Valentines Day 2014

Happy Valentines Day 2014! 

Ethan was out of school today for some reason. California has different days off than Arizona. I was happy to have him home though! We spent the day at the gym and then the park, then we went on a walk (it was 75 degrees today). 

In the evening, I got the kids set up in their room making valentines for everyone in the family and I went downstairs and decorated our little table. When the kids were done with their valentines, they came downstairs and were overjoyed to see the decorated table! They love the little touches, the little details. We had a wonderful chicken and pasta dinner and after that, we read our Valentines out loud and talked about how much we love eachother. 

After a few minutes we had heart shaped  brownies and icecream. I was so full by then, I only had a few bites, but yum! 

It was such a sweet night that I will cherish forever. I love my husband Joe for all that he is. 

My heart feels warm

Tonight Ethan, Ivy, and I were at the dinner table. Ethan was wondering if spirits are real, and are they ghosts. I told him that there are spirits and they look just like us, but we can't see them because they are in another place. I told him about how we when we were in heaven, we knew a lot of the people who would be good spirits and would come and help us when we needed it here on this earth. We talked about some of our relatives who have died, and how we will get to see them again when we pass from this life. He agreed that the day we get to see our relatives again will be a great day! And then I talked about Jesus. I poured out my heart to him about how much joy we will feel when we get to see Him again, and give Him a big hug. All of a sudden I saw Ethan put his head in his hands and things went silent. I went over to him and hugged him and asked him if he was okay. Through his quiet sob he said, "My heart just feels really warm." We waited in the quiet for another minute and soaked in the moment. This was a proud mommy moment because I see that his testimony is becoming his own. 

Disneyland day

I'm sitting here "watching" the Super Bowl so I figure I'll do something a little better with my time. :) Joe took the day off of work last Tuesday so that we could all go to Disneyland. What a treat! Here are some of the best pics! 

I love my Ethan boy. This is us waiting for the tram in the morning.

The fam on the tram. :)

We love this sweet little rocket ride in California Adventure!

Here's one of Ivy and I on the Chew Chew train.

I absolutely loved this time we spent at the animation station. We learned how to draw Olaf from the movie Frozen. That desk behind us was the desk that a lot of the sketches for The Little Mermaid were drawn on.

Ya, so in this pic from space mountain, Ivy is scared out of her mind so Joe is trying to console her. Ethan is also totally scared, but he is forced to hold on to my seat bar since I am too busy having a blast on my favorite ride!! Lol!

This little moment was cool! Joe kept saying, "I think that is the lead singer of Imagine Dragons" and of course I had to go up and approach his wife and say, "is he in a band?" "Yep" "Imagine Dragons?" "Ya" "Do you mind if I take a picture?" So I gave her my camera and she took a picture of us. He was very kind. He was walking his little daughter on one of those leash backpack things. Anyway, I'm glad I took the pic!

The kids LOVED pirate island. There were caves and gold!

We took the steam boat around pirate island. Joe loved the peaceful feeling on the boat. I think I would have liked it more had the kids not decided to run all over the ship...

Ivy almost pulled the sword from the stone...

Anywho, the lines were so short all day. I wish I could have frozen time and stayed there forever. Family time is the BEST TIME. I'm sure of it.

Ps. Please excuse my typos, I wrote this from my phone.

Pictures of my girl

We blew Ivy's hair dry this Sunday morning before church. She has always been one who likes to touch soft things (her unicorn wishful). Anyway, she was just stroking the smooth strands of her hair and she flitted out of my room into her room. She didn't think I was watching but she started to dance and flit and spin. I finally caught her eye and she smiled sheepishly. I knew I had to take a photo of her in this dream-like state. The light was streaming through the window. She posed for me in many different positions and this one turned out to be better than perfect! 

Here's another shot of her from that morning.

In another occasion, I spotted her laying on our fake grass in the backyard warming in the sun. She looked so peaceful and content. 

She's always good to give me a good photo. My sweet Ethan shys away from the camera for one reason or another but I get good shots here and there...