Happy Valentine's Day!

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My sneaky Valentine

For Valentine's Day we had decided we were going to the pancake breakfast at church, probably would catch a movie at The Riverview (mostlikely with Em in sling), and have a nice dinner at home - I was thinking I'd make mussels. Yum.

The rest of the weekend was to consist of a senior recital for one of Steve's athletes Friday night and baking with the HTLC youth Saturday night (for Katie & Emma at least). So yesterday afternoon I worked on the house and sort of getting myself ready to go to this recital. We were going to grab a small dinner before the concert, so I had to have us ready to leave by 5. I got Emma all fancy in this super cute outfit - complete with beret - from my cousin Julie, and shoved myself into a skirt that -mostly- fits still. My husband made surprisingly great effort to get ready and looked quite sharp if I must say so myself. For a man who works in sweatpants, this really doesn't happen often at.all.

Steve loaded Emma off and we headed out, although it seemed like we were going an odd way to get to Mac. Seemed more like we were headed towards my aunt & uncle's nearby condo. The very same aunt & uncle who watch Emma for us 3 days a week. Hmmm. . . Steve had arranged to have them watch Emma (who was now very fancy for a night of staying in!) while he took me out to one of my favorite restaurants in the Twin Cities (Chino Latino - coconut curry mussels??! YUM!) and the option of a movie.

What a great night! Fabulous dinner, time to connect with my hubster, an Indy flick in a theater that I picked (A Single Man - good movie!), and a little time to recharge for mommyhood.

And in the car after I figured this out - a single rose with a card asking me if I'd accept it. Gotta love my cheesy husband!

Happy Valentine's Day!

5/12

4/12

3/12

Social Butterfly

A few weeks ago I was feeling a bit down. It may have been some post NM fall out, when we're there and I'm with girlfriends from college I tend to feel the pang of not having them closeby. Or it may have been the fact that my mom has a ridiculously close, fun, strong group of friends who see a LOT of each other and I find myself feeling jealous of that. Don't get me wrong - I have wonderful friends; however, many of them live way too far away (NY, IL, TX, NM), or are really busy with mommy duties & work in the cities.

SO! Since then I've joined a mom's group, started a knitting group, set dates with some gfs, and am connecting more with youth at our church. Pretty soon I'll be complaining about being too busy. Oh, and it's a bookclub weekend which is always a fave!

Water Baby!

One of my favorite stories from Steve's childhood is the time his parents pretended their van was breaking down, stopped at a hotel to 'make a phone call', and surprised the family with an overnight at a hotel. . . with a pool! When this guy talks about staying at hotels with pools, you just can't help but smile.

So for our trip up north, we decided to do just that and have a place for our niece, nephew, and Emma could swim! After checking with our SIL to see what exactly Emma should swim in and picking up some water diapers at Target, we were set! We shoved Emma in a little swimmer and off to the pool we headed! While Henry & Clare did a great job talking about "not scaring baby Emma," the noise & excitement of a 3 & 5 year-old in a pool just can't be easily contained, so Emma was a little freaked out. Couple that with the fact that her morning nap had gotten cut short by the arrival of everyone and her fun meter was a little low.

Steve thought he'd traumatized her until the next day when we got her back in, all by herself, and watched with wonder as she got comfortable splashing in the water, smiling, and seeming to enjoy herself. Go figure we didn't have a camera with us for the 2nd swim!

Home, Home on the Range

The Iron Range that is. We went up nort' Friday to visit some friends & see the Duluth Murrays. Friday night we surprised one of my friends from grad school at her 30th bday party. It was great to see Heather, Frank, the girls, and Lisa & Matt. We headed to Duluth that night and the Duluth cousins came to witness Emma's first swim that morning. It was so cute to see them all together! Emma's gotten so much more interactive with her world since Thanksgiving!

I had a chance to have some "me" time on Saturday, getting my toes pretty for the first time since before Emma was born and hanging out with Lisa. It was definitely recharging to get some pampering!!

Saturday night Steve and I got a glimpse into the future, watching the cousins while Jess & Sarah went to a party. Pete made himself almost invisible and got the low-key kid of the night award. Jess said later on that as much as you can count on one kid "messing things up," you can almost just as surely count on the fact that one will be super easy! The older two were definitely busy, but thankfully no one messed up the night and we had a great time! Steve's fun with Emma will grow exponentially the older she gets - he had such a great time playing with the big kids!

Sunday we relaxed at the hotel and took Emma back to the pool before connecting with the family again. It was a short visit, but really great to get together! We hope we can do it again soon!