A Very Lovely Valentine's Day...

Me - "Anna, what is love?"
Anna - "Love is Mama, Ben, all the people I see. When you love someone you kiss them and you
play with them, even grown ups."

Ethan completely spoiled me this Valentine's Day. He let me sleep in on Saturday, which is typical, but when I woke up there was was a note. He wrote that he was with the kids and that he wouldn't be back until 5 pm. He told me he had rented me movies the night before, and got me some special snacks, and told me where they were hidden. At first I thought it'd be hard to just lounge all day and that I'd want them to come home early. I was wrong. This day was heaven!!! Yes, I have a few hours to myself most nights to get things done, workout, or just recoup, but this was sooooo different. This was alone time for 8 whole hours!!!!! I watched two of the movies that Ethan had rented (ones I'd wanted to see for a while, and Ethan did not :) I'll admit, I did do a few chores, but they were done so quickly without two little kids interrupting or wanting to "help." I also called a few people I'd been meaning to chat with, and I gave myself a pedicure. Oh, and I did a quick workout. I made some valentine cupcakes that Anna and I decorated when she got home. (We shared some with a few of our neighbors.)

After hanging out together, feeding the kids, baths, and nighttime routine, we put Anna and Benjamin to bed and celebrated Valentine's Day just the two of us. We had some steaks we cooked together. I got dressed up for our date (see Ethan's photo work above :) and I was getting ready when Anna was still awake....

Anna - "Mommy, where are you going?"

Me - "Oh, I'm not going anywhere. Daddy and I are just having a special date tonight, here."

Anna - "What's a date?"

Me - "Well, we're going to do things together, just the two of us. Maybe watch a movie."

Anna - "I would like to watch a movie with you. I can get dressed up too."

Me - "Oh, sweetie, this is just for mommy and daddy. And it's a grown up movie..."

Anna - "Well, I don't think we should watch a movie. We can play a game. Maybe jump rope.

Oh, I have a great idea mom...how about Grown-up jump rope."

Me - "I'm sorry Anna, this is just for daddy and mommy...it's time for bed sweet cheeks."

Of course Anna was hurt and offended by this. How dare we have a fun, special night together without her. I think she realizes that we stay up a little longer than her, but I don't think she ever assumed we were having any fun. Poor Anna. Our next family night is going to be a dress up party.

Beautiful weather...

Anna and Benjamin on one of the walks we took this week. Most of the week the weather was sunny and in the 40's and 50's. This day it hit 60 degrees. Yay!!! It was a beautiful day and it was so fun watching Ben marvel at the outdoors. There's just so much for him to see! We even sat down and had a little 'picnic snack' during our exploring. So all of the snow has melted, and we hope it stays that way until next winter. :)


Anna getting in some running (which she manages to do often enough in our apartment, but it's just different with the wide open space). This is on a trail that goes through town and part of it comes right up to our apartment complex. So convenient.

We went to the Children's Museum last Saturday when my parents were visiting. Now that Ben is so mobile, it's really nice having another adult(s) along. I do still go on my own, but we've started occasionally going on Saturdays so Ethan can come with us.

Every few months my dad has various work meetings/conferences that he attends around our area, lucky for us. That's why they were visiting this past weekend. We had lots of fun with them including a few hikes, ate at Zenders in Frankenmuth (famous for their incredibly delicious Chicken dinners), story time at the library, a visit with my Aunt Cindy in Midland, Children's Museum, and of course some euchre after the kids went to bed. My parents were here Fri. night through Tues. early morning, so we could fit in a lot of different activities. Good times!

Okay, one final thing. Every week or so we rent a movie and I've decided to watch some of the classics. This past weekend we watched The Sting and really enjoyed it. Casa Blanca is also on my list. Soooo, any 'oldies but goodies' you'd like to suggest? Let me know....

The milk is marrying the water...

Yet another example of Anna's incredible imagination and creative play. We were eating breakfast and all of the sudden Anna asks Ethan and I if we'll sing the wedding song. Why? Because the milk and water are getting married, of course. :)

The Last Few Weeks...

First Picture: Anna pretending that she is a baby. Second Picture: Benjamin, Anna and Aiden playing at Aiden's house. (My friend across the hall has kids the same age...yay!)

Benjamin and Tristan playing together. This is Ben-Ben's first friend. The baby book that I keep for him has a spot for a picture and paragraph about "Baby's first Friend" so we had a little photo shoot. They play pretty well together...for 10 months old. And by "play" I mean they take things away from each other over and over and over. Tristan is 3 weeks older than Ben...they're so cute together.

This is Ben sporting the "Made in the U.P." shirt my parents got for him. I know, I know, it's a little weird with all that the statement implies, but we try to humor them. And Benjamin was a good sport about it. :)

Here's a bit more personal info for those interested..it's not pretty:

So, January seemed to just go on forever. I am glad to report that I made it through...but just barely. I know I mentioned it in my last post, but it was just one hard month...mainly the last week. The kids were sick at various points, so we stayed home...often. Ben was teething...yet again. I got sick too...no fun. It doesn't sound that bad trying to write about it now, but I was just going CRAZY in this little apartment with crying, needy kids day after day. Unfortunately, I can't even say that I stayed positive and patient despite the circumstances. (But I really, really tried...really.) To say I was snappy and emotional would be an understatement. That was the worst part of all...me.

But, I have moved on. Thank goodness for forgiveness. Ethan was so supportive and helpful and forgiving. And sweet little Anna was so understanding, for a 3 year old. Most importantly, through lots of prayer, I could feel the forgiveness, love and support of my Heavenly Father. What a blessing! We're not perfect and we don't always handle things well, but that's okay. We can recognize that, ask for help and forgiveness, and move on. It's a good feeling. Perfectly corresponding with this good feeling was an increase in temperatures and sunny days these last few weeks. We've been on a few walks and almost all of our snow has melted. Yippee!! Life is beautiful.