February was a busy month for us... I guess that would explain why it flew by so quickly!

We started off with some snow (and neat icicles! no, he wasn't standing underneath them!), so Conner's karate testing date (to go from white belt to yellow) was pushed back from Feb 5 to Feb 12. Here's the happy boy with his belt and certificate.

Then came Conner's 6th birthday. We had family over at the house on the 13th (check out the cool cake we made!), opened a few presents on his actual birthday (the 15th), then went bowling with some of his friends on the 21st. What little boy doesn't want a week-long celebration?!





In the midst of all of that, Audrey decided that she didn't want to use her bed rail (she actually wanted me to put it in her closet, but I told her maybe we should wait on that one). She's been without it now for about 2 weeks, and as far as I know has only fallen out once! Conner was still using 2 until a few nights ago when we took one off. Miraculously, he hasn't fallen out at all (that we know of). His bed is pretty high, so we took the rail off of the side that has the trundle and pulled that mattress out to make the fall quite a bit less severe.

The bowling birthday party was a hit! Conner had a blast and all of the other little boys seemed to enjoy themselves, too.Of course the little sisters had to get in the picture!

After a nice quiet few days (except for karate, parent conferences, and small group!), we decided late this morning to head to the Cincy Museum Center this afternoon to take advantage of a free pass that expires tomorrow. Instead of going to the Children's Museum (like we've done in the past), Eric and I decided to try the Museum of Natural History. The kids really enjoyed it - there were all kinds of animals and caves and fossils and skeletons to see. Very fun.

Eric headed over to a friend's house tonight to play some cards with the guys, so the kids and I went up to Walmart to spend some time (and money!). Audrey and I have been talking about getting her hair cut (she wanted it short, she said) so we went ahead and did that while we were at the store (doesn't your Walmart have a hair styling place?). I told the girl that I wanted it about chin length - I'm tired of it looking scraggly and yucky 30 seconds after it being brushed - but when she made her first cut I got a little worried. I think it ended up looking really cute, though, and Audrey seems to love it!

I almost forgot to post this! I got Audrey on video today singing the abc's... or most of them, anyway. This was obviously pre-haircut.

We got about 3 or 4 inches of snow in the past day (unfortunately didn't get a snow day out of it since it's Saturday!) and this afternoon all 4 of us went out to help Daddy clear the driveway. He'd tried using his snowblower, but it's a really heavy snow and his little blower wasn't doing any good. So Eric and I cleared the driveway (it's never seemed so long before!) while the kids played. Conner did a little sledding down the hill right in front of the house (and loved going down on his belly!) while Audrey just kind of wandered around doing various little things. She actually made a couple of snow angels on her own, which was pretty cute.

After we cleared the driveway I wanted to make a snowman, but it wasn't packing very well. Eric grabbed a couple of big buckets and started filling them up to make a snow fort. It ended up being pretty cute and they all had a good time playing. I got to be an innocent bystander since I had the camera (but I did help fill some buckets!).