homebound

Here's a little recap of our past week: Tuesday- Jilly has surgery, Thursday- Rachel gets the stomach flu, Friday night- Jilly starts throwing up, Saturday- Bryan gets stomach flu, Monday- Mattie gets an ear infection, Bryan has a stomach flu relapse.

Obviously it could be a lot worse but holy hannah, we're feeling a little bit picked on!  Add to this some snow and temperatures that didn't get above 25 degrees and we were definitely homebound.  Bryan and Jilly have not left the house at all since Friday afternoon (that's three full days), and Mattie only left today to go to the doctor.  It was not my favorite weekend ever but there were plenty of things to be happy about.

+ The girls have been SO GOOD.  They've kept busy reading books, coloring, dressing up, playing kitchen, watching movies, bowling on the Wii, riding bikes in the unfinished half of our basement, and just being silly.  The fighting has been minimal, which is quite miraculous.  And I know I mentioned this book last week but it has seriously kept us occupied for hours, and we're still only 2/3 of the way done.  

+ Church was canceled on Sunday because the weather was awful so Bryan announced "Church starts at 10am sharp in the living room, everyone please wear your nicest pajamas."  He told us a quick scripture story and it was possibly the best church I've ever been to.

+ On Sunday everyone was feeling well enough for some Valentine's festivities: heart-shaped pizza and Valentines sugar cookies!

+ Bryan won major brownie points letting me pick the movies we watched all weekend.  Friday was Sleepless in Seattle, and Saturday was Father of the Bride, parts one and two.

+ The girls were giddy about the little boxes of chocolate Bryan got them for V-Day.  They love carrying them around and choosing what chocolate they'll eat next.  I made them each a little sleeping bag for their dolls, which was a fun and easy little project.

+ During Mattie's nap today I left Bryan and Jilly at home and ran to the grocery store with every single other Baltimore resident.  We're forecasted to get more snow tonight so everyone was stocking up.  Despite the crowds I felt like I was on vacation wandering the aisles all by myself.  

+ As I type this the snow is falling and we're supposed to get at least 5 more inches.  It's looking like tomorrow will be another day inside and at this point all we can say is "bring it on!"

^ her "not a chance I'm sharing my chocolates with you" face 

9 Valentine's books

One of the things that worried me most about our move was coming from a very mild winter to a not-mild-at-all winter.  I can think of exactly one time in California when I thought it was too cold to go to the park.  And now... we haven't been to the park in weeks.  But, the frigid temperatures outside have allowed for lots and lots and lots of time for our other favorite hobby- curling up with picture books.  Lately we've been reading loads of books in preparation for my very favorite day of the year.

I Love You Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt - I discovered this book back in college when I needed a picture book for a class project.  But now it's one of our regular bedtime stories because it's perfectly silly and sweet.  Our favorite page is when the mom makes a bug sandwich for her little monster to take to school.  Jilly loves to squeal "groooooss!"

Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You by Nancy Tillman - This book is just beautiful and perfectly describes how all parents feel about their children.

Ruby Valentine Saves the Day by Laurie B. Friedman - This is just a bit reminiscent of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but in a much friendlier and love-ier way.  

Fancy Nancy: Heart to Heart by Jane O'Connor & Robin Preiss Glasser - We love all things Fancy Nancy, but I especially love this book because (spoiler alert!) her special valentine is her sister and we're big on sisters in this house.

Happy Valentine's Day, Curious George! - Curious George + a flap-book, we're sold.

The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart by Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton - I knew I'd love this before we even read it because Julie Andrews can do no wrong in my book, but it really was a very sweet story.  Gerry the Fairy Princess is a little Fancy Nancy-ish and she knows how to make it a perfect Valentine's Day.

How Do You Hug a Porcupine? by Laurie Isop - This one was new to us and Jilly giggled through the whole book.

Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal - Do you know what happens when you plant a kiss?  It grows and grows til it fills the world with love.  I loved this sweet little story.  Also, the book is full of glitter which is exactly the way we like it.

Queen of Hearts by Mary Engelbreit - We love Queen of Christmas so I knew this would be a winner.  Ann Estelle is an extreme lover and celebrator of holidays, which always makes for a fun story.

Valentine's Day

We had our preschool party on Thursday so on Valentine's Day we had a fun, relaxing day with our little family.  I was so excited the night before setting up some gifts and our festive breakfast.

I made a little trail of hearts for Jilly down the stairs.  She had been asking every morning "Is it Valentine's Day yet?" so I thought this would show her that today was the day!  She loved it.

French toast and heart strawberries

Jilly made a card for Bryan.  I helped her with all the writing, but she did the rest herself.  Bryan's favorite part is the little green rhino she glued on.

We packed up a picnic lunch (more heart sandwiches) and the girls and I had lunch with Bryan then we went to ColdStone for ice cream.  Bryan had some beautiful roses for us (one for Jilly and a dozen minus one for me.)

Bryan made dinner that night.  He made Chicken Bryan, which is our favorite meal from Carrabba's and what we ate the night he proposed exactly 7 years before.  I got out our china and lit a candle, and we had a fun and fancy dinner.  Jilly thought it was thoughtful of me to put a "blanket" (cloth napkin) at her place.  We're not really used to fine dining around here.  Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures!  After the girls went to bed Bryan and I ate these, but I did something wrong (perhaps cooked them too long?) because they were sub-par.  I'll have to try again sometime soon.  Even with the dessert disaster it was a perfect day with the people I love.

a little Valentine's Party

When we met to make our preschool schedule for this year I employed a little bit of strategy to assure that I was teaching the week of Valentine's Day.  I couldn't pass up an opportunity to have a party for my favorite holiday.  I tried to make it somewhat educational, and I went pretty simple to save myself from strife, but it was a lot of fun.

We made these heart leis.  I gave Clark (our only boy) the option to make a crown, but he wanted a necklace.  One of the girls heard me mention a crown and that's what she wanted and of course her little sister (who I had invited for the party) needed a crown as well.

Next we did some activities with Sweetheart candies.  We did graphing, patterns, and made towers.  

 For snack we had heart shaped pb&j sandwiches and strawberries.  Heart sandwiches have been Jilly's lunch request all month, and the other kids seemed excited about them too.

Then we played games.  I had cut out some big hearts and wrote numbers 1-10 on the back and laminated them.  I played music (the Frozen soundtrack) and the kids played "musical hearts."  When the music stopped, they turned over their heart to tell me what number it was.  Then we picked an action (I had put actions like spin, jumping jacks, etc. on strips of paper for them to draw out of a bag) and they each did the action the number of times their heart said.  Then we did the limbo with a heart garland.  Hysterical.

Lastly I gave them each a sugar cookie to decorate.  I spread the frosting and put out lots of sprinkle options.  They had fun decorating, but especially loved eating their cookies.  And then I sent the sticky, happy kids home.

 

five:: Valentine's Edition

1. In celebration this month I made two different kinds of cookies (and didn't get pictures of either.)  I first made peanut butter cookies with chocolate hearts in the middle.  They were fine, but not amazing (I struggle with making moist peanut butter cookies.)  Bryan's mom always made sugar cookies for Valentine's so I've tried to keep the tradition going despite never being very excited about all the work involved.  But, let me tell you, I finally nailed the sugar cookies this year.  They were so good that I'm contemplating making St. Patrick's Day sugar cookies.

2. Jilly and I went to visit Lisa and Blake earlier this week.  It was so fun to just chat and relax and let the kids play together.  And, Lisa made me pink waffles with strawberries and caramel syrup- yummmm.

 3. On Valentine's Day Jilly and I were battling colds so we mostly laid low.  We did go to the library for a little bit, ran to the grocery store, and heart-attacked Bry's car at work on the way home.  But for the most part we watched Sleeping Beauty, napped, and played at home.

