How do you know when You have strep throat?

The other week Penelepe was complaining of a sore throat. Oliver then told Penelepe strep throat feels like a metal ball, a brick, a wooden (I can't remember what was wooden), and a wheel all exploding in your throat. So the next time you feel like that - you probably have strep. Unfortunately, both Penelepe and Violette must have had that feeling the following day.

Already?

I can't believe how fast this girl is growing. The other day she said her tooth was loose and I got mad saying no way not yet! Then a couple days later I noticed her 2 adult teeth were already through her gums behind her baby teeth!

She was so scared to lose that first tooth, but now she is proud as proud can be - feeling all grown up.

I love her outfits! Matching is so overrated!

Let's be honest

Sometimes life is hard. We had the worst week last week. Just for an example of how our week went; as I was bending over to help Violette finish up her business in the public restroom my phone flew out of my purse and plopped perfectly into the toilet filled with pee. uhh seriously! (Now I can laugh about it - you should have seen how fast my hand plunged into the pee, 3 second rule). But as I was having that horrible week Elder Wirthlin's voice kept coming to my mind and him saying, "Come what may and love it". I did not want to love what was happening and thought honestly how I am expected to love this. So I had to reread the article and fell in love with it again. One of my favorite conference talks of all time. He counsels us to learn to laugh, seek for the eternal, and understand the principle of compensation. Life is hard but it's how we react to things that matters. Life can be sad and disappointing, but we can still love and be happy.

Winter fun - indoors

With the cold winter Penelepe has loved going to the Y.

She smiles the entire time during her hip hop class!

Lorenzo on the other hand doesn't love it as much. (I love this picture of him)

She also loves her swim lessons. Hopefully by this summer she'll be ready to go.

I have loved this swim cap! It has been in the single digits after her lessons, it's been so nice to walk outside with dry hair!

Happy Valentines

Penelepe said she loved the cupcakes, especially the moustache ones. So I guess my lovebirds looked more like blue staches.

For the Love of Art

Is it hard for anyone else to throw away their kids artwork? Our fridge was way too crowded so we created our mini art galleria. Now our art galleria is too crowded......I'll periodically take pictures of the new exhibits and throw away the old ones. Yes, throw away the old when the kids are at school. Oliver we can't keep all of them. If Oliver knows I've thrown them away he digs them out of the garbage and saves them. We might have a bit of a hording problem in our house.

2 down 3 to go

We have lived on one of the best streets in the Buffalo area and have made a lot of friends on our block. There have been 5 of us on our block who have been student families that go to the same church. The second family from our 5 moved this week, and my kids are super sad. We have loved the "kid swaps" and we'll miss the Steenbliks! Penelepe learned her love of make up from Annie.

(Sorry my pictures have been blurry lately.)

The boys were too busy for pictures.

I'm not sure who did Annie's make up, if it was Penelepe or Annie, but everyone better take a good look - that's the new style! Love it!