V-Day and P-day

We had a pretty good Valentine's Day this year.  Earlier in the day we had some friends over for lunch and cookie decorating.

Later that night we were lucky enough to have Doug come home early and join us for dinner!  He decided to give me (and him) a break from cooking this year so we ordered out from Chili's.  Unfortunately a lot of people had the same idea and he ended up getting home a lot later than we planned.  Lesson learned.  We'll make dinner from now on.  Here's our candlelit table waiting for his arrival.   

His gift to me (and the girls) was an overnight stay in Salt Lake the next day.  We picked him up from work on Friday and headed up there.  After checking in we walked down to City Creek for some dinner and shopping. 

Hello Red Iguana's Mole Negro and Horchata.  How I've missed you!  After dinner we let the kids play in the food court play area (because we're that cool) for awhile.  They had a blast until Mabel got kicked in the face.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in at Abravanel to show them the awesome Chihuly statue. 

When we got back to the hotel we swam and swam.  The kids had a blast and Mabel had no fear of the water.  She kept jumping in even when we weren't ready to catch her!  It started to get a little crazy.  She just kept saying "Nump den!" (jump again) over and over.  She loved it.  This picture is out of order but it's some V-day decor we added to our collection this year.  The kisses were fun to make.

The next day we had breakfast, did more swimming and then went to the Church History Museum (for some reason it's our favorite.  Probably because it's free.)

After the museum we went and had a yummy lunch at Moochies (so good) and then headed home.  We came home for a few hours and then dropped the girls off at my mom's and headed back up to Salt Lake.  My dad is out of town and she was soooooo nice to offer to watch the girls (and let them have a sleepover they've been dying to have forever!) so that Doug and I could go to the symphony.  Before the symphony we made a quick stop at Gourmandise.  So delicious again but we ate too much!  The symphony was really fun.  It was a bunch of different Romeo and Juliet selections and for the encore they played "Sleeping Beauty".  It was great.  Thanks again mom for watching the girls!  We hope they weren't too much trouble! 

Yesterday we enjoyed having Sophia home from school and did some fun things like going to a local craft store to make these fun eggs.  We pretty much laid low after that and just enjoyed the time together!

It was a really fun weekend but now it's back to the rat race of school, lessons, and a really busy daddy!

This girl...

This girl cracks me up!  She has turned into such a little goof lately and I just love seeing her little personality blossom.  She is super into dress ups and if she's not wearing a princess dress (which I don't have a picture of surprisingly) she's got on her apron and chef's hat or a pair of wings.

I tried to get a better picture of her but she wasn't cooperating.

She also loves her shopping cart.  She's like a little bag lady. She fills it up with whatever she finds around the house and pushes it along all day.  I just love hearing it squeak all day long.

Once again notice the wings.  She also rarely has her hair fixed these days. It's too "owie".  Also, if she's not pushing the shopping cart around she's probably pushing the stroller (in the background) instead.

She's also been so chatty lately.  For awhile we wondered if she'd ever talk and now we wonder if she'll ever stop!  She seriously jabbers all day long.  It does get a little tiresome to hear "I watch a show" (some of her favorites these days are horsey land (Horse Land - aka most annoying show on the planet!, Flies (My Little Ponies) Bo Go (Bo on the Go) and Yah-gins (Backyardigans), "uh making momma?", "I do it!", "Momma hep you", "um on Buddy (or sometimes Biddy) (Lilly)" and other phrases all day long  but it is also certainly pretty cute.  She also says "I go am-pahs house" all day long and constantly asks to go so that she can have a "eep-ovah".  My favorite thing that she says is "Yes". She says it so clearly and she'll say it to just about anything.  It's funny the way she says it.  It's almost like she makes it two syllable (Yeh-esss).  I love it.  When she does say no it usually comes out as "no thank you".  Melts my heart everytime!  She also loves to ride her stick horse around and says "Hee-yah Button" (thank you Horse Land) over and over.  Cracks me up everytime.

Last weekend my amazing sister-in-law and brother (and their family) took my kids bowling and to dinner so I could have a little break (and see Doug a little!).  They said Mabel absolutely loved her bowling shoes. Can't wait to take her back again sometime.

Here she is riding her favorite thing (horses!) outside the dentist office.

And after a long day of playing she does eventually crash (with her wings still on).  We sure love our Mabel girls and the cute little thing she's blossoming into!

Here's a bonus picture of Lilly with her valentine castle box.  She was so excited to take it to her party today!