Haggling

Today Maycee asked for some marshmallows.

I agreed.

I said, "You can have 4 marshmallows."

Maycee replied, "How about 10 marshmallows?"

...She really upped the anny...I have no idea how to spell that word...

I said, "4 marshmallows."

Maycee countered, "2 marshmallows."

I gave her four.

She just needs to figure out how to haggle properly.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started at 6:15am when I flipped on the light in the kitchen and Maycee started to holler.  I took her into the bedroom with Stephen and started on the traditional pink waffles.

When breakfast was ready we all came into the kitchen.  I explained to Maycee that on Valentine's Day we celebrate love for people.

"Like Christmas?!" Maycee asked.

...I have no idea where she got that one.

"Yes, like Christmas," I said, "we got you a present!"

As soon as Maycee saw the doll she repeated over and over, "IT'S A DOLLIE!!  Good job guys, it's a dollie."

She cracks me up.

I specifically chose this "hair" doll so my poor scalp can relax and her 'dollie' can now take the brunt of the brushing.

Cooper got a toothbrush.  ...Lucky kid.

Just after Stephen left for work he called me to say that he couldn't find his wallet and thought he had left it in the Acadia.  I went out to look for it and found a box of chocolates with a note.  The note wished me a Happy Valentine's Day and started me off on a scavenger hunt.

This was his P.S.:

"P.S. Just so you know, I had this idea BEFORE you started your amazing 14 Days of Valentines."

Stephen sent me all over the house.  I was really surprised that I never noticed some of the other clues until that morning.  Some of them took me a little bit to figure out, but I finally found all 10 clues.

Here were my clues:

H U A E ! T O O Y R

I was supposed to unscramble the letters to create a phrase.  In my note, Stephen made me think that it would be pretty easy to figure out.  It took me forever.  I had HOA TOUR, OUR, YOUR.  Couldn't figure it out.

Finally, I really thought this, I realized that I just needed to think like Stephen.

I figured it out instantly.

YOU ARE HOT!

I texted him the message and he sent me his final clue.  It sent me to my final destination where he had 93 little letters cut out in numerical order that I was supposed to glue together to see his note.

IT WAS THE CUTEST LITTLE LOVE NOTE!!!

I love my man.  He makes me happy.  And he works hard at it.

That night we had a babysitter and went out to dinner for our reservation at SAKANA's.  It was awesome.  I started out a little annoyed because they were way behind on there reservations.  Our 6:30 reservation turned into an 8:00 reservation.  It was so worth it.  We sat at a cooking table!  With 5 couples surrounding the grill, this chef turned cooking our meal into a show.  It was amazing.  AND he was hilarious.  Amazing food.

Thank you, Stephen, for making my Valentine's Day special.  I love you!

Day #14

I am kind of sad that today it the last day!  It has been so fun to do this for Stephen and focues on him for a couple of weeks.

I LOVE YOU STEPHEN!!!!!!

As an aside, the "sound" one killed me.  I made Stephen a 'mix tape' or CD.  Mix CD doesn't sound as official as mix tape.  I looked forever to find 'love songs' for my mix tape that were not sappy and dripping with the saxophone or something along those lines.  I just wanted the lyrics to say what I wanted them to say.  I think I came out on top!

I now know how to use itunes.  I never thought I would "buy" a song online, but I am now a pro.  Not that it really takes a pro to figure it out, but I was on the phone numerous times with my brother to try and figure it out.

Happy Valentine's Day Stephen!

Day #13

Ditto on the before picture on this one too.

Picture this bottle full of red, sultry liquid...

Day #12

So...I forgot to get a picture before I gave this one away, so we only have the note.

Just imagine that there is a package of mints attached to this.

Day #11

Dress up

I am, by no means, a girl.  When I say that, I mean the 'girly-girl'.  Growing up, I was never into princesses or big, puffy dresses.  I did have Barbie dolls, but when my brother broke off Ken's leg we played that he had come home from Vietnam with no leg.  Serious.  My little nine-year-old brain thought that up all on my own.

Anyway, Maycee has decided that she loves princesses.  I have no idea why.  I definitely don't give her any girly ideas.

I have her blessing dress hanging up in her closet.  Every morning she asks to wear "that pretty princess dress".  She almost always has a dress on.  With pants.  Because there is no way she is going around in bare legs.  It's cold!

On Saturday night a friend of ours dropped off her daughter's old dress up clothes.

Maycee found them Sunday morning and had a field day.

There are no less than 6 pairs of princess shoes and a Snow White "golden crown".  At least that is what she calls it.

While I was getting ready for church on Sunday, Maycee was busy dressing up her dad in the numerous shoes.  She would put a pair on him and say, "Keep you shoes on, dude!"

Stephen would throw them off and Maycee would put them on again and repeat, "Keep your shoes on, dude!"

Cuties.

Day #10

Day #9

I have been looking forward to this day the whole time.

Those little cards covered in red can be scratched off to reveal information.  This is what the last 5 1/2 years of life together has gotten us.  Numbered 1-14.  The numbers are associated with the things that "luck" has brought him.

For example:
2 Beautiful Children
5 Years of Marital Bliss
...just to name a few.

Starting at 8:14am Stephen got to start picking cards and scratching.  Every hour on the :14 he gets to scratch a new card.

This has been fun.

Day #8

I think this speaks for itself.

News

As many of you know, Cooper is a non-mover.  He just sits in one spot.  No crawling.  Well, I had a different idea.  I gave Cooper a deadline.  We talked and everything.  I crawled when I was 11 months old.  I know, late bloomer.  I told Cooper that he had until his 11 month birthday to learn to crawl.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

On the day before his 11 month birthday, Cooper crawled.

