The last few weeks...

Have been kind of crazy. Jarrod's parents were here for 2 weeks, so we were really busy. Jarrod and I were able to go on a couple of dates (3!) and it was tons of fun to be able to go out just the two of us. The kids had a lot of fun and are missing Grandmom and Grandad a ton.
Last week we got a ton of stuff together for the house. I am working on getting us less cluttered and back on our old routines. Me being pregnant (with Coen), having an infant and just being tired is finally done. Coen is at an age where he can handle playing on his own or with the siblings and I have weened him to nights only, so he isn't as clingy during the day as he was. He still has his moments were he wants to hang out with me or snuggle, but he is enjoying his freedom too.So, here's what we did last week-
We were blessed to be able to finally replace our washer and dryer (hallelujah!), so that came last week.
I got us a duvet cover for our bedroom and finally covered the quilt that the dogs mauled. The duvet really brightens up the room.
We got rid of the king bed and set up 2 of the twins in the old guest room (now the boys room). Kaitlyn is sleeping in what will one day be Coen's bed b/c Jude didn't want to be alone. She has been sweet enough to let Jude in bed with her to snuggle when he wakes up in the middle of the night or really early in the morning.
I have taken down the toddler bed and we will be giving it back to the people that loaned it to us. It has opened up a ton of room in our tiny bedroom. Jarrod is already talking about another bookshelf in there. We have a ton of books and not enough shelves. I have gone through them a ton and pulled out books we don't need anymore and that we don't read. We have trimmed them back a lot. We actually have enough shelves, but we had to use a set of shelves for the DVDs that used to be housed in an inset bookshelf in the wall of our old house. So, if we had something for the DVDs we could put all our books up.
I also finally recovered my desk chair. I had picked out some fabric that was not good for chairs (wish the person that was shopping with me had told me that before I bought it) and it pretty much got mauled during the move and then even more so by the kids when they noticed pieces tearing. I guess you just can't help but pull on small tears and make them bigger.
Now, I am on to setting up a laundry system and cleaning out things.

**** I also updated the VDay post with cupcake pictures****

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was a good Valentine's Day. Jarrod's parents are here AND he took the day off, so we got to hang out with family and we got a date night. Date nights where we actually get to go out without kiddos are few and far between now that we don't have family around, so it was great to be able to go out last night. I made some Red Velvet Whoopie pies for the kids to give their teachers (9 teachers between the 2 of them!) and to their bus drivers (3 of those). I had 13 left over, so we did get to try them and they were YUMMY! I will definitely be making those again. They were also super easy. Emma had a Valentine's Party (which I missed this year) and she got to make a Valentine's box for her cards. It came out super cute! Kaitlyn got a few cards from friends and I sent both girls a Valentine-gram that we purchased from the PTA for $1 each. They were super surprised to get something from us.
Jarrod and I went to Blue Canyon for dinner- he had salmon with a root beer glaze, mashed potatoes and asparagus and I had chicken scallopini it was yummy. But, like I tell Jarrod, Valentine's Day is all about dessert (at least for me). I could have had Burger King as long as I got some yummy dessert somewhere. So, we headed over to Bernice's Bakery for dessert and he got Grasshopper Cake and I got a dessert sampler of sorts. I LOVE to make cupcakes and I love trying out new cupcake flavors, so I got a lavender cupcake- white cake with lavender buttercream. I can't even describe this cupcake and have it come across as yummy as it was, but I will say that the lavender flavor was so much better than I thought it would be. It opens up your senses sooo much. I tasted it and all I could think of was "Wow, this is what my lavender bath salts smell like". It was a winner. I also got a tuxedo cupcake- chocolate cake with a caramel bourbon filling and a chocolate tuxedo buttercream. This one was a winner too. I did decide though that I probably would have liked it better with a vanilla buttercream. The last thin I got was a a mocha filled eclair type dessert. I absolutely love eclairs and this one was to die for. The mocha filling was absolutely mouth watering. I did share all of these with Jarrod and he shared his cake. The only thing he didn't eat was the eclair (he hates them), but I did make him try the filling. We rated the from our favorite to least favorite (no rating of the eclair b/c he hates them and it would have come in last). We liked the Grasshopper cake the best, then lavender cupcake and tuxedo cupcake. The only reason the tuxedo cupcake came in last was b/c I think with the chocolate buttercream it was a little too rich. I also thought the chocolate cake was a little dry. We are definitely going back there and I think every time I go I am going to make my own little cupcake sampler plate. They had a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing dipped in ganache that I wanted to try soooo bad, but I couldn't bring myself to get anything else. I did take pictures, but I have to figure out how to get them off my phone, so I will update with them when I figure it out. I can't wait to get back to Bernice's and try out some more cupcakes!


Updated! Here are the pics I took at Bernice's-

Boys Bday Celebration

Since the boys' birthdays are so close together and Jarrod had a screening on the in between weekend and then he was going out of town for work, we decided to celebrate by taking them to the Carousel and Children's Museum the weekend after Coen turned 1. We went to Kaitlyn's band practice and then headed over to the Carousel. We wanted to do that before lunch so nobody got a tummy ache because that sucker is fast. We got there, the doors were locked and no note on the door. They thankfully had written their hours out on a sheet of letterhead with the phone number to the bldg. on it so I called and found out that they were closed for 2 weeks for renovation. All I have to say is WAY TO POST A SIGN ON THE DOOR! So, we just did the museum that day. It was fun and we promised to take them to the carousel when it opened back up again (which we finally did and I forgot the camera). So, here are some pictures of the birthday boys enjoying the museum. Coen hung out in the small kid (ages 2 and under)area and Jude was all over the place. After that, we went and had lunch at Five Guys (yummy!!!).The boys had a great time and we enjoyed celebrating their birthdays as a family.

