snowy January + Valentine's Day 2013

I took some winter photos on January 12-13th. We still had our Christmas stuff up (because of my hubby's work hours, basically). The snow and ice can be very beautiful, even if the view of our apartment buildings isn't!

My, what a bright orange coat you have, neighbor!

Looking out from the fitness center.

 

 

P.S. I miss Taylor's family already. He's the boy that Shboogoo was playing with when she was hitting the snow with our yard stick. Weird girl. Oh, and Taylor's mom Lisa, whom I visit taught, drove Shboogoo to and from school each day for two weeks during this colder-than-normal January. My husband was using our minivan as we waited to get our car fixed. Lisa served me more than I served her, and I am very thankful for her. I'm happy that they were able to move close to her husband's new job.

Now for the Valentine-y stuff. I always think about how it was close to Valentine's Day when my friend introduced me to D at a school dance. . . . February 13th was the date that his unit told him he would be deployed (for the first time), but on that day the next year his 2-week leave began. . . . This year, our February 13th lunch included a heart-shaped piece of red bell pepper. That night my hubby and I had our traditional Valentine's Day dinner date, and it was really fun (but no photos). It's always nice to not be interrupted by any of our kids. You don't see him in this post, but I love him so much. He is my best friend. We can hardly remember not knowing each other.

I had pinned instructions for making heart-shaped carrots slices. I didn't end up doing that, but we did make a heart-shaped pizza (a few days later, one of the evenings when their daddy was working). Just a little cheese on the kids' part and nutritional yeast instead on my part. The crust wasn't as good as the rest of it. Maybe I did something wrong because it didn't seem to rise, and I'm pretty sure that after that, I left in the fridge too long before finally baking it. The kids had fun helping, though.

We gave Shboogoo's class fruit leathers for the Valentine's Day party (like we did for Halloween). I didn't take a picture of the finished ones, but I had cut out a heart from leftover scrapbook paper to tape on each one. On the heart I wrote, "I love being in class with you! Love, [Shboogoo]."

I took some pictures of my little Valentines. I can never have too many photos of them. I put C in her heart vest and "I love Grandma" shirt from Nana (the vest came with a different top and pants). Shboogoo had planned on wearing a dark pink shirt that has a big heart on it, and L has a cute magenta and gray outfit with hearts on it. It would've been so cute with all three kids like that (and I was in pink, too), but in the morning on Valentine's Day they decided they really wanted to wear their red owl outfits instead. D worked two jobs that day, so my next-door neighbor took the photos that I was in. 

This is what the kids looked like last year, when C was only about 8 weeks old.

(Here's where I wanted to put the Valentine's Day 2011 photo, but I haven't been able to find it yet. I left this post sitting here for over a week.)

As long as I'm reminiscing, I also like {these} winter photos I took a few years ago. I'm really proud of the one below, which I took on December 20, 2010 -- even though I know very little about cameras. If I want to act like I'm more of an expert, I should say I "shot" it, shouldn't I? :o)

why Friday is good

I got the girls in bed before 8:55 -- even the youngest at the same time as the others, since we had a few places to go* which meant she napped less today. (First Girl loves it when Third Girl is there and doesn't get to (need to) stay up later.) It's me-time, quiet except for some music from The Piano Guys.

I wonder if a lot of couples with kids like Fridays because that is their date night. Every few weeks my husband and I have a date, but it's on Wednesday or Saturday because of his work schedule (which is fine). For me, Friday is good because it's almost Saturday and Sunday, when he doesn't have to work at all. Unless it's drill. This weekend follows a drill weekend, so when he arrived home after 9:30 p.m. it was the end of a 12-day "work week" that began on Monday, March 4th. He will be so happy to sleep in. Pretty much every day when he gets home he says that he is really tired.

Why do I feel like making this public and not just a journal entry? I guess probably most of my blog readers know us personally, which means they care. Anyway, I was thinking last night about writing what a typical Thursday is like for my family right now. How about if I let y'all know what all the weekdays are like. 

