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)

this May

Here are some a bunch of photos to show moments and events from May 2012. By the way, I would have published this post over a week ago if there hadn't been Blogger glitches and stuff. Actually, I think I'm done trying to fix the dumb glitches. :-)

"the bone shirt." L loves this shirt that is a recent hand-me-down from some ward friends.

my husband's graduation! It's still kind of strange for us that he is done with school. He finished his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science about nine years after starting it. He wanted to attend the convocation ceremony and not the huge commencement ceremony. It was great to have (almost all of) our immediately family members there. I don't know why my brother and his girlfriend, who made the lei with dollar bills and little candy bars in it, weren't in the photos. My sister and her husband and two young kids were also there but not in photos. Afterward we all went to a buffet restaurant for dinner (I should have brought a snack; I was so hungry!).

  

 

What an accomplishment: getting an education with two deployments interrupting it, while supporting a wife and kids!

Our kids and their four grandmas.

  

I'm so proud of him.

a new mom. On May 6th, the Sunday before Mother's Day, we met my nephew who had been born less than two weeks earlier.  He's adorable! He is the first child of my sister Angie and her husband Todd.  She gave birth naturally like she wanted to. I loved hearing the story and seeing the gorgeous photos her doula took -- so I have hospital photos and May 6th photos here. This is cool: While Angie was still pregnant she asked the baby, "What should we name you?" and a name that she had never heard before came to her mind. They made it his first name. 

My sister and I and our families brought dinner to them, but decided to let them eat it after we left so it would be enough food for them. (I hope they weren't too hungry . . . we didn't think we would all talk for as long as we did.) I also brought my cloth postpartum pads and newborn size cloth diapers in case she wanted to borrow them. She had wanted and received one-size diapers for the baby and I knew they were still too big on him.

almost 4 months and 2 weeks, 1 month and 2 weeks, and 2 weeks old

dinosaur museum. Our kids, especially the dinosaur-loving 5-year-old, call the natural history museum "the dinosaur museum." We'll have to go again. There is such cool stuff and it turned out that we arrived only two hours before closing time (it was a Saturday).

 

 

 

Beautiful sunshine, don't you think?

two years. It was the two-year anniversary of the end of my husband's second deployment. I love those reunion pictures!

job fair in Las Vegas. My mom watched our big girls from the night of May 15th until the afternoon on May 18th. We left the morning of the 16th and stayed at my husband's grandma's place. His aunt lives there too, and it's fun being with them. The job fair he went to on the 17th was just for veterans (baby and I hung out in a diferent part of the hotel). It was disappointing when we arrived and saw that the list of employers included Walmart and Verizon. We drove all that way to find unique opportunities, ya know? But he got some good advice and a lead for a management position. This was our first time going to Las Vegas together, but we were only there for part of a day because it was 102 degrees and our car's air conditioning wasn't blowing cold air (sweaty!!). I don't love that city anyway. We were there longer than anticipated because of two problems. 1) He lost his wallet in the hotel . . . got it back thankfully, but it took time. 2) He left the headlights on while we ate lunch and it took a while to get somebody who could jump our car. Other than that it was a nice little trip for the three of us. I'm pretty sure that I hadn't been more than an hour or two away from home since November 2010. It was baby C's first time in Arizona and Nevada. She was great the whole time, maybe just a little fussy when we were hot in the car. We were glad the weather was cloudy, rainy and cooler on the 18th. She is just such a happy baby! We're really blessed.

 

 

 

 

some of the beautiful scenery we walked/ran past

  

 

In the backyard after our workout and Mexican take-out.

 

I was the one taking pictures, with my hubby's iPhone. This is me helping him practice his "personal pitch" the morning of the job fair. (The iPad was what he wanted for his graduation gift. The whole family has enjoyed it.)

He likes an energy drink every once in a while.

  

his lunch at Denny's in Las Vegas

my lunch (veggie skillet)

They're cute. We stopped in Mesquite for a few things we needed at the grocery store, and cooled off.

 

Grandma's guest room. Her oldest daughter (my father-in-law's sister) painted the one on the right. They had made dinner and it was about ready for us when we got back from Vegas. We had planned on going to a restaurant again, but it was nice to stay where it was cool, have a home-cooked meal, and look at Grandma's old scrapbook.

 

real food for the drive home

 

five and a half. First Girl was excited for her half-birthday. I had told her it was coming, and she likes it when I say how old she and her sisters are going to be on their monthdays. She didn't get a gift. She just wanted to be five and a half. I did her hair really pretty with the curling iron, though.