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)