Pops and Gigi came to Tulsa to celebrate Robin’s Birthday since Gigi had a 3 day weekend off work.  They got here late Friday night and left mid-morning on Monday.

Gigi played with Emma the entire weekend- they put together lots of puzzles, played Princesses, watched Cinderella, iced cupcakes, and much much more.  They had such a great time together.

On Saturday evening we went to eat with my family to celebrate Robin and Judy’s Birthdays which are on the same day!  We at Elote downtown and then came back to our house for dessert. 

trick candles…

I love this picture of Brandon and Robin…

We had a great weekend with Gigi and Pops and look forward to seeing them again soon! 

Last Thursday night on Daddy’s Birthday, Emma’s school had  “Daddy Date Night.”  The event had to be rescheduled due to the snow 2 weeks ago and we were excited that it was rescheduled on Daddy’s Birthday.  What a treat for him!

Emma has been looking forward to this for weeks and actually got a little bit nervous when she was getting ready… she said, “Mommy, I want to look as pretty as you did when you went on your date with Daddy last week.”  Oh my goodness, melt my heart!  She carefully chose which dress she wanted to wear and told me exactly how to fix her hair.  We put some sponge rollers in for a few minutes to give her some extra curl.

Emma and Robin went to Louie’s for dinner before going to her school.  He said they had a great time talking over dinner and she was really cute.

At Daddy Date Night Robin got to see a “day in the life of Emma at school.”  They went around to the different centers and got to do her work together.  Then they went to the auditorium where they got to do a craft and had their picture taken together.  Then the kids sang some songs for the Dads and then the Dads got to sing too! 

Emma had special tie that she had made for Robin to wear and he wore it home and took it to work the next day.  What a fun evening these two had together!  They have such a special relationship.

Foster has started to feed himself with a spoon… kind of.  About half of the food makes it in his mouth and half ends up on various body parts. 

Here he is enjoying his mashed potatoes.  I love it that his bib says “I Didn’t Do It” in these pictures.  He looks so guilty!

We had a nice Valentine’s Day with the kids at home.  They woke up and had several little gifts at their places at the breakfast table.  Foster got a monkey balloon, a red stuffed dog, and some animal crackers.  Emma got a frog balloon, a princess coloring book, some princess chocolates, some colorful band-aids, some glitter fingernail polish, and a new toothbrush that she got to decorate with stickers. 

I’m not sure why these pictures turned out a little blurry.  I must have still been sleepy when I took them!

After opening the gifts we hung out at home, went to Mommy’s workout, went to dance class, and then had a wonderful Candlelight dinner at Chick-Fil-A!  Aunt Judy joined us at dance and Chick-Fil-A and brought the kids gifts and balloons too.

Pops and Gigi and Nana also gave the kids Valentine’s Day gifts so they were very definitely spoiled. 

We had a great day celebrating our LOVE for each other!

Here are a couple pictures of my kids in their elements.  Foster loves to walk around in this walker (that was mine when I was little) and just eat and eat and eat.  He would eat all day if I would let him.  He is really in to Trix cereal these days.  He also LOVES the fridge farm and loves to carry the farm around with him and play the music.

And here is Emma carrying around one of her babies on her back.  I’m going to have to do a safety lesson with her before she starts babysitting real babies!  This does NOT look safe!  I love her.

Robin and I always try to go out to eat for Valentine’s Day before the actual day so we can avoid the madness.  This year we got to use a Gift Card that we got for Christmas from my Uncle Ron and we went to Wolfgang Puck’s new restaurant in Tulsa.  It was YUMMY!  Robin got the Beef Goulash and I got the Tiger Prawns with Spaghetti.  For dessert we had Butterscotch Pudding!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

We are so fortunate that my mom lives in town and is able to babysit periodically so we can go on dates.

I love spending alone time with Robin- it’s funny to thank about how our date conversations have changed over the  years.  I think we talked about our kids about 50% of our date, and that’s ok.  We love them and they are a pretty big part of our life. :)

Here is a picture from our Valentine’s Date night and below that is a picture from our very first date- Diadeloso at Baylor on April 15, 1999.  My how we have changed!  Still just as happy and in love though.

I love you Robin- thanks for a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Emma’s snow day was quite a bit busier than Foster’s snow day because she is a very busy girl!  Last night I tried to think of some fun things that Emma and I could do together to make this snow day fun rather than boring. 

Emma woke up in a good mood.  (see below.)

After waffles for breakfast I surprised Emma with her first activity of the day and she LOVED it.  I’m already planning another one for tomorrow.  I made a Picture Scavenger Hunt for her.  I thought of 20 things around the house that Emma could find and take a picture of with my little digital camera.  She loves taking pictures, and she loves to “find” things, and she loves to check things off of lists, so this was perfect for her!

The next 2 pictures are pictures that Emma took while on her scavenger hunt!

Emma’s bows, item #18

One of Foster’s favorite toys, #16: 

Emma also took this picture of the T.V. even though it wasn’t on her scavenger hunt list.  I thought it was a good picture because she captured the weather mess on T.V!

Next we sat down to make snowflakes out of coffee filters.  We cut some of them with scissors and then we painted on some with watercolors.  Emma liked painting better than cutting. 

Next we did some chores.  I had to unload and load the dishwasher.  Emma loves to help with this lately.  It probably takes me longer to finish the job with her helping but I really enjoy her company and willingness to help.  Her job is usually the silverware, sippy cups, and kid bowls. 

