Another Niece

I have another baby niece on the way and soon! After the nice relaxing Vday with Mike, we headed to Price to pick up the kids and to have a small shower for my sister. It was just us girls in the family and we had a nice lunch and showered baby with some gifts. We had such a good time and a lot of laughs together which was really needed. Here's a few pics from the day of me and my sis.

Vday -3 day Celebration

This year Valentine's Day ended up being an extended celebration. It all started when the kids got out early on Thursday the 13th. They all reported fun parties at school and came home with tons of little Valentine's and candy to munch on. Then when Mike walked through the door that night he surprised me with my Valentine's early. Some roses and a nice card. Then told me when Papa and Grandma took the kids for the weekend we were going on an extended date, away from home for a whole day and staying a night in a downtown hotel.

Friday came and we started the day off with some gifts for our kiddo's. Here's a pic of Faith's. The boys were up and broke into theirs before I could manage to get a picture of theirs. But they each got a Lego Movie guy and a Skylanders Megablock along with some candy. Faith got some princess nail polish, a small palace pet and some candy.

 And I got them all dressed cute and handsome for the day.

While we were waiting for the day to pass until Papa pickup time, I printed these pics I took of them in their outfits and we made some crafts with them. They turned out super cute. And then of course had to have our annual heart-shaped pizza.

After Dad got home, it was finally time to meet Papa in Provo. We drove down and met Papa who also took the doggy with him and we were all alone to enjoy Mike's gift for me. The first stop was dinner together. Mike tried to take me to one of my favorites, Texas Road House but the wait was too long. We expected a wait on a day like Vday, but a 2.5 to 3 hour wait was a little much, so we ended up at a nearby Wingers and had a good time and some yummy burgers together. Then came home for the night and enjoyed a quiet house together.
Saturday it was time for the all day date. Mike insisted that we get out of the house early and stay away because he really wanted me to relax and not be worried about cooking or cleaning which is what I would do if I were in the house. Does he know me or what? So we were out of the house with our overnight bag packed by about 9. So our first stop was our favorite donut place, Banbury Cross. The donuts were devine as always.
We have been toying with the idea of getting couples tattoo's for a while and I've also had a tattoo idea I've been pouring over for well over a year. So we decided before we left to print out some of our ideas and stop by a tattoo shop to talk about them. So we headed over to Yellow Rose Tattoo in Sugarhouse since we were on the side of town. The guy there was helpful and in the end we decided to go ahead with the idea I've been clinging to forever. And as luck would have it, he was able to fit me in later that same day. So we left with an appointment time and headed out to the mall for some shopping and soft pretzels for lunch. We still had some time to kill so we also hit a couple stores in Sugarhouse where I somehow ended up with 3 new pairs of shoes. It was Heaven!
Then it was time for the Tat. Here's the idea and results. The 4 birds represent our 4 kids. The wording is Latin for "Soar (or rise) with your wings." The anchor (to me) represents me being anchored to my kids while still letting them learn to soar. So that explains the design.  It turned out a really well. Here's a zoomed in pic. It's not quite as big as it looks here.

After the Tattoo, we headed downtown to get checked into the Hotel Monaco where Mike had made the reservations. It was a bit chaotic there and our room wasn't quite ready yet, so we improvised and checked our bags and decided to walk a little downtown and hit the Cheesecake Factory at City Creek for dinner. Another Bad idea! Seems a lot of people were trying to hit it on Saturday night too as an extended Vday weekend like us. Again the wait was too long, so we ended up sharing some fries, chicken and salad at Johnny Rockets which turned out just fine. Then we hit a couple more stores and walked back to to hotel where they were thankfully ready for us. We spent the rest of the evening talking and relaxing and just enjoying each other's company. Here's a silly pic in the animal print robes the hotel provided.

In the morning, we were both up early so we decided to make the most of the rest of kid-free time and went to breakfast together at Village Inn which was super yummy. Then we were off to Price to pick up the kiddo's and have a baby shower for my sister.

What  great and thoughtful gifts. I love this man more than I could ever say. Thank you again honey and thanks Papa and Grandma for volunteering (once again) to take the kids and the added on doggy. We so appreciate everything you guys do for us.

A February Fun Weekend

We've had a super relaxing, but fun weekend here at the house. It started on Friday when a cousin invited us to go to Airborne with her and her son.  It's an indoor trampoline playground. We had never been there before. The boys loved it! They ran around for the entire hour and jump, jumped jumped! We hardly heard anything from them. Little Miss Faith refused to jump, but was pretty content hanging out and just listening to us adults chat. Thanks Mindy for the invite!

After the trampolines, we were off for the planned event of the evening. The boys went to see The Lego Movie and us girls went and did some shopping. The boys loved the movie and Faithy loved shopping with Mom. She was too funny and super good the entire time. Then we snuck back over to a restaurant by the theater and met back up with the boys for dinner out, which was super yummy. 

Saturday morning started out with some grocery shopping and then to waste some time with the gloomy weather outside, we broke out the painting supplies. The kids all had a ball painting their own mini canvas. Here's some pics of the fun.

I had been mulling over painting something for Mike for Valentine's Day for a while, so it was perfect timing. I thought he might like me really trying to do something near and dear to his heart. He made snide comments the whole time I painted. Then at the end I added the initials to one of my trees and explained to him the reason I was painting that picture. He was not impressed and expressed that he didn't want to hang my masterpiece anywhere, especially in his office like I suggested. I was a little heart-broken, but on the other hand, it really is the best thing this amateur has ever painted......ever! So I'm still pretty proud of myself.  One of the down-falls of marrying an artist, I guess-----always a critic lurking over your shoulder. But here's what I managed to pull off.

After the kids' bedtime, my friends Amy and Beth invited me out to do a little dancing. We headed to Club90 and danced for a couple hours. I wasn't sure I wanted to go out, but I'm glad they and Mike pushed for me to go.  I had a really good time, despite the "older" crowd and the not so good live bad that was playing.

Sunday we stayed home and relaxed, watched the Olympics and did a few small chores. We also spent some time getting Valentine's ready for school this week and making cookies.

Life is good.

Year Of The Horse

This last week we got to enjoy another Chinese New Year celebration at the boys school. We watched a video of all of the grades singing and learning Chinese dance techniques, watched the traditional Chinese dragon (or lion) dance, then got to put red envelopes in it's mouth and take a pic next to it for good luck.  We also got to take some pics in front of the great wall of China. Unfortunately it was getting late and since we live far from the school we had to leave to get home for homework and baths before we could get to any of the other activities but it was still a good time.