A Day of Love

Brendan brought me home these beautiful flowers and this yummy cake today from The Chocolate.  I can't wait to eat it tonight.  On Valentine's Day we celebrate at home together as a family and go out the next night on a date.  The day after Valentine's Day is when Brendan proposed to me, so it's a special day but without any crowds.

I got these cute little mailboxes in the dollar section and Target and used them to put little valentines and treats for Hazel, Hattie, and Brendan leading up to Valentine's Day. 

This year I was going to do the 14 days of Valentines, but I started late so it ended up being 10 days.  Each day I gave Brendan a valentine.  This frog one was from one day and also the junior mints.  I also did some like "I'm nuts about you" with some pistachios or "I'm fortunate to have you" with a bag of fortune cookies.  Hazel would hide them around the house for Brendan to find, but she usually got too excited when he came home and told them where they were.  (frog valentine from here and junior mints printable here)

 These were Hazel's valentines she passed out at preschool with some sweedish fish.  I got the printable from here.

Las Vegas

Brendan had another convention to go to for work (the International Builders Convention) in Las Vegas again, but this time we came with him.  It was so nice to have warmer weather and be able to take the kids to an outside park to play.  The weather was in the high 60's.  I didn't pull out my camera once, but Brendan got some shots with his phone.

 We went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay with the kids. 

Brendan's parents came also, so we were able to have babysitters in the evening and go out to some shows.  We went to three Cirque Du Soleil shows which was kind of a lot.  They don't have Phantom or Lion King there anymore or any other shows that sounded good.   Even though Brendan had been to the Beatles show before, he really liked it and thought I would too.  That one was definitely our favorite.  The other two are OK, but I think Cirque Du Soleil is just kind of weird.

While Brendan Was Away

The second week in January Brendan went to the Consumer Electronic show in Las Vegas for work.  He was gone for four days in warmer weather, and I had to keep the girls busy in our single digit weather.

 One night we went to Chuck E Cheese's and the girls had a lot of fun.

 Another night it was off to the Provo Beach Resort.  As the girls went on the merry go round, Hazel kept saying, "Instagram it to Daddy."  They got these adorable hats from Whitney's friend Jessica who came into town from New York.  They love them!

Brendan was supposed to make it back for my birthday, but had to stay an extra night out of town because of a snow storm.  I spent my birthday at the mall playground with the kids and then we went and got Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes and Hazel sang Happy Birthday to me.  Brendan of course made it up to me on another night and we went out to eat together.

We're having a........

Boy!

Most everybody already knows that from following instagram or facebook, but I thought I would post it here too.  We are super excited, especially Hazel.  We will soon have a lot more dinosaurs and trains around here.

New Blog

Here is our new family blog!  All of our posts previous to 2013 can be found at brendananddana.blogspot.com