February Fun

Maren:
It's hard to believe but February is already upon us.  We started the month off with our first of three Father-Daughter Dances.  My mommy made me a beautiful dress again this year and she made it from a really pretty floral pattern that reminded her of GiGi.  The night of the dance she did my hair in a pretty upside down french braid with a little bun on top of my head.  I looked so grown up and felt like Cinderella.  
We also had the first real snow of the winter.  We have been waiting and it finally came!  We had enough to do some sledding at the house and we even had a day off from school!
One major bummer for me is that I finally got my "Rapid Palatal Expander" put in.  I was such a brave patient and my orthodontist was really impressed.  Unfortunately it is causing me quite a lot of pain and even a few tears.
Along with Maddox's birthday we also got to celebrate Nonno!  He turned 78 on the 20th and we had a nice birthday dinner for him at our house.  Right along with tradition, we all shared a piece of cake!

Maddox:
Having a birthday at the end of January and parents with a busy life helped stretch the festivities for weeks!  Because mommy was out of town on the weekend she originally planned my party, and sissy had her dance with daddy, we had to have my party a few weeks late.  As a result, I was getting presents for a long time!  One of the best presents that I got was a brand new big boy bed!  Mommy got the idea for my bed a few years ago and had it in hiding for the last year and a half while she waited for me to turn 4.  A few weeks before my birthday while mommy was rocking me we had this conversation:
Mommy: Buddy, I don't want you to turn 4... then mommy won't be able to rock you anymore   because we won't have room for your rocking chair.
Me: deep, heartfelt tears pouring down while I rested my head on mommy's chest
Mommy: Buddy, whats wrong?
Me: I don't want to turn 4!!
Mommy: Oh buddy... its ok!  You'll always be my Boo-Ja-Boo Boy no matter how old you are.
Me:  What if God sends me a birthday anyway?
Mommy:  Well, I guess you'll just have to turn 4 then.

We finally had my birthday a few weeks into the month.  I really wanted a water slide like sissy has for her parties but mommy said that it was too cold.  So, I decided it would be fun to go to the Santos Center where they have two bouncy houses.  Lots of my friends came to the party and we had great fun.  I got some really cool gifts and mommy made me an awesome birthday cake. 
Right at the end of the month I got to have a special outing with just Nonno.  He took me to an event at their church called "Fur, Fin, and Fowl".  It was all about hunting and fishing!  I had a blast and carried around a skull that my daddy let me show off.