My Favorite Valentine, 6 Years in a Row!

Happy Love Day!
        I know there are some Valentine Grinches out there, but I love Valentine's Day! Chris and I are pretty simple and we don't need much to show our love for each other, but it still makes me so happy to get a little gift from him. I especially wasn't expecting anything from him since he's been so busy with work. Chocolates and roses may be cliche, but it definitely did it's job and put a smile on my face and it just started my day out great. Some may argue "I don't need a holiday to tell my spouse I love them..." Well neither do I, but lets face it, we all get caught up in our busy lives and it is nice to have a day to remind us to plan something extra special for one another and show our appreciation towards them. Put in a little more thought and effort into our usual, daily I love yous.
        Last night the kids and I made some heart shaped cookies, they were a little burnt, but good none the less! I snuck into Chris's truck last night and put a little goodie basket in there for him to see on his way to work with some love notes. Then this morning my friend Anna came over and we took the kids to the library for a special Valentine's story and singing time. All the kids got a heart stamped on their hand, Lincoln was super excited about that! Now my babies and I are here waiting for Chris to get home... Happy love day to everyone I love! ...you know who you are ;)

(Sorry for the blurry and slanted pictures, I've been blogging from my phone...)


Late night with my valentine

My happy little boy. That's the stamp he got on his hand! 

Our yummy, burnt cookies!

My cutie pies! They made it a great day!



I just love them!!

What I woke up to this morning!

His goodie basket and love notes I left in his car!

This quote is from the movie The Notebook. It couldn't be more fitting for how I feel right now, times haven't been the easiest, with him being gone so much. Anyway, I love this quote:

“So, it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard.

We're gonna have to work at this every day,

but I want to do that because I want you.

I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day.”

- Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

366 Days of Fun! {February}

...'cause it's a leap year.

Day 12: Bath art!
I've been trying to find ways to make bath time even more fun for the kids. I found these bath makers at my grocery store for about $5!







Day 13: Valentine's cookies!
We made some peanut butter cookies (one of Chris' favorites) and rolled it out on a cookie sheet to bake. Once they were done, we cut them into a bunch of hearts!

It was easier for Lincoln to cut them out once they were baked. Of course nothing is that simple with kids... There was a mess, a tantrum, and a hungry baby, which lead to burnt valentine cookies. But at least they were cute and we had fun making them!

3 Months Down, 3 More to Go...

We're half way done with TBS!! Next month we will find out what Chris' MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) will be and where we will be sent for that and then where we'll be stationed. Of course with the military you never know where you'll end up, but we still put in a request on where we'd like to live. Our top three choices are: 1- back home in good 'ol California, 2- Okinawa, Japan, 3- Hawaii... we'll hopefully know in one month!

So about Chris' training... it's been an intense 3 months for him and it's progressively getting busier and harder. (He says it feels like he's been at TBS much longer than 3 months!) He usually gets up between 4 and 6 am and goes to the gym before work then gets home anywhere between 6 and 9 pm. Yes, that means I'm pretty much a single mom to a hyper toddler and needy baby. (I'll rant about that in a second...) Anyway, so on top of him working all day, he usually always has some studying and writing orders to do. He rarely has any free time, but when he does, he's great about making sure he spends quality time with me and the kids. It really is a balancing act! And having kids definitely makes things much harder. I'm so proud of Chris and how well he's been doing. He was one of the few who qualified expert in both riffle and pistol! Hoorah!

 

Here are some pictures that Chris and his friends took while there were out blowing things up!

 

 

...and here are some more pictures Chris took throughout TBS

 

366 Days of Fun! {February}

...'cause it's a leap year.

Day 4: Date night with my wonderful husband. It was a very much needed date without our kids. (I didn't say this fun challenge was only for the kids). Thanks Kim and Jon for watching our little rascals!

like how i got a pic of the sushi but not my hubby..

Starting Solids!

My little Ellie belly is wanting to eat like the big kids. Every time she sees us eating, she's right there savoring the food with us. I started out by just letting her munch on cucumber or carrots or even pretzels...anything we were eating that she could such on. She was clearly ready for more! We started out on rice cereal but now we jumped right into eating real food! She willingly opens her mouth for a taste...and then she spits it out and turns her head for the next spoon fulls. I guess she's not that much into food yet, but we'll get there.

366 Days of Fun! {February}

...'cause it's a leap year!

Day 3: Willowmere park!

After all the rain yesterday, we had a beautiful sunny day today and we decided to try out a new park. There's no slowing this kid down... The bigger and more challenging, the better! ...but I was about to have a heart attack watching him run through the obstacles over my head. He would run right up to the edge as if he was just going to dive off! I had to climb up there with Ella to finally get him down so we could go home.

366 Days of Fun! {February}

...'cause it's a leap year!

Day 2: Chick-fil-A play area with some friends!

We met up with a couple other military wives and their children for some food and fun. It was a cold and rainy day, but that didn't stop us from having fun!

366 Days of Fun! {February}

...'cause it's a leap year!

Day 1: We made pink Valentine's salt dough!

This was such an fun and easy activity! We made our own play dough and I found these really cute valentine cookie cutters at target for $2!

Here is how we made our play dough:

- in a large bowl, mix together 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of salt

- mix in a few drops of food coloring into about 1 cup of water

- slowly pour in the colored water in with your flour and salt mixture until it is the right consistency

(as you can see from the picture, it took us 3 tries to finally get it right, so I'm writing these instructions from experience!) 

Try it out with your little ones. It did get messy, but I loved seeing the curiosity and excitement of their face. You can even set them out to harden and make cute little ornaments or even use it as a hand print mold! ...painting them can be another activity!

Arlington Cemetery

It kind of felt surreal being at the Arlington Cemetery. We were literally surrounded by tomb stones of soldiers that gave their life for our freedom.

 

 

more pics here!



Festival of Lights

My "Junior Missionary"

 



There were Christmas trees everywhere and there's nativity sets on them too!



I love this picture! it's been one of my favorites since I was a little girl.

There were over 50 nativity sets from all over the world! It was so interesting to see every ones own interpretation of the birth of Christ. They are all portraying the same scene, but in different ways.

Washington D.C. Temple 34th annual Festival of Lights