Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a busy one with the kids waking bright and early to gifts from Mommy & Daddy at the breakfast table. Tripp is away this week so he wished everyone his love with notes in cards.

The girls had their school parties last week and exchanged cards and treats (Abbie took silly bands and Daisy pencils) with their friends. Cute Meg from Olliegraphic designed both girls cards as well as the one we delivered to our friends on Monday pictured above and in the photo below. I stayed up way too late Saturday and Sunday making Valentine gifts for our friends...but it only comes once a year, right? We delivered the gifts throughout the day and evening.

The kids received stickers from Aunt Sue the week before that they already used. Grandma Sandy always sends socks to our family. The girls wore theirs to their parties the week before but I wore mine on Monday. Nate and Ryan dropped up fun treats the week before and Papa came by Sunday night with surprises. So by the time Monday rolled around, I warned the kids that we had already been showered with love and not to expect anything more. But we still were blessed with treats from a few friends and cute mouse toys from Aunt Sam.
Abbie & Daisy sported their heart knee leggings that I made. This project could have been a total disaster but they turned out alright. The girls liked them at least...phew.
All in all, a great day. Wish Daddy was home but you can't have everything now can you?

We heart you!

Visits

We were blessed with some really fun visits last week to break up the yuck of life. MamaThom and PapaThom dropped by for a few days on their way through town (or made sure their truck came this way after leaving Cedar) as they headed back to AZ. The kids were in heaven, as usual, to have their grandparents around. MamaThom, in particular, is so attentive and spends every second of her visit playing with the kids. I was given specific instructions to take photos of their bowling games and some of the screens. So here we go....

Kyle winning a record game against MamaThom. She is quite the Wii bowler. Ask Emily.
One of Kyle's sisters (Abbie perhaps) winning the game against Kyle.
Daisy playing her first real round of bowling. She didn't quite get the hang of it and got frustrated a lot but liked to play anyway.
Kyle's famous "Swan" move. He gets a lot lower when he is actually bowling. This is a recreation upon the request of MamaThom.
I'm not sure what Abbie is up to here. Possibly her favorite dance, the "Macaroni"?
Abbie coloring with MamaThom at Lucille's. The kids LOVE Lucilles...me, not so much. It was such a treat for them to have their grandparents suggest it and treat us all to dinner. Mom isn't up for it very often so this was like a million holidays wrapped into one. Abbie kept saying, "It's just like a second birthday!"
Kyle helping Daisy with her name.

We had a wonderful time with the Thompsons and were so lucky to have them visit. What a nice break from the ordinary for our family.

A few days later Paul, Laura and their kids were in town for a blessing and they came over to play for a few hours. Kyle was visiting his mom so Seth was a little bored but the rest of the kids had fun. The girls definitely love having Isabelle around. She always supplies endless entertainment for two small cousins who love older big girl cousins. They couldn't leave without playing a game so Izzy, Abs, Daisy, Seth, me, and Cooper played a round of UnoBlaster...our signature game.
And speaking of visits, on a super quick trip to Reno Sunday, I got to spend about 90 minutes with this darling girl. Little Maddy is so much fun. She cheesed her bagel and played dress-up doll and generally entertained me. I wish I could hang out with her more often. She reminds me a lot of her mom, who is pretty rad herself and basically the coolest gal around if you ask me. I miss her loads every single day and was glad to sit across from her even for just 90 minutes.

Got to spend the rest of the day with my mom and aunt Sue. Hope to see them again soon. Now, back to real life again....

Pizza

The girls made pizza with their daddy last Friday night. They had a marvelous time. I'm just now finding the time to post all the photos. Maybe the next Metro? Who knows....

New Carpet

That's right! After seven long years with the most disgusting carpet you've ever laid eyes on (not necessarily in taste, although it wasn't my cup of tea, but in condition. We think this carpet was original to the house) we finally were able to get the last of it out of our house Saturday afternoon/evening. It's really sad when the Stanley Steamer workers, that I'm fairly certain live in apartments with somewhat new carpet, tell you that you really shouldn't hire them anymore because there is nothing they can do for your carpet and you really just need new carpet because yours is disgusting (and that is almost verbatim). Needless to say, we finally gave up after that and quit trying to sanitize our revolting carpet.

Luckily, we were able to get all of it out of the downstairs portion of the house a few years ago but just couldn't afford to get it out of the staircase and the upstairs until now. A small area still remains in our bathroom until we remodel...someday. A reminder of how that nasty carpet is hanging onto our house for dear life. It came in with the house and by golly it wants to go out with it! I don't think there are two people in the entire world who were more excited to get new carpet, ever, than Tripp and I on Saturday.

Removal of the yucky carpet. Abbie asked why it had to go to the dump? Why couldn't it just go to a store for someone else to buy? I guess I've done a pretty good job over the last five years of her life masking it's horror.
The first time in their entire young lives that my girls have been on carpet in their own house and I haven't wondered if a fungus wasn't going to follow....
Cleaning our new carpet not an hour after the installers left when Moses decided to pee on it.

{POTD}

A few weeks ago in storytime Daisy won tickets to the circus. The day finally arrived for us to head out and enjoy her prize. The show didn't start until 7:30 p.m. and the tent was freezing cold. But despite the late night and cold temperatures the girls had fun hula-hooping, balancing feathers, and juggling scarves in the kids only pre-show then watching all the acrobats, clowns and other performers during the main show. Daisy and her dad fell asleep during intermission. Abbie, however, loved every single second of the performance. We tried to leave a few times but Abbie wouldn't have any part of it....even if her mom's feet fell off with frostbite. Circus Vargas was everything she hoped it would be, and more. Just to watch her face watching the show was worth freezing to death for nearly three hours.

Red Rock Field Trip

Abbie's school took a little field trip Friday morning to Red Rock Canyon. A really nice guide, Aaron, took the kids through a short program and walk/hike through the area that taught them about the plants, animals and habitat of the canyon. He did a great job teaching the kids about the plants and animals of the area. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see many of the animals up close...I think they hid as quickly as possible from the group of three, four and five year olds.

How lucky we are to live in this area with such a lovely park to visit. I'm so glad the girls got to spend the morning there learning about their surroundings with their friends.