Hooray for Baby! Happy Valentine's Day

This week our sweet baby David learned how to clap! He looks so cute and happy when he does it. The other kids like to encourage him by saying "Yay!!" and clapping too. He watched his first episodes of Baby Signing Time, so I'm hoping that he'll start using a little sign language soon. At dinner he signed "milk" when I gave Kathryn a cup of juice. It's a start. =)

Kathryn didn't do anything new this week. She is feeling well again and with the weather warming up, I'm thinking about starting potty training with her. We've talked about it a lot and she can tell me all about what she is supposed to do. She says "If I go poo in the potty, then I'll get a treat!" and "No poo-poo in my diaper, just in the potty." However, she has never really liked or wanted to sit on the toilet. Any ideas?

Joseph is really excited about Valentine's day coming up. At school they made little mailboxes out of half-gallon square milk containers. At home he made valentines for each classmate and is working on a map of Africa to give to his teacher. He wanted to stay up late tonight to finish the map because he's worried he won't have enough time in the morning to finish. He gets his work ethic from his dad, I guess.

Sarah is also very excited about the Valentine's day party that she will have at school. She has been talking about all the candy she might get, but then she tells me that she doesn't want to eat any sugar because it "makes her sick". She has been going to bed on time and sleeping so well at night. She has been really very pleasant recently - happy and helpful, and much more obedient. She has matured a lot recently and I can't believe she is almost 5 years old!

This week we made some cute cards to send to our grandparents. We haven't mailed them yet, but we will tomorrow. Better late than never, right? The kids sure love all their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Sarah and Joseph always want to mail their little projects to one or another of them. Sarah wants to move to Utah so she can see her cousins everyday. She is such a social butterfly! Joseph says he wants to live at this house forever, because this is "where our swing set is", and I don't think he likes to move.

We love all of our wonderful family and friends and hope you have a fun Valentine's day!