February phone dump

Here are a few pics from February that didn't make it to the blog yet.

We started off February at Avery's golden birthday. Kinley and Ben loved swinging together.

And Ty couldn't keep his eyes off of cute Lily.

A little cake eating on the porch..

Kinley, still wearing her gold medal from Avery's party, is obsessed with her cowgirl boots.

Ty is getting good at the camo car. He just loves to be outside. From the minute he wakes up until he goes to bed, unless he is eating, he wants to be outside. It is the one surefire way to end a crying fit. He loves it.

And he also loves his boots.

 

Pops brought Kinley back some K State pom poms that she just loved.

Gram taught her a few cheers.

There have been a few seriously gorgeous days in February that we took advantage of at the park. Makes me so excited for spring days outside. Just can't get enough of that smile....even if he is eating wood chips.

 

We had to go pretty late to Aslynn's birthday party but, we were so glad we went! Kinley had so much fun jumping and playing with Aslynn and Tatum. It made Kinley's day that when she showed up they both yelled "Kinley" and gave her a big group hung. They are all growing to be sweet and fast friends.

Xander was not down for a picture so much so he turned his back to us. He is so funny. We love our gymnastics friends. I love that it's co-ed. They all have so much fun together. All our second kids are starting this summer together at a class the same time as the big kids with a different teacher. It should be interesting.

Kinley has been very into putting on "shows" recently. It totally reminds me of what Kristen and I used to do growing up. She gets dressed up and puts down a blanket in her room which usually represents a stage or dancefloor of some sort. Then she sets up chairs all around the blanket for her "audience." She also usually writes a menu of performance options either on the chalkboard or on a piece of paper for us to choose from. A heart might represent a song that she wants to sing or a sticker of Cinderella may represent a particular kind of dance.

It's an interactive show if you will.

I have been wanting to video this forever but, somehow the spontaniety of the "performance" gets me every time. Also, when she requests songs to be played from my phone then I can't video..only take pictures. So, here are a few pics (really blurry ones) of a recent dance show.

Kinley all dressed up and ready for the show!

The audience...complete with humans and dolls.

Ty joined in with his fantastic and hilarious dance moves.

It ended up being a family dance party...sorry for the dark blurry pics...kinley insisted on mood lighting.

Thank God for this man who helped give me moments like this. I never want them to end.

Valentine's Playgroup

It is official that February has totally gotten away from me.

I can't believe it is over in 3 days.

That this is only my 4th post all month long tells me a few things: 1) my accounting busy season is starting to kick in 2) we must not do a ton of blog-worthy stuff in Februrary and 3) I am using Instagram (@lifethrualinds)way more than my blog for posting pics.

 

Well, we kept up the trend of being behind on things with our playgroup this week too.

Can I just stop for a minute and give just one example of why I am so thankful for our playgroup? All the mommies are really so selfless and focused on others. Recently, my work schedule had to change and I am now working on Fridays, which is when we usually do playgroup.

 I wrote a marathon text to everyone about how sad I am that Ty and I wouldn't be able to go anymore and how thankful I was for our developing friendships and how it just made me sick that when Kinley was about to be able to join our Friday playgroups this summer when school is out, now I can't go...seriously it was the longest text ever.

And, really within a day of that text every single mom had either talked to me personally, texted, or called to say how they would totally be willing to switch playgroup to Mondays so we wouldn't have to miss. And that instead of waiting until summer or next fall that they would switch NOW so Kinley could start joining us sooner! 

I was just over the moon.  And so was Kinley.

It was such a sweet and thoughtful gesture. I did not even consider asking them to switch. They have been doing this together and meeting on Fridays for close to 4 years. We were definitely the latecomers to the group.

 I just felt so thankful and blessed.

 

Anyway, back on track...we finally had our playgroup Valentine's party today. I just took a few phone pics but, you can get the idea of really how chaotic it can be with 12 kids under 4. We destroy a perfectly clean house in no time. We all do our best to pick up before we leave but, it's just too much fun to play with other people's toys. 

Mav is always first to dress up. This kid loves a costume.

