Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

We made this holiday special by getting the girls cute new dresses and a small box of chocolate they could enjoy. We gave the chocolate in the morning before I took them to work with me, and the dresses at night so they could sleep in and play with them. We took the treats I made last Sunday to share with our friends at the gym with the extra Valentine cards I got for Claire's school class. It was fun to see all the cute outfits parents choose for their kids for holidays and after work, I took Claire to school where she had a class party. When we picked her up, she had a whole bag of Valentine's from her class and was sweet to share some of them with Shay. Chris got me a very cute new puzzle and I got him a super fluffy robe even though it's starting to finally warm up and he will be too hot in it soon. Claire was excited to help me with my puzzle even though most of the time I worked on it she was asleep, I like it so much I want to do it again soon.

Sickness

Claire gave the bug she had last weekend to Shay and we had some hard days this past week. I thought Claire was better, but she complained about her tummy when I was driving home from work on Monday. I usually run in to grab her backpack and then take her straight to school, but she said she was going to throw up so we all came inside and she ended up in the bathroom. She took a nap that day instead of going to school and then was over it because she was starving for dinner time and didn't throw up again. Then Shay was acting pitiful Wednesday night and ended up throwing up in the morning right as I was getting to work. I have some great co-workers able to cover for me and we came home early and she took a long nap. Thursday and Friday's nights were both hard and she has been coughing pretty bad too but Saturday was better even though she is still taking long naps like she is recovering.

Fabulously February

 Claire

Most of this week was very regular, going to the gym with me, catching up with homework from missing last week, and playing all the time. She got sick with an upset tummy on Saturday morning and has been working on feeling better today so she missed out on going to church, but she seems better and will be able to go to school tomorrow if she doesn't throw up the food she's eaten. We went to the library this week to pick some new books and do the fun search they have all the time, it was all cute baking cake stuff this month. They also had a table with some coloring pencils and two different heart pictures they colored, makings sure one was for mommy and one was for daddy. They learned where the pencil sharpener was and took the time to go through all the pencils and sharpen the dull ones, which was only annoying to me...probably.

Shay

I went on a trip to target with Shay which isn't the normal store we go to, but I was looking for more options on the hearts I was going to buy for Valentine's Day. I didn't find what I wanted, but we did find clearance slippers that Shay was excited about and she helped me pick a new pair of shoes and a dress she will be getting for her birthday. Letting her see it beforehand isn't the smartest thing but I wanted to know for sure the kind of things she wanted. I was surprised she let me go hide the shoes and dress so she can open them in two weeks, and I know a few other things she's asked for I picked out online. I'm hoping to work on her speaking which seems to have regressed a little since her tooth was pulled and she needs to practice certain sounds more.

Homemaking

I usually don't talk about all the mundane chores around the house because who really wants to read about that? I got Claire and Shay to help me clean up and redecorate for February, which they really like to do, especially when they do pictures that get put up on our door. I had extra laundry this week because of Claire's sick stomach and enjoyed cooking Chris's favorite meal, potato soup with bread bowls from the store. I also made some heart rice crispy treats that Claire named 'heartispy treats" after having one for reading all her sight words. Now we have treats to share with our gym friends and are prepared to hand out Valentine's cards too.

The Great Wolf Lodge

 Travels

We have a lot to cover for our amazing trip this week so, let's dive right in! We did the regular routine stuff early this week and got packed and ready to go in time to fly to Phoenix for our mini Bell vacation. The girls were very excited for their first time washing, even though technically Claire has flown before and Shay was in my belly during that time. This was the first time in their remembered life and was great with following directions to get through the TSA and to the waiting area. Asked if it was time to go plenty of times, but were distracted by their shows on Chris's old phones enough that we weren't too bothered and they weren't scared at all. Claire was very excited about being driven in a car that wasn't ours to and from the airport, and Shay thought we were taking off as soon as the plane started moving. Coming back wasn't as exciting because they were sad about leaving the vacation and had just been on a plane a few days before. The night we got there we went to the dance party they hold in the lobby every night to tire the girls out so they would go to sleep but stayed up way later than their bedtime.

Thursday

After staying up way too late, we all woke up excited for the day and ate some breakfast before the water park opened. After 2.5 hours of swimming, I was tired and convinced Claire and Chris to join me for lunch while Shay stayed with grandma and her cousins. She was done by the time we got the food to eat though and then we did some of the fun things around the resort like mini bowling, and mini golf. I also bought them wands that let them light up the Magic Quest things that are all around the resort while Chris and Shay were napping. Claire and I did the magic and then when I was tired, she took one of her aunts around again and wasn't the last time she went around to light them all up. She was excited to show Shay and I wish they wanted to play the quest games associated with it because it looked cool to me! In a few years, I'll convince Chris it is worth it to go back and then they will be old enough for that kind of thing. We met up with their cousins and had a movie night which turned into a sleepover with one of their cousins.

Friday

Started the day very similar to the previous day with breakfast and then swimming when the water park opened. The water park had a lot of slides, a lazy river, a toddler area, a wave pool, a big water playground, an outdoor pool, and a hot tub outside. They liked the waves and the one slide they were big enough for the first day but noticed they liked the hot tub and the toddler area more today. It felt colder so it must have been the warmer water, and Claire was cold earlier so we only swam for just 2 hours before hopping out and finding lunch. Claire and Shay did more magic questing and grew attached to the part that had a princess making her wave at them over and over again and we did some more golf. They went inside the arcade but we just let them act like they were playing the games because they weren't really old enough to actually play. We had a big family dinner with all the group that was there which was almost 20 people, and Shay was tired and made a bed for herself with napkins. Time flew and we were already falling asleep on our last night there.

Saturday

A very late start to the morning had us packing up, eating breakfast, and getting ready to swim one last time before we checked out at 10am. Swimming wasn't as novel as it had been the first day but Chris and I let the girls play with Grandma while we got to try out the other fun slides, regretting not doing it sooner! The girls had to try the outside pool one time because they hadn't ever gone in and insisted it was necessary, but when it wasn't that exciting they were done rather quickly and finished our time after only 1 hour. We played another round of mini golf, and some magic, and played in the arcade, but they didn't seem as excited about it as the day before. The novelty wore off pretty quick except that Claire told me we need to have the green leaves that activate the magic at our house, the wands don't do much without things to point them at. We ate lunch and were ready to head to the airport for our flight home which was successful in bringing us back to the cold weather in Utah.