Sunday, February 17, 2019

I Choose You, Secret Valentine!

Happy Valentine's day!!  I hope everyone is safe and well!  We had a wonderful week (minus being sick all week)!  We did secret valentines the week leading up to valentines days, which means everyone picks a person and does something nice for them each day anonymously.  I helped Brooke and Monica helped Winry.  Brooke did a great job keeping it a secret that she had Monica until the day after we picked, and while I was at work she said "Mom, I want to make a craft for my secret valentine.  My secret valentine is MOM!!"  Ah, the subtlety of children!  Here's everyone on Valentines holding their new stuffed animal.  That seemed to be popular gift, because the girls love them, and always think "mom" will love a new one. 


Last Sunday after the blog I took the kids out into the backyard to play for a while.  It was pretty cold, and Brooke wanted to swing so we put Winry in her snow suit so she could play in the snow.  Brooke also really loves pushing Winry in the swing, so Winry got turns swinging as well.  While out there, Brooke also really wanted her broom so she could take care of the snow, so there she is sweeping up the snow!  She'll use that broom to help clear the sidewalk when we're out shoveling!  Also, I got a Sunday slideshow from Google that I really liked, so here's that!


On Tuesday Kelsie invited Monica and Brooke over to make some valentines cookies!  Brooke had so much fun!  Here she is cutting out cookies.  After they baked, she frosted them and decorated them, and even made some for me!!  That was the best part!  She definitely made more than I should eat all at once, so I only ate some when I got home from work!  What a sweetie, and she wasn't even my secret valentine!


Winry lately has been obsessed with these little animal things we got for Christmas a while back.  They're called stacker pals, and we looked at getting her some more but apparently they don't make them anymore.  Anyway, Winry basically just keeps a hold of one or two of these all day.  She'll hold one all the way through a meal and only eat with one hand for instance.  She also really likes to chew on them.  They're technically Brooke's, but she's fortunately good a sharing (and there are more than she can hold at one time).


On Wednesday Monica took the kids to the zoo.  It was a pretty warm day, so it was a great way to take advantage of the weather.  Here's a picture of the kids enjoying snacks!  Winry really likes being out of her car seat and having her own snack tray!


On the way home, Winry apparently needed some sun glasses, I mean look at that, the sun is right in her eyes!!  Good thing Monica was prepared.


On Thursday, Brooke's dance class had a special day where a parent could come dance with you.  I, unfortunately, had a meeting during her dance class, but Monica had a wonderful time!  Winry was also very good and did a great job of not crawling out and getting into trouble.  Winry was one of three babies there (and there were 4 girls in class that day!).


During tumbling, everyone got to try a new thing.  Wheelbarrows!  Brooke went first, and Monica said she wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do, but in the picture it looks like she's doing an excellent job!  She also did somersaults all on her own!  She's always needed help getting up and over before!  Good Job Brooke!!


As a reward for a super great and super special dance class everyone stopped by the donut shop on the way home.  Brooke got a pink "gingerman" donut.  Look's pretty good to me!


Sometime on valentines day everyone headed to the store, and Monica got a card for me.  Brooke decided she also wanted to get a card for her secret valentine, but then when she got home decided she wanted to give it to me as well.  She even wrote a note in it all by herself!


That night as we waited for dinner I was sitting with my leg crossed, and Winry decided it was a great place to pop up like whack-a-mole.  Brooke decided whack-a-mole was a great game, followed by rub-a-mole!

We had a fancy pants dinner of cashew chicken lettuce wraps and crab rangoons, and washed that down with blood orange soda!  We washed all of that down with revealing who our secret valentines were, combined with our final gifts, which was a stuffed animal for everyone but dad!  Brooke was really excited to have the cupcake bear she kept seeing at King Soopers.

The next morning Brooke got up with me to do some exercise!  She likes to try to do the things I'm doing, and on Friday she did both dips and push ups!  I'm grateful I have such a wonderful exercise partner.  Also, you may be wondering about the hat.  When she woke up she said her cheeks were cold, and this was the most cheek warming thing I could think of.  Don't worry, it worked, and her cheeks felt great all morning!


Monica and I waited to do our Valentines date on Friday simply due to it being much easier to get a babysitter on the weekend.  We went to Kurosawa and got sushi!  It was really good, and we tried some new stuff that I at least hadn't had before.  The more we do sushi the more adventuresome we get, and this past time we definitely had a bunch of raw fish on there, but it was all really good!  We haven't worked our way up to eel or octopus or anything else really disgusting, but maybe one day we'll get to the point where those are only mildly disgusting, and still wont get them.


Saturday was a pretty crazy day.  We had a guy come over to look over our basement and help me out a little/get ready to take over finishing up the electrical and framing.  I went with him to home depot to buy some supplies too and it was pretty crazy to see how quickly he could just walk down the isle and grab all the things we needed!  That would have been a half dozen trips for me minimum!

After he left I took the cars to get the oil changed.  Both cars needed it, and Brooke really wanted to come, so I brought her for the second car.  While the car was being worked on, we headed over to Salvation Army to look around.  We had a great time there!  Brooke really enjoyed this trampoline we found, and we even found a few things to buy.  We found a 300 page book of Disney Christmas stories that was 80 cents, and we found Doc McStuffins Operation!  Brooke has been playing it basically non-stop over the past two days.  She was so excited and she loves it so much!  She's already gotten very good at it, though we did have to take out the batteries because she didn't like when it vibrated if she touched the sides.


This past week I was thinking about the Sabbath day, and keeping it holy, and I had the thought "What do I do on Sunday to make it a special day different than others?"  I know there are things I avoid doing, but I also have Saturdays where I don't go out to stores, or similar activities.  I spent some time thinking, and really felt like I don't actually DO very much to make Sunday a special day, and that I need to start trying to do more to make the Sabbath a special day, and to show that I am trying to keep the Sabbath holy through my actions, and not just through inaction.  I would encourage everyone to think about how you use the sabbath to honor the Lord, and try to come up with a goal of something you could work on to improve your worship.  I know that as we honor the sabbath we can come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus, and we can gain a greater understanding for their teachings.  I also know that the Sabbath can provide a shelter from the troubles of life, and give a chance to recuperate and rejuvenate ourselves weekly.  I know that we will be blessed for our efforts to keep the sabbath day holy.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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