Be My Valentine

My friend and I are currently serving out our time in the nursery at church and we are loving it! These are the little valentines that we came up with to give them today. It couldn't be more simple- cute cellophane bags filled with goldfish crackers and a handmade tag.

December Randomness

This is basically a photo dump from the month of December.

Shopping for cold weather gear.

Lo didn't love Santa this year. Ha!

J took his turn being sick and our of school, Lo thoroughly enjoyed all of the cousins getting sick this December!

FaceTime between the sick kid and the little cousin.

The cousins that snuggle together stay together?

This year she was enthralled with the Christmas lights. She would say "Wow!" Anytime she saw them driving around.

Random selfie.

Lo got sick with sinus congestion. Our sweet friends brought her Christmas present by as a little pick me up.

There were many naps in Mama and Daddy's bed that week, a rare treat to cuddle my girl.

She is very in to playing on electronic devices these days.

Selfie with my little.

Days out of school for the girls+end of the year annual leave taken by Pappy=Lo's dream date!

Christmas cutie in pigtails.

Our ward Christmas party. We had an amazing nativity scene that involved Santa kneeling by the manger...I wish I had recorded it.

Matching cousins!

Hammock time!

Lo in her cow ears.

A night with Santa cow at chick-fil-a.

Pajama story time at the library. Our attention span isn't quite there yet!

Christmas Parade

We had the opportunity to go to the Christmas parade downtown this year. We had the girls for a sleepover the night before so we took them and met Babs and Roc down there. We also got to see some friends while we were there.

Lo's favorite part was the suckers that they handed out along the parade route.

Bab rocking out the elf hat.

One of the many floats.

Selfie!

Two cuties.

J want feeling so swell so he hung out in Lo's stroller for a bit. We specifically bought the stroller because it was rated to carry a 5 year old...it handled the almost 11 year old rather well.

Cousins working the buddy system. No kid is getting kidnapped on my watch!

We finished off with lunch at a little French bistro and headed home for nap time. I love being able to start traditions with my family, so fun!

Washington D.C. 2013

Our resort that we stayed at was only 2 hours from DC so we decided to seize the day and go see the Smithsonians with the kids.First and foremost, Lo took a nap somewhere other than her crib. She knocked out in her stroller for about 45 minutes, it was a Christmas miracle!

Some of the adults waiting on the metro.

Cute girls waiting patiently.

I just can't get enough of the metro tunnels. They are so cool! Can you tell we don't have public transit where I live? Haha!

The Washigton Monument under construction.

The Capitol building

My two loves strolling the Mall together.

We were able to go to 2 Smithsonians that day. The kids really enjoyed seeing the gems and minerals, the fossils and other miscellaneous exhibits. We grabbed lunch in one of the cafeterias in the Smithsonians and the Hubs ended up with food poisoning and it was immediate. Our trip home includes lots and lots of vomiting which worked out okay since traffic was at a stand still. It was a terrible drive home, horrific even!

Christmas Eve 2013

My family decided to go on a little vacation to Virginia over Christmas this year. Even though it will go down in history as "the sick trip" it was still a lot of fun. We paired down a lot this year since we were traveling but I think we got all of the important parts-

Ali and Summer sang a funny Christmas song to us on Christmas Eve.

The kids white elephant gift exchange. Lo insisted on keeping the coveted Barbie camcorder/microphone toy. The nieces were good sports to let her keep it even if they wanted it!

The adult white elephant gift exchange- the Hubs got really excited for the pistachios but Roc stole them. Haha!

For the regular gift exchange J Man was Santa's helper this year and his helper in training was Munchie. You can see our little tree that we brought with us in the background. You can't have Christmas without a tree, you just can't! Even when the backs of the vehicles are packed to the brim...a tree is a must.

The annual Christmas play. This year the play was "Nut Dynasty", a spin off of the reality show Duck Dynasty that the family has closely followed. It's tradition that the play is squirrel related and it didn't disappoint.

Oh, and I got the flu right before we left. Fun times! But I wasn't the only sick one- we had stomach bugs, car sickness and the Hubs took the cake with the worst case of food poisoning I've ever seen. More on that later!

10 Years

The Hubs and I have been married for a decade! With an unexpected move, our plans for a big anniversary trip went out the window. However, the night before our anniversary we both decided that we needed a night away...nothing lavish, just a quick overnight with just us. We left Lo in good hands with my parents and whisked ourselves away to Savannah, Georgia. I think the last time we were there was probably 5 years ago when we went for the 4th of July and it was hot and crazy. It was nice to go when the weather was nice and there weren't tons of tourists hanging around.

The first day we walked around the city market area, which is an artsy district. We had dinner at a local tapas joint and it was one of the best meals of my entire life. Then we found our hotel and turned in for the night. The following day we went down to River Street for breakfast at my favorite, Huey's and for some shopping. We always have to stop in at River Street Sweets...this time it was to get the sitters some goodies. Later that afternoon we headed to Tybee Island to look around and do the whole lighthouse thing. We rounded out he trip with a late lunch at the Crab Shack and headed back home. It was really nice to spend some quality time with my man to honor the day that we got married, 10 years ago. It really is so crazy how quickly time passes by. Considering we dated for 4 years prior to marriage that's a lot of time together.

I'm proud of what we have created. It hasn't been an easy road (no relationship is) but there have been more highs than lows and I am so grateful to share a life with my honey. Happy Anniversary Baby!

Lo at 18 Months

We had our 18 month well visit and here are Lo's latest stats-

Height: 32.2 inches (62.2%)

Weight: 24.9 pounds (77%)

Head circumference: 47 cm. (69.5%)

So, she's perfectly healthy and right on track with her other milestones. She is a bundle of energy and  keeps us laughing. She seems to be dominate with the left hand as of right now, is running, twirling and jumping, says all kinds of words (topping the funny list this month was "dang" "huh?" "What?" And "boss" when the kids told her to say "like a boss").

She still loves dancing and the great outdoors. She loves animals and loves water. Her current favorite foods are still avocado and cheese but also fruit snacks and pirates booty which she calls "booty". She finally mastered drinking out of a straw! She also said "angel Moroni" when we took her to see the temple lit up at night (completely unprompted by the way...don't ask me how she knew) and this week she has carried around her nursery handout that says "heavenly father and Jesus love me" and has sung "Jesus" over and over again (completely unprompted). Out of the mouth of babes?