Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day was so great. I totally remember hating Valentine's Day growing up....until two years ago when Dustin and I celebrated our first "day of love" together. MUCH more fun. I did however hear about some families that focus on love for ALL people, not just romantic love and heard some ideas about serving or showing your love for your family, friends, etc and we think we'll try to implement this when Conner is older. Who doesn't need more love in their life??

But this year I was excited to make Dustin a special dinner, recipes provided by my friends awesome website

http://www.jannapatterson.com/2012/02/valentines-day-menu-stromboli-by.html

So we had stromboli, salad and coconut/banana cream pie. So easy but so good!! Dustin surprised me with flowers, and earrings!! Ok, shout out to my wonderful husband. Two years ago he got me earrings to match my engagement ring and I LOVED them, but was crushed when I lost them. I've looked for them everywhere. Anyways, Dustin knew how sad I was, because not only did I love them (I have an obsession with big dangly earrings) but they represented us to me. Well....he found them!! Ok not the exact pair, but he bought me an identical pair! I was SO excited!! Trust me when I say I will NOT be losing them this time. I'm keeping close tabs on those babies!

Then of course I got him a BYU sweatshirt :) So romantic I know! But I figured we should actually own things from the school we both actually graduated from, rather than a school neither of us have gone to. But hey, you can't hate on the Ohio State!

Here are pictures of the flowers he got me. Dustin knew I like color, and happy flowers, and not roses for Valentine's Day (they are too typical) But I'll take roses any other day of the year :) I'm lucky he puts up with me!!

The remains of our little feast.

See the earrings!!!

Dustin seriously LOVED this. I keep pizza dough and pizza sauce from when I make it in the freezer all the time so it was SO fast and easy to make and good! I mean good! The secret seriously is in the deli pepperoni. LOVE Wegmans!

Conner sported red for Valentine's Day and was good to chill in the swing while Dustin and I ate.

And the pie! Yum!! This was from www.melskitchencafe.com which is another food blog I love. I just added sliced bananas. If anything it is just nice to make a special meal for my special man! I am so blessed!!

Compliments of Melanie

So for those of you who have not met my sister-in-law Melanie, this post is for her :) She has frequently been responsible for the amazing clothing all three family members own and if we look good, you can thank Melanie for it. Conner and I were sporting the shirts she had provided so we had to take a picture. Unfortunately we didn't get the best picture of Conner's but you've seen it before....the Superman shirt! She also provided the Batman shirt you've also seen in a previous post. This is the shirt I got a Maurice's and wanted her to see a picture of me in it. Dustin also has many a clothes she helped provide or pick out! Thanks Melanie for being so helpful and wonderful and thinking of us! We sure appreciate you helping us dress well!!

Nicki's Birthday Weekend!!

So I officially decided that the best thing is to have your Birthday on a Sunday because usually Sundays are spent at church, etc and so you get to celebrate on Saturday as well, and if you're really lucky you can celebrate on Friday too and it turns into a whole weekend thing! I was fortunate enough to be such a recipient.

Friday I went to a girlfriends where we had a fabulous game night and my wonderful friend (also visiting teacher, she gets major kudos for that one) surprised me with a delicious ice cream cake and we were able to celebrate. Saturday turned also into a celebration where my family all went with Dustin, Conner and me to "Ben's Chili Bowl" in downtown DC for lunch. I think this will be my new tradition since we went there last year as well. You can't beat the atmosphere or their amazing Chili Half-Smoke. Then the Grandparents were wonderful enough to watch Conner for the evening while Dustin and I went home and got all dressed up. Dustin was going to surprise me with a nice evening out and told me to prepare for some wonderful "fine dining". So we got all nice and I even wore my awesome purple pointed shoes! The exciting thing about not being pregnant....your shoes fit again!!

Then Dustin and I went to the metro stop and once we got there he said he forgot the tickets for our reservations and we had to go back and grab them. When we hurried back he asked if I could come up and help him find them and to my surprise once he opened the door we were met by a waiter (my brother David) who greeted us and took our coats and sat us down at a very nicely set table in our front room. The whole front room had been transformed into a nice, secluded restaurant with of course fine dining! Then our waiter (my brother Josh) took our orders. The special of the evening was sweet pork burrito or a savory pork salad (aka CAFE RIO!!!). My husband knows me SO well!! So we enjoyed a fabulous evening of fine dining and had mint brownies for dessert and a private dance. It was a fabulous evening!

