Happy Valentine's Day

Did she steal your heart away too? She is too cute! Amelia had a great time posing with her new outfit and heart lolly. Makes my job fun and easy. Teaching her to blow kisses about made me pee my pants. She was hilarious!

Amelia is so ready for Valentine's Day. This afternoon we made little valentines for her preschool friends. She wrote the first letters of everyone's name and her own name. Her lettering is improving everyday! Tomorrow morning we are making cupcakes for Daddy's work ladies. I finally decided to do something different for Valentine's Day. My cousin-in-law Nancy inspired me to make a fancy dinner tomorrow night for Justin and the kids. We will use our china, eat some steak/potatoes/asparagus, and have candle light on the table. Justin sent me tulips for Valentine's day! Thanks sweetie for the breath of spring.

We had sacrament meeting this morning at the Holiday Inn conference center. Amelia was beyond excited to have church at a hotel. Our chapel is still drying out after two additional pipes started to leak. The bishop said there was about an inch of standing water above the carpet line due to a pipe breaking over the primary and YW closets (lucky us). Looks like the disaster relief folks did an excellent job saving the carpet and walls. At this time church should be back in our building on Sunday.

This week I resumed my project to organize my photos on disk and on the external hard drive. After three years I was FINALLY able to get the photos from Amelia's birth off the CD and onto my computer. That was a fun trip back in time. I also noticed how plump Phillip is. He started to fill out around 14 months when I stopped nursing him. I must make skim milk! Once he discovered warm chocolate milk bottles in the morning he started growing. What a delightful, chunky little guy. You just want to scoop him up and eat all his giggles and chubs.

Friday night I hired a babysitter in order to attend the World Wide Leadership Training meeting. It was awesome! I must admit that my ability to focus after four years of dealing with toddler attention spans has affected my ability to focus. After sitting for 10 minutes I was almost asleep and totally zoned out. Still some of the words of our leaders touched my heart. My goal is to read and study the new Church Handbook 2 for both my personal needs, home, and calling.

Last night we hosted a dinner date for three other families in our ward. When we had the Gull family over for dinner last month Alaina and I discussed starting a rotating dinner club within the ward. She got the program off and running the last week or so. Justin stayed home all day to catch up on sleep, playing with the kids, and just being home. I got a free solo trip to Walmart (YES!). I made Milano Bolognaise sauce, homemade pasta, and a raspberry jam crostata. The other folks brought a salad, bread, and beverage. Our evening was enjoyably spent getting to know the Gallego, the Dutton, and Lander families. Amelia, Zane, and Morgan spent most of the time in her new playhouse pretending to play Mom, Dad, and baby. I was so worn out after everyone left I went straight to bed after the kids. My poor feet were twice their normal size.

In the next little while, hopefully weeks, we will have a new major part of our lives! We are finally upgrading to a van. My car cannot hold another carseat. The extra room and planned amenities will be soooooo nice. After saving and planning for a year we will nearly pay for the van in cash. Thanks to tax returns, bonus money, savings, and sheer pluck. Finding a used van in these parts is proving to be a little difficult. Hopefully we can keep business local but it may come down to purchasing a van in Denver or Cheyenne. Hooray!