

dates

i am really proud of us we have been sticking with our resolution to go on more dates with the kids one on one! here are a few recent dates. the first pictures are daddy's date with emery. . . all i have to say is mmmmmmmmmm!?

oh yeah i got to go on a special breakfast date with my dear friend mandolyn it was perfect in every way.

keagan and dad hit the new five guys burgers and the zags game vs st. mary's and had a blast!

emery and i got to meet the twins for a swim date and a shower afterwards which everyone loved!

Beauty and the Beast

Grammy and i took lucia to the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast! we were all mesmerized for the entire show. . it was incredible. love this little girl so much and her love of stories, singing and magic! we of course ended the date at starbucks for a cake pop. she informed us it wasn't really a date without a bakery.

Lightz Out year 2!

Last year we played up and it was a good experience but rough at times. This year we went undefeated and the boys had a blast. They are growing so much in their knowledge of the game and skills!

some snow

we have had a little bit of snow. . so of course we catch snowflakes on our tongue, build forts, and go skiing!