We Love Wednesdays

Shelves
When we built our house last year there were a few finishing touches we waited on because they could easily be added later.  After doing a research study with Mayo Clinic this fall and making a little extra cash, I decided to purchase/order one of the finishing touches on our list: floating shelves surrounding the fireplace.  Hutch's Custom Cabinets did all of our cabinet work when we built (including the fireplace mantel), so we had him build shelves to match the mantel.  We love the finished product!

Before floating shelves

After floating shelves installed

With a few touches from around the house

Basketball
We love basketball at our house.  Luke's been playing in a league and a few tournaments this winter most weekends.  Since Brent's been back on his feet, he's been back to coaching Luke's team.  This past weekend at league, their team had a slow start in the first half, but pulled out a win at the very end of the game.  It was a lot of fun to watch the boys rally together to come back and how proud they were of their effort and result.

Celebrating Luke
We have a tradition in my family of getting together with Beckmanns and Moyers for each birthday throughout the year.  We typically go out to eat, but we've gathered at Moyer's for the last few occasions and it's fun to have more time and space than a restaurant with all the littles:)  For Luke's 11th birthday, we ordered take out from Wong's, had Grandma's banana cake, and played Watch Ya Mouth.  The food was awesome, the kids were loud and crazy, and the game was hilarious!

Parker enjoying Luke's new basketball

Love this lil guy!

Snuggles with Papa bear

11 years old...I'm in denial!

Valentine's Dinner
Sunday night while the boys were at basketball practice, Nora and I decided to treat the boys to a fun Valentine's dinner.  I made a dessert that Brent said he wanted to try, lit candles, and drank out of "fancy glasses" (aka wine glasses).  Dinner was left over chinese, so nothing special, but we all love it!  We all shared things we loved about each other the kids thought it was really funny to have pop and juice out of wine glasses.  We topped off the night by watching the Lego movie together.
I was especially touched that our usually quiet boy made a comment to me the day after our Valentine's dinner "that was fun having our special dinner last night".

Place settings provided by Nora

Lovin her apple juice:)

My sweet, nearly 11 year old

My excited 4.5 year old

Snuggles for the movie

Valentine's Party
Nora got to have her first Valentine's Party at preschool this year!  This week they are also learning the letter N, so she got to have a crown for her name.  (You may remember she got a half-birthday crown last week...we hope it's not going to her head;))  She had lots of fun preparing valentine's for grandparents, cousins, great grandparents, neighbors, and classmates this year.  She is certainly our crafty child:)  Momma has fun with it too!

Queen N

Warm Weather
Since last Friday, it's been in the 30s and 40s!  Nothing to write home about in other parts of the country, but it's pretty exciting stuff here in Minnesota!  Luke's been loving all of the time outside with the neighborhood kids and the clear driveway for shooting hoops.  The next 6 days are forecast to be in the 50s and 60s!