While Foster and I played in his room, Emma read some of his books.  She LOVES books.

…next she rode on Foster’s rocking horse (which used to be HER rocking horse!)

Next we played in her room.  Here she is putting a candle in her dollhouse because she thought the dolls would like for their living room to “smell good.”  She took the candle from my living room to put it there!  Don’t worry, it is not lit (although it kind of looks lit in this picture!) and I moved it back after we were done playing.

Playing with Rapunzel… 

She looks sad here but I think she’s just thinking really hard!

Other things we did today include:

1. Called Nana twice to see how her day was going.

2. Organized her bathroom drawers

3. Organized her closet

4. Played McDonald’s

5. Watched Barney

6. Ate ice cream

7. Cuddled on the recliner while she rubbed MY back!

We had a great day hanging out together.  Emma’s love language is most definitely quality time and I love giving it to her when I can.  You can see her love tank just fill up- she is so happy when we spend one-on-one time with her. :)

I’m not sure I could be snowed in with Emma EVERY day unless I had a little 15 minute break here and there.  This girl wears me flat out!  I love her to pieces though!

Well, we got about 5 more inches of snow last night so we are homebound again… and that’s kind of ok with me!  I am really enjoying these lazy days at home with my kiddos.  Foster has really enjoyed our mornings at home where we just get to play and hang out. 

I thought it would be fun to write two separate blog posts, “Foster’s Snow Day” and “Emma’s Snow Day” highlighting what each of them did today.

I think Foster is teething because he has been a little bit fussy the past couple of days. I feel a tooth breaking through on his upper right gums.  Poor guy does not like it when teeth come in!  He looks a little bit tired in these pictures… but still adorable of course!

Here are some pictures from Foster’s day…

He LOVES Playing in his room.  We hung out in there for about an hour this morning…

Being silly riding the Bounce ‘N Spin Zebra:

Playing Peek-A-Boo with the closet door… Foster loves opening and closing doors! 

Here Foster is yelling at the top of his lungs, “Da-da-da-da-da-da-daaaaaa.”  He knows the Daddy is in his office working and he wants him to come play… and he did.  Daddy came to play about 10 seconds later.

Foster contemplating walking to Daddy… he’s still not quite yet walking but he’s very very close. 

Tickle-fest with Daddy. (I’m not sure why Daddy is wearing his $1 snow hat from Walmart.)

Foster deciding we should go somewhere else to play.  He is the fastest crawler I’ve ever seen.

Let’s go to Emma’s room and take all of the kleenex out of her kleenex box!

“Hmmm… I wonder if Emma would mind if I took a drink out of her Dora cup?”

“Mommy, now what? I’m bored.” 

Playing basketball.  He LOVES to make baskets. 

I love this little man.  He brings so much joy to every day.  I would be snowed in with him every day if I needed to. :)

On Saturday afternoon, the roads were looking a little better so we decided to get out and venture 1 mile down the road to 111th and Yale to go sledding.  We had heard that it was a good sledding site and it did not disappoint!  Normally, a retention pond sits on this corner but when 14 inches of snow falls, it becomes a sledding amusement park! 

Brandon went first to “check it out” for us!  He loved it.  He squeeled the whole way down.

Foster did NOT sled, he was just along for the ride.  :)

Emma wasn’t sure if she wanted to sled.  Obviously, we started her on a much smaller hill than the first one the adults went on.  She loved it and begged for more!

I LOVE this picture.  I posted it on Facebook and a friend pointed out to me that her boots are on backwards!!!  What really cracks me up about that is that I’m pretty sure I am the one that put them on her feet so I can’t even pretend that my 4 year old daughter goofed.  Poor girl, I bet her feet were hurting!

Uncle Brandon was so sweet to help Emma back up the hill each time.

Emma giving Daddy orders, “Daddy, bring my sled back up the hill so I can go down again!”

Mommy and the kids.  Yes, Foster is eating the strap on his hat!

Looks like we’ll be getting more snow so we may attempt to go sledding again later in the week!

SO… we have been snowed in for days, and days, and days.  I guess it’s really only about 5 days but it kind of seems like more. FINALLY, over the weekend there was a break in the weather and my brother was able to drive me to the store.  There are 3 more chances for snow within the next week so I knew I needed to re-stock on some food items!  As soon as I stepped outside….. Ah, daylight!  It was so good to smell fresh air and see other people!  Walmart was a MAD HOUSE.  I’ve never seen such panicked looks on people’s faces!  The meat aisle, bread aisle, and cheese section were all empty, completely wiped out.  We went to Target for a second stop and they had everything I needed… Target never lets me down!

While at Walmart though, I spotted an OU Snuggie.  I’ve never owned a Snuggie.  I often make fun of people who own them.  But on that day at Walmart, it looked really appealing!  I’ve been freezing in my house for a whole week.  All we’ve been doing is laying around, resting, playing games, and I decided now was the time for a Snuggie.  So I bought one.  As my reward for surviving 5 days at home with two small chidren, I bought myself a Snuggie!!!

I know I look really attractive here.

Next was Emma’s turn to try it on… she loved it even more than I did so now we have to take turns wearing it.  Better yet, tonight we sat on the couch while watching “Princess and the Frog” and we shared the Snuggie.