Loving Gifts

February is the time of love.  And for some reason, that translates to be a lot of Chik Flicks watched during this time for me.  It's the time to show those you love how much you care.  Some go extravagant, others more simple, depending on taste and budgetary constraints.  This year we decided to keep it on the simple side.  Starting Feb 1, I put a cut-out heart on the entertainment center in the family room, where Brandon could see it clearly, and added another heart each day until Valentine's Day.  On each heart, I wrote down one thing I loved about him.  I also attached his favorite candy bar so he could have a yummy treat, too. I thought it turned out really great.  It was fun sneaking the hearts on there so he wouldn't see me doing it.  

The next thing I did was make a cake.  This was my first try making a layered cake and decorating it (mostly figuring out if I have enough icing).  The recipe was one of our wedding cake flavors and supper yummy. The real reason I made one was to practice making a cake for Brandon's birthday. So when I was telling my mom about making a cake for Valentine's Day she told me how to make a heart-shaped cake really easily:  use a square pan for the main body and a round pan where the diameter is roughly the same length as one of the sides of the square.  After the cake cools, set the square diagonally (to make the point of the heart).  Cut the round cake in half and set each half on two adjacent corners.  Ice it up and you get something like this:

I used a Twix bar for the "I" and M&Ms for the other letters and decorating.  It was actually Kayla that decided it needed more M&Ms, so she helped me put them on. It was a lot of fun and she got to eat her favorite food: chocolate.  I was planning on doing regular white icing, but she also convinced me that it needed to be pink. Very pink.  My girl loves pink...

Since Valentine's Day this year was on a Friday, I decided that I did NOT want to go out for dinner.  It would be too crowded and too long of a wait.  So we went out for lunch (the Pretzel-maker) and I made dinner. Brandon went out with Kayla to get some things I needed to make dinner, and came back with this:

Who picked out the pink mini-roses, do you ask? Why Kayla of course! And I love them. They smell wonderful. Brandon was really sweet to get them.  He doesn't like getting cut flowers because they don't last as long as potted ones.  If you ask me, I think it's a risk on those potted ones, too. I'm no green thumb. We'll see how long these last...

And since there haven't been any pictures of Kayla this entire post (crazy I know!) I figured I can show a recent video of a Kayla and Daddy Play Time session. Warning: there is squealing.

December Celebrations and the New Year

I need to come to terms with the fact that my life will always be busy, and if I want to keep up this blog that I will have to take time out of the month and write.  Writing isn't that hard.  Remembering stories about my family really isn't that hard either. And I've always got photos or videos to share. So I just need to get my butt in gear. 

So here we go with the recap of the last couple months:

December was full of fun and holiday spirit. We weren't home for Christmas, so we didn't get a Christmas tree. But I have a small plastic one that we used to decorate with some of our ornaments.  I was really happy I did this because Kayla loved the tree and kept taking off and putting the ornaments back on.

I decided to make this year's ornaments. I wanted sea-themed ones, and I knew I wouldn't find any I liked at the store. So I found patterns and made one for each of us.

Kayla's

Mommy's

Daddy's

If you look back at our Halloween costumes, you'll understand why I chose a fish, jellyfish, and turtle for each of us. I thought they turned out really well!

We also stayed busy going to Christmas parties for work and our neighborhood.  Brandon and I were able to go on a DATE and see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. That was really fun. A week or so before we saw it, we watched some behind the scenes of creating the dwarves, highlighting their different personalities and trying to show that through their costuming and appearance.  It was really interesting and I paid a lot more attention to the different dwarves while watching the movie than I did in the first movie.  

We also had Clark and Lonnie come visit before Christmas.  Clark helped Brandon put together the play kitchen we got Kayla (because we weren't about to haul it to Colorado) while Lonnie and I went shopping for last minute gifts. And speaking of gifts, it was Clark's birthday while he was visiting, so I made him a little something.

I thought it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. :) Oh, and he liked it too.

The Sunday before Christmas we left for Colorado. It was one of the worst driving experiences of my life.  Luckily I wasn't driving or it would have been worse.  We got there safely, but I think I may have had a number of heart attacks along the way.  It snowed the whole time, some places worse than others, and after 9 hours of driving we made it to Brandon's parents' house.  Thinking back on it, I believe the worst part wasn't the snow that was so thick on the roads, we couldn't see the lines, but the crazy drivers around us.  We didn't have many, but those few were too many.  None knew how to drive safely and they gave me the most panic attacks.

Vacation in Colorado is always full of fun and, most importantly, relaxation.   Kayla had fun Christmas morning with her presents (thanks everyone!!!), but I think she had the most fun helping her Grandma pass out the presents to everyone.  I hope that sort of attitude stays with her as she grows. I think it will, and it's a joy to see how much she loves everyone without reservation. She also likes to wear out Brandon without reservation.  Here's proof:

and after that dancing session she wanted to do this until 

Brandon almost collapsed from exhaustion :

She also enjoyed dancing with her Grandpa, but I don't have a video of that to post up, unfortunately. She had so much energy that week, it took all 4 adults to keep her entertained. Now imagine that same energy and only 1, sometimes 2, adults keeping her entertained when we're home. No wonder we're so exhausted.  And as life goes, we had to leave Colorado (the drive was MUCH safer) and come back home to work and more work.

January
On New Year's Eve, we had some friends come over and play games while we ate yummy snack foods.  I'm thinking that will become tradition in our home.  That was lots of fun.

Near the end of January, Brandon filmed his teaser trailer he's doing for Brandon Sanderson's Alloy of Law.  This was a picture he sent me that night (and there's other pictures on Facebook):

Just looking at that picture gives me the tingles. So excited! So a lot of good things are happening in that area, and when we get something more definite, then I'll make a post.  

So overall, I'd say that 2014 is looking very promising. I think as long as we're going good things, good things will continue to come our way. One can hope anyway.