Goodbye Thanksgiving Point

So it's finally happened, my Thanksgiving Point pass expired this week and I'm not going to renew it. I feel good about the decision, because there are just so many other fun things to do around here that it makes sense to take a year off and not spend the money, but I'm still a little sad.

I knew the pass was expiring, so we tried to use it a lot. I said that we were going to go every single day of the last week, but we really only ended up going a couple of times. I didn't get pictures of the Children's Museum when we went - but I got some cute ones at the farm. It was really Austin's first time going and walking around and knowing what was going on and he loved  it. That alone makes me sad not to be renewing, because I'd forgotten how much I love going there and walking around with the kids. But then Austin wanted to go one way and Lydia got upset and ran a different way and I thought that maybe not dealing with that didn't sound so bad after all. But it really was a beautiful day. Just cold enough for jackets. Puddles everywhere for Lydia to jump in to her heart's content. Austin wanted to hold my finger everywhere we went, only letting go to grab Lydia's hand. This is one of those beautiful days in a mother's life.

The day that my pass actually expired, I decided to try to hit all of the spots with the kids. We started at the Dinosaur Museum, then walked over to the water tower and got ice cream and fries. The kids were in heaven. Then we went to the farm and walked around for a little bit. The weather was actually pretty cold, so we didn't stay long - but we were there long enough to have a nice time. I was planning to go to the Children's museum afterward, but I asked Lydia if she wanted to go there next and she said that she just wanted to go home. I asked her a couple of other times on the way home, but we had already had such a nice time and if she was happy - I was happy. 

 Lydia's a little concerned about the fact that I don't have a pass anymore, but she's decided that it's okay because we can "still go to museums that don't need a pass". (We call a lot of things, museums.) So, it's sad to say goodbye to Thanksgiving Point for a while, but I'm excited to go explore other things. The end.

The weather today.

This morning while I making breakfast for the kids, Lydia insisted on turning off all of the lights (it's this thing that she's been doing lately. She just really, really, really likes when all the lights are off) so I opened the curtains on the sliding door. It's been nice outside lately. For a while, the inversion was so bad that it looked like there was fog outside, but it wasn't innocent little clouds - the inversion had just sunk so far that if you went outside you were literally walking in smog. But it's cleared up a bit. The other day we even went to the Farm to walk around and all we needed were some jackets and boots. The outdoors must have been calling to both kids because they stood by the door and just looked outside. They watched a train go by, and before I knew it - Lydia had the door open and was venturing outside. She was thrilled that she could be outside without her shoes on. I called her back in, but Austin was not to be left out. He stood by the door, and grunted and whined and pointed. He convinced Lydia to crack the door and that's all he needed to pull it open and squeeze outside himself. I was covered in raw chicken because while breakfast was cooking, I was cutting up some chicken to freeze for meals this month. So he got all the way outside, down the stairs, and into our play structure on the back porch. He was thrilled. Lydia was equal parts nervous for Austin (shouting about her "precious baby") and excited that she had another excuse to be outside. It was a little crisp, but really not very cold.

I was tempted to let them play outside for a while, but breakfast was ready - and I thought that "good mom" would probably bring her pajama clad babies back inside. But already I was planning to make it back to the farm later today to take advantage of the chance to be outside.

Lydia went to preschool and the wind started howling. I had just put Austin down for a nap and I was upstairs when I heard the wind really pick up and rush past, rattling the house, and knocking over some unseen objects outside. I love the wind. Kind of scary, and thrilling, and makes me so grateful to be able to wrap up in a blanket inside my toasty house.

I still had plans to try to make it outside today.

But dark clouds just rolled in and the rain let loose! Pounding the windows and ground outside. I can even see a few pieces of hail mixed within all the giant rain drops. It's beautiful. And makes me want to cancel all plans that would take us away from our house so that we can just sit inside and watch the rain (or blog, whichever the case may be).

The weather today looks grim and grey, but it's brought so much happiness to my little life. In all honesty, yesterday wasn't the greatest day. I was far from the mother that I want to be. The mom that jumped out when irritated, matched the yuckiness of the inversion outside. But the weather outside, as well as many heartfelt prayers, seem to be clearing my heart and helping me focus on the two little people who my world revolves around.

So today, rain and wind. Thank you for visiting us. Please blow and pour to your hearts content... and take the inversion away with you when you leave!

Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day. Such a silly holiday. But also such a fun one. It's more meaningful for us because it was February 14th that we first spent any actual time together. (Other than a few awkward conversations in our institute class and several repeated requests/refusals for dates.) That is the day that our lives changed, became intertwined, and we didn't even know it yet.

So it's kind of a special day. 