I think he understood the vehemence in my speech.

CONGRATS TO THE COOP!!

In other news, Maycee has learned all sorts of new tricks....Color crayons are fun to use on the kitchen floor....Lotion rubs in quite nicely into the carpet....AND the best part is the she uses reverse psychology to get what she wants.

For example:

Maycee: "Mom, can I go to the library?"

Me: "Oh, did you want to go to the library?

Maycee: "Sure!"

She does this with everything.

It cracks me up every time.

Day #7

I left the #7 gift sitting in Stephen's car when he went to work this morning.

Family Fun

The times that I think we have the most fun together as a family is when it just happens spontaneously.  Those are kind of hard to plan. ;)

Last night after dinner I put on one of my favorite dancing cds.  Maycee, Cooper, and I love to dance.  We blasted ABBA from my radio and danced around the kitchen.  Stephen even jumped in a time or two.

For Christmas, Stephen hit the jackpot with one of the gifts that he got for me.  It was one of those gifts that I would have never even thought I wanted, but now I am in love.  He got me a book full of recipes for making juices, smoothies, and milkshakes.  We've probably made about a dozen different kinds by now.

Last night was the best one ever.

A Strawberry-Honeydew Milkshake.

I know, it doesn't sound like anything you would ever put together.  It was a-maze-ing.  Really.

Yeah for dancing!

And yeah for Strawberry-Honeydew milkshakes!

Day #6

This morning I got up early and made Stephen breakfast.  Oatmeal muffins, hard boiled eggs, and honeydew.  That says I love you more than anything!  I should probably do it more often...

Day #4 & Day #5

On Monday, I piled the kids in the car at 4:30pm to meet Stephen at work for Maycee to give him his Day #4 gift and to ride home with him.  I thought it would be a nice treat for both of them.  Maycee has been missing Daddy a lot lately.

Stephen didn't understand my cryptic message that I was sending over the phone.  He knew we were in the car and that he shouldn't leave work until 5pm.  It was cryptic.  So when I was turning onto the road that lead to Stephen's work I saw him pass me going the opposite direction in his car!  That ended up being a little fortuitous.

I called Stephen four times before he finally answered.  He'd left his phone on vibrate.

He turned around to come and meet us at his work...to receive his present!

Little did Stephen know, I snuck into his cubicle to leave his present for the Day #5.

I love this one.

Yes.  Those are real thumb prints.  Maycee and Cooper were a little rough.  Cooper and I had a down-right wrestling match.  That kid is strong!

I think they look pretty good, considering.

Day #3

Daddy taking pictures before church

...we have A LOT of time to burn.

 

Day #2

This says it all.

Canyon County Kid's Expo

Today was the Canyon County Kid's Expo.  I've been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks. 

Dora was going to be there.

Maycee would be elated.

We got out of our house this morning in good time!  We headed over to Caldwell to check out the much advertised expo.  They had a petting zoo, bounce houses, clowns, face painters, the works.  I am SO glad we got there early.  After an hour we headed out because of the chaos and claustrophobia.  Too many people.

Maycee did get to pet a snake.  I made Stephen take her over.  I'm a chicken.

Maycee really liked the bouncy houses, but after a while, they got a little over crowded as well.

Not that this picture would tell you, but she was laughing hysterically while jumping.

After about 40 minutes of wandering we still had not seen Dora.  I was getting a little frustrated.  As soon as I opened my mouth to complain about the lack of Dora, she came out of a door right behind me.

Maycee was a "super" fan.  We followed her to where she would do pictures and the entire time Maycee was yelling at her, "HI DORA!!!  HI DORA THE EXPLORER!!!!!"  I couldn't help but smile at her awe.

Here we are waiting in line to get our picture taken with Dora.

Maycee was so jealous when other kids were with Dora.

Finally we were at the front of the pack.

Maycee all of the sudden became shy.  She wouldn't even give Dora a high five!

I love this picture because Maycee wouldn't take her eyes off of Dora.

 
All in all, it was a lot of fun, but wasn't planned out very well.  I'm glad Maycee got to have a little bit of excitement though.

Day #1

As I explained previously, this winter has been a little rocky.  Poor Stephen has had to deal with a cranky Kami for the last month or so.  I really wanted to show him a little lovin' so I put together the 14 Days of Valentines for him.  It has been a lot of fun, but quite time consuming.

I just had to brag about my kickoff.

Day #1 has been awesome!  Stephen was SO surprised and we had so much fun together.  This week in particular, Stephen has been gone about 98% of the time.  No exaggeration.  So for day 1 I put together this "Healthy Basket of Love"....The Internet has everything.

Sometimes I hate blogger.  Why can't I get this picture the right way!!!!

Anyway...I loaded up the kids at 10:30am, on the dot, and drove to Stephen's work.  I arrived at exactly 11:00am and marched into the office and gave Stephen's basket to the receptionist and asked her to request that he read the card FIRST.  The card explained what I was doing for Valentine's and said that for the first day, his family was all waiting in the car in the parking lot to take him on a long lunch away from the office.

Fifteen minutes later Stephen emerged from the office with a goofy grin on his face.  He ran to the car and opened my door and laid a big smooch right on me.  Then he kissed Maycee and Cooper.  I love my hub.

I took Stephen to his first experience of Chick-fil-A.  LOVE that place.  After today, I love it even more.  Awesome customer service and awesome food!  Even an amazing jungle gym for the kids to play on.  Maycee had a ball.

So here is to the next two weeks of special lovin' to my man.