Valentines day, a familiar face and food coloring...

One of these days I am going to post some pictures...I just took one of Weston sleeping in his high chair with chocolate cake on his face. (He's still sleeping there actually). Weston is my "sugar baby"...he inherited his daddy's sweet tooth...(not that I don't have one of my own from time to time)! That boy begs me for sweets! He knows that they are in the cupboard over the fridge so he'll go to the fridge, reach up as far as he can and beg. He learned the word "back-pack" this week...and so now he uses that word whenever he wants something!

So! We had a good week over here. Like I said in a earlier post, we made it home from Mesa on Monday. Then Tuesday morning I woke up thinking that I didn't want to get out of my bed...and then Brandon came in and told me that it had snowed and Kaitlyn would have "late-start". I wish everyday were "late-start"! She doesn't have to get on the bus until 9:23 a.m. those mornings...normally it's 7:23! (ugh!)

You don't know how THRILLED I am that tomorrow is Presidents Day! No School for Kaitlyn and No Work for Brandon! We're going to go move some cows in the morning...well...Brandon and Kaitlyn will ride (horses) and Addie, Weston and I will drive the truck. I am hoping to get some good pictures! There are 8 new calves already! Then we need to go to Home Depot. We bought new vertical blinds for our house yesterday and two of them need to be returned. Westy also needs some new church shoes (we wont get those at Home Depot of course!). He totally out grew his in the last week.

Did everyone have a good Valentine's Day!? We didn't really have anything planned. The kids and I had gone to Wal-Mart on Friday and bought Brandon a gift. But that was it. Yesterday morning, Brandon went and got each of the kids a Valentines mylar balloon. (They get one every Valentine's day and on their birthday...I am ready for them to deflate already!) I started making heart shaped pancakes for breakfast...but then Brandon took over because he's a better pancake maker than me! I made strawberry/raspberry syrup to go on top. For lunch, we took the kids to "The Dog House". It's a new little arcade/restaurant on Main Street. They had so much fun! All the games are 25 cents...and the food wasn't too terribly priced. We were there for an hour! It would be fun to go there and play pool one of these days. I haven't played pool in FOREVER! After we left "The Dog House", we went to Show Low to get new blinds. We've been putting this off for a long time because our kids keep breaking the ones we have...but it finally got to the point where we were looking a little trashy with a blanket hanging from the girls bedroom window...that, coupled with the fact that we still had our icicle Christmas lights up out front made for a real "classy" look! Both problems are now remedied...and we warned the girls that if one of them takes scissors and cuts the strings that hold the blinds together again...then we will take them and have their hair cut short. Hopefully that will deter them. It seems like our kids have just been ruining one thing after another lately! The couch looks hideous...Addie's been driving us nuts writing on things...and you'd think that Kaitlyn would be more responsible about taking care of our belongings...but she's not much better than the younger two lately. Oh well...what can you do? (not buy anythings nice..that's what!)

So I have to mention something that happened yesterday! We were at Lowe's (because we wanted to get a price comparison on blinds so that Home Depot would price match them plus take 10% off...which they did...not without giving Brandon some grief... Anyhow...we looked at the blinds, then I wanted to look at some rugs. We asked a lady where they were and she looked SO familiar to me. I read her name tag then asked her if she had ever lived in California. She said, "yes"...then I asked her if her sister was Cheryl Skalicky. Turns out that she is the sister of our old neighbors that we lived next door to in Rialto for 15 years! Her niece Michelle and I were best friends when we were little! And what makes this an even smaller world is that Sue, (that's her name) lives here in Snowflake...5 minutes from me! We exchanged phone numbers. I called her today to invite her over for dinner. We'll see if she accepts! I am excited to talk to her again and find out what on earth lead her to move to Snowflake...I am also hoping that maybe Michelle will come visit her aunt...and possibly her told childhood friend??? (I didn't end up buying a new rug by the way.)

I guess that sums up our week...there were little errands here and there...and I helped out in Kaitlyn's class at school....OH! I forgot to say that Brandon and I did end up going out last night for Valentines day. We got some girls from our neighborhood to stay with the kids and we went to "Sweet Charly's"...it's a little resturant on Main...there food was pretty good...and they had lost our order so it took a while to get us our food...but they gave us free cake! :) We came home to a minor mess... it was the final proof we needed to not have these particular girls babysit for us ever again. We'd had a little problem with them before...and hadn't asked them to baby sit for a long time...but they're in our ward and they're always asking us if they can babysit...so we gave them another chance. We came home to them sitting on the couch...Weston was asleep in one of the girls arms which would have been great if they had done a good job changing his diaper...we had to wake him up and give him a bath because he was stinky. Kaitlyn was in the kitchen trying to clean up some green stuff that was on the floor, counter and cabinets. I went and asked Addie (who was sitting in front of the TV with her legs crossed and arms folded) what she had gotten into...and when she stood up she had green arms and legs. The babysitters looked at each other with "deers in headlights" expressions on their fces! They didn't have a CLUE that Adelin had climbed onto the counter and gotten into food coloring. (HELLO! What did you do? Sit and watch TV the WHOLE time and not pay any attention to my kids!?...no need for me to ask that question...I already know the answer...) I paid the girls, Brandon took them home and I got the bleach out to clean up the mess. It all came out...so that was good! I just don't know where to find a good babysitter around here! When I was young and babysat for people...I rarely turn on the TV to entertain the kids. We played games, did puzzels...read books...and I always made sure that the dishes were done and the house was clean. Babysitters these days don't do that. (At least not any that we've had) You're lucky if they'll take a break from instant messaging their friends long enough to get your kid a drink! I wouldn't mind the house being a little messed up as long as they played with the kids. I guess I need to just be more firm and tell whoever I have babysit what I expect.

(a little later)...Sue just called! They're going to come over for dinner in a week! I am so excited!

WELL... I better go!

Have a Happy President's Day everyone! :)

p.s. I forgot to mention that in Wednesday the kids received a Valentine's package from their Aunt Kim and Uncle Eric! They were SO excited...and the gifts they sent to them kept them busy all day...a big bonus for mom! Thanks guys...we love ya!

p.s.s Also forgot to mention that I get to go see Angie in a couple weeks! (hooray!!!) I am flying to Texas and we're going to go to Time Out For Women in Huston with some of her friends! WAY excited for that! I also get to have a few days of "Angela time" at her house...I hear the outlet mall by her house calling our names already!