Valentine's Day has never been an important holiday in my book, but the combination of not physically feeling well, plus the constant onslaught of snow, ice, and inversion left me craving something to celebrate.  I'm trying to come up with simple, fun ways to make holidays more fun for the kids.  We started our Valentine's Day with a special breakfast of heart-shaped cinnamon rolls, strawberries, and pink milk.  I was excited to get up and get going that day, but morning sickness made it a bit more difficult...shape one cinnamon roll, lay on the floor for a few minutes, shape one more, get a drink and lay on the floor.  What should have taken me five minutes took almost 30!   I loved the pretty $4 bouquet of flowers I found at Walmart, and mylar balloons are seriously the gift that keeps on giving.  My kids play with them for weeks!  Sadly, one flew out the door yesterday, and to my pet-less children, it was heartbreaking.











Anthony and I thought it would be best to go low-key this year.  He and I have always watched The Simpsons together (sorry, Mom), and in one episode, Lisa gets a sappy, but memorable valentine.  I recreated the card for Anthony, and it was a hit!







I got him a Starbucks coffee, and he bought me some Ben and Jerry's, Reese's, and fixed my t.v. remote.  Those things were honestly nicer to receive than the expensive roses he bought a couple of years ago.


I finally figured out how to make a heart in Alaina's hair, so of course she sported those for the day!




We had to bust out the heart-glasses for the annual pictures.













Too cool for school.







After much begging, pleading, and bargaining, I managed this shot to publicly announce our pregnancy.  There were many "her hair is touching me!" and "Connor's touching me!" comments in the process.  *sigh*




To make our day even more special, we got a surprise visit from Papa!  Alaina loved having him to herself for an hour while Connor was at martial arts.  He made her day by having a proper tea party with her.










We ended our day with heart-shaped pizza and Valentine's floats.  It's safe to say the kids were on a sugar high from morning until night, and the hangover lasted THREE days.  That might be a record!




In other news, Connor celebrated his 100th day of kindergarten.




The mountains and the sun are back!  Hallelujah!




The kids were insistent on having a sleepover one night.  After much cajoling, Anthony gave in.   Alaina had to bring all of her earthly possessions to bed.  I checked on them when I got home from work that night, and they both looked so uncomfortable!  I was grateful that the flash woke them up, and Alaina said she was ready to sleep in her own bed.  Maybe now their sleepover bug will be satisfied!  Not to say that it satisfied the "I want to sleep with the lower half of my body in a cardboard box" bug OR the "I want to sleep in my sled" bug.  Imagine my surprise when I came home to those!




I had my 12-week appointment today.  Normally, they just check the heartbeat at this one, but since I'm technically 11 weeks and 6 days and it's hard to find the heartbeat on the doppler, I got a bonus ultrasound! I'm so grateful for that, because I've been feeling gross physically and mentally, and not having the easiest time connecting with the little one.  The baby is growing wonderfully and was very active during the ultrasound, so much so that it surprised my doctor.  It was doing somersaults and using its little legs to springboard into backflips.  I had started to feel little fish-like movements at 11 weeks, and I told my doctor that I thought it was too early for that.  She said that experienced, slender moms often begin to feel things right about now, so it's been fun to know that the squirming in there (right now, even!) is really a baby!  We had been talking through the whole thing, until baby turned and showed us the goods.  We both paused, and I said, "That really looks like a ......., doesn't it?"  She laughed and said that she didn't want to say anything since Anthony wasn't there, but she agreed 100% with me.  She did say that she's been very wrong at 12 weeks before, and I want to be sure before announcing it!  I'm pretty confident in what I saw, and I've spied it correctly with both kids, so we'll see! If you want to ruin the surprise for yourself, there's a picture in my Flickr account of the money shot that's open for interpretation!  Otherwise, stay tuned for a cuter photo announcement!  We find out on March 20!


Here's little baby's cute profile.  It was playing with it's chin a lot, so I'm thinking that second protrusion under its nose is its hand.  Otherwise, those are some frighteningly large lips!




A harder to discern, front-on full body shot.  It's so much easier to get excited now!  Hooray, baby!

Wow, this might be a personal record for how long I've managed to avoid blogging!  I initially thought that his blog post might contain exciting secrets, but the cat manages to get out of the bag when you don't blog for a month and a half!  I feel like there has been a whole lot of nothing going on, but I know that's an unfair statement inspired by the fact that all I want to do is lay in bed all day!


I've been horrible with taking photos.  In the middle of January, Anthony's dad came to visit for four days.  It was so nice to spend some time with him.  The kids enjoyed spending two nights at his hotel and having Papa come with them to school.  We enjoyed the hot tub on a frigid day and dinners out to satisfy weird cravings!  I didn't take a single picture, and I'm kicking myself for it.


Last week we got to spend a few days up at the Bear Lake house with the Carliles.  The company was grand, of course, and it was also so so nice to get out of the inversion and see the sun.  Did you know there's a company now making tee shirts that say "I survived the 2013 inversion!"?  I feel like we all deserve one!  It was fun to be able to take pictures of clean ice and snow!  Dad showed be this little gem that popped up on a loft window.  Doesn't it look like a marine creature?




These beauties were climbing up every window.




The overnight fog and lasting cold made for beautiful trees that kept their dusting all day.
















Perfect little Ellery was fought over the entire weekend.  I've never seen a happier, more content little chub-o-love.  She sure makes it harder to be this far away from the Carliles!




Determined to not let screens dominate our family trip like last time, we played lots of board games.  It was so much nicer!




Connor surprised Grandpa by asking for some of his Mountain Dew.  Must run in the family!




The Whites had to come up a day later, due to a fun run-in with strep.  Once they were there, we took some group shots.  Cute cousins!




Say, "Cheese!"




Say, "I'm PREGNANT!"




Surprise!  The secret's out!  We're due in September with baby #3!  My favorite part of this announcement was waiting for people to catch on.  Mary Ann was the first to break pose, I love how Mom said, "I'm pregnant!" like it's an everyday picture expression, and most of the kids didn't know anything was unusual about it.



After lunch, we took advantage of the beautiful day and the opportunity to do something completely new - play on the frozen lake.










These Bogs have seen a TON of action this winter.  Honestly, I don't know how I could have gotten through all of the snow this year without them.  Best Christmas gift/boots ever!







For the past few years, we've used this tree as a benchmark in the lake, as in "Don't swim past the tree!".  In the summer, the water is about neck-high for me here.  It was a little bit strange being able to just walk up to it!







So different.  Look at that beautiful, glorious sun!  Please grace us with your presence in Salt Lake soon!!




The snow was icy on top, and powdery under the crust, so quite difficult to walk through.  The kids realized that it was easier for them to crawl on all fours, then they wouldn't crunch through, but sleds were the best mode of transportation.







It was a little bright out there. :)










This is how newly-retired men spend their free time!







The kids enjoyed being twirled around by Mike and Blake.  After a treacherous running start, they'd let go of the rope, and the kids would go flying, spinning around and around in circles.  After all of this ice play, they even took the kids to the sledding hill by themselves.  Thanks for being superdads that day, guys!




Train time!










Wuh-oh!  Maybe it's time to get off of the ice!







As hesitant as I was to let Connor bring his "lightsavers", they turned out to be a huge hit, especially with Marshy, who was a natural with them!







After a week of traveling, plus one sick kiddo, I'm sure the Carliles were ready to head home.  We're so grateful that they sacrificed the time, energy, and money to come out and visit everybody, not to mention add a bright spot to our otherwise dull winter!  Great memories, guys!  Thanks!