Our February...

Right up there next to Christmas I would have to say that Valentine's Day is probably one of my most favorite holidays. It's not that Stephen and I do big things for each other or spend oodles of dollars on flowers and gifts. But I love spending the day with those that matter most in my life....my family.

This year we started a fun tradition. I cut out a whole bunch of hearts at the beginning of the month and each day up until valentines day we would write something we love about each other and put them on their respective bedroom doors. It was fun to try and think of unique and creative things about each person in our family and what we love about them. Andrew loved seeing hearts on his door and asked to read all of them almost everyday after his nap. He even wanted to write one for daddy.

I feel very blessed to have an amazing group of friends here in my ward. There are about 10 girls who are all at about the same stage of life...young moms with just a few kids. Anytime we get together we go away with our stomachs hurting from all the laughter. They are simply wonderful! We plan play dates at the park, have weekly play group. But my absolute favorite are the girl nights, when we can get together without the kids. So in February, I decided to host a fondue girls night and valentine exchange. It was a great. We just need a little food and we could sit and chat it up for hours. Sadly, I totally forgot to take pictures. But nonetheless we had a fun time that lasted in the wee hours of the morning.

We had a fun Valentine's Day at our house this year. I kept trying to build it up with Andrew and have him practice saying "Happy Valentine's Day"  but that was quite a mouthful for him and nobody could understand anything but the "happy" part. Other than having a few therapists come over and work with Andrew, it was a pretty calm day.

We had a yummy valentine's day breakfast with heart cinnamon rolls and fruit.

Andrew was super excited to get a valentine's day package in the mail from Grandma Lyn and Grandpa Jerry. I think his most favorite part was pulling everything out of the package and when he saw the fruit snacks. He wanted to eat every package.

Then we had a nice candle lit dinner. It's been a tradition since Stephen and I have been married to avoid the valentine's day restaurant rush and cook our own delicious steak meal together. I love it and even though it was cold, Stephen fired up the grill. Andrew loved the candles and kept singing the 'happy birthday' song throughout dinner. Afterwards, we had gotten him a small gift and as he was opening it he kept claiming that Santa had brought him the gift. (I think between singing happy birthday and the Santa gift giving he was a bit confused as to what holiday it was....ah well)

Another reason I may love February so much is that it's my birthday month. The years seem to be flying by so fast. Stephen told me about a week or so before my birthday that the scouts he works with had planned a campout the weekend of my birthday so, he'd be off building fires and taming 14 year olds and sleeping in a tent. Jokingly he did invite me to come along, because he felt bad just leaving me alone with Andrew for the weekend. But I quickly declined that generous offer. I ended up spending half the day grocery shopping and helping him get things together so he could get out the door. Then I decided that Andrew and I would have a date night. So we hopped into the car and off we went.

First stop was Chick-fil-a. I really do love that place and I knew Andrew would too. After that we headed over to one of the malls close by and walked around together. First of all he loved just walking around. (I don't think this kid will ever get sick of walking and ever ask to be carried...EVER!)

He got the biggest kick of riding the elevators and the escalators. Which are now his most favorite things in the entire world.

Then we found the carousel and rode the horses together.

After the carousel, we ended the evening by sharing some yummy fresh raspberry gelato.  It ended up being a terrific day.

Then on Saturday after Stephen got back from his camping adventures, we ended up meeting up with his Aunts and uncle and eating one of my most favorite meals. Texan BBQ. I don't think I could ever get tired of it...or ever be vegetarian.

Just look at all that meat

Another big event in the month of February was my sweet niece Ashley received her mission call. She will be leaving in May and will be serving the people of Torreon, Mexico, Spanish speaking. I am so grateful for technology and the fact the I was able to facetime over the phone while she opened her call. Technology truly makes the thousands of miles between us small. She has such a strong testimony and is such a darling girl. She will be an amazing missionary.

It's  been a crazy winter everywhere it seems and Dallas was no exception. We had a few more snow storms this month. Considering we only get one maybe two snow storms an entire winter. Having snow in February is pretty much unheard of.  I was planning on going to play group one morning and poked my head out the door and saw this.

Yep! A whole maybe inch and a half of snow. Now anywhere else I wouldn't think twice other than to just be careful on the roads.  But here in Texas...I thought it was WAY to dangerous to even attempt to go. I did end up going out on those treacherous roads, and my husband laughed when I told him the story. I am the first to admit I am truly a whimp these days.