Valentines Day

Valentines Day started a day early at Lily's Activity Days Recognition Night.  They put together a sweet program and the desserts after were delish.  

Ben and Skyler were in another room doing Scout things.

I tried to surprise Ben with our favorite raspberry tarts from England for Valentines Day but the day before was so hectic that I couldn't keep it secret and had to make parts of them in front of him.  He laughed and told me he was glad it wasn't a surprise because he was going to wake up early on Valentines Day to go to the store to buy ingredients to make and surprise me with them, too!  Lol.  

I kind of wish Ben would have made them because I did something wrong to the creme patisserie and they didn't taste good.  :(  At least it's hard to make bacon fail!  

Then we had our 10th annual Valentines Day fondue dinner.  It's a big hit for everyone each year.  I love a reason to do something special for the day, and so I love Valentines Day.

Relief Society Work

I've been serving as the Relief Society First Counselor for over a year now and it is one of my favorite callings to date.  It helps that we live in an incredible ward and I work with a hard working presidency.  I love my calling and I dread being released.  That being said, it also is quite a bit of work.  Whenever I come across spare time I instantly think of something I could be doing for Relief Society and that typically gobbles up my time.  But I love the sisters in our ward and the different strengths they have to offer.  

I'm over all our activities and we have a lot of them.  We have several different things to choose from each month so that each sister has her options.  For our big official RS meeting in February, we were able to organize meal prep for 250 homeless people living in Durham.  We combined with the YW to help our efforts and it was done so quickly I couldn't believe it.  Everyone was doing something.  There weren't many people just standing on the sidelines.  That is one of the many reasons why I adore this ward.  I love our ward members so much Ben and I genuinely consider them our second family.

Freedom!!!

Our family's schedule is busy to say the least.  We literally have obligations Monday through Friday and many Saturdays and Sundays as well.  Even though my parents only live 35 minutes away, we don't get much of a chance to go and visit them because of our crazy schedule.  But my parents missed the kids and asked if they could come over for a sleepover.  I dropped them off after our homeschool co-op finished on a Friday and didn't see them until dinner time the next day.

I love my kids, but I didn't miss them.  LOL.  Ben and I had a blast with our 24 hour date.

First we went out to The Cheesecake Factory and then to the movies to see The Greatest Showman.  We loved it!  Great movie.  We've bought the soundtrack and the kids know all the songs even though they haven't seen the movie yet.  We stayed out late and enjoyed thinking about how much money we were saving by not hiring a babysitter for our uberly long date.

The next morning we slept in and went to a local donuts and biscuits place we hadn't tried yet.  We shared everything and it was so fun!  We never go out to breakfast.

We came home and what exciting thing did I do since I didn't have kids at home?  I took a long pregnancy nap.  It was fabulous.

Then we went out to lunch at a southern BBQ place we hadn't tried yet but had heard rave reviews for months about.  It was delicious.

**Side story** In first grade my class celebrated Thanksgiving together by having a big pot luck.  One of the dishes that was brought in was Brunswick Stew.  I literally thought the pilgrims ate Brunswick Stew until I was a teenager and finally realized Brunswick Stew was just a Southern dish.  

Scripture Stories by Thad and Ella

About once a week we don't read straight out of the scriptures and we just tell scripture stories instead.  Ella and Thad always insist on telling their own versions of scripture stories they "know."  They've come a long ways.  Back in the day, Thad used to always tell us the story of the Lamanites walking the plank, which naturally always included lava and snakes.

Noah and the Ark

Thad: "... and it comed with a leaf..."

Ella whispering:  "No it didn't!  It came back with nothing!"

Adam and Eve