We've had some birthdays . . .

It's birthday season at the Dixon household--with my birthday at the end of February and Forest's at the beginning of March, our girls really get into the birthday spirit (and start planning their upcoming birthdays, as well).

On my birthday, Paula was so excited to give me a gift bag--and carry it around all over the house.

Ramona and Mika were excited to throw packing peanuts and pop bubble wrap.

Everyone was excited to get a visit from Moses for Family Home Evening that night.

I enjoyed lots of birthday flowers that week-something about being pregnant and getting older must scream: "Send me flowers!"

To celebrate Forest's birthday, we organized another pick-up basketball game the Saturday before . . .

. . . and topped off the event with some doughnuts.

The night of his actual birthday, we took a family outing to Chick-fil-A . . .

. . . then had a little party at our house.

Ramona was thrilled to give him a Star Wars T-shirt and Mika was equally thrilled to give him some Albert Einstein socks.

I think we were all thrilled to dig into some birthday cake.

One of the cutest parts of our birthdays this year were the adorable little notes made by each of our daughters (carefully tucked under their beds until the special day).
Ramona's thoughtful artwork:

Mika's pictures, plus a "pepperoni tomato sandwich" made out of paper:

Some scribbles by Paula:

We feel so loved.

Queen(s) of Hearts

Celebrating Valentine's Day seems to come very naturally for our three little girls. Their closets are full of pink and red, heart shapes are their favorite, and they are always so full of love.

Ramona's nails

Mika's thumb

This year there were a total of three Valentine Parties to go to: Mika's preschool party, Ramona's first grade party, and a neighborhood party!

I was in charge of a little heart walk at the preschool party.

Preschool Valentine bags: Mika's is the fourth from the left

Mika's favorite party craft ever: a spy bottle with pink rice

Paula and Mika walking with me to Ramona's class party (Finally, Paula has started agreeing to wear coats again)

Ramona was kind enough to share some of her Valentine bounty with her sisters.

Valentine Jenga: Ramona's group got their tower the tallest before it fell with a huge crash!

Walking home from the neighborhood Valentine party on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon:

Valentine Sunday, before church:

My red velvet, sparkly girls.

Here they are wearing their new purses/scripture bags from Teresa.

Mealtime had some heart-themes that day--lunch was waffles with pink whipped cream and heart-shaped strawberries: 

Dinner was heart-shaped pizza (with some artichoke hearts as a topping)

More heart-shaped strawberries for dessert.

Between Paula's sugary face, Mika eagerly sharing chocolate with me, and sweet little notes from Ramona, these girls were decidedly the queens of Valentine's Day at our house!

Oh, Boy . . .

We had another ultrasound about a week ago. After Forest and I told the technician we have three daughters and would LOVE to know the baby's gender, she got to work and pulled some images up on the screen. "This one . . . looks like a boy," she said decidedly.

Well, hello baby boy! Ramona had mentioned earlier that she hoped it would be a boy. "We already have too many girls in this house!" she declared. Since she was the last one in our family to find out, I tried to make the news a little more special for her by surprising her with a balloon at the bus stop after school.

She was excited and triumphant, insisting she knew all along she would be getting a little brother.

The rest of us are thrilled, as well--I have to admit, after three baby girls it requires a significant mental shift to acknowledge that there really is a tiny boy inside of me. But I guess some part of me has always hoped I would have a son someday. At some point since I became a mother, I set aside a box and started filling it with all the gender-neutral baby clothes we collected:  green and yellow sleepers, orange, green, and white onesies, several pairs of socks--some of them never or hardly used. We always had so much pink baby attire, we didn't need to. It looks like they may be getting some good use in a few months.

I'm especially excited that Forest will get to have his own son. He has always been so close to his dad, I am looking forward to seeing a new father-son relationship form where he gets to be in the father role. Maybe this kid will even sit through an entire football game with him someday.