February Review

So February started with Max being gone for a whole week while he did a paid sleep study at his work. We were allowed to e-mail him but his e-mails were screened to make sure we didn't give any clues as to what day it was. He was in a room for 7 days and supposed to be all off with his circadian rhythm and whether it was day or night. We could also send photos and the staff would print them to put up in his rooms. It became a joke though because the older boys were at school during the most part and he was only getting pictures of Edwin so the staff thought he had a favorite son. So here are some photos I sent him during that. 

One morning, I knew I needed edwin to nap so I took him on a ride. I was hoping he'd go a little faster so I could jog along side him but he moseyed along the path. At the 1 mile point, there's a park so we played there for awhile then came back.

HE would grab sticks from the park then run to the dock and throw them into the water. He did it about 3 times all while breathlessly chanting "I found a stick" over and over.

There were more hills on the way back and Edwin let me know he was pretty tired but he did make it the whole way.

See what I mean about only taken pictures of Edwin.
Max called me out on it in an e-mail which happened to be a Saturday, (he was coming home the next day, Sunday, but he still thought it was Thursday or Friday.) I ended up sending him these photos but knew he would figure out that it was Saturday because we're at the park together and it is the one where the boys have gymnastics on Saturday. But I didn't care anymore, it had been a long week.

Hauling logs

And then on Sunday, after taking 3 boys to church on my own...(I may have purposely gone 40 minutes late...) we were able to go pick Max up at his work. 

3-year old check up.

More gymnastics

He fell off his changing table while wearing a stormtrooper mask. Unfortunate.

I was watching a friends kid all day so we went to the park on a very cold and rainy day to kill some time.

Max shaved his beard, so naturally he made an event out of it...Which style is best? I'm happy to say that it's been growing back quite nicely!

One of my favorite things is to see my boys reading together

We went to my friend Heather's house to learn how to make pretty cookies. Edwin sure was excited.

My first time with royal icing and they got bumped up in transport but it sure was fun!

Walking to school and warming each other's hands.

Found a Safeway with mini carts! Back when kids were allowed to go to the store and touch things...

Another lovely morning of walking to school. We had some nice weather in February.

Then there was the day of the dog bite! Here's the whole story. We went to the middle school track as a family on a Saturday morning. I was training for a 10k so I ran while Max played around with the kids. A man arrived at the track with 4 small/medium dogs, UNLEASHED! Edwin was interested in the dog so Max went over with him to ask if they could pet a dog. A medium size dog (About the same size as Edwin) got excited and went into Edwins face, which startled Edwin and made him step back, he stepped near a small dog and the small dog nipped at him. Edwin was really upset and Max rolled up Edwin's pant leg and didn't see anything so he assumed the dog had only nipped at his pants. That same dog was chasing down Charlie as well so the owner eventually put the dog on a leash. The owner felt horrible and Max stayed and chatted with him while holding Edwin. Later as I was finishing my run and we were starting to walk to our car, Edwin was still quite upset so Max decided to check his leg again. He lifted his pant leg even higher and found the bite. The owner had already left. Max dropped us off at home then took Edwin to the hospital where they had to wait around for about 5 hours. He's been doing great. They chose not to stitch it because it's better for dog bites to seep and air out. Anyway, it just annoys me that someone was breaking the law and my baby got hurt and now he's more jumpy around dogs and chickens. 

Later that day we got to celebrate My Red Grandma's 87th birthday at a Chinese food restaurant and then have dessert and play games at her house. I apparently didn't take any pictures but it was fun and should be remembered.


Moving on...

Post bath cozies

One of our chickens laid a tiny little egg.

There was all this fake food set out at the library that Edwin had a blast with. Seems like a lifetime ago that this was even allowed!

Another day waking to school and Edwin is making dragon breath

Another lovely day at the track and having fun with reflections!

And that is the end of a lovely February. I'm missing that weather now though. And that we were able to leave the house. 

Titus

We went out in the middle of the week for a date, and it was so exciting!! We decided to go see a show by Titus Burgess. He's a Broadway guy and also a hilarious character in the  show "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" (It's on Netflix) He was doing a one man show and we had no idea what to expect but were just super excited for a night out. And even better news, we timed our date right so we were actually able to go out to eat before the show, for some reason, we always run out of time to eat and end up grabbing chipotle or something quick. We got to try out the Brunch Box which has been a restaurant we've heard about a bunch and never been. We had a tasty sandwich and sweet potato fries. 

 We walked a couple blocks to the show and still had time to walk around the theater before finding our seats, it was just wonderful because we always seem super rushed on dates.

