Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day was a good mix of traditions, a simple normal day and a few new traditions thrown in for some extra fun.

The morning started with a few self-portraits.  Carter likes to take pictures himself when he sees the camera sitting out.

 Not bad, at least he got both of us in the shot!

Then it was cookie time!  Yep, it was only 9am but I figured I'd give him sugar early so he'd have all day to burn it off. Every year we make heart shaped sugar cookies the night before Valentine's Day.  It started a few years ago when Matt was in a cookie contest at work.  We've used the winning recipe ever since!  Except this year we couldn't find the darn heart-shaped cookie cutter so we settled for some nice butterfly cookies instead. (I'll never understand why Carter smiles like that everytime....he thinks it's normal to scrunch up your nose as much as possible!)

Then we took the extra cookies over to our neighbors.  Carter was so excited!  Of course, they weren't home and he was determined to sit and wait on the front porch all day until they returned.  Thank goodness I convinced him a surprise Valentine would be much more exciting.

Matt's mom loves to buy the kids holiday shirts each year.  I really wanted to get a picture of both kids together in their new outfits.  I just love Lucy's little heart shirt.  This was the best I could get.  

 Carter was so sweet and gentle with Lucy and really just wanted to give her a hug.  She wanted nothing to do with it.

 They look thrilled.

 Finally, Carter got his reward for all that picture taking.  Pink milk!

And we ended the night with our traditional homemade pizza.  Usually we use fresh dough and fancy toppings but this year we went cheap.  It was still delicious and made for a perfect end to a lovely day.

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beautiful.

Carter discovered a new word recently: beautiful.  It was the sweetest thing when it happened too.  One morning, after getting much less sleep than desired, feeling like my jeans were tighter than they should be and watching my face break out like a 13 year old girl he randomly walked into our room and genuinely said, "Mom, you are so beautiful and nice. I love you."  It melted my heart.  Suddenly I didn't care about the tight pants and tired eyes.  I knelt down, gave him the biggest hug and was so proud of my sweet son.

But then, the next day, he walked in again.  This time it was, "Mom, this is such a beautiful bathroom.  Thanks!"

Hmmm.....

And this weekend when entering Costco on a busy Sunday afternoon: "WOW!  What a BEAUTIFUL store!"

So, the word still remains but might not be as sweet and genuine as the first time he used it.  Oh well, it still makes me feel like a million bucks when he says it about me. 

 And completely unrelated.  Matt bought me (well, the kids) popsicle molds for mother's day last year and I had yet to use them.  So I whipped up a mixed berry/greek yogurt/flaxseed/OJ/spinach smoothie and poured it the molds.  Carter loves his "special treat" and has no idea that its healthy!

And he loves to never, ever, ever wear pants.

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beating the winter blues.

Even though this has been a relatively mild winter we've still had our fair share of foggy, cloudy, dark, cold wet days.  So, to keep our spirits happy we've stayed busy.  

On a random sunny (but very cold) Saturday Matt quickly picked up about 12 pounds of dog poo in the yard and the kids happily ran outside for some baseball practice.  Lucy was our ball girl.

 And Carter hit about 50% of the pitches!  So proud of our boy!

 I've been trying to discover new, healthy comfort foods.  This was our favorite: cheese tortellini soup with spinach and tomatoes.  So delicious, simple, hearty, everyone loved it and it made enough for 4 dinners!

 Carter is still loving Woody and Buzz Lightyear.  It's a daily occurrence in our house to fly to "infinite and beyond" at least 20 times a day.

 We went to the zoo on another cold, but sunny day.  I love having the zoo only 30 minutes from our house with a great family membership.  Lucy loved watching Carter on the carousel and Carter just adored the gorillas.  We sat there for over 20 minutes watching them eat, run, climb and poo (his favorite part).

 The mini trampoline was the best purchase we've made in a long time.  An easy, indoor way to get out the energy on those wet, dark days.

 And lots of fort building.

 Lucy finally has enough hair for pig tails....or at least I like to think she does.  Now if only I could convince her to keep them in.

 We attempted a pinterest-inspired noodle necklace but after realizing the penne pasta I bought was too narrow for our yarn I quickly converted it to a "snack" necklace using pretzels and random cereal.  Carter loved it and spent over 20 minutes eating it while on a nature walk through the neighborhood.

 Lucy is always willing to help clean the house with Yoshi.  She adores the dog. And...yoshi puts up with her too.

 Laundry basket storytime is one of our favorites too!  Who would have thought sitting in a silly basket could bring so much joy.  It's the little things in life.

 We babysat our babysitter's kids for a night so they could go out for a few hours. The boys are only 2 weeks apart in age and the girls only 2 months!  Little best friends who love to play together.

 And then, every once in a while, I get crazy and pull out the finger paints.

 Don't worry, it's non-toxic and she only tasted a tiny bit before realizing it wasn't that tasty at all.

 We like to snack.  And Lucy is getting so good at feeding herself with a bowl and spoon.  It's messy and fun and she loves it!

 So, that's how we do winter in the Vance household. It's definitely not my favorite season and I'm already planning to plant a spring garden, pull out the outdoor toys, fill the sandbox and run through a sprinkler.  But for now we'll continue our inside playtime.

 And discover how to do new things like this!

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