The Rest of Valentine's Weekend

Saturday night, this handsome Valentine of mine took me to the temple where we did initiatories for some family names and then we got ice cream! Nothing fancy but definitely time well spent. 

 This man makes me happy every day! He does not like taking selfies even with me but he humors me and lets me take a few here and there. 

He works hard for our family even doing projects that he does not love because he loves us. 

He is super helpful around the house: laundry, ironing, mopping, sweeping, dishes, cooking, bathrooms, yard work, homework help, doing girls hair, making lunches-he helps with it all. 

I am thankful for him every day and I am trying each day to show it better and reciprocate his love and kindness, patience and strength, faith and testimony. 

I love you Peter!

And finally, on Sunday Valentines day had arrived and these two girls were home sick from church. 

They were good sports and let me put them in their matching Valentine dresses which were once sized for a smaller Lily and Arabella. 

We enjoyed our Sunday doing various family things and then we had the missionaries over for dinner. It was a great time! I need to be better about taking pictures. 

We had Surf and Turf - terminology that we taught to our kids and they now think is really cool to say. We had steak and a shrimp pasta, asparagus, carrots, rolls and then red velvet cake for dessert. 

It was a wonderful, love filled day!

Valentine Day Parties

Lily's class started our parties off with hers being held on Feb. 11th.

It was great with pizza, fruit, cupcakes, a craft and of course the exchanging of Valentines.

 She is so full of spunk and is not afraid to take charge of a situation. Little Miss Lily you make me smile every day!

 Samantha was not going to be left out of this party with delicious food involved. 

 The fun continued on Friday with Arabella's class party.

They started off by giving their historical person reports. She was Sacagawea. Don't you love her artistic skills? She really does a great job on art work. Peter helped her make a beaded necklace for an extra little touch. 

 I was in charge of the party and after the historical reports we had strawberry soda floats, popcorn, candy, and cupcakes. They of course had some time to sort through their valentine cards.  We finished off by playing a game where I pinned a card that had a famous pair on their back and they had to ask each other questions to figure out who they were. They really got into it and loved it! It was so fun to spend time with this beautiful girl!

 Thirty minutes later I was in Jon's classroom ready for another party. 

The other room mom made a love potion and the kids had to dance to music while it was working it's magic and getting mixed up. Jon led the conga line through the room! 

The kids enjoyed the love potion and valentine cookies as well as the valentine candy from each other. This class also played the famous pairs game but had a harder time figuring out the rules.  As I think about it now, I wonder if the difference between 4th graders and 1st graders is that 4th graders start to have some inhibitions about asking questions and being wrong.  But, once they kind of figured it out there were several kids that really got into it and switched out their cards several times. 

He is a handsome boy and I love him!

That night Lily's preschool was offering a free Parent's night out and we took advantage! 

We dropped off the three girls and took the boys to finally see the new Star Wars movie. As an added bonus we saw it in 3D, mostly because it was the only showtime that worked with our time constraints. It was a really good movie and I loved being able to enjoy it with them and not wrestling with the little ones. We had a great start to our Valentine's Weekend.

Cooking Merit Badge

 Joseph has been working on his cooking merit badge at scouts and a few weekends ago we tackled the cooking 3 meals and a dessert as well as shopping or at least pricing those three meals.

It was a good weekend with some good food and lots of learning and teaching about different cooking things. 

Joseph did a good job and it was good to see what I can have him help me with to continue to improve his skills. 

Trifle was a delicious choice for his dessert! We all loved it!

King Cake

I should have taken a picture of Jon with the baby, because he was the lucky one to find it. 

I had never heard of king cake until I married Peter and learned a bit about Mardi Gras. This of course is important to Peter because of the time he spent living in New Orleans. While living in Las Vegas, Peter's mom sent me a recipe for King cake and I have tried to make one each year since. I have missed a few years but it really is tasty and worth the work once a year. 

One of the great things about marriage is that you each bring traditions and memories to your combined life and from that you create new traditions and memories with each other and your kids all of which leads to a happy and fulfilling life. 

Lily and Samantha

With the big kids gone to school and Lily for 3 days at preschool  for half of the day, I spend a lot of great hours with Samantha. But, I know Samantha enjoys the times when Lily is there too.

They are quite the pair! 

Most of these pictures capture precious moments in my day of seeing the imagination, personality, and love these two possess. But the above picture needs a bit of explaining. Samantha found a folded load of the boys' laundry and proceeded to put on Joseph's underwear (both of her legs in one of Joseph's leg holes) and she put on one of Jon's socks. Oh she is so funny! 

I am not a perfect mother and most days I am just happy we made it through the day without a major catastrophe or breakdown but I would not trade being a mother for anything in the world. 

The Best of People

I am sad to say that this may be the only picture I have of me with this dear, sweet, amazing friend.

Emily Wankier has been in my life for about 4 years and she moved a few weeks ago.

I did not know that I could find someone who would understand me and relate to the same things I do in the same way I do. We laughed, talked, swapped babysitting, called on each other in our times of need. She taught me about serving selflessly, how missionary work can be a part of our everyday life, to love everyone, put your all into anything you do especially when it is your family or your church calling, and people are always the most important thing. 

I will miss her and her family desperately. I have already made Peter promise me that before the year is up and my companion pass expires (for flying free with Peter on Southwest) we will travel to Connecticut and visit them. I am so thankful for phones, texts, facebook, instagram,etc. 

She is a golden friend and a kindred spirit. 

A trip to Utah

Remember the surprise trip to Utah Peter planned for me...

It was wonderful!

I had a great time with my mom and sisters Carla and Jana shopping.

 Saturday night I had a delicious dinner of Zubs turkey and avocado toasted sub and 

then my parents and I attended the Provo City Center Temple Open House. 

 It was beautiful and I was so touched by the Spirit there. 

An incredible amount of effort was given to preserve the historic feeling of this structure while elevating it to be a House of the Lord. 

 Sunday, I spent the day with my parents at the MTC and loved seeing so many excited missionaries. 

 Sunday evening my siblings came over with their kids and we had dinner and laughed and visited. 

I love my family! I am so blessed to have them. They are a huge part of why I am who I am. 

Added bonus to my trip was the fresh snow that fell on Sunday. 

The peace and quiet that comes with softly falling snow is heavenly. 

I did remember that shoveling snow is not something I miss doing. 

Monday, I had a good time going to the BYU Museum of Art Norman Rockwell exhibit and lunch at Cubby's which was delicious! I loved the time I had to spend with my family! 

Peter is the best for giving this to me!