My Valentine

With everyone getting hammered, we've had our share of cold, rainy, yucky days here too. Last night we even had some snow which was gone by morning.



So we've been stuck inside a lot. Which made this surprise even better. Late in the afternoon yesterday we heard our doorbell ring and opened the door to find my lovely Korean neighbor Kim. She had brought us these delicious gyoza dumplings to enjoy. It was soo nice to have something yummy for dinner that I did not have to make. Jonas loved them too. Savannah not so much.




And this is a funny picture of my kids with big marshmellows stuck in their mouths






Lately it's been fun to see Savannah's girly side come out. She brings me cute shoes that she wants to wear, puts on necklaces, wants to comb her hair, feeds her baby doll and carries it around the house.


This picture was courtesy of Jonas



In honor of Valentines Day and because I am missing James so much, here are 10 random reasons why I LOVE this guy-



1- He buys me flowers


2- He always keeps his sense of humor and can make me laugh through difficult situations- including childbirth

3-He once gave up a first class seat to sit next to me in coach

4-He always compliments me and tells me that he loves me every day

5-He has dark hair- (I really like his dark hair)

6-He once bought me these nifty valentine monkey socks


7-On our first Valentines Day together as married people he set up a scavenger hunt for me in the mall where I was working at the time. At every store I went to there was a prepurchased item waiting for me-stuff I liked and some surprises. It was very sweet- (also at every store I went into I had to ask them if they had anything for "red hot" -Yeah he likes to make me blush too

8-He helps me to calm down and laugh at myself when I start hyperventilating about my 50 page to do list

9-He will eat whatever I cook no matter what and believe me there have been some less than appetizing meals at times

10- He is an amazingly wonderful Dad

Jonas pics

So I realize that my last post was mostly Savannah pictures and I just happened to get some good ones of Jonas this week.


This doesn't happen too often but I love it when I think of a different way to keep Jonas entertained and quiet. Yesterday I gave him his kid scissors and told him that I needed him to cut up an empty cereal box. He loves cutting so he was working on it for quite a while. Of course he had to be wearing his safety goggles-his addition.



Jonas was given a couple of large toy construction vehicles that also play music. These are some pics of him dancing to the music in the driveway.







Thanks for the puzzle Treadways!


Construction worker Jonas



Hiding to jump out and "surprise me" as soon as I came out


Making Savannah laugh


One of Savannah peeking out of the tent

winter bleh

My poor kids have been stuck in the cold while their mother tries to decide weather to try and get the furnace fixed or to get a whole new furnace. Luckily, it's getting warmer here already and will hopefully soon be back in the 60s. We've been huddling in blankets and coats and building lots of fires in the fireplace. We've also been stuck inside a lot. I've decided that I could just really do without winter altogether.

We had a fun Christmas despite our circumstances. Jonas got very excited for Santa to visit and fill his stocking. Savannah enjoyed playing with wrapping paper and boxes. She was also absolutely amazed by the Christmas tree. Every time she looked at it she got excited by the ornaments. She kept wanting me to hold her up and point out each ornament. We also went to a lake with some good friends here on Christmas Eve and then had Christmas dinner with them the next day.

Now it's on to 2010 and here's to hoping I can keep at least one of my 50 new years resolutions. At the top of my list is-don't turn into a crazy person this year. No it's not too late to make this goal really. Ok so maybe it is. :)





won't he be surprised by the next package he receives



her favorite hangout



a game of peek-a-boo with big brother



A new dress for Christmas from Grandma

Christmas

For his Papa

I copied my sister in law and made this video of Jonas. I'm sorry Mel it was just too good. We had so much fun watching yours and I wanted to have something to put a smile of James' face tomorrow.

My babies are growing up. Sniffle Sniffle. We recently celebrated their birthdays which are only a few days apart. When they get older it is a reminder to me of truly how brief our time with them is. On a day to day basis it doesn't feel like that, especially when I'm trying to get us all ready to go somewhere which takes anywhere from 1-5 hours and one of them is pitching a fit and the other is crying every time I set them down. That was the case earlier today. But we eventually made it out the door and after running some errands we made our way to the park.I like how M Russell Ballard said speaking of motherhood that there will be hard times and frustrating times but the joy comes in moments. Today at the park I enjoyed the warm weather (the sun was shining and it had warmed up enough that we didn't even need our jackets), I enjoyed my son pretending to pick me up in an ambulance, save my life,and show me his new climbing tricks, and my daughter grinning away as she tried new things, climbing all over the playground equipment and sitting in the swing.