We found our seats, which were surprisingly closer than expected just before the show started. The show was amazing, there was a lot of comedy but mostly singing. It was Titus along with a 3-person band (piano, drums, and bass) All the songs he sang were something significant from his life, he sang a song from Bette Midler that he performed in 5th grade, he sang a Gospel song that he would sing with his grandma while working on their farm, He sang poor unfortunate souls because he played Sebastian in the Broadway version of the Little Mermaid but had hoped he would get to play Ursula. And there were many other songs, many show tunes that had meaning to him. He is very talented and we enjoyed every minute of it. The website said it would be 7:30-10:30 so we got a babysitter until 11ish. Which we kind of felt bad about on a school night. But then the show ended after only one hour which was kind of a bummer but still impressive...but that meant we could still do more dating down town...oh and take bunch of pictures in the pretty lobby. 

With a couple extra hours (And still hoping to get home a little early to let Kaleb go home and sleep) we had a night on the town, At first we ended up going to Target to get some random items. I can't tell you how many dates lead us to Target but it's still fun! Then we were in search of chocolate and there was a nearby S'mores factory. 

It seemed so random and weird and over priced, but we decided to share a S'more that had sweetened toasted coconut and fudge in it.

It's called the 1927 S'mores company but it was established in 2015...hmmm?

Anyway, it was a sticky mess and we probably won't spend $5 on a s'more again. 

And that was our hot night in the big city. Such a fun and different date for us! 

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day. We love a good v-day celebration. Usually from the comfort of our home, so we don't have to worry about getting a babysitter or taking them away from their own potential Valentine. haha. Anyway, the boys woke up to a little box of chocolates then got to do the usual valentine celebrations at school..they came home and dumped and traded all their loot. (Valentines are gettin fancy these days..even when the teacher says NO CANDY!) 

Anyway...Thank goodness I took a picture of this food or else I wouldn't have remembered what we ate...I believe it was Mongolian Beef. And I think it tasted good, haha! Then all I remember is putting the kids to bed. Actually I don't really remember that, I just know that's what always happens next, I don't think we even gave them Chocolate covered Strawberries. 

 Max and I sat and ate chocolate covered strawberries and discussed some of our most memorable Valentine's days. I could really only think of 2, one when we were first dating in high school. and another when we were living in Utah and I had just found out I was pregnant with Charlie. (All the Valentine's days we had since having kids were a blur so thankfully we were able to look back at this trusty old blog and review many years of Valentines.)

Anyway, I'm going to describe the high school date since there is no record of it on this blog yet and even though I remember it 14 years later, it probably will slip my memory at some point. Max was a senior in high school and I had already graduated, (I was the bus driver, remember?) Max created a surprise date for us and I had no expectations. It was my first ever Valentine's day with a Valentine and we had only been officially dating for a couple months. First Max took me to the library and we said we are going to research about Valentine's day and figure out where it came from. I had already heard something on the radio about where it came from so I was a big buzzkill letting him know that I already knew. ha! I'm the worst. Then as we were driving somewhere else (the whole date was a surprise to me) max stopped the car behind Safeway near our houses. It was always a joke to go make-out by the dumpsters behind Safeway but we had never actually done it so we tried that out for a couple minutes, felt really awkward so we left for the next thing. Max drove me to a seafood restaurant, and he mentioned something about having to wait awhile since it's Valentine's day, only to find out that they took us to be seated as soon as we walked in. He had made a reservation, haha, pretty classy for a high schooler. Anyway, we loved our food and as we were eating, we found a set of gloves under the table. We passed them to the waitress and she thanked us profusely, she said the last guests had been calling trying to track down these gloves. Later in the evening, the waitress brought out dessert for us and said it's on the house because they were so grateful we had found the gloves. Being in high school and getting offered a free fancy dessert is basically like hitting the jackpot! And probably why this was one of the most memorable Valentine's days, haha.  
Anyway, after reading our blog, another V-day that stood out was when I was super pregnant with Miles, and Max had made a very thorough slideshow of our life together and I remember at the time, we were just so amazed at how far we had come in life since being "high school sweethearts" so it was funny to see how life had changed since he had made the slideshow and we only had 1 kid.

Anyway, after that big old trip down memory lane our disco dance party began! One thing that I'm pretty proud of is how good we've gotten at home dates. We really enjoy doing pretty much anything together so we have to consciously decided when we are going to do a home date then make sure we put our phones away and get our usual night time chores done so we can enjoy that date...This night we decided that our living room was a dance club. haha!

Pictures were random and awkward

And, let's be real, a lot of our home dates end up like this...we haven't matured much since high school.

Anyway, I don't know what else to write here, but hooray for free v-day dates and trips down memory lane. The next day, Max was one of a couple people that put together a family valentines dance party at our church...I didn't really take photos but her's our flyer, haha!

Oh and I took this photo of him making some sort of makeshift light-holder. bahaha

Anyway, it was fun to dance around with the kids, eat snacks, and then send them into the movie room so Max and I could dance....I'd like to think we've become better dancers through all this, but I'm not sure that's true. Anyway, Happy Love day!