A long winded week....

Well... what a busy week we have had! Here is a recap...

Chapter 1... Valentine's Day

Wednesday Justin and I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day with the children because of our elaborate, romantic dinner we had planned for the actual holiday. We took the children to Peter Piper Pizza and they had a blast. Here are some pictures of them with their "loot". Notice all of the new tops we are wearing in the pictures... "thank you daddy for such a wonderful Valentine's Day gift"








































Well now... wasn't that cute!? Valentine's Day is grand... especially when you are looking forward to a romantic dinner with your husband, while your children are diligently watched in a nearby room, no worries, complete and utter relaxation....

OR NOT...

so... here's what REALLY happened...
Dinner reservations were for 6:30. We were doing good, out of the house by 6pm, made it to the swanky place a little past quarter after... not bad!
We are directed to the board room/ childcare area... we open the door, and to my utter surprise, it is an ACTUAL board room... DUH... what was I thinking?
Let me paint a picture of the "childcare setting"
HUGE board table, leather chairs all around, small tv against a wall, puzzle pieces, crayons, markers, small cheap toys scattered about on the floor around the edge of the room along the walls (not much room because of huge board room table). HMMMMM Great place to leave my children???... ok so I was just dying to have some alone time with Justin, no real "mommy radars" went off... I reiterated to the girls (teen girls) that Mason puts everything into his mouth, and to please watch him, because he WILL choke...."not a problem, we will keep an eye on him"
We step outside of the board room and Justin isn't liking the situation... he is having "daddy radar". I calm him down, tell him it will be fine, we will be in the other room and can check on the knuckleheads from time to time... no worries, we need to start trusting people more...
We are seated at our beautiful table, live music right next to us, menus have mighty tasty entrees awaiting our pallets.... and we sit... and we wait... and we sit... and we wait some more... oh hi water server... thank you very much water server... no answer...hmmm and we sit and we wait and we sit and we wait... mommy radar starts to kick in... oh hi waitress over there... oh you go ahead and help that table that was seated AFTER us... yes just look at us.... oh hi other waitress... nope don't help us... wait... you are coming towards us... haha you fooled us... here we sit, and wait, still... 15 minutes goes by and NOBODY comes to talk to us, take our drink order, greet us, NOTHING... ummmm $55.00 a plate is not worth this... so we get up and leave.
We rush over to the childcare area and sweep the children up. I am muttering something about "a family emergency" and we are gone. Justin wants me to tell them why we really are leaving, but I just don't feel like dealing with it. We get to the car, Mason is playing with something in his mouth. I ask Justin if something is in Mason's mouth. He checks, and sure enough, a quarter-sized puzzle piece is in Mason's mouth... so much for keeping a close eye on him. He could have seriously choked and I don't think those girls would have had a CLUE as to what to do. Ya they may be "trained"... but I think there was too much going on for them to realize. Oh... I forgot to mention that when we returned to claim our children, there were double the amount of children in this itty bitty room, with more expected to arrive shortly... honestly I don't know how they get away with it... definitely against codes and what not.
So here we are... it is now 7pm, good thing we fed the children before we left! It is Valentine's Day, we are dressed to the hilt, and are hungry. I say, "Let's just go to Claim Jumper (a fave place of mine to frequent). We drive the 15 miles into Avondale and pull up, and to our amazement we see massive amounts of people WAITING to eat... DUH... everywhere on God's green earth that serves food right now will be busy as it is Valentine's Day. We turn around and head back to our neck of the woods... the only sit down restaurant out by us is... the one... the only... Cracker Barrel. So there we sat, all decked out in our best attire, eating Cracker Barrel. We had a fun time playing with the kids, and vowed that while Auntie Melanie was visiting over the weekend, we would utilize her and go out just the two of us to a romantic dinner.
I forgot to take pictures of us on the actual Valentine's Day... guess that should have been a forewarning of what was to come. However, we did take pictures of ourselves before we left for a lovely dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse last night.

Now... onto Chapter 2 of the week...

Gabriella's 3rd birthday party.

Saturday we had a lovely party for Gabriella at Bounce U. Not much to say other than we had a blast. Thank you to everyone who drove in to spend that special day with our little princess. It meant a lot to her and to all of us. We know many of you were unable to attend due to the distance, but you were there with us in spirit. Here are some pictures to fill you in on all the fun!

wheeewweee talk about a long day... she was a bit frazzled and tired!

Here is the video of us singing Happy Birthday to her!

Cute stuff huh? She sure is a princess!

Next up... Chapter 3

Sunday, 2.17.08 Gabriella turns 3
Saturday night before Gabriella goes to bed, I hug her and tell her "tomorrow is your real birthday and you will be 3!" She gives me one of the most serious looks she has ever given me and says "No mommy, I will be 4" I guess she thought she turned 3 at her birthday party, and the aging process was beginning to take a drastic turn and head on down the super fast highway!

It is moments like this where I realize that no matter how much my children whine, cry or even frustrate me, it is all worth it, because the joy in my heart whenever Gabriella or Mason surprises me, excites me or makes me laugh is worth everything else they dish out to me on a daily basis! I thank God for them and for Justin every day... they are truly blessings.

On Sunday, we had a slow moving day, but when we finally got around to things, we took Gabriella to the park. Her and Mason had a blast as their Aunties were there... Auntie Melanie and Aunt Ashley... the days are perfect when they are around... nothing beats fun times with the Aunts.

Here are a few pictures of the fun time...




Here is a video of Mr. Mason... much better quality than the last post I did... sorry it was so dark!




There you have it... everything that has happened in the past week! We were sad to see Uncle Jerod, Aunt Ashley and Auntie Melanie leave... but hopefully they will be back again to visit soon. Anyone else that would like to come visit... we would love to have you! Come and thaw out in warm AZ temperatures!

I took some pictures and videos of Gabriella at dance class this last weekend. I will save those for my weekly post next week as this is already long enough. This next week will be quite mundane, not a lot going on, so I must save things for future posts when I have run out of things to write about and show you!

Until next time, stay safe, stay happy, and be healthy!

Love to all... Tara