6:17 a.m. early love note on the bathroom mirror

7:22 serious bed head

7:22 Playing with puzzles together when I went in to get them up.

8:05 a.m. sugary cereal on vday plates

8:46 a.m. Preparing Valentines at the last minute, because that's how we do things at our house :)

9:12 a.m. more valentines, more bed head

10:24 a.m. Visiting Mrs. Becky and showing her the Valentine they made

7:45 p.m. sitting down to dinner together, alone...take out from Mama Maria's: perfect Valentines Day dinner!

8:47 p.m. Little bit of laundry...

9:01 p.m. An episode together of How It's Made on Netflix

At the Fort Lewis Elementary winter carnival on Saturday

On Saturday night we went out to eat with friends, and were so glad to have Shawn there to entertain the kids while we waited for the check. He has a gift :) They couldn't get enough of him, all at the same time!

Shawn and Kaitlyn were married last year, and are such a blessing to our church body.

On Saturday a dear friend came to help me with some messy spaces in our house. Kristin is well-known for her extremely ordered and clean home, and a few weeks ago I asked her for some time to pick her brain for ideas about problem areas I was having. She came over on Saturday and we worked for several hours! I felt so relieved when we left...even though we didn't finish (hopefully she can come back soon), we still did a lot and I loved the results.

One of the things we did was to clean out and organize the spices cabinet. Wow! I wish I had taken before and after pictures!

Thanks so much, Kristin, for your time and talents :)

Last weekend we took a trip to Snowshoe, WVa with the rest of my family for a few days of rest and skiing! We had been looking forward to the trip for months and now looking back are so thankful we were able to go and sad that it has come and gone. The girls and I left with my mom on Friday at lunchtime, and the guys met us there late that night after work and travel. We encountered a few bummers during the weekend (NO snow on the mountain, drizzly weather, Aaron sick, poor sleeping by the kids, nagging headache for me), but those were minor compared to the joy it was just to relax and enjoy time with the family.

Here are some of the things we did together:

We put together a Fancy Nancy puzzle

They got all the ski gear on to go out on the slopes together (men only)

Even though the temperatures were mild, the conditions on the trails were pretty good, according to them...meaning the skiing was good!

Joey and Aaron waited on the others to get ready

We made funny faces :)

We stayed in our pjs for a long time each morning

We made a few Valentines

I helped Vivian get ready to go out on the slopes with Daddy and Uncle Joey on the first day. The second day she went with my Dad and Joey. She had a blast both times!

She looked adorable in her snow outfit. Thanks to Mama Dot for the ski bibs, hats, and scarves!

She thought the boots were pretty cool, and didn't complain about how difficult they are to walk in. She goes with the flow so well and we were really proud of her...

Daddy and Vivian thawed out by the fire after their adventures. By this point, Aaron was feeling really sick :(

These two made us smile sometimes with their sweetness to each other. And other times we may have gotten a little frustrated with their fighting, but those scenes don't make good pictures!

We (Uncle Stephen) figured out how to play Netflix on the TV, so we found a Dora episode for them to watch while we played a board game or two. We laughed at how Vivian was sitting to watch TV.

They are both (but especially Kate) really into Dora right now, by the way.

Daddy and Kate played on my Kindle.

Uncle Stephen helped her get ready for skiing on the 2nd day.

We all kind of went overboard with respect to the food that weekend...cookies, brownies, ice cream, chips, big meals...

Finally, I guess whenever I had my camera out, Michael was sleeping, because he was there but I don't have any pictures of him!

We had a safe, enjoyable trip back home on Sunday night (Vivian was so worn out from the skiing that she fell asleep within minutes of being in the car, and for some reason Kate was so quiet the whole way home!), but we were sad to leave. Vivian has talked about it often this week, and I can't wait for next year. Maybe they will actually be able to play in the snow next time!

January 31st, 9 years ago, Aaron and I had our first date! So for one or two years before we were married, this was the "anniversary" that we made note of loosely, but of course since we have our wedding date now, this January one has disappeared. But last Tuesday night we remedied that by going out for a couple of hours to celebrate that date 9 years ago.

We went to Cold Stone for ice cream, to try and imitate our first date...that night we had gone to Macaroni Grill for dinner and then to Marble Slab in Cary, NC for ice cream, but since we don't have a Marble Slab in Roanoke, we improvised. We also went to the movies that night with a group of friends from the choir in which we met.

It was a nice evening to go out, especially since Aaron had been out of town for a few days before that and we hadn't gotten a chance to catch up yet. We put the girls to bed and then went out for a late date!

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of knowing this man for 9 years!

I went a little camera crazy yesterday at the park. I so enjoyed watching them run and play in the fresh air. We are all adoring this warm 65-degree weather in the middle of winter!

Love that prissy smile she gave when I asked for one :)

Kate was really intense about this Clifford riding toy. It was a great teachable time for sharing and taking turns, and she did fairly well with that!

Another mom told me after the fact that her daughter had approached Vivian about riding on the back of this firetruck, but Vivian told her, "No, I'm waiting for my sister to ride with me...do you know where she is?"

This is classic Vivian: enjoying herself while being very observant of what other people are doing....concentrating more on watching other kids play than on what she's playing!

I got these great pictures of those good-lookin' Bolling twins :)

I told you I got a little carried away with the pictures (these are only half of what I downloaded), but you don't mind, right?!