I wrote in a post before that my husband works about fifty hours a week or more. The hard thing is that it's not five ten-hour days. A typical Thursday is the same as a typical Tuesday. Both evenings he works the part time job. It starts an hour and a half after the full time job ends. So on those days he leaves by 6:30 in the morning, before our kids are awake, and usually is back by 9 or 9:30, when they are already asleep. That's 15 hours away from the house. We have less than two hours together, and then he has to go to sleep. Monday he has the full time job from 1 p.m. to close so he has even less free time at night because the other days it begins at 7 a.m. We love Wednesday, and Friday he is off at 1 p.m. instead of 4 (the other days are a little more than 8 hours, so Friday is a shorter day).

Yep, I'm complaining a little here. Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for the time that I do get to spend with him during the week. I'm grateful that he's not deployed, and that he does what he needs to do to meet all our expenses and let me be a mom. This situation is doable but we're both getting sick of it and pray that he will get a higher-paying full time job -- career -- very soon. These hours are tiring for both of us. I would like the kids to be able to see their dad every day. Our current lease ends the end of July, so we hope to move by then into a place that at least has a third bedroom. A month ago he applied for a job that he really wants, with the same company that interviewed him for a manager trainee position last year. I keep thinking that any day now he will get a phone call or email about it. Online, the status says they are still reviewing his application. The job is about 50 minutes north of here.

I'm not sure how to end this. Oh, I do have other family news. Good news. First Girl was chosen to be in a Spanish dual immersion program starting this fall! So she will be in it, at a different nearby elementary school, if we don't move too far away (but of course, we do want to move too far away, and maybe she can transfer to a program there).

____

* Dropped off First Girl at school for short day, went to the grocery store, back to the school where there was a short PTA meeting, home for late lunch and putting away groceries and cleaning up the kitchen and having a little bit of time with Daddy (although he started a nap), to the park for a play date with 5 other moms who are in our ward.

"1 is fun" party and C's 13th month

My angel, my cuddle bug, turned 13 months old in January. 

I forgot to mention in my last post that it's adorable when we ask her if she wants more food and she signs "more." My husband helped me capture it (he also made a video, but it's currently upside-down):

She also says something that resembles "hi," and she says "bah" for "bye." She loves peek-a-boo, so she likes to cover her eyes with her hands, then I have just enough time to ask "Where's C?" before she moves her hands and says "beuh" (how do you spell that vowel sound? -- the one in the word "look") and laughs. 

Some other fun pictures from her 13th month:

Papa and Grandma gave the girls these beautiful dresses for Christmas.

We exchanged a different 3-piece outfit for this one with a whale on the bum. The front of the green shirt says "you make me so happy."

Her big sisters put her in this bed.

I was just talking to our oldest about this. I thought she hadn't been around, and C somehow got her own arm all the way out of the sleeve. But Shboogoo "doesn't really know" but thinks that maybe she took C's arm out of the sleeve. :-)

Avocado!

I had to get a picture of her in this cute and comfy light yellow outfit. She actually says "cheese" for the camera (the phone).

We had her birthday party potluck lunch on Saturday, January 19th, in our ward building's Primary room. We had decided at least for this year to not have her party too close to Christmas. The friends who were able to come were Eric and Erica from our ward, and Sam and Katie and their kids. From my family: my mom and brother Mark, my dad, and my sister and her family. From my husband's family: his mom and her mother and foster mother, his aunt M, his dad and youngest sister, and his brother Aaron. I was embarrassed that I was so late by the time I arrived at the party (my husband and his mom decorated, then she came back to get me and the kids). I realized I could have been closer to on time if I'd just waited until we were there to frost the cakes. At least D knew everybody and he welcomed them and let them hang out.

I told my husband that I wanted something to say "1 is fun," and this was perfect!

Her cupcake was from the same batter I used for the made-from-scratch cake. She had no idea that she was supposed to taste it. After a moment I got some of the frosting on my finger and she leaned forward so I could put it in her mouth. Then we laughed when she went right back to my finger for more.

The new foods she ate in her 13th month were:

lemon juice concentrate (in a Beechnut jar), onions, pineapple, coconut milk, ground chia seeds, whole wheat bread (she'd had most of the ingredients in it before), hemp seeds, boiled egg (she only wanted to eat a little of it), turkey, and chocolate cake (sugar was pretty unfamiliar to her and she doesn't have it often; the cocoa powder and cow's milk in the cake were new to her, but the almond milk wasn't).

Waving because Mama waved and said "Hi!"