Sunday Afternoon

Valentine's Day

Have I ever mentioned that I think Peter is wonderful?  Well, I do.  Here's what he did to show our family love this Valentine's Day:

I woke up to this outside my bedroom door.  He made it with the boys out of their toy screws for me.

He got me flowers.

Picture courtesy of Boehm's Candies.

And fine chocolates.  Yes, were gone too fast for me to get my own picture. 

And made me a CD, with these songs:

"Only You Can Love Me This Way" by Keith Urban

"Fallin' For You" by Colbie Caillat

"Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzales

"One Dream" by Sarah McLachlan

"Two is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls (feat. Taylor Swift)

"Opportunity" by Pete Murray

"Thinking About You" by Norah Jones

"Star Mile" by Joshua Radin

"All I Have" by Mat Kearney

"Come Home" by