The Gift of Time

Right at the tail end of enjoying a long weekend together as a family, our little Lainey decided to get sick. As everyone seems to experience at one time or another this time of year, a sick kid can really put a wrench in a busy week, but on the flip side it can also give you the gift of some unaccounted for time. Not that I would ever wish illness on my kids, but sometimes it is nice to have an excuse to just be quarantined in the house, wear pajamas all day, catch up on some things that have been put off for too long, blog, or just hang out with the kids without feeling any pressure to be doing something else. It feels like free time--time that is always taken up by the daily routine. So while I'm hoping and wishing for a speedy recovery of my little one, I also thank her for this day she has given me to just sit, relax, and cuddle with her for as long as I want to.

Spreading The Love

We love the month of February here in our house. The girls love the idea of getting lots of candy for Valentine's Day, they love making sugar cookies and I love any extra reason to give them of why they need to show love to one another and to everyone else. 

We started off the celebration early with our annual fondue party with the Johnson's. This year they hosted.

The food was delicious. My favorite is probably the cheese fondue. We had apples, apple sausage, steamed cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and a baguette to dip with...so yummy. We had chicken, steak and shrimp for the oil. All very delicious, but the steak had my vote. We decided next year rather than oil we'll try a broth. The chocolate was chocolate so I suppose it doesn't really matter what you dip in there.

 This year Jess picked this little project for her valentines. I honestly can't find the source now, but it was made from miniature chocolate bars wrapped with paper and we put a little fish tail and eye on there. They were easy and pretty quick and CHOCOLATE so you can't go wrong.

 Tegan did a simpler version without all the accessories just writing her name on each one.

She has become a pro at tracing and cutting out her hand so we made this little card for the grandparents.

We made and delivered this boquet of goodies to Tom at his work. Again I found the idea online but I'm not sure where. He loves cliff bars and we stuck in a few of his other favorites. Tegan decorated the paper we wrapped around it.

Jessie made this lemon character for her teacher at school. She drew a face on it, and made a coat, blanket and bed for it out of felt. She was too embarrassed to actually bring it to her because she thought the teacher would laugh, but I thought it was clever.

The girls helped me whip together this heart shaped pizza. Not the most beautiful thing in the world but it tasted great.

Not the most flattering picture of us

We finished the celebrating the next night with a date night out with friends. We got all prettied up to go dancing, but due to poor planning on my part it fell through so we did the next best thing and went bowling :) It ended up being really fun we had our shoes that glowed in the dark, and they had some pretty catchy music to swing our hips to before shooting the ball down the lane.My black shirt I realized was not the best choice with the neon lights. I look like I had just wrestled with a cat.

In other news

Tegan and I got to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile for the first time. She thought it was pretty cool, actually so did I, and Tegan got this little wiener whistle that she's been driving us nuts with ever since.

Miss Lainey Loo has taken to putting just about anything she can hold in her mouth.

And Miss Jess's front space just gotten a little bit bigger.

Some Indoor Fun

Every summer I wonder why I get the annual museum pass and every winter I remember why. Thank goodness for a few indoor options for play this time of year.

This is our sweet niece Charlotte. She got to come hang out with us for a week. It was hard to say goodbye to this sweet girl and the girls all had so much fun together.

One of our rare OMSI trips.

And a day full of entertainment at the YMCA. The keep there pool almost hot tub temperature so my skinny little girlies don't freeze to death after 2 minutes. Lainey sported her new swimsuit looking quite adorable, but then I'm biased. Tom and I went back to the Y for a little date night. It's been so long since we've played raquetball together that we'd forgotten the rules, even so we had a good time and decided it's something we need to do more often.

Cracked Her Head Wide Open

 If you run into Tegan anytime soon she's sure to tell you about how she cracked her head open. It all started when the two girls decided to strip down to their underwear. Anytime they do this (and it's not near as often as they'd like) they become like wild animals chasing each other around, jumping on couch cushions and doing donkey kicks. This particular time they were chasing each other back and forth while I was busily getting dinner together. Next thing I know Tegan is holding her head and screaming. I assumed it was the usual bumping into something, but this time she ran smack into the corner of the counter. I have always been grateful that my kids have somehow avoided stitches or broken bones, but I knew I was living on borrowed time. While holding her and trying to calm her down Jess informed me that she was bleeding. I did what any good mom would do and immediately took my sweater off so it wouldn't get blood on it. But seriously I did feel myself go into panic mode a little bit. I fumbled with the phone, called Tom and informed him our little munch would need stitches. That one word "stitches" sent Jessie, yes Jessie (the uninjured girl) into a tizzy. She began crying and carrying on about how she didn't want her sister to get stitches or shots and it would hurt and getting Tegan all worked up. I finally did the only thing I could think of to do and that was to send Jessie to her room to say a prayer. She went and came back and then went back again to pray some more when she started to get upset again. At some point in time not long after the injury I remembered my friend telling me a story about her husband (a doctor) gluing a cut on one of the neighbor kids. I called and prayed they would answer and they did. He came right up, pulled a bottle of super glue from the dollar store out and in no time at all that "cracked" head was glued right back together.
It was a funny experience, and a learning one too. It wasn't life or death, or even a true emergency, but I was grateful for how the Lord answered our prayers that day. It was a reminder to me that He listens and He knows our needs. That simple call to our friend helped us escape a huge ER bill, some major drama from one daughter and tears from the other. When it was all said and done Tegan was the proud owner of a new scar, Jessie was a relieved older sister, I was a humbled mother and we were all able to sit down to a dinner that was still warm.

This is her completely back up to speed the next day.