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Joel has learned how to climb up and down steps. On Sunday, I took the kids to a local park and let Joel climb his first play structure before I helped him down the slide.

Leah spent her time exploring the other playground equipment.

My sweeties swinging away.

That white stuff is snow. Leah really wanted to go sledding but the place that had the most snow was our back yard which I didn’t realize until we were in the van checking out parks. I took her for a few spins around the bark mulch as all the snow on the grass had melted.

Family time has become more limited lately, so we are trying to be very intentional to make the most of the time we have together. We went out to a local coffee shop the other night to get hot chocolate.

I picked the most child friendly one I know of. It has a little play room for the kids so we sat right in front of it but even then, Leah spent most of her time sitting with us. I wasn’t sure if she would want to sit still for half an hour and wanted her to have a good time as well. It worked out great as we all had quality time together.

I would smile each time she looked at me after she had her first few sips of hot chocolate. It reminded me of a bunny nose face painted on her.

This little dude showed off his stair climbing skills last night. He climbed up half of our stairs, with Morgan right behind him as after each step he wanted to look behind him and would have fallen down the stairs. He also likes to play with his spoons and sometimes I’ll give him one while feeding him to make the process go smoother (then he doesn’t try grab the spoon I’m trying to feed him with). Tonight, I put a small piece of cauliflower on his spoon and he put it straight into him mouth. He even put some rice from his tray onto his spoon and fed himself. He can confidently walk around furniture now and will stand on his on for a split second before grabbing on again. My little man is growing up.

Leah checking out Grandpa Tom’s big truck with Daddy. She had some super curly, crazy hair that day.

Leah had pink day at preschool this month and she sure does have a lot of pink clothing. I realized later in the day my boy was all in blue.

To get two kids looking and smiling at the same time is a challenge that couldn’t be completed in the couple of minutes I was sitting on the floor with my camera.

On Valentine’s Day, we spent the afternoon at the beach.

We played soccer and Leah jumped in tide pools.

Joel slept through most of it.

As I was unpacking the van, I looked up and saw this.

I said good bye to a friend today. It wasn’t good bye forever. I imagine I’ll see her and her family within the next year when they come to visit family. There will still be connection.

So I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of emotion when the time for good bye came. Maybe it is because I’m a little more emotional from being on my own this week with the kids. That may be partially to blame but I don’t think I realized how much I care for her.

Over the past few months, we’ve shared our hearts. Trusted. Cared. Prayed. Loved. I admire her in so many ways. I shouldn’t have been surprised when the tears threatened and I had to back away, bite my lip and stare out the window for a few minutes to regain composure.

I fully support their reasons to move. In fact, I said I am glad they are moving. I believe it is the best for them and their family. But my heart still hurts.

I’ve been learning more about gratitude lately and today was an emotional lesson. I am thankful for those in my life yet still complaints can come easy off my lips about others in my life. How can gratefulness and complaint reside in the same heart?

One amazing woman and her two awesome kids who we will now share through letters what we share around a table has made me realize how many amazing people are in my life who I need to treasure more. It is a lesson I’m slowly learning. Today’s lesson just cut a little closer to the heart than I’m really comfortable with.

We have had some gorgeous weather here. We generally go outside to play year round, especially when I have daycare kids. The past few days have been amazing as there are only thoughts of how long can I prolong lunch as oppose to how long till we go in to warm up and unravel ourselves of all these layers.

Poor Joel can’t play with much when his hands are keeping warm inside his snowsuit. It also makes crawling more difficult. I will have to keep my eyes on him much more closely than I ever had to with Leah when she crawled outside as Joel loves to put everything in his mouth.