Craig had basketball in the evening.  After basketball the Pierce family came over and we all had pizza.  Found out that Brian and Shawn are now expecting their second baby! - so little Luke will soon be a big brother.

 

Feb 5-11 ~ Craig's dad came out to Iowa for the week to spend some time with the kids and allow me a little time for myself and to get some things done.  Mom Essington also came out halfway through the week to see us. Craig and I were able to go out on a date...we decided it would be our early Valentine's Day...we saw Catch and Release at the movie theatre and then had a very relaxing dinner at House of Lords.  I wish I could remember a little more about the week - but because I am writing this journal entry about two months late, my memory isn't too fresh. :)

 

Feb 15 ~ Had to bring Kate into the doctor today for a bad cough.  I thought I was starting to feel it in her lungs and didn't want it going too far since she is so little.  The doctor said that indeed it had just started to move to the lungs, so she prescribed some Mucinex to try and break it up.

 

Feb 16 ~ Natalie and I visited Parkview Christian Preschool over at our church today.  We were originally going to keep her at Prince of Peace...but then I started thinking of some reasons to move her to Parkview in the fall. Prince of Peace has a nice program, but one drawback is that there isn't much room to run around inside the building during bad weather days.  Natalie really needs to be able to run off steam in that way - and at Parkview they have access to indoor gym area on cold/rainy days. Also Parkview has really nice outdoor structures to play on, while Prince of Peace only has those little plastic slides and such.  Plus, I think the drive will be a little quicker getting to Parkview.  Anyway...the visit today was nice.  The program seems to have a bit more to offer.  There are more people on staff there to tend to the kids and help with art, etc.  Also found out that the tuition is a bit cheaper per month.

 

Feb 17 ~ Tonight was Family Game Night at John and Kim Anderson's house.

 

Feb 18 ~ My friend, Sara Emberton, came out to visit for the day with her kids Corrin and Tyler!  Craig, the kids, and I met them at the mall for lunch and then for ice-skating.  Corrin has been taking ice-skating lessons and wanted to show us how well she can skate.  This was Natalie's first time ice-skating and she was so excited!  She and her Daddy skated together while I decided to watch and take pictures from the sidelines with Katelyn.  I was surprised at how well Nattie and Tyler could stand on their skates without falling. After skating, Nat and I followed the Embertons to their hotel and joined them in the pool and jacuzzi.  Then after swimming we went to dinner at Applebee's. 

    

Feb 19 ~ The girls and I met up with Sara and her kids for breakfast at Perkins.  Soon they were ready to head on out back to Illinois.  The time went by so fast!

 

Feb 23 ~ Katelyn had her 2 month appointment today with Dr. Miller. She now weighs 12-1/2 pounds, is 25 inches long, and her head is at 16 inches.  That puts her at 95-97% for weight, 98% for height, and 80-85% in head size.  She had to have four shots in her legs today...she was not at all happy about that and was grouchy most of the rest of the day.  It sounds like Katelyn is doing really well...the one thing she needs more of though is tummy time - which she really does not seem to enjoy as much as Natalie did when she was a baby. 

 

Feb 24-25 ~ We had a huge ice storm over the weekend.  Our power went out late Saturday afternoon and didn't return until early Sunday afternoon.  It took even longer for cable to return to our TV.  We were lucky though...there were families in other areas who went without power for weeks.  Even though our power was out on Saturday, our church still had power and did not opt to cancel the Go Fish concert that night.  So we braved the icy, windy streets and had a great time at the concert with the kids.  We came back home to our dark house and turned on our gas fireplace and lit candles. It didn't get too extremely cold in our house so that was good.  We brought the kids up to our bedroom and we all got cozy and slept in there with some extra blankets!  We did have a lot of damage to our trees as a result of the storm.