So the story behind it all....my sister Jessica is the master-mind. Dustin called and figured things out with her earlier in the week. At "Ben's Chili Bowl" Dustin slipped my mom the house key (who acted very confused since she didn't know what was going on) and on their way back Jessica and Carter went and picked up Cafe Rio since they "had to drive their own car". Then while we got ready they picked everything else up and gathered it all together and we were supposed to be out of the house by 6, which is when they pulled up, moved all the furniture, baked the brownies and got it all ready for us to come. When we were at the metro Dustin texted "coming" to Jessica while I was getting back in the car. They didn't know we were so far away and had everything ready a little earlier, but it all worked out so perfectly!! Carter couldn't believe I fell for the "reservation tickets". But hey! It was more fun that way!!

The house was beautiful! Here are some of the pictures....

All dressed up for fine dining! I took my shoes off and left them in the car since I thought I'd be faster without them and we were in a hurry to find those tickets! So I dined barefoot instead, but it worked out well!

It turned out to be a great day and night and Conner was great too! So glad he loves Grandma and Grandpa!

Then on Sunday I had a wonderful time! Dustin and I opened my gifts before church, Dustin let me sleep in and then we went to church and then went to my family's for a delicious dinner! They made lasagna and rolls and topped it off with this beautiful and delicious lemon pound cake that my mom made!! I am a spoiled, but very loved lady!!

The cake and everything was SO good! I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!!

Dancing and Happy Conner!!

Conner is a very happy boy! It is so fun!! I love watching him and he totally loves playing Pee-a-boo and laughing when you laugh and smile at him. He still smiles and gets super excited every time you change his diaper too, which still makes me laugh every time! I'm so glad a have these two cute boys to help me smile every day!!! 

Here is Dustin and Conner dancing. Conner doesn't look so sure that he knows what's going on, but at least Dad had fun!!! 

Here are some of the faces he makes when he gets excited!

This one I think is my favorite :)

Oh wait....is that the camera?? I had better ham it up!!

This one goes out to all of my adoring fans!!

Look I can even gurggle for you!

If that didn't make you smile I'm sure I'll win you over with this one!!

When I get excited I like to show it using my entire body!!

So there's just a taste of my day for you! Being a mom is great! Ok, most days :) There was a day last week where I swore I'd never have another child. It took him 4 hours to go down to bed after he had been fussy all day. But he was wonderful and sweet again once he woke up. I guess babies have cranky days too! But thank goodness they are so sweet and get over them! 

National Harbor and Conner's First Swim

So last weekend Dustin and I were very lucky and a friend offered their time share for two nights at the National Harbor, so of course we jumped on that! My family came with us and we had a fun weekend of good food, games and just good times. It was very relaxing. Conner did well, but we learned what it is like to have a child when you go on "vacation". Pack and play, stroller, car-seat, diapers, etc. Oh and baby too! So it makes for a lot more trips to the car for sure!  

So I know we have lots of pictures of Conner in the stroller or car-seat all bundled up, but I can't get over how cute he is when he's all bundled! And he gives the best faces!! Here we are ready to go walk around the Harbor. 

Enjoying our very nice suite.

 Carter approves as well!!

 Going out on another walk. His arms were stuck out like that the entire time! I cracked up! It just reminds me of "A Christmas Story" when the little kid cried "I can't put my arms down!!" Poor Conner....

 Here is is now getting ready for his first swim! They had a small indoor pool and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this little guy!

 All ready to go!!

 Ok Dad Let's do this!!

 Proud Daddy, and very excited about the Batman Swim shirt!

 Don't forget your towel!!

 Taking a dunk with Uncle David and Josh. He was so funny. He looked so serious the whole time, acting like he didn't know what was going on, but didn't make a peep!

 Not so sure I like this mom!!

 Ok, ok, this isn't so bad!!

 Ok, so I took it like a champ!

 Now I'm ready for a nap. That was hard!!

 Got to get that hand in my mouth!!