Love Day

Ah, for the love of Valentine's Day!

This was the first year that Hallie made Valentine's for her friends. 

She went to a party at her friend Ashton's house and then to a party at preschool.

Hallie glued her picture and label on each bag herself and signed her name.

When the girls woke up, they both got to open little gifts.  We bought used DVDs in November for just a couple dollars each.  Then we stretched them out by giving them some at Christmas and some at various other occasions.  Hence the Christmas tree on the gift wrap.  My mom always had little gifts or candies for us on Valentine's Day and I just loved it.  They also received love notes and little candies in little mail boxes we decorated.  I read them their notes while they ignored me and ate gourds of candy for breakfast.

Hallie received a new Barbie Mermaid movie and Claire opened The Tigger Movie.  For the record, the Barbie movie is not my favorite and the Tigger movie is totally good.

The girls drank from heart straws all day long.

And they ate banana muffins so I didn't have to feel as bad about all the candy they scarfed already.

After breakfast, we made a batch of stawberry cupcakes for dessert that night (thank you Betty Crocker mix) and painted our nails pink and red.  For lunch, I took the girls to our favorite "kids eat free" diner.  Daddy met us there on his lunch break.

As you can see, Claire's manicure was  a toddler success -- sloppy but sweet.

The girls were dressed in their pink and gray best.  And when lunch came I was so glad theirs were free because they of course ate nothing.  Thank goodness I gave them a healthy breakfast of  . . . candy.

At lunch, Chris gave me a CD with three song dedications on it.  And then we attacked his car with balloons and his favorite treats so he could have a surprise when he came home.  I whole-heartedly believe that cheesey year-round gestures make for great marriages.  So, Chris writes me heartfelt love letters several times a week while every few months I do things like blow up fifteen balloons (pour on the imaginary Velveeta).

We normally make red food for Valentine's Day.  Chris had the brilliant idea to buy a Stouffer's lasagna so he could make dinner.  So I did!  We had lasagna, garlic bread with feta bruschetta, and caesar salad.  The girls drank strawberry milk with their heart straws and the parents had sprite/cranberry pomegranite fizzes.

The girls opened more five dollar presents (I buy these well in advance and save them in a special drawer for special occasions.  Case in point- Easter is already covered too).

While Chris and I cooked dinner together (he chopped the tomatoes for bruschetta and tossed the salad while I frosted cupcakes) we listened to . . . wait for it . . . Christmas music.  And it was glorious.  And we are made for each other.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Photo Shoot 2011

 

 

Happy Valentines' Day!!!

10 Years Together!

Today marks ten years for Chris and I.  Did we get married ten years ago?  Nah, that will happen in six months.  For us this marks our first date . . . we've been inseperable ever since.  Do I believe in love at first sight? Don't think so.  Love at first date?  You better believe it!!

The two of us today

Our Valentine/Anniversary decorations

We're ordering in take-out and taking it easy.  We're so excited that this starts our year of TENS.  Our tenth Valentine's, our tenth wedding anniversary, our tenth Christmas and so forth.  Happy 10! 

Our neck of the woods

Hallie got a hair cut.  She hasn't had hair this short since she was still two.  It is fun to see her with a flippy new 'do.  And it is so much easier to get through the tangles.  Her long hair was getting precarious post-bath time.

We've noticed Hallie has had a surge of the "let me do it!" lately.  Although totally typical for her age, don't tell me it doesn't get a little frustrating for the parents.  She doesn't even like us to ask her to brush her teeth.  She wants to do it without be told to.  I had to revert to my old mantra of "it's just a stage . . . it's just a stage."  And she has already started to chill a little as the week progresses.

Claire met with her physical therapist.  She is progressing rapidly.  Even a couple weeks ago we thought she might need orthotics to help support her ankles.  However, Claire has walked so much that she now has built up those muscles and is not wobbly anymore.  The physical therapist made a list of goals for Claire that includes: walking up the stairs standing (instead of crawling) and getting up on her feet by getting in a pike football position (instead of pushing up with her hands), and running while alternating her arms.  The long term goal for these achievements is six months but the therapist thinks Claire will achieve them much faster.  The fun thing about having Claire see people about her walking is hearing how awed they are by her talking.  Every single person we've seen says "Wow, her talking certainly isn't delayed."  Minutes later they'll say "her verbal skills are really impressive." 

    In other news, it's cold!  Last Saturday it was 64.  We hadn't touched our jackets in days.  This week, we are talking wind chill as low as 30 degrees below.  We've been letting the faucets drip for two and a half days -- trying to prevent frozen pipes!  For awhile there we couldn't get anything to come out of my master bath sink.  Yesterday it warmed up to about 2 below zero and I got my water back.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be 50 and sunny.  That we can handle.  50 is not cold. 