The Little Blonde Grizzly Behr turns 1!

On January 11th our little (and last) baby Behr turned a year old. This past year has gone by soooo fast! (Too fast if you ask me). Coen has grown up quickly and I can hardly remember him being a teeny little baby. I see pictures of when he was born and he is sooo different now. All that dark hair is gone and is now replaced by blonde (sometimes) curly locks. He is a silly sweet boy. He loves to snuggle and is constantly cracking us up. He has 7 teeth (sharp little buggers) and has been walking since he was 10 months, so now he is running! He is a funny kid- he growls. He is the little bear that we thought he'd be. When he see something he wants or even sometimes when he gets mad he will grow- a serious deep throated primal growl. It is sooo funny! We were walking around a furniture store the other day and he wanted to play with some of the toys they had out and every time we walked by them he would let out this low growl. He has not started talking yet, why would he? he's got 4 big kids getting him what he wants whenever he wants it. We have been working on baby signs and it is not going as well as it did with the other kids. I will sign for something and then help him do it and he just gives me his sweet little grin and laughs. You can totally tell he is thinking "yeah right lady you're silly give me my food". Our goal is for him to be signing please, thank you, more and eat. If I can get those we may add some more. He is a smart cookie though. He listens to what we say and pretty much does what we ask unless he just doesn't want to. He has that Bernshausen/Fancher stubborn streak too. The other day he took his dirty clothes to the hamper with a little bit of help and he helped Kaitlyn clean up the living room. He is a sweet little boy and we are lucky and very thankful to have been blessed with another awesome kid.
Here are some of my favorite pics from his birthday plus one form a year ago-

Jude is 3!!!

Well, my big boy turned 3 on January 1st! I can't believe my little baby Jude is getting so big! His year from 2-3 has been busy. He got a baby brother not long after his 2nd bday and he potty trained at 2 1/2. He can be such a sweetheart. When he wakes up in the morning he comes downstairs, grabs his bowl of cereal and snuggles with me in the chair. He loves Cars (the disney ones and any other cars that are big!), dinosaurs and his sisters DSs. He got a gameboy Advance with his Bday $, but is still more interested in the DSs. DOn't get me wrong, he can be a stinker. He is going through a bit of a stubborn phase (I have no idea where he gets that from). He does NOT like it when his sisters fight and will stick up for whoever is getting picked on (trust me, he definitely holds his ground with the big kids). He is very shy around new people and other kids if the rest of the clan isn't around. He is my sweet, sweet boy and I just can't believe how big he is.
For his Bday he wanted to have a Lightening McQueen cake, so we got an ice cream one with strawberry ice cream (his favorite on the day we ordered the cake- it has since change to bubble gum) and he wanted spaghetti for his special meal. We opened presents with Poppie, the kids played in the snow with Daddy and then we had our special lunch. Later we went out to dinner with Poppie (he left for awhile to go watch TCU play in their bowl game). Here are some of my favorite pics from the day-

what kids say.....

Jarrod took Emma and Mia with him to pick up pizza tonight and on the way home asked them what they thought God looked like. Emma said handsome and this is basically Mia's response-
like you but without hands and legs. No, wait, with hands but no legs because he floats.
They are so sweet and it was so funny to hear their responses. Just had to get that typed up so I wouldn't forget.

One more-
Last night we went out to dinner and Jarrod took Jude potty (he refuses to go with me b/c I don't let him strip down in the public restroom since it's so nasty) and came back to the table grinning. He said bathroom trips with Jude are always full of questions. So, I wanted to know those questions and he basically said Jude always points stuff out and wants to know what it is or questions things and smells. Then, just as I take a big sip of coffee he says, "Like this one time he stuck his hands all in the urinal so he could get a closer look" and as he shudders I basically spew my coffee. He is so not allowed to make me laugh while drinking anymore.

Goals...

I am not big on New Year's Resolutions, so this year I decided to come up with just a few goals that I know I can achieve by the end of this year. Jarrod and I also came up with some Family Goals, goals for him and we called in each kid and wrote out goals for them and a treat for when they achieve their goals. So, here are my goals and an overview of how we picked goals for the kids. (I got these ideas from SipmleMom and Inspired to Action- both blogs are linked on the right of the page)

My goals-
1. Stick to my routines and help the kids stick to theirs
2. Save $$- get our Emergency Fund back up and running and get started on the 3-6 months savings
3. Get rid of baby weight
4. RELAX (my word for the year) take some time for me
5. Focus on relationships- keep up with date night (atleast once a month), family nights and our weekly "coffee time"
6. Work on that 101 Things list- I have made a dent, just need to keep on top of it


For the kids, we picked 4 things (this was taken from Inspired to Action)- 1 to enrich knowledge, 1 to grow in favor with God, 1 to grow in favor with man and one physical activity. We had them pick something that they wanted to work on knowledge-wise. This ranged from learning colors and numbers to completing a Math workbook correctly. Then, each kid picked a physical activity they wanted to do. Two picked learn to swim, 1 will ride her bike with no training wheels and the other wants to run with her Daddy. Jarrod and I picked a Bible verse for each of them to learn based on a quality we thought they needed to work a little bit on. The growing in favor with man will be 2 family service projects each quarter (a total of 8 this year). Coen really only has one goal for the year- to learn some Baby Signs. He is a little stubborn about the baby signs and pretty much just smiles and laughs at me. I am really looking forward to getting started on these with the kids this week.

This weekend we are going to try and work on a Family Mission Statement together. I got a great e-book of steps to making a Mission Statement for Moms from Inspired to Action and we are going to follow those steps for our Family Mission Statement. Jarrod and I also did the Morning Routine E-book and came up with a good routine for each of us. I love these 2 sites and highly recommend you check them out.