Valentine's Day

I mentioned to Rich the other day that flowers for valentines day would be nice. He sort of balked at that idea, reminding me how expensive flowers are on valentines day. So imagine my surprise when I came home to 2 beautiful bouquets! 

He said one was from the girls.

 And happy valentines day to my sweet husband, he has been taking a gun safety class for the past couple of nights and I really had no idea he knew how to shoot. I mean, I knew he had been out shooting before, but in the 10 years I have known him he really hasn't gone out much or talked about it much. 

This is his target he brought home to show me... what a sweet valentine... knowing that he can protect me from all those bad guys. If only we had a gun. 

I guess the gun comes next since he passed his class and proved he wasn't a bad shot. 

Thank you again to my sweet valentine for always being there for me. This past year has been the most amazing and wonderful year of our marriage. We have grown together and learned how to compliment each other in ways I never knew were lacking. You pick up the slack when I fall short, and even when I don't you go above and beyond what I would expect any man to do. I am so grateful for you every day. I am so happy that you have a great job that allows you to work from home so that you can be there, every day, to welcome our girls home from school. (Even if you forget Ryann on the bus once or twice or five times). I love you forever and ever and thank you for being my eternal companion and father to our beautiful children. 

Breakfast in Bed: Birthday Style

Happy birthday to my amazing, sweet, loving 6 year old. This morning we woke her up with breakfast in bed.

She requested cinnamon rolls from the can. She is her daddy's girl. 

 Cara wasn't too pleased that we had to wake her up too. 

 She felt like such a big girl because usually only moms get breakfast in bed. 

 Cara is still not enjoying that she didn't get breakfast in bed... so I finally caved and brought her up a cinnamon roll too. 

 We let Ryann open a couple cards, but saved the presents for after school because we never have enough time in the morning. 

My favorite part was when Ryann says, "Cara, I can do whatever I want because it is my birthday." Cara says, "NO FAIR!" then Ryann says, "It is fair, because one day it will be your birthday and you can do whatever you want too."

I quickly reminded Ryann that while she can do whatever she wants, she needs to remember that 6 year olds are really nice and they always listen. She said, "Duh, I already know that mom, remember, I am 6 now."

Torchy's Tacos

One day for lunch we decided to hit a couple places to eat. We first ate at a BBQ truck and had amazing brisket, then we went over to Torchy's Tacos. 

'

 Texan's do love their queso cheese dip. We had queso dip with chips, queso dip with eggs, queso dip with french fries, queso dip with guacamole in it, and basically queso dip isn't my favorite, but it is still pretty good. I think if I wanted to live there I would need to bump queso to a favorite food or else I wouldn't fit in.

 I had a vegetarian avacado taco, yummy.

Austin Trip

Rich and I took a quick trip to Austin, Texas this weekend. It was a fun getaway without the girls (thanks for all who helped us out!!) and we had fun visiting some friends who moved their last year. 

I had no preconceived notions about Austin, but Rich imagined tumble weeds, desert, hot, and a lot of Texas accents. He was very mistaken and happily surprised when we got there. There were hills and rivers and lakes and trees. LOTS of GREEN! We drove around a lot to look at things, but basically our trip consisted of food, more food, and even more food. I do believe I ate my weight in food and boy it was delicious!

We ate at a restaurant called Uchiko, a Japanese restaurant. My very favorite part was the "hot rock", the raw beef was put in front of us, then we set it on a hot rock and it cooked it!  You could cook it rare or even well done, whatever your preference. So tasty.

Austin Weekend

 Rich is of course my favorite photography subject when my girls are not around. How could he not be with gems like this??

 

I promise I didn't tell him to pose underneath the horse. He told me to take a picture because Ryann would love it. 

 Here are some $450 pair of boots that Rich was definitely NOT considering buying.

 However, he did want to buy this $70 wolverine arm thing. SERIOUSLY?

Even though he may be a little crazy,  I sure love him.

Thanks for the vacation hun! I love you, every part of the crazy you.

Training Wheels

Ryann asked if we could get her training wheels. Turns out this means she wants them taken off of her bike. Every kid she sees now she says, "look mom, they are riding their bike with training wheels" if they don't have training wheels. It is silly but I don't really want to correct her yet, it just makes her seem so sweet and innocent. 

 So daddy took them off yesterday. We had a few practice runs back and forth in the driveway, then today I took her running down the hill a few times, still holding on every time. 

Hopefully we will be able to get some more practice in at a parking lot sometime next week.

This girl is going to be 6 next week!  She is so excited and can't wait for the day and then for her big birthday party. 

Facetime

We went for a couple months without an ipad. It was seriously depressing for me because it meant the girls and I couldn't Facetime my family. 

Thankfully we have one again. Just this week we have talked to Devyn, Hazel, Jason, Grandma and Grandpa.  We are hoping that we will finally get in touch with Pete and Erin soon. Also we need to catch up with Dean... Talk to you guys soon!

My Little 49er

One of my favorite pictures of Cara Kay. 

SuperBowl Food!

We had a little party at the house to celebrate the 49ers in the superbowl. I delivered a baby right before it started, but I did have time to put all the food together. 

 6 layer dip above, guac, cheese, salsa, and crackers below. 

 Ryann hiding behind our flag. 

 Specialty (grocery store made) 49er cupcakes. 

We also had homemade chili in homemade whole wheat bread bowls. Delicious. Also some spinach and artichoke dip that was fabulous as well. 

So sad they didn't win though. At least we had good food. 

Birthday Presents

2 of my birthday presents... a nice new shoe rack for my closet! Wahoo!

I seriously have been complaining about how messy it is, and now it is clean!

 And Zumba for the wii!  I am excited, especially since I have slacked sooo much on exercising this pregnancy. Hopefully without the public humiliation of zumba I will be able to do it more often in the privacy of my own home.