A great thing about the frigid temps is it permits early spring cleaning!  Chris organized the garage last week and we both tackled the basement yesterday.  It feels so good to fill up the car and watch all your extra stuff go off to someone who deserves it.  And in our case it is the good people and patrons of Arc Thrift Store. It feels so good to organize and make space for the stuff you actually use and not the stuff that you feel a nagging need to hold onto.  The older we get, the better Chris and I are about saying "we don't need it anymore."

I do this funny thing with grieving.  Well, it's not so much funny as it is horrifying.  Every couple weeks I will go through a stint where I fall asleep at night, only to wake up fifteen minutes later with this gripping horror that my dad died from cancer . . . that I can't hug him anymore . . . that I can't hear his voice.  During the day, I stay comforted.  I read my scriptures and I pray to keep me that way.  I still miss him during the day but I feel at peace with it.  I feel him close and I know he can see me at times.  But, when I do these episodes where I wake up at night it is so hard to be calm.  The other night when I woke up, I knew I needed to do something proactive about it.  I came downstairs and I compiled a digital storybook about him.  It's pictures of him and my girls called Our Wonderful Grandpa.  It reads like a story book about things he loved and used to do with my daughters.  I did it so fast (one hour) I didn't even fix red eye and I ordered it right then in the middle of the night.  But it worked wonders.  It helped me go to sleep that night and I haven't had other trouble recently.  It came in the mail yesterday and we read it together after dinner.  I feel so much better having it.  And I've discovered a formula for those horrifying moments.  It is simply: do something about it.  If it hurts that you can't see him -- make something so you can see him.  If it hurts that you can't talk to him -- honor him by writing about him.  And you know what?  I know he knows I wrote that book.  I know he knows I read it to them last night.

I'm still up to date on laundry.  I know . . . miracle.

And that is what is happening in our neck of the woods.

Growing and Going

The girls love to attack the piano together.  We love that this piano has volume control . . . and you can even plug in headphones if you don't want to hear it at all. :)  We also love that they can play music to their little hearts content.

I found this note when I was pulling out milk for cereal.  Trust me, I don't feel worthy of such adoration.

Clairey is starting to make grown-up little girl choices (kind of an oxymoron in that sentence but I like it).  When she screams we ask "How do you ask nice?"  and she will stop and say "I 'ont' more juice . . . feeze."  She tends to alternate between "peese," "weeze," and "feeze" in place of "please."  It's cute.  I also love that Claire starts "p" words with "f."  i.e. fetzels = pretzels, fuzzles = puzzles, fuh-wuh = pizza (not sure where that came from)

Our old play tent was in disrepair (torn to shreds and unuseable).  Then, much to our surprise and delight, Target had two tents -- on 75% clearance!  Oh happy day!  Let me also state, ever since we bought those tents toys have exploded on every level of our house.  We used to contain them to the family room and now they have taken over the world!  Oh well, at least I am still caught up on laundry.

Hallie is doing brilliantly with our anti-thumb-sucking initiative.  She earned her Tiana crown on Monday.  And we haven't caught her sucking her thumb since.  We are fairly certain she does it in her sleep, but the elimination of day sucking is huge!  We're very proud of her.

Daddy came home for lunch break on Friday and invited Hallie to go back to work with him.  She was sooooo thrilled.  We packed her preschoool backpack with snacks, coloring books, and reading books.  Chris said she was really well-behaved.  But then, in the last class . . . she took matters into her own hands.  She was reading a Richard Scarry book when she announced to the class, "Okay. . . who wants to be the pig?"  She then assigned roles of Santa Clause, a Hippo, a Lion, a Tiger, a Gorilla, a Big Gorilla, and a Pumpkin.  The class was entertained by her and we might have yet another educator in our family some day.

Claire is taking the world by storm in walking.  Yesterday she walked up and down every aisle at Joann and Target.  If she goes to far, I say "Claire, come back."  She says "Okay" and turns around.  All is well and good until she gets tired.  She was walking downhill in between Target and Home Goods and decided she needed a break in front of Office Max so she parked it on a curb.  It took forever to get her going again because I knew she would not tolerate me picking her up.  Finally the faithful "see you later, Mom is leaving" trick worked and she was up and following me again.  She starts physical therapy on Tuesday.  I am still glad for the help, but I don't think she will be in it for too long.

The story behind a family picture . . .

What is family time without a family picture?

Everyone wears their best smile and for one moment in time, all seems calm.

Moms and Dads look young and well-rested.  And cherubic children look angelic.

Moms and sisters alike look fresh and fun.

But what is the real story behind the family photo? 

The two hundred photos before you find "the one."

The ones where you have to round up the kids . . .

Or crop out the other kids . . . because you never would believe it but the other two looked morbid.

Most of the pictures end up looking like this.

And then you find one in the bunch like this!

And then, for our family, after our eyes adjust from the blinding flash . . .

the baby throwing contest begins . . .

Or, if you're my child, without a dangerous bone in your body, you settle for "flapping your wings" while Daddy "flies" you around.

And that is the story behind our family pictures.