Spring Fever

I was looking through some pictures from our last trip to the park last fall...and it made me so anxious for Spring!  Plus this amazing weather says Spring is in the air!  Trey and I went to the park 3 times last week and didn't freeze :).  Yay!!!  

I have the 2 sweetest Valentines ever!

Dale and Trey are of course my sweet Valentines.  I've kinda been super lame at Valentine's Day in the past, so I wanted to step it up a little and give my Valentines a nice breakfast.  Of course, that did require getting up at 6:15 am to make breakfast for Dale before work.  Totally worth it!  Delicious homemade stuffed french toast with fresh strawberries, a semi-heart shaped egg, and amazing OJ...the breakfast of champions :).

Trey and I made heart shaped sugar cookies and delivered them to a few of our neighbors.  Trey loves to "help" right now.  I basically just let him pour everything into the bowl after I measure it out.  It keeps him happy and makes him feel like the best helper in the world.

Dale brought me home a non-traditional valentine, but it was absolutely delicious.  We have this fetish with the Marble Slab Creamery over by us at the District.  Do not be deceived...it is not the same as Cold Stone. They have this amazing "Fudge Brownie Delight" that we get every time we go (which I'm not ashamed to admit is sometimes once a week :).  The name says it all...Fudge...brownie...delight.  It can't get much better.  The only change we make is substituting the plain vanilla ice cream with sweet cream.  Oh buddy :).  Delicious!  So when Dale brought me home a Fudge Brownie Delight for my valentine, you better believe I was thrilled :).  I did share...a little.

My cheesy Valentine to Dale :)  

That night we left Trey home with a babysitter and we headed off to Rodizio Grill in American Fork. The last time we went there was around 5 years ago, but we remembered their delicious grilled pineapple, which was ultimately why we chose this place.  Luckily we got reservations, because those pour souls who didn't were looking at least an hour wait.  When we left at 8:30 the enterance was still packed with people waiting to get a seat. 

The amazing thing about this place is the fact that the meat just keeps coming...every 3 minutes or so you're approached by someone holding a massive skewer of succulent looking meat.  Of course, this venue may not have been the best choice for us since we're not the biggest meat eating family out there...but they did have some good stuff.  I do admit that we kept looking around to see if there were any grilled veggie skewers out there (that would've tickled our fancy for sure :)...but we settled for requesting more grilled pineapple.  Wow.  I haven't eaten that much in a long time :).  I couldn't even hardly eat the chocolate cake they brought for dessert (shocking, I know).  Dale polished that one off.  Since it was Valentine's Day they even sent us home with some pretty red flowers.  Aahhhh :)

Valentine's Day with my hubby and Trey bunny were awesome!  Love those guys!  

Ice Castle Fun

Ice Castle pictures started popping up all over Facebook a couple of weeks ago and we were super intrigued.  We decided we needed to jump on the bandwagon and check these out!  Glad we did- They were amazing!  Most people said they loved it at night, but we went around 4 PM and were so glad we got to see them in the daytime.  The colored lights at night were sorta fun, but they didn't do justice to the sheer amazingness of the ice itself.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Trey liked tromping around through the caves, and liked being in the snow, but he didn't love standing in line for the "slide".  There was this slide everyone kept talking about...and the line was a good 25 minute wait.  We thought this slide must surely be amazing if the line was so long.  So we waited...and the kids cried...because it was kinda cold if you weren't really moving.  It was finally our turn.  To get to the slide you had to hike up this ice tunnel on your hands and knees and then slide down a tunnel of uneven lumpy ice mass until you landed in a small puddle at the bottom.  What a thrill...ha!  When you get to the bottom there's a crowd of people gawking down at you...I'm guessing they were waiting for family members to make their appearance.  I don't know, I think that slide is one big lawsuit waiting to happen.  Someone easily could've smacked their head while going down and gotten a concussion.  Dale's parents were smart and steered clear of the slide.  Other than that semi fun adventure, we loved the ice castles!  Definitly worth the trip to Midway.  We went and got some dinner after the slide, and then headed back to check the lights out at night.  We were only in there for 5 minutes when we decided to leave.  It was super crowded, and lights just didn't impress us much :).

