Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to all my wonderful friends and family. I hope your day was filled with love and you had a chance to show someone in your life a little extra love today. Valentine's Day is not an over celebrated holiday in our house, but we try to do a little something for the day. The girls woke up this morning to find a few goodies from their daddy. I didn't get a chance to take the picture before Katie ripped into hers but you can see a little of what they got. They each got a rose, some candy and little stuffed animal.

I even had a surprise in my office chair when I went to start work this morning. My sweet hubby gave me beautiful red roses, a very sweet card and a box of chocolate. Just so you know Chris, I wouldn't want to share my life with anyone else either. You truly are my best friend!

The girls asked for a vase for their flowers, I only had one small vase so I thought it was so sweet how they decided to "share" it. They put both their roses in the vase and then Katie got Bree's table from her room and they put in the hall right in between their rooms.

Instead of buying gifts for everyone from me I decided to cook a romantic dinner for my three valentines. The menu included steak (yes, the girls love steak), potatoes, broccoli, corn and cheese fondue with bread and apples to dip in it.

Katie decorated the table for me while I cooked.
My three valentines......my life wouldn't be the same without them.

After dinner while Chris and I cleaned, the girls were off playing. I heard lots of laughter and then I saw Samson come running around the corner. Poor Samson...it was only a matter of time before he was dragged into their dress up time. He was a good sport about it, even though it he looks pretty ticked off in this picture.

To end...I will put my favorite verse about love because it encompasses all that we should strive to be when we love someone.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Hitting the Pavement

Finally, after two weeks of being hauled up in the house and running all of my training runs on the treadmill, included an 8 mile one last Saturday......I got to get out for our Saturday run and actually run in the fresh air and sunshine. It was WONDERFUL!!!!! Today's run was a fund raiser for our free training program it helps raise money to buy the snacks and Gatorade that we use each Saturday. It was a lot of fun, the run is called The Poker Run. It is 5 miles and each mile you get a card and then at the end everyone gets a prize starting with the best hand down. Well, I was at the bottom I only had a pair of fours. I walked away with a glass...that was from a previous 5k. It was so good to get out and be outside for a little while and not be couped up in the house. There was still lots of snow but the main path for our run was clear except for lots of ice spots. I almost busted it about five times, but each time I ended up grabbing on to Katherine and she saved me from falling. I am just glad I didn't take us both down.

Here are my wonderful running buddies. These girls keep me motivated especially to get out in the cold each Saturday morning to do our longer runs. I honestly don't think I could be doing this on my own.

Me, Katherine and Becky right before the Poker Run

Making Frosty!

With all the snow that has been dumped on us over the past two weeks we definitely had enough to go out and make a Frosty. Just a side note: Since the start of February we have had 20 plus inches of snow. The girls have been out of school for 9 consecutive days (that is including tomorrow).

The girls helping to round out Frosty's lower half.

Daddy working hard on making the middle
Ta Da! Meet our Frosty! I laugh because I did his eyes with frozen blueberries. They wouldn't stay in. I think it looks like he is winking at us.

If you saw him today in our yard, both of his arms are missing, eyes, nose and mouth are all gone. He looks kind of sad. :) Oh, now his lower half is partially yellow thanks to Samson. He was out in the front yard with me the other day. He went over and sniffed at him. Then lifted his leg and peed on him . Poor Frosty! I don't think Samson liked him in our yard.

100 Days

Katie school celebrated 100 days of school the past Monday. Her class was celebrated by completing a chart that counts to 100, reading a story about 100's and then they had a project they had to complete by Monday. They had to make a hat that had 100 things on it and wear it on Monday.


Here is Katie's hat that she did all by herself by the way. Chris just supervised. She cut out the number 100 and then colored it. She stapled the numbers to her hat. She then decorated the rest with 40 stick on jewels and 60 dots of glitter glue. A hat fit for a princess.

Here is the back.

Here she is ready to go to school. She was so proud of what she made that she wanted to wear it to school. I was so impressed with how creative she was in making the hat.

Crazy Weather and Serious Cabin Fever!!!!

Late Monday night we started to get ice and then by Tuesday morning we were in a down pour of snow. Blizzard 2011 had begun. The amounts of snow that we were to get kept increase all day. First 9 inches, then 12 inches and I believe we ended with 16 inches.

We had lots of wind blowing the snow everywhere. You can see some of the high snow drifts we have.

See that their swings are almost buried under the snow.

So far so good on the trampoline.....I really thought that the weight of the snow would break it but not yet.

The girls were wanting to go out in the snow so bad but the temps are really cold and the wind doesn't help it. When it finally stopped blowing snow we took them out for a little bit. Here they are charging out the front door. The back yard has way to many snow drifts that they really couldn't even try to go out in the back.


You can see that Bree is up to her waist in snow.


Trying to climb their way out of it.
Back inside to warm up and eat some yummy snow cream

As most of you know a snow like this in the south pretty much shuts down the town. Since Tuesday we have been in the house and YES CABIN FEVER has set in. Since I work from home there really isn't a way I can call in and say I can't work, but THANKFULLY Chris' work was closed from Tuesday - Thursday so he was at home to play with the girls. They did plenty to keep the them occupied..

Painted toes nails and finger nails, played dress up, watched lots of movies, played in the snow, took naps, colored and read some books.

Here is a little video of Samson and the girls in the snow. Samson was out playing when the blizzard was happening. He was having fun chasing all the snow blowing around and then you can see what he has to go through every day just to go outside to go to the bathroom.

Happy Birthday Samson!

Happy Birthday Samson!!!! He turned 1 year old on Tuesday. You're a handful but we love having you around.

A look back....bringin Samson home at 8 weeks old.

He was so little and cuddly
Today....full grown. Still such a cute little face.

Suprise!!!!!!

I accomplished what I didn't think I could. For the past two weeks I have been planning a surprise graduation party for Chris. It was suppose to happen back in December but it was just to hectic with Christmas stuff. I have never really been able to surprise Chris on anything even down to birthday or Christmas gifts. So it was a mission for me to pull this off.

The to do list included email everyone invited, getting the food ordered, getting decorations, order the cake and getting everything over to Stefanie's house the day before. And of course hoping and praying no one including myself slips up and says something. On Friday, it was so far so good. Everything was completed and ready to go.

On Saturday all Chris knew was that we were going over to our friends Jeremy and Stefanie to have dinner with them and let our kids play. Everyone was already at their house ready and waiting. We pulled up and walked in......and it was a huge surprise for him. He was truly shocked. So yay for me and all involved for helping me pull this off!!!!! Chris just kept smiling and saying he had no idea. :)

We had such a fun evening(so much so that I completely forgot to take pics). I had Rib Crib cater the dinner so we had wonderful BBQ, we all sat around enjoyed are dinner and some how got on the topic of how everyone met their spouse. We had some very interesting and funny stories. Always learn something new. After dinner we dove into the cake. I order an OSU cake which I thought turn out really nice.....even though some of our guest were OU fans they were gracious enough to eat the cake. :)

After we had our tummy's full we all played a fun game of Battle of the Sexes. Good ole fashion guy vs girl competition. We had a blast trying to trip the other team up from answering their questions. But in the end the guys won the game.....but the girls came to the conclusion that this game was created by a guy because only a guy could come up with some of these questions we had. I know that I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It is definitely good for soul.

As the evening was wrapping up all of our guest signed a picture frame I had for Chris. I thought it would be a wonderful memory for him to have.

Everyone that was there has been a big part of our lives in some way. Always encouraging him as he was completing his MBA. I know we are so blessed to have each and everyone of them in our lives. I am thankful they were able to to be there with us for the celebration.