SCORE!

I just can't make it tonight.  I tried really hard to wait up today but being that it is already 11:45 pm and you haven't even left work yet, I don't think I can do it. On a happy note, I was a good wife today and ironed your clothes. The kids talked about you all day today.  Their little conversations with each other are my favorite.  At one point I said we were going home and Em shouted your name.  Then Parker kindly corrected her that you were not home yet.  But they are excited to have breakfast with you tomorrow.  They are so sweet. Love you Hubs.  Thanks for working so hard for our family.

Have I told you about your new Family Home Evening (FHE) approach? With Jeff's late hours he is not home before bedtime, let alone in time for FHE. Last year I was pretty discouraged about it and felt that it wasn't really FHE if it was just me and the kids.  We said we would do it on Sundays, but that happened maybe twice.  I didn't want to do it without him and as a result, we just didn't do it .  Awesome... NOT! So after speaking at a stake fireside (post still to come) on Teaching in the Home, my own words kind of slapped me in the face.  We needed to be better. In April 1999, Elder Hales re-read a letter the First Presidency put out in February of the same year. "In the letter, the first presidency taught that by teaching and rearing children in the gospel principles, parents can protect their families from corrosive elements.  They further counseled parents and children "to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel...

I've been rather emotional this week. I haven't cried in months, but apparently this week I felt the need to make up for lost time. The other day I received a letter from my best friend who had just moved away. After reading it I was in tears of course. Me and P were sitting eating lunch together when this all happened. He looked at me and said: "You're sad?" I nodded with as an increase of tears flowed from my eyes seeing his sweet face say those words. I tried to explain why I was sad. He nodded like he understood. He then looked at me for a minute and then without any hesitation he grabbed my nose. P- "I stole your nose." Me - "You did! Now what?" P - "I'm making you a new nose" -  Fiddles with his fingers. P - "Here you go, a new nose" - as he puts it back on my face. I cant help but chuckle as he continues to take my nose and make me new noses over and over again. Then after a minute he looks at...

Or at least the person who buys them for her is. Our Anniversary was awesome this year! It was so nice to really plan and anticipate it.   Jeff's parents watched the kids for us which was so nice. We dropped them off right about nap time and took off.  We were originally just going to go out to dinner but Jeff's folks said we should go to a movie before so we did.   We saw Sherlock Holmes 2 , it was good and so fun to actually go out to a movie.   We came home and got all dolled up for our fancy-shmancy dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House .  Don't worry folks we had a gift card.  It was so much fun and amazingly delicious.  I'm kinda like a man in the sense that the way to my heart is a big, fat, juicy steak and this steak was amazing!  Melted in my mouth.  I would go there all the time if it wasn't so expensive. After dinner we hurried back to get the kids.  I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty eager to see them.  I even asked Jeff ...

The most exciting week of the year came and went and we packed it full of everything we could!  As most of you know, my birthday is just a few days after Christmas and our Anniversary is the following day.  Between Christmas and New Years we are partying non-stop and it is awesome! Jeff was able to take both my birthday and our Anniversary off from work which me and the kids LOVED!  Part of me wanted to just stay home and play as a family all day, but the other part of me wanted to be selfish and have daddy all to myself.  I this we did a pretty good job of sharing him.  :) When he asked what I wanted to do for my birthday I told him I wanted to go to the temple with him.  He hadn't been in... let's just say a while, and I can think of no place I would rather be on my birthday then in the temple with my eternal companion and best friend.  So our friend watched the kids and we took off for an early session.   Well, we just barely missed it. ...

We had season passes to the Oakland Zoo for the first time this year.  We loved it and went as often as we could. When I heard they did Zoo Lights I really wanted to go.  Pretty soon after I heard about it there was a groupon for it so I bought one. We meet Jeff there one Friday after work, it was a good half-way point so we thought it would be perfect.  Unfortunately everyone in the world was driving that night because traffic was horrible for both of us.  What usually takes us 25 minutes ended up taking about an hour and a half maybe even two hours.  It was crazy and we had to stop for fast food for the kids, but we made finally made it. We invited the grandparents, but only my mom could make it, but we were so glad she could! The zoo was completely COVERED in lights it was so awesome!   It was super cold so we tried to keep  bundled up , but kinda hard to do when my toddlers favorite thing to do is take off their clothes.  We h...

We ended up getting season passes to Marine World... i mean Six Flags Discovery Kingdom this past year.  We took a trip down to Magic Mountain and a season pass cost the same as admission so we figured we might as well. Anyway, we didn't make it out there as much as I had hopped, but enough to make it worth it.  When I found out that they did a special " Holiday in the Park " in December I thought it would be fun to get one last bang for our buck.  So one Saturday we made the venture out and spent the day there. It was a blast.  They had all decked out in Christmas decor and lights.  P especially loved the jumbo candy canes. We checked out the Walrus exhibit for the first time.  It was closed every other time we went.  The kids LOVED it.  There was one right against the glass.  He and Em has some sort of special connection.  They stared at each other like this for at least 10-15 minutes.   They were even eye to ey...