My sweet valentine...

Years and years ago...ok so maybe like 5 years ago, I mentioned to my sweet hubby that I absolutely love the fragrance "Sex on the Beach." A friend of mine swore by it and got me hooked, but since it is a bit pricey I have never owned any.

Early yesterday morning I was standing in the kitchen trying to dig up some children's Tylenol while my poor baby boy clung to my legs and bawled about the new teeth he is getting. I got up four times with him the night before and so my patience was already a little thin. Jadyn woke up coughing and stumbled into the kitchen crying about her throat hurting and her tummy needing food. I was so tired. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to my day.

Enter Hubby. With a small neatly wrapped package that he handed to Jadyn and whispered to her to go give it to her mama. Jadyn loves presents, even when they are not her own, and so she stopped crying immediately and walked over to give the package to me. Joe scooped up a now happy McKay, who was very excited to see his daddy and I got to sit down and open my very thoughtful valentine preset: A lovely bottle of perfume. Of course, I had to smile and ask him if it was supposed to be an invitation...

At lunch, Joe came home with a rose for Mama and we all went out to eat at the Chinese Buffet. Joe had to get to class afterwards so the kids and I headed over to the library to try (and fail, :( ) to print our valentine present for Daddy. I have been working on our family history for months now, and wanted to print it and give it to him in a binder. The program I wrote it in wouldn't work at the library, so I ended up just showing it to him on our computer at home. I will print it later this year and give it to him then.

After his class, Joe gave the kids valentine presents with a sweet little handmade valentine. He picked them each out a dinosaur and taped a lollipop to it. Jadyn and McKay were so thrilled by them! I didn't know anything about them, and was frankly pretty impressed by this great show of daddy affection. He is one smooth fellow, and we love him for it.

We finished the day by picking up an angel food cake and topping it with strawberries and whipped cream. I love that we have such a wonderful holiday that encourages us to show our loved ones how much we care.

Sunshine, daisy's butter mellow...

We have had some beautiful sun-shinny days here in alpine since we got back in January. If you know me at all, then you know how much I love/need to get out with my kids in the stroller. I load them up with snacks/sippy cups, toys, books, and blankets, grab my ipod so I can listen to a book and we head out to visit the park, or the thrift store, or the library. Sometimes we stop at the grocery store to grab a few things or the toy store to dream about owning the battery operated kitties (Jadyn). Sometimes we walk to the house with the horse tethered in the front yard. Or visit the Big Bend Museum to see the train. Does it sound like fun? we think so. The alternative is to stay home and drive each other nuts.

 

A few weeks ago we discovered a love for a little park on the other side of the tracks. It is usually deserted and has sparked in Jadyn a great love for dolphins. (it has some blue whales on springs that she loves to ride. She insists that they are dolphins). This park also has the old playground equipment that we all grew up on. You know, the kind that would never meet today's safety standards? Huge jungle gyms and rickety towers. 

Jadyn loves to walk up on the wing of a mock airplane. It puts her about 3 feet above my head, so she stands there saying "I'm taller mama! I'm taller!!" and I hover beneath her saying "Be careful Jadyn! be sooooo careful!! Go slow!!"  I have no idea at what point you stop hovering around your kids at the playground, but I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. 

 McKay hiding while eating dirt.

Swinging together!

McKay climbing on the car.

Jadyn politely suggesting that McKay drive on his own wheel.

Hanging out together.

McKay digging in the sand box.

The other day we popped a tire and had to park and lock the stroller. Usually we just wait for Daddy to come and rescue us but he was in class, so we had to hand out for while before he could come. Conveniently, we were only a block away from the McDonald play place. Jadyn loves to crawl around in the tubes but only if there are no big kids around. On the few occasions that the place has been stormed by screaming children and Jadyn was up in the top, I had to crawl up there to retrieve my own screaming child. Haha poor little girl. She likes to tell me "4 more minutes mama! say four more minutes!" whenever she wants to keep doing her own thing. Often while holding up only two fingers. I am loving all of the little ways that she is beginning to show her independence!  

Back to Blogging...

I haven't updated the blog in awhile, so here are a few highlights from the past few weeks to catch ya'll up.

1. We flew up to Utah on December 14th and got to spend FOUR weeks visiting all of our family in Utah and Idaho. We are seriously going to miss these long school breaks when Joe graduates! While visiting, we got to go to a close friends wedding (Congrats Michelle and Jason!), and meet a future sister-in-law (So excited for Dan and Clair!). There was lots of fishing (Joe), shopping (Me), and eating (everybody). We had Christmas a few days early with the Eagar family and then spent the 25th with the Christensens. While there we discovered a great love for the game "bananagrams." We also made some seriously awesome resolutions for 2012: Eat right. Exercise more. Read the scriptures. (I know, so original, right?)
2. We got a new car! My parents upgraded and very graciously bequeathed their old car to us. We feel so blessed/loved to have this new, much bigger, car. Our old car (the "white eagle") has been good to us, but is just too small for our family of four.

3. Joe had a birthday! In light of new resolutions, I made him a sugar free jello "cake" shaped like a fish. I put raspberries in it to look like scales.
He thought it was pretty funny. His birthday was on a Sunday and we had committed to taking the youth in our Branch to a youth fireside in Monahans (2 hrs away), so we had a party for Joe on Monday instead. Unfortunately for the diet, Another fish cake was made and consumed...this time of the confetti breed.
4. We have begun potty training in earnest now. I finally gave in and decided to buy Jadyn a toddler potty. Up until now I was hoping to just use one of those kid potty seats that goes on the big potty. I let Jadyn pick out her own chair on amazon.com. As soon as she saw the "froggy potty" she started shreiking with delight, squealing "the froggy potty!! the froggy potty!! I need it!! I need to POOP in it!!!" Well, that sealed the deal for me. I bought it and we both waited anxiously for it to come in the mail. Jadyn absolutely LOVES to get packages (who doesn't?) and so she was pretty excited when Joe brought in the huge box from amazon and we opened it together. The potty arrived last Tuesday and Jadyn has been AMAZING!! She has only had a few accidents this whole week, which is a huge improvement from our last potty training adventures. Yea Jadyn!!