February

Mattie is WAY into makeup these days and had no trouble convincing her friend Vera to put some on with her

I found this picture on my phone, one of the older girls must have taken it (probably the owner of the little toes in the corner)

Livvy became so smiley in February, and she found herself in the mirror, which she found thrilling

Another amazing park day in winter

Disney on Ice!  We gave the girls tickets for Christmas then we counted down the days. Bryan stayed home with Livvy so it was a special treat to take the girls downtown to see the magical show.

The morning after the show we hosted a sugar cookie decorating party.  A lot of our friends ended up getting sick that week so it was a smaller party than we'd planned for, but any party with cookies, frosting, and sprinkles is a good one!  I wish I had taken a picture with her friends, but I guess we were too busy!

We saved some cookies to decorate later with Jilly and Bryan.

Jilly made these valentines for all 20 kids in her class, they were a labor of love by the end!

We don't get the best sunsets thanks to all the trees around but this night the sky was beautiful

Valentine's Sunday - not sure if that's a real thing or something I just made up, but we're going to keep it going!

Matching heart sweaters from Nana.  I took the little girls to Jilly's Valentine's Party at school.  Her teacher is SO nice to always let them tag along.  They were great and it was a fun little party.

The girls had ballet on Valentine's Day so after their class I picked up Happy Meals for them at McDonalds.  Bryan picked up dinner for us from Carabba's (where we also went on the Valentine's Day when we got engaged.)  I thought takeout would be a fun way to have a nicer meal, and it was fun, but definitely not as good as it would have been in the restaurant since it was all cold by the time we got the kids to bed, then we still had to clean up after ourselves!  Lesson learned ;)

Mattie is constantly asking me to take a picture of her hair-do so she can make sure I did a good job ;)  We rejoined the Y in January after taking a maternity break and started going a few times a week.  I went to a body sculpt class with friends and we also liked to go swimming as much as possible.  Livvy was SO good, she'd just sleep in her carseat or hang out in the swings in the Child Watch.  

Haircuts! We finally got a kids' place close to us and stopped there after school one afternoon.  Mattie got a little trim but Jilly got about 4 inches cut!

Between August and November of last year there were 7 baby girls born in our ward!  It was so fun to have so many baby girls around at Play Group.

Jilly lost her first tooth!  It had been super wiggly for about a week.  Finally one afternoon it was really driving her crazy so I told her I'd try to get it out.  I started to pull but she said it hurt so then she just yanked it out on her own!

Then the very next day we were down in Richmond and while we were swimming a ball bumped her in the mouth and knocked the tooth right next to it out!  

Livvy rolled over for the first time at my parents' house!  She was laying on the bathroom rug for a minute while I washed my hands and she plopped right over.

A beautiful day at Maymont

Mattie got a blister on her foot so I held Livvy and she rode in the stroller like this 

It's fun to see Mattie and Livvy in matching dresses that Jilly and Mattie wore

President's Day- I sat in the sunshine holding sleeping Livvy and watched these big girls play

I thought it was so funny that the temperature was almost the exact same every place where we have family living.

The girls' ballet classes are at an Elementary School and Mattie loved to ride these little scooters in the hall during Jilly's class.

Jilly came home from school one Friday and crashed like this on the couch.  I was very suspicious that it was strep throat, and we found out the next day it was!  This girl shows the exact same symptoms every time- no sore threat, high fever, and total exhaustion!

The Russell's host The Newlywed Game every year and it's one of my very favorite things.  So much fun this year, even though Bryan and I did pretty horribly (we'll blame the sleep deprivation!)

And that was February!