Who is your Valentine?

Joseph said something on Valentine's Day that melted my heart and made me so proud. It could have gone in either of my last two posts but I thought it warranted its own.

J: "Mama - do you know who I love the most in the whole wide world?"

Me: "no, who?"

J: "you and daddy and Jacob and God and Jesus. They are all my Valentines."

Be My Valentine

We had a lot of fun with Valentine's Day at our house this year!!

We started preparing about a month ago when

we took this picture . . .

. . . and turned it into this.

Joseph did a great job writing his classmates' names on the back.

Then my friend Jenny and I made these fun "mixed cassette" valentine shirts for our boys.

She also helped me out with a special project for Christopher.

I made Joseph a special bow-tie for his Valentine Ball.

And we made (and enjoyed) lots of special Valentine treats!

But I think I was the most spoiled of all this year. This was on the table when I woke up Tuesday morning. . . .

and tomorrow Christopher is having a Daddy & sons day while a sweet friend and I spend the day at spa!!!

Conversations about God

Joseph has been talking a lot about God lately which makes me really happy. Most of the time it's about God loving us, us loving God and God protecting us. All really great things. Occasionally his human nature shines through but it's all a learning process, right? Here are a couple recent conversations.

Joseph to Jacob:

"all of these toys belong to God not us. We just get to play with them. But they all belong to God. So we don't say "that's mine" because you aren't God. You're Jacob. But God lets us play with them and we need to share."

(all good until he was using God to make Jacob share)

Joseph to me: (after explaining that I, like Daddy, also went to college and used to work outside the home but now stay home with my boys.)

"Aw mama. If you wanted to go back to work I could stay home with Jacob and take care of him. And if he was too much for me to handle I would just pray to God to help me."

to which I responded: "I pray that prayer every day sweetheart."

Peter Pan Returns

We have been counting down to a very special event. Last night the Disney Channel aired a special episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates in which "Peter Pan Returns!" We set the DVR (so we could make it through dinner without the distraction) and then prepared for our fun family movie night.

In the afternoon we made fun Peter Pan hats to wear.

Then after dinner we played "find Peter Pan's shadow!" Can you see his shadow?

There he is!

And then we settled down with some special treats and watched our movie. I hope it lived up to Joseph's great expectations.

Very Hungry Caterpillar - Double Baby Shower

Two of Christopher's coworkers are expecting babies in the very near future so we hosted a double baby shower brunch at our home this morning with "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" as the theme. I made these fun invitations (I found the idea on pinterest) and we used lots of red, green and yellow in the food, serving pieces, etc.

The Menu:

Egg & Sausage Casserole

Egg & Cheese Casserole (we had vegetarian options for our Indian friends)

Potato Casserole

Bacon-wrapped apricots

Cucumber Wraps with feta filling

Cruidte` and dip

Fruit and dip

Baked Brie and crackers

Cinnamon Rolls

Coffee & Tea

Cucumber Water

Orange Juice

Mimosas

"A Very Hungry Caterpillar" guestbook.

We were pleased that Priya's parents were visiting and could also come to the shower. Malik & Priya are expecting a girl in March.

Wei & Jingyun are having a boy in March also!

Even though there were lots of fun kids to play with, Jacob's favorite part was the balloons after they were brought in from the mailbox.

Purging toys

Last weekend I headed out to Target and bought two large storage bins. I loaded them up with toys from our dining room/play room and Christopher put them in the attic. Since then, the boys have actually been playing with the toys in the play room instead of just piling them up and jumping on them. yay! This evening a very fun game of chair basketball is underway.

Valentine Ball - First Boy/Girl Dance!

Valentine Ball

Joseph headed off to his Valentine Ball this morning. I wish I could be a fly on the wall for this event! Joseph excitedly announced that his first dance was going to be with Miss Jana (his teacher) because he loves, loves, loves her.

Saturday = family cleaning day

These two are getting pretty good with a vacuum cleaner. Next I'll have them bring me bonbons and massage my feet.

Happy Groundhog's Day

Naked Jake the Groundhog popped out of his Pampers box and saw his shadow. 6 more weeks of winter. Since winter this year has meant 70 degree days, that doesn't sound too bad. Although Joseph is quite appalled that we made it through January without building a snowman.