Valentines

I feel like I tend to shy away from being overly sentimental while writing on this blog, so hopefully I'll be forgiven for letting it all burst out in this one entry :) I just feel like pushing the pause button for a moment in my sometimes hectic life to talk about my kids. But you do this ALL the time on this blog, you might say, and you'd be right. But what I really want to talk about is what a miraculous gift having a child is. I know these are the moments to savor: being able to cuddle my baby and watch her half-smile in her sleep, to think about who she'll become, to have a constant reminder of the sheer joyfulness of living. To have real conversations with my three year old, read stories together, laugh at jokes "am I funny mom?" To remember what it was like to be learning about life for the first time. Being a parent has grounded me in life in ways I couldn't anticipate in my swingin' single days, fun as they were. I love it, and I love them . . .and I love Mike too. So, Happy Valentine's Day to all.

Avery exchanging Valentines at preschool. We needed to bring 25 cards and the Nerds candy valentines I bought only had 20 in the box. I asked Mike to grab some more Valentines and he came home with NBA Basketball cards. So, my three year old little girl, who is pretending to be a princess more often than not, gave out 5 cards of LeBron James.

For Valentine's Day, Mike and I (and Elliot) drove up to Suncadia, a lodge/resort thing in the Cascade Mtns. It was so nice to get away, have some time to talk and eat a fabulous meal with a wonderful view. Mike planned it all and it was great fun.

Our little Dee got to enjoy the Valentine's outing as well.

On Monday night we took the girls ice skating (with Owen and Jamie and their kids). Avery wanted to go fast, and was very frustrated with the whole "learning" thing. The rink had these buckets (as seen in picture) that kids could use to push themselves along, but Avery figured out that if she leaned her whole body on the bucket and ice-picked her skates like crazy she could get going pretty dang fast. It was one of the first times I've realized how much she has taken on characteristics of her parents; in this case, stubborness and recklessness and I'll let you decide which comes from which parent :)

Curious Little Monkey

The girls and I went into Seattle today to check out the Curious George Exhibit at the Children's Museum with our friends Sue and Chey. The exhibit was really pretty fun, Avery liked playing with nearly all the different stations: there was a rocket ship slide, golfing, a shadows area, wind. We then did some painting and crafts, walked through the global village, saw a Korean subway car, a house modeled after one in the Phillipines, a rickshaw and by then mom was ready to take a nap. But, since Avery wasn't, we went over to the sculpture park and played a rousing game of red light, green light (unintentionally making those walking around us play as well). During all this fun, Mike was slogging it out at a Klondike Derby with the boy scouts all day (I learned today that this does not involve eating a large amount of Klondike bars). Elliot was pretty happy to go along with anything, just piping up a bit every two hours to get fed. We capped off the evening with eating at Red Robin for dinner, getting the girls into bed, catching up on the blog, and now convincing Mike to change the channel from Sports Center. Happy Saturday everyone!

THE LIFE

In no particular order . . .

Below are some pictures from the past week or so. The first was a family activity called "engage Avery in family night by making a fairy outfit out of a paper bag." Both Avery and Mike thought my fairy wings looked more like a bone. But it was a good diversion for about 10 minutes.

SuperBowl Sunday. Elliot is decked out in her Cardinals outfit. Mike and Owen chowing down on wings.

Big kisses. The last picture taken with the old camera. Yay for Circuit City sale! But, too bad for all the people being laid off and all that.