A whole lotta love goin' around

Maren:
The last week or so has been full of love.  Valentines day came and mommy woke us to a special breakfast before school.  She had little gifts for us and made a special love filled breakfast.  Our day was started off just right!
This week at horse lessons I got to ride another new horse.  His name is A.J. and he is beautiful.  Jack's knee has been bothering him a bit lately and so Miss Sonja is letting him rest.  My lesson was going really great and I was super excited to be on a new horse until A.J. decided to take advantage of me.  He started to cantor really fast which scared me and I screamed. When I did that, he spooked and took off in a full run.  I ended up having a pretty big fall and cried pretty hard.  
A few days later we got to spend a special day with a man that we really love.  Nonno celebrated his birthday!  We both sat on his lap and shared a big piece of cake with him as tradition says we should.  Mommy got some great pictures to add to his collection.
We also got to help mommy at her work by participating in the City of Jacksonville's Chinese New Year Celebration parade.  The clinic put out an all call for anyone with a pug and about 50 showed up!  Even though Jolene isn't a pug, she walked in the parade with us along with a lot of other non-pugs and we had a lot of fun.


Maddox:
Mommy says... "He is such a sweet, sweet boy.... until he's not".  I kinda skipped the terrible two's but I am embracing my three's with a ferocity like no other.   A part of growing up is not knowing how to deal with my emotions and I resort to a lot of very boy related actions.  My top picks.... to throw things, to hit someone, to pinch, choke or pull hair, and I've even been known to throw in a good old classic bite or kick when I felt like it would serve me well.  Fortunately, I am saving most of my misguided affection for my family, sissy in particular.  She likes to poke me a bit and I've learned that when I do any of the afore mentioned actions, she will leave me alone.
The other day I was particularly frustrated with mommy and I decided that throwing my toy would be a good way to express my disgust.  As a result, I lost the opportunity to have a special treat after dinner that night.  Particularly upsetting for me because she served sissy ice cream... and I LOVE ice cream.  Anyway, the next night, we were sitting at the dinner table and had just finished eating.  I got upset about something and started to throw my spoon.  Mommy stopped me mid-throw and reminded me of the consequences the night before.  I didn't throw my spoon, stopped and thought for a minute and then said... "Can I throw pretend things?"

We want SNOW!!

Maren:
It seems like winter has finally arrived in the last few weeks and we have actually been getting some decent snow up in the hills.  Usually we spend a weekend in the snow for mommys birthday in December but were not able to go this year because there has just been no snow!  Now that we finally have had a few storms, there is a decent amount of snow in the hills and we got to head to a new sledding area for some weekend fun.  Xxander was able to come with us for the weekend, Uncle Frankie, Maria, and Brody, and the Oppelt family all joined us too!  Each family rented a cabin up at Diamond Lake and then we spent the day sledding on the big sledding hill.  It was so amazing!  They have a conveyor belt that hauls you up the hill... and man is it awesome!  They have really great tubes to use too and I felt like I was in a rocket ship every time I went down the hill!
Daddy has been working really hard on the playhouse out back and is making some really great progress.  The other day he and mommy spent the entire day working on it!  Hopefully our play house will be done soon! 

Maddox:
This month I started swim lessons for the first time.  I have to say, I was not thrilled about the idea and really didn't want to go.  Mommy insisted though and said that swimming is an essential "life skill".  So, it looks like I am stuck! We got a big surprise at lessons when Miss Myra was there to help train the new instructor.  That helped relieve my anxiety a bit.  So far I am doing pretty good.  I am getting a lot more comfortable sticking my face in the water and laying on my back (because I REALLY hate to do that).
We have had some really decent weather lately which has given us the opportunity to do some fun things outside.  We met Miss Heather and Bella at the greenway for a bike ride the other day and I was really excited to go.  Unfortunately, I was just having a really hard time riding that morning so Mommy had to push me almost the whole way!  By the time we got about two miles down the road she was "fit to be tied" with me because she didn't realize that my tires were completely flat so riding was really difficult!  So, on the way back Bella and I took turns having a piggy back ride on mommys back while the other person rode Bellas bike!
We also got to have our first hot dog roast of the season this last weekend.  After church we stopped by to pick up Xxander so he could play with us.  We showed him our hot pool... he had never been in one before... and we played in it for quite a while.  Then, daddy built us a big fire so we could roast hot dogs!  So much fun!