4. For Valentine's Dinner Bryan had the brilliant idea to get crab.  Yum and yum.  It made me laugh to see my dinner next to Jilly's dinner.  I tried to get her to taste some crab but she would have nothing to do with it when there were chicken nuggets around.

5.  I realize all the pictures I have from this week are food.  Major fail.  Jillian had three different Valentine's outfits this year so she was decked out in hearts and pink all week long.  I was a little limited by my maternity wardrobe but managed to wear red and pink all week.  And even Bryan got into the spirit of things wearing his pink tie to church on Sunday, his red t-shirt at night when he'd come home from work, and a red dress shirt to work on Thursday.  We're slowly chipping away at him.

a valentine's dress

When we were in Virginia I saw this dress on sale at Crazy 8's.  I pulled it on over Jilly's clothes to see if it fit and the only way I could peel it off her was to promise to buy it.  My mom got her the matching bow, tights (they have little hearts on the sides), and necklace (that sadly broke.)  When we got home she asked to wear this dress every single day.  Sometimes I would let her put it on for a little while but I really wanted to save it for Valentine's.  Eventually I hid it in the back of her closet but it only took her a couple days to find it.  Then I got sneakier and hid it in my closet, but again, she found it only a few days later.  On Sunday when I got this dress out for her to wear to church she was over the moon.  Love my little Valentine girl.

a valentine's craft

My biggest fear is that one day Jillian will tell me that she is sick of doing Valentine's crafts and activities.  And my heart will break.  But, for now she seems to enjoy them as much as I do so life is good.  We made these stained glass hearts while sitting on my bed and still wearing our pajamas- a sure sign that this craft is a winner.

Prep work- The day before I cut out lots of little squares from red and pink tissue paper.  If Jilly was just a little older she could have probably done this herself.  I also cut out a few heart outlines.

I stuck a heart outline to a piece of contact paper and left the sticky side up.  Jilly then filled up the inside of the heart with little squares.

 At this point she was done and I filled in the rest.

 Then stuck another piece of contact paper on top to seal it in and cut it out.

We ended up making lots of these and sending them off to family members.  Jilly could only handle doing a couple at a time, so I just put the supplies away and pulled them out the next day to make more.

The fun thing about this craft is that it could be adapted to fit any holiday- a four leaf clover, an easter egg, a pumpkin, a christmas tree, the possibilities are endless!

it's the most wonderful time of the year

The best part about putting Valentines decorations up this year (and you better believe we've had these decorations up for weeks by now) was Jilly following behind me saying, "Oh petty, I wike it Mommy."  Love that girl.

Most of my decorations are pretty similar from last year, but I did add a few.

 I made one of these little pouches for each of us, and once I finished them all I realized I'll have to make another one next year!  I'm going to print these notes for us to give each other throughout the next couple weeks.

Powder room, and as a bonus me and baby at 24.5 weeks

My sewing table- this printable is from my cousin's etsy shop and I love it a lot.  It will not be disappearing after Feb 14th.

Valentining

Because of our "14 Days of Valentines" we squeezed every single ounce out of Valentine's Day this year and had so much fun!  Here are some of our festivities -

cookies and milk with frozen pink milk hearts (idea from pinterest of course)

homemade heart pizza

Jilly made us a little Valentine at playgroup

Bryan's mom always made big heart sugar cookies so we made them for each other this year.  You can tell that Bryan is a much superior cookie designer.

Bryan came home from work with this beauty for me

and this for his little Valentine (I've never seen her so excited)

 heart pancakes with heart bacon for dinner (from pinterest again)

and mini Martinelli's for dessert 

On Valentine's I read this excellent article.  My favorite part - "We need to stop thinking of love as a mysterious power that has control over us.  We need to think of love as a way to treat other people, rather than as something that happens to us.; then we will begin to have power over our loving."