We also recently got to go home to see the Powells and Atkinsons for Thanksgiving. Thanks everyone for being great company, lending us your cars, letting us borrow your wii and coats etc., babysitting, and most of all for delicious food. We love you!

Halloween

James was gone for most of the month of October. Besides missing him a whole lot I will also admit.... Sometimes things got a little out of hand.




Also, there are some things I've learned about my daughter. She is going to break me of my habit of leaving half full cups of water around the house, because she ALWAYS finds them and loves to dump them out. And she is a picky eater just like I was but loves to eat two of my favorite snack foods- popcorn and granola.


We were all very overjoyed to have James back. We were very literally counting the days and it has made us appreciate just being able to be together so much more. It was fun to enjoy Halloween together. I wasn't too good about pictures this year. Jonas was a transformer. In fact he informs us all the time that he is still bumblebee. Savannah was a really cute girl in a halloween t-shirt. James and I got into the spirit of things by carving pumpkins from Homestarrunner character patterns. We also got into the spirit of things through eating our not so great tootsie roll candy leftovers. It made us want to get better candy next year.

Island in the sun

Can we say SPOILED? I got to go to Hawaii with James and only James. My mom was willing to come all the way to my home and watch my kids for a week while I went on a vacation with my husband. It has always been a dream of mine and James' to go to Hawaii. I thought maybe some day far far in the future but I never would have guessed we would have this chance so soon. James was the reason we got to go. He went through A LOT to get us there where the ADA convention was held this year. We arrived a few days before it started so we could be tourists. Of course it was oh so fun. We got to sleep until we awoke naturally for the first time in a looong time, and go for walks on the beach. We went on a tour of the Dole plantation and ate the most flavorful ice cream made with pineapple juice. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center to learn about the ploynesian islands. We did learn a lot and we also got to see lots of dancing and hear music, eat at a Luau and see a very impressive evening show complete with fire dancing. I can't even begin to describe to you the awsomeness of the PCC and all of the cool things we saw there so I'll just move on. We visited the Hawaii temple grounds, went on an evening dinner cruise with a bunch of mostly asian tourists, found an extremely beautiful and mostly deserted beach to swim in. The day we had plans to go swimming and on a dinner cruise, we got into the car that morning and turned on the radio and heard that there was a tsunami warning in effect for the Hawaiian islands because of the earthquake near Samoa. Luckily later that day we learned that the tsunami warning had been canceled. Whew!! I kept imagining being on the cruise boat and seeing a giant massive wave heading right towards us.
We also got to shopping at this huge international marketplace for gifts to bring home, and visited a fruit stand where James had them cut open a fresh coconut for us to eat (not as good as I always imagined but I'm glad I had the experience). After the first day of the conference we drove to a place called Hanuma Bay which is a great place to snorkel. We got there too late to snorkel so we just swam but we came back very early the next morning with all our snorkel gear. We were so glad we had made the effort to come back because we saw lots of fish and some big ol sea turtles under the water. Actually one of them was swimming literally right next to me which kind of freaked me out. As I'm writing about this trip I am looking at my skin flaking off from the sunburn I got on the trip. That's okay it was soo worth it. Thank you Mom!

Stuff

I didn't want to keep on seeing those spiders on by blog so it forced me into posting again. Sorry for those of you who did look at the blog only to be grossed out by the close ups.







We went to the beach..... again. Gotta live it up while we're so close. I LOVE the beach at Hilton Head in South Carolina. Definitely my favorite beach by far. The sand is so nice, blue skies, and the waves were perfect.




she's learning to walk... but still prefers to be held by mommy
pretty in pink pjs



At the nature center.
Jonas trying to look like the karate kid under his papa's direction having never seen the movie himself.


happy baby :) she looked so cute in her little shoes-too bad she would'nt leave them on.

creepy visitors

I just had to post some pictures of these scary looking spiders that live on the side of our house. I've posted three pictures of two different spiders. Jonas has named them Biggy pops one and biggy pops two. Do you know how unsettling it is to look out your window and see one of these guys hanging around?