Happy Valentines Week

One of my favorite holiday traditions (introduced to me by my sister-in-law, Dianne) is to have pillowcases for the holidays. The first thing we do in a holiday month is to put on these cheerful cases. Even though we don't have many decorations here, the pillowcases together with holiday tablecloths always makes things cheerful.

We like to make our own Valentine cards, so this is the card we sent to family and friends this year.

For Baylie's classmates, we ordered these little bee bookmarks from Oriental Trader for Valentines. (Her school mascot is the bees.) She wrote "bee mine" on each one. They were really cute.

I wanted to do something fun for David and I for Valentine's Day, so I was excited to see that our local community was holding a Valentine's dinner/dance with live music for only $10 a couple. It sounded too good to be true! And actually, it was. When we got to the dance, we discovered that there was only one other couple that wasn't in their 50's or older, most were in their 60's. The live music was one guy with a sound system, although he was pretty good.

Much as I was looking forward to dancing with my new and improved body and actually being able to wrap my arms around David for a slow dance (and have him wrap his arms around me), it just wasn't our scene. We decided to head out and catch a movie instead. When we got to the movie, we were in between shows. I asked if we bought a 9:30 show, would they let us catch the end of a movie that was already started and they agreed. Good deal! So we watched the end of "Imitation Game" and all of "The Theory of Everything." Neither were ones I had been dying to see, but they were both pretty good. I slept through parts of both. I would have preferred to catch the new Hunger Games or Hobbit movies, but they're no longer playing. During the second movie, we were the only people in the theater. I love it when that happens.

I was glad Valentines was on a Saturday so I could be home for breakfast instead of at seminary. When we all came to the table, Baylie's place was still nice and neat. 

Jalen's place had already been raided. He is definitely a one-marshmallow kid.

Valentines cards from me and my parents (I got mine free through a Cherishables promotion).

We had pink, heart-shaped pancakes.

Made cupcakes with the sister missionaries.

And since it was a 3-day weekend, we camped in the living room. (We were going to set up the tent in the backyard, but I chickened out when I saw it was going to be 20+ degrees.)

Sleeping on the air mattress is a way better experience with my new body!

It's been a great weekend!

Hair Day For Him

I've always wanted to put twists in Jalen's hair. His hair is very thick and it's getting really long. While I was doing his hair, he said, "If this ends up looking like a girl's hairdo, I will be very disappointed."

I thought it looked cute, but Jalen didn't like it. (This picture doesn't do it justice.)

David didn't like it either, so we took it out.

And now for your listening/viewing pleasure, click HERE.

We Love Our Zoo

There are so many things I love about Columbia and near the top of the list is our zoo. It is a great little zoo. I especially love that it's close enough for us to go anytime. The other day we decided to go after we picked Baylie up from school. We knew we'd only have an hour, but we still had a fun time of it.

One of my favorite areas is the penguins. They stink to high heaven, but I love watching them. It always reminds me of my time in Argentina where we had live penguins.

I also love the gorillas. We were late in the day so they were getting ready to be fed and put away. When we first got there, this guy came right up to the glass - probably thought we were going to feed them - but I didn't get my camera out in time.

Can you find the meerkat?

I love this little house...

...and this one.

The zoo is under a lot of construction, but it's going to be even better than ever - they're adding otters, seals, sea lions and a bigger grizzly exhibit. It will be amazing.

UDPATE - I had to add some pictures from a recent trip to the zoo. Usually the gorilla has his back to us, but this time the gorilla was face to face with Jalen. It was pretty amazing.

Baylie wanted in on the action, but she was VERY nervous about it.

Jalen's Five!

Five years ago tomorrow, our lives changed forever when we learned about the birth of a little baby boy in Roanoke, Virginia. Jalen has been such a joy in our home ever since. We love him so much. He was such a fun little baby - our chunky monkey - and he continues to be a wild, crazy kid that lights up a room when he comes crashing into it.

Seriously, who could not love this kid?

When I say chunky, I mean chunky.

He was ALWAYS hungry.

And he thoroughly enjoyed his food.

Today he could hardly wait to open all his presents.

He is easy to please because he loves everything he gets. (He was especially excited to get some cash from grandparents.)

Captain America helmet.

Ready to defend the universe.

He used his cash to buy a guitar. His daddy was so excited with his choice of an instrument over toys.

And of course, even Captain America could use a little music in his life.

We had some Chuck E. Cheese's tokens left over from a birthday party we went to a few months ago, so we saved them for Jalen's birthday. He was very excited about our dinner surprise for him.

Why do kids love this place so much? It is so not my favorite place.

