February Must Be A Short Month Or Something

Did it seem to you like February just flew by? It certainly did to me.  Let’s see, where to begin?

We had a few date nights thanks to willing babysitters, namely my Aunt Erin! I believe there were two weekends in a row that she proactively offered to tend Charlie for us so we could have a date night. We immediately took her up on her offers. Our first date night we ate at Smashburger and then finally saw Les Mis. Neither of us had ever seen the movie or play. We had only heard a few songs here and there, but never knew the context. So we were completely shocked and surprised when we saw the movie. We were blown away! We loved it! We had no idea that the story would be so heavy, depressing, and intense, but we were really impressed. For our date the next weekend, we went to the Jordan River Temple and then had dinner at Chilis. Thanks Erin for always being willing to tend Charlie and for being such a great babysitter! Charlie loves spending time with you!

Erin had her hands full for this date night...she was also tending Olivia (my cousin Brooke's baby)

Picking up Charlie after the temple. He looks like a monster next to cute little Olivia (only four months difference)!

On February 10th, Jason was called as our ward’s Executive Secretary. He was completely shocked and overwhelmed with the call, but of course willing and determined to serve in the best way he can. I have been warned over and over again that I will not be seeing much of my husband anymore, especially on Sundays. So, farewell Jason...I will miss you but am happy to be sharing you with the Lord.  You will do an amazing job! They are lucky to have you.

Who can forget about the annual day of Love? Not us! However, we had to celebrate a little early this year. Jason’s friend, Nate Tadje, asked Jason if he would help him and his family move into their new home the night of Valentine’s Day (terrible timing if you ask me), so we had our special Valentine’s Day meal the night before. This year, instead of going out, I wanted to make a special dinner for Jason. I spent a large part of the day preparing the dining table and preparing the food. It was such a fun meal to prepare and everything turned out deliciously! I was actually shocked with how much food I made and impressed with the whole lay out...it felt like Thanksgiving all over again! The dinner menu included: Slow-cooked barbeque ribs, mashed potatoes and gravy, balsamic green beans, red jello with bananas, strawberries, and garlic french bread. To finish it off, we had dessert of chocolate covered strawberries. Jason was completely gracious and made me feel wonderful. Afterwards, I surprised Jason with his Valentine’s Day gift: a new set of knives. He is obsessed with sharp knives, so he was really excited...and of course I was really excited too since I do most of the chopping and cutting in the kitchen. His gift to me was a piece of furniture of my choice (we have been looking for a coffee table and entertainment center/TV stand...our ottoman and black ikea table just aren’t cuttin’ it). I haven’t picked out the perfect piece yet for our little family room, but it is in the works and I have my eyes out. 

House decor leading up to Valentine's Day:

Gotta make your pink V-Day cookies...yum!

Setting up for dinner...

...and setting the mood...

 

Dessert

And then we can’t forget about the other February holiday...President’s Day. This President’s Day weekend, my parents invited everyone up to Idaho to enjoy a day of skiing at Kelly Canyon. Kelly Canyon is a small resort, consisting of four lifts I believe, that is located just about an hour away from Shelley. I was super excited to go because I hadn’t been for two years (being pregnant last winter kind of put a damper on my skiing sprees). We got to Shelley Friday night. The ride up went really smoothly...it was late so it was mostly dark and Charlie slept pretty much the whole ride. Since we got there late, we just went to bed. Saturday morning and afternoon was spent at the resort. It felt great to be back on a snowboard again. It is strange how you can go two years without riding, but then pick right back up where you left off as if you had just been riding yesterday. It was such a fun day. The only thing that didn’t feel “just like yesterday” was my endurance. I don’t quite have the muscles and strength that I used to have, but beyond that everything felt pretty good. With my whole family wanting to ski, that left Charlie hanging out in the lodge for most of the day. We made plans to take turns with each other and my parents watching Charlie in the lodge. I was really nervous about this arrangement. I assumed it would be hard for him to nap and that he would just be a pill most of the day. Plus, I didn’t know if it would be cold in the lodge from people entering and exiting. To my astonishment, he was such a happy boy almost the entire time! The lodge turned out to be perfect! There was an area upstairs (away from the main traffic) that had tables and chairs and an area with a fireplace. In this room there were also big windows that looked out onto the resort. Charlie was having a grand old time looking at the fire, looking out the windows, and checking out the people at the different tables. We brought a little walker for him to sit in...where he spent a large part of his time. We tried getting him to nap a couple of times, but he just wouldn’t do it. That made me even more nervous because I figured he would get to his breaking point and just freak out...but he never did. He was just loving it there. On the drive home is when he finally crashed and fell asleep. What was even better was that my Aunt Arnae and Uncle Scott showed up with Amenae and Kaden (we weren’t sure if they were going to come) and they weren’t planning on skiing...so they offered to watch him while the rest of skied for a bit. All in all, I couldn’t have hoped for a better day with Charlie! It seriously worked out perfectly. Phew!

Mom (Grandma) and Charlie in the lodge

Jason snatched some goggles hanging from one of the "party trees" by the lift...turns out they were a children's pair...perfect for Charlie's future skiing days!

That night, the next day, and the next night were spent with cousins, aunts, and uncles playing games and eating food to the hearts delight. I love a three day weekend! As we have extinguished the will for a lot of the “old games” we used to play, we started a new game: Psychiatrist. We spent a good couple of hours playing this game, until we played that one to death as well. Halo was another game we played, which included six to eight players. That was pretty fun...until we realized that Kaden is just way too good and cannot be beat! Arg! Kaden! When we weren’t eating or playing games, we were helping the mothers go through some of Grandma’s things. We sorted through clothes, costumes, and Easter items. Oh man, even after hours of sorting, there are still so many things to go through over the next few months. It is quite a task!

We were lucky enough to stay in the master bedroom again, and Aunt Joey let us borrow her cute portable crib. Love this picture of Charlie next to my grandparent's curtains...just seems so peaceful!

We love our happy little boy!