This year, Lydia is old enough to understand the fun. She saw me putting a small bag of chocolate heart candies into our grocery cart when we were shopping (even though I tried to hide it) and I told her that it was a surprise treat for her Valentine's present. She was thrilled. She then picked out a surprise Valentine treat for Austin( little cheddar bunny crackers), and - with some help- some dark Dove chocolates for David. She was concerned that I didn't have a treat, but I assured her that her daddy would get me one. (She made sure that he did, in fact, have a treat for me before Valentine's Day actually arrived.) Our budget was only $10 for everyone, but I had a gift left over from Christmas that I had been holding planning to give David. I started worrying about whether he would actually like it (fancy ice-cream bowls) and a couple of days before I had told him that I changed my mind, I didn't think we should give each other anything for Valentine's. I didn't want any candy or really any gift. I just wanted to have a fancy dinner that night and spend time together. 

Valentine's was on a Sunday this year, but I planned a big Valentine dinner on Saturday night with all red food. Pizza with heart shaped pepperoni, red peppers, red punch, red jello, heart shaped breadsticks, etc... I thought it would be fun to celebrate with the kids. They were so excited. However, when we sat down to eat - they only wanted the jello (and the punch, I suppose). They loooooooooveeeeeed the jello. Memo to self: next Valentine's day, don't spend hours preparing a fancy "red" dinner. Just serve red jello. Ha. 

(Also, we got our carpets cleaned earlier in the day so our couches joined us in the kitchen for our fun dinner. It was a little... squishy. But funny)

After the kids were in bed, we turned on a Hallmark movie and cleaned the kitchen together while I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next morning. Did you know it takes forever to make cinnamon rolls from scratch? I found a "fast and easy" recipe and it still took over 2 hours to make! 

However, the in the morning we enjoyed those homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Then off to church, and home for some quality time together. (I realize I'm probably putting too much detail into what we actually did that day - but in all honesty, it's faster for me to just write the words as they come to my mind than to sit and figure out the best way to say things and which parts to include and which parts to leave out.) David won husband-of-the-year and let me go upstairs to take a much needed nap. Then we switched and he got to lay down for a couple of minutes while I started making dinner and Lydia made Valentine's. We made a simple dinner of heart-shaped quesadillas for Lydia and Austin (they both just ate leftover jello, again) while I prepped for one of the fanciest dinner's I've ever made. Not every Valentine's Day are we in the place in life that we want a fancy dinner together, or that we have the energy to make it, but this year - we thought it would be really fun. So after the kids were in bed, we finished up our menu of Beef Wellingtons, garlic red potatoes, roasted asparagus, and you guessed it - red jello. 

If you don't know what a Beef Wellington is, it's a steak covered in a mixture of onions and mushrooms, wrapped in puff pastry and baked until the pastry is golden and the steak is still only at a medium doneness. David doesn't like mushrooms so I made his a little differently and I chopped up some cooked bacon to include with his onions. It was pretty tasty! We used our fancy china and even pulled down some candles to make it even more special. Austin was having a hard time sleeping, so throughout dinner prep we took turns going up to help him, but he slept through dinner, which was so nice. We were planning to make ice-cream shakes afterwards, but we were stuffed and then Austin woke up, so the night ended with me on the couch with a sleeping baby on my chest and David covering me with a blanket and bringing me a pillow. 

True love. And isn't that what it's all about, anyway? 

I just feel so blessed to have such a wonderful little family. My husband who loves me, and who I absolutely adore. My children who I love more than anything else, and who love me even though I am very much an imperfect mother. 

An incredibly blessed life full of making messes in the kitchen, resulting in hot dogs, quesadillas, cinnamon rolls, and Beef Wellingtons. 

Oh! I can't believe I forgot the biggest surprise of all! Brace yourselves for this, because I'm still pinching myself. I came downstairs after checking on Austin one of the times, and David had pulled out a stack of Valentine gifts for me, beautifully wrapped in Valentine paper. (David's so good about things like that.) He had mentioned that he had something to give me, so I had decided to give him his Ice Cream bowls after all plus a pretty lantern for our entry that we'd been looking for forever and I had found on clearance at Target. ( I "wrapped" mine in walmart sacks.)  I had brought my simple gifts down when I came down the stairs and my jaw dropped when I saw the big pile of gifts from David. Remember, we had talked about a $10 budget and then no gifts at all?

The smaller boxes contained a few pieces of pretty jewelry: necklaces and earrings. The box of chocolates I had mentioned off hand a couple of days prior as something I might like if he was going to get something. But the big box? I had no idea. Actually I had an idea, but it couldn't possibly be what I was thinking - so I tried to push that thought to the back of my mind so I could find out what it really was. But (and now I'm going to cry just thinking about it), it was what I thought it was. David surprised me with a little robot vacuum. It's a Bissell Smart Clean and I love it. I haven't been able to play with it much yet, but I'm just so in shock and so excited all at the same time. I've wanted one of these for so long and I'm so thrilled at the idea that I actually have one of my own. I know it's silly, but it's a big deal to me and I can't believe that I married someone who is so thoughtful and kind and knows me so well. I'm a lucky girl. The luckiest girl. I mean, I'd still be so incredibly lucky without a vacuum, because this guy? This family? This life? It's so, so good. But to have the vacuum, too? It's just the incredibly delicious cherry on top of a giant ice cream sunday of blessings and happiness.