And once again, I have to show my failure as a cake decorator. So here you have the inspiration...

...and here you have the reality.

But once you cover it all with action figures, who cares what the frosting looks like??

Jalen liked it. That's all that matters.

We each shared one thing we love about Jalen.
Daddy: I've never met anyone that can pretend play with toys like him.
Baylie: He always feels bad and says he's sorry when he does something wrong.
Mommy: Even though he's a rough and wild little boy, he always gives me the biggest hugs.

We all love Jalen so much and are so glad he's part of our family. I can't imagine my life without him in it.

I always think of my childrens' birthmothers on days like today and wonder if they remember. Today we heard from Jalen's birthmom through our adoption agency. We hadn't heard from her in four years. It answered my question. I would guess that no matter how much time passes, these birthdays are days of remembrance for these special women. I'm so grateful to them for sharing their children with me and letting me be a mother.

Beach Bums

We had a four-day weekend and really wanted to do something fun, but we have a limited budget. I started hunting around for something to do that would be new and memorable, but that wouldn't break the bank. After considering a couple of options, I came across a hotel in Myrtle Beach with an indoor water park with off-season weekday rates of just $59. I knew I'd hit the jackpot! The Dunes Village Resort was exactly what we needed.

Myrtle Beach is a popular vacation spot, especially with Spring Breakers, but we had never been there before. I had actually kind of avoided it because I figured it was probably over developed and touristy (and it is), but the idea of an indoor water park was irresistible during these cold months.

The kids were very excited that we had an ocean front room and they could see the beach from our balcony.

Of course, it was a little chilly, so we didn't spend much time on the balcony.

Our room had a king size bed and then a queen size hideaway bed.

It also had a kitchenette complete with full fridge, oven/stove and microwave. That was another big selling point because it meant we didn't have to eat out. We could bring our own food and save money that way. I think we had enough food for a week!

Before we headed to the water park, we decided to check out the beach.

It was beautiful - but FREEZING!

Family selfie

I love the South Carolina beaches with their grasses and fences. There's something romantic about them.

We took a picture of our family in a similar spot four years ago shortly after we moved to South Carolina. We've all changed a lot since then.

There was a fun playground. It was too cold to play on Friday, but we went back and played on Saturday.

We didn't play with the giant chess or checkers, but they sure looked cool.

The water park was a lot of fun. It was divided into two sections, one in each tower of the hotel. One section was more geared toward older kids although it did have a splash area for littler ones.

David and Baylie spent most of their time at this part and went up and down the slides all day long. So much that David was very sore the next day.

Curvy slide.

High slide.

I even went on both the slides, which is a big deal for me. I'm a coward when it comes to heights and something like water slides. I wouldn't have done this if I hadn't lost so much weight. I screamed all the way down.

The splash pad on this side didn't have any kind of a pool, just water features. It had several hot tubs, which was great. I could watch the kids play from the comfort of a nice, warm hot tub.

The water park in the other tower was more for younger kids and that's where Jalen and I spent most of our time. The splash area on that side was in a wading pool. David really embraced the waterfall feature.

There were a couple of small slides that were just Jalen's size. (He wouldn't go down the bigger slides and one of them he was too short for anyway.) 

There was a lazy river. And more hot tubs, my favorite.

Jalen wasn't feeling his best, so I took him back to the room and he took a 2 1/2 hour nap. It was great that I could do that and David and Baylie could still swim. That wouldn't have been possible if the park weren't right in the hotel.

Poor kid.

He was feeling great the next day, which was great because my cousin Christina, her three children and a friend came and stayed too. Jalen loves his cousin Nash.

After we checked out, we swam a little more, had a picnic at the playground and then made one final trip to the beach.

Jalen was so tired, he was literally falling asleep in this pose.

I have to confess that I find Baylie's shell choices a little odd. She never goes for the delicate, unbroken ones.

Then we headed in to town just to walk the boardwalk and see what it was like. (Our hotel was located about five miles north of the main part of Myrtle Beach.) We stopped at a huge candy store. The kids were in heaven.

We let them each pick one thing. Baylie picked a bag that she could fill with all different flavors of jelly beans. Jalen picked a sucker as big as his face.

Next we went to a shop called the Gay Dolphin. We let the kids each pick out a souvenir. The shop was a crazy mix of a little bit of everything. We even found Zoltan the fortune teller. Baylie chose a seashell necklace and Jalen chose an airplane.

We didn't ride the giant ferris wheel, but it sure looked cool.

We walked to the end of the pier.

View of hotels from the pier. 

View from the other side of the pier.

View from the end of the pier.

Taste testing.

We had a wonderful trip. It was the perfect little getaway.