Valentine's Day

Daryl and Evelyn's lunch date--milk and cookies

I made frog peanut butter and honey sandwiches--please use your imagination ;)

I heart Valentine's day.  Especially since we have two girls to celebrate it with.  Evelyn had preschool Tuesday morning and got to pass out valentines to her classmates.  I loved helping her prepare her little valentines and help tape the candies to each card.  It must remind me of my Mom helping me do the same when I was a little girl.  When she got home I had set up a mini lunch date for her and her Dad.  She has been asking Daryl to take her on a date for sometime.  Daryl has a lot of girls to impress ;)

I was so happy to have Daryl home from California it didn't matter what we did for Valentine's Day as long as we were together.  I have been missing my wedding ring for sometime now but I just have this hunch that it has to be in our house somewhere.  I am really hoping to find it when we move.  Daryl brought me a box of chocolates for valentines day which I love but also inside was a ring!  It is a small band that fits perfectly on my ring finger.  For Daryl I did my best and turned our bathroom into a spa so he could relax and take a bath.  It actually turned out so fun.  I gave him a gun magazine to read that I found in the magazine section--he laughed when I gave him the magazine.  Wonderful love day!

Evelyn's picture of our family!  Gotta love it.

Daddy's Home

Daryl has been out of town working for the last four weeks.  We thought he was coming home this Thursday but he surprised us early and came home Sunday night.  I was completely shocked!!!  Usually I can pick up on little things and figure out his surprises out but not this time.  I had put the girls to bed and was about to turn on a movie I hadn't finished yet.  Daryl calls and faced time me so we could chat and see each other.  He tells me he wants to show me something outside and goes outside of what I thought was his hotel door.  It is completely dark and I can't see him in the phone but am just waiting when he finally says "well...uh...I think you might have to turn on the porch light to see what I was trying to show you."  My face lit up and I ran to the door.  I was so happy to have him home!  I have noticed after starting this blog that our family loves surprises.  I never noticed that about us before. :)

The next morning when the girls woke up I told Evelyn I had a present for her and Jane downstairs.  Daryl hid under a blanket in the living room and I told Evelyn her present was under the blanket.  She was so overjoyed to find her Dad under that blanket.  She of course hugged him for a long time.  Jane gave Daryl her best glare as if to tell him that he abandoned her and she was not happy about it.  But then she softened up and melted in his arms.  Evelyn and Jane are very happy to have their Dad home!

The January Indoors

We've been up to a lot of indoor activities lately.  Evelyn went to her friend Evelyn's Birthday party.  We have gone a couple times to the the gymnastics gym, and went to a cousins pine wood rocket derby.  Jane has also taken up climbing and more intensely jumping.  Check out the video of her trying to jump!

Princess Party!  Evelyn couldn't stop talking about how fun it was.  My friend Jamie can touch anything and turn it into complete cuteness.

 Playtime at the gym--it has three playrooms that have all kinds of fun toys.

Sister love

Evelyn's favorite toy.  A rollercoaster car you bring up the front and ride it down towards a mirror into a foam pad.  She loves being able to see herself in the huge mirror with her hair flowing in the wind:)

 Jane loves her cousin Mathew who is 11 years old.  He just looks at her and she starts giggling.

 Love this happy girl.

Evelyn and her fun cousin Eliza.

Just so happens we were all wearing pink jackets!

Evelyn's inventive drum set.  She taped the paper plates together and played some beats;)

The girls cleaning up together.

 Jane loves Evelyn's rides around the house.

Jane's favorite word is "jump" and she definatley lives up to it.  Earlier she purposely got that box out of the pantry behinf her and was jumping off it.  She also climbs up on the table or anything she can get to.

Evelyn's Photoshoot

Sometimes when I check my camera roll on my phone I find A LOT of pictures that Evelyn has taken recently.  She usualy takes pictures when we are in the car. 

Below is a recent series as of lately... 

The box of crayons she is holding I brought back for her from Texas Roadhouse--she must have thought they were picture worthy!  Love the sleeping picture at the end.  I also found this photo strip of Evelyn and I that we took at the movies on our girls night out.

Snow

We finally got snow!  It snowed during the night so when we woke up it was quite the sight!  Evelyn said "Christmas!"  and Jane just kept pointing out the window saying "dat!"  Evelyn and I started out the morning making Birthday cake pancakes.  Once Jane went down for her nap we went out and played for a while.  When Evelyn showed no sign of wanting to come in the house I decided to start shoveling the driveway.  With the garage door open Evelyn thought it would be fun to ride her bike.  I didn't say no because #1 I knew she wouldn't get far and #2 I remember trying the same thing when I was a girl.  After an hour she was ready to go inside for hot chocolate.

Our second day in the snow we drove to my friends house so Evelyn could play with her friend Evelyn.  They are a good pair of friends and it's even more fun that they have the same name.  The bottom picture is of the Evelyn's making snow angels.  The snow was dry so no luck for a snow man but they had fun hiding toys under the snow and telling the other to try and find it.  Jane was confused about the snow or maybe she was confused why she could barely move in her huge snow gear and boots.  She liked being outside in it though.  On our drive home I stopped at walgreens to get some milk so I wouldn't have to go out today.  They do not clear roads in Tri-Cities like they did when we lived in Salt Lake but to be expected since we don't get much snow.  I don't think the roads had ever been cleared when I was out in it.  Evelyn kept saying worried comments in the back seat like "Are we going to make it?"  and encouragment like "good job Mom, you are really going fast now."  I think my highest speed was maybe 30 mph.  Once we made it home in the garage we all cheered!

Daddy's girl

Found this picture on my camera and it brought good memories.  From the day Evelyn was born she has loved her Dad very loyaly.  When she was a baby there was a time when only Daryl could put her to bed.  I love this picture because it reminds me of their bond or maybe it's the memory of this afternoon.

Juice

Last year I got a Vitamix from Daryl for my birthday.  We both like drinking green smoothies for breakfast--they taste a lot better than they look.  I think my friend Andrea Lee was the first person to get me started on green smoothies.  Daryl got a Jack Lelane juicer from my Mom for Christmas.  A juicer is a lot different than a vitamix because it only gets the juice of the fruit and not the pulp like a vitamix does.  Daryl came home with the BIGGEST bag of carrots I had ever seen to try on the juicer.  I thought there was no way we would drink all of it but we did!  I mix half carrot and half pinneapple juice together.  Carrot juice straight is pretty strong.  We also made a couple of other juices.  One that was surprisingly good had beets in it!  I guess we like to drink our vegetables.

Carrots!

Evelyn helping out