Dale's dad was the king of picture taking...he got a bunch more that I don't have yet.  It started to get drippy walking through the caves, and I didn't want my camera to get wet, so this is all I got.  I'll have to post some more later :)

 

Christmas

We had a busy Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We didn't end up getting to go to Parowan this year for either holiday because of Dale's work schedule.  It's been a real adjustment getting used to that.  That was a definite perk of being a teacher.  Lots of time off for Holidays! :)  But I am so loving being a stay at home mom.  I wouldn't trade it, and I'm so grateful for Dale's job!  

I've been prepared with Trey's Christmas for a few months.  It's so fun for me to look for toys I think he will enjoy...and of course Dale doesn't mind at all not having to shop :).  It was a good thing I was prepared this year, because I'm pregnant, and the morning sickness started with vengeance in December.  It was kind of a bummer to be sick all month. Trey got a little too used to watching "Super Why" in bed with me in the morning while I tried to fight the nausea...we're having a hard time breaking him of that. 

Christmas was fun though.  We took Trey to see Santa twice.  The first time we were at City Creek Center and just happened to come across the giant lantern Santa was sitting in, and even better- there was no line!  This Santa was completely legit.  He was even accompanied by Mrs. Claus :).  Trey was a little overwhelmed.  He was too scared to sit on Santa's lap.  Oh well :).  The 2nd Santa visit went much better.  We went to the Riverton Orchestra Breakfast with Santa (Dale's mom is a member).  He was still a little scared, but braved Santa's lap all by himself...after a little help from dad. 

Christmas morning is so much fun with kids!  I couldn't wait for Trey to open his gifts.  He sure needed some new toys :).  Santa may have spoiled him a little bit this year.  I guess that happens when there is only 1 kid to buy presents for...not for long :).  Dale spoiled me too- I got a new camera lens!  I am super excited to use it!  Dale got an awesome new chair for the piano room.  No more folding chair for 3 hours while he teaches piano every night.

 Playing with the new toys :)

We didn't get a ton of pictures of Christmas...but we did record it.  I love watching the past videos of Christmas morning.  That might have to be one of our Christmas day traditions in the future.

So many great things have happened for us this year.  I am so grateful to be home with Trey.  I have absolutely loved being a stay at home mom.  I honestly thought I would miss teaching, but there has not been 1 day that I have thought I would rather be teaching than home with Trey.  I will be forever grateful we were able to make that transition this year.  I'm grateful for Dale and his hard work.  He has done amazing things this year.  I am grateful for his willingness to work so hard to make it possible for me to be home.  And I am super grateful for our new little one that's on the way.  We've been waiting for this for a while now, and I feel so blessed to be able to have another little bundle of joy running around our place :).  Looking forward to another great year! :) 

The Last of Halloween

I am finally getting around to putting up our last Halloween pics...now that it's December :).  We borrowed a costume this year for Trey- he was fluffy and green, and I loved it!  He didn't mind it either after a week of getting him accustomed to wearing it. 

 Wow, there's a lot of houses to cover!

 He had the whole trick or treating thing down this year.  Once he realized he just had to knock on the doors and they'd give him candy he was all over it!  He was a kid on a mission.  He didn't even try and eat his treats in between each house.  He just wanted to collect his share of loot...and boy did he ever!  We only took him around our neighborhood and stopped when mom and dad got tired.  Trey could've gone on all night, but we had more stops to make.  We visited Dale's parents and my grandma so they could see Trey in all his awesome frog glory.  Definitely the highlight of the night :)

We're still trying to figure how we want to deal with the aftermath of Halloween...meaning that pumpkin full of treats he collected.  I don't really know what we want to do.  This year Dale just threw it out after a couple of days.  Guess he got tired of Trey asking for it.  Anyway, Halloween was lots of fun!  

Halloween Party

Dale's sister always throws the BEST Halloween parties!  We look forward to going every year and this year did not disappoint!  Laura and her family were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so her entire party was themed around that...from the Pizza dinner to the "Toxic Ooze" we drank.  It was amazing!  As far as costumes went Dale and I were robbers, and Trey was our money bag.  He was adorable, and he absolutely hated it :).

He refused to sit still for a picture :)

 

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Through a series of fortunate events Dale had a couple of days off from work, so we fully took advantage.  We took Trey to see the witches at Gardner Village. 

As you can see he was absolutely thrilled :).