 

We even all sat in a circle and did a Valentine exchange. I think their favorite part was individually handing them out to their friends. They didn't even really look to see what they got they just couldn't wait to give theirs out.  So funny.

The day was supposed to be freezing and rainy and even possibly snowy but it turned out gorgeous and perfect weather for outside fun.

I mean.....I could eat him up!

I think that was our last valentine activity for this year.

 On to Easter and birthday planning in March!

Woohoo!

Amy's 2 Birds of a Feather Baby Shower

I have been so exciting about blogging about Amy's shower all week! 

There were I think 9 hostesses for her shower and we had about 50 emails back and forth planning for a couple weeks ahead.

We wanted to keep everything under wraps from Amy so I couldn't instagram or blog any of the planning process. The theme and colors of the party were totally inspired by Amy & Danny's choice of bedding and decor for their nursery. It is pink and brown and has cherry blossom trees and birds.  It's so cute. 

And, because they are having twin girls...we pretty quickly came up with the idea of

"2 birds of a feather stick together."

We had so many ideas flying around our email chain and with pictures from blogs, pinterest and etsy we decided we definitely needed a craft night!  Katie and I shopped, scoured my house (and Mendy's) for decor and prepped a few things in advance and then Wednesday night before the shower most of us met and just went to work.

We tried to keep our decor very soft and simple in shades of white, pink and brown. We put birds or nests or cages wherever we could.

Our centerpiece for the mantle was a white picture frame that we strung ribbon to that Amy could take home and hang in the girls room as a bow holder. I cut out Rilee and Taylor's names in cardstock on my silhouette and hung them on twine just for the shower. Katie geniously wanted birds to appear to hang the frame with bunting.

It turned out so cute!

We had a "blessing tree" table where guests could write a blessing to the girls on a bird and hang it on a tree. Amanda and I made the tree just from branches in my parent's backyard wound together with twine. I just love how big yet, delicate it turned out. 

 

The tree houses were painted and hot-glued to dowels and stands to make them tall.

Katie made these great letters for the front door and for them to keep in their room.

 

For food and drink we wanted to make reference to the twins by having 2 choices for each item. We had mini chocolate apples, vanilla and strawberry cupcakes, 2 fruit baby buggies, 2 cheese trays...and I was so totally blown away by Julie who carved the birds from the invite into a block of cheese....what!?!?...it was awesome.

Are you kidding me...??!!?

And the cake was to.die.for. Legacy Cakes in grapevine was amazing and copied the birds and chevron from the invite and the strawberry cake was life changing.

So good.

Olivia had the great idea of a mimosa bar with 2 choices of fruit and juice and it was a hit.

Water bottles for those not up for champagne.

 

I am not even exaggerating when I say that I have never in my life seen so many gifts at any one event...wedding, baby shower, wedding shower, birthday party...nothing held a candle. It was awesome and I am sure totally overwhelming for Amy. She definitely opened for over an hour. A good workout for a girl pregnant with twins. I got to write down everything she got and loved seeing all the presents up close...but, I was my normal overly animated self over every.single.gift. while Amy was so calm and thoughtful and thankful. She would try to get everyone's attention to tell them thank you.

So sweet and calm...I could learn alot.

Don't look too close because they are no where near great but, I sewed these blankets for the girls. They are a great weight and super soft. One of Kinley's friends mom is a great monogrammer that I use. Love those precious names.

Here is less than half of the presents that Katie worked the whole time to display....she was pretty selective and it still overtook our whole display area. Lucky girls!

So many family and friends came to celebrate with Amy. Everyone was so excited for twin girls. We took so many pictures...here are just a few.

Hostess Picture

Grandmothers and great-grandmothers

Kinley had a blast playing with Ellie and Audrey from Amy's other side of the family. I love how kids can just pick up and play with whoever they are with. It was not 5 minutes before Kinley and Ellie were out of their party dresses and into princess dresses.

At least they could do something with all those present bows...

The whole day was just so fun. After the shower was over, all the boys came over and we ordered pizza and changed into comfy clothes and played games and just had fun together.
It was so fun.

So fun to celebrate those coming babies...so excited to meet Rilee Gayle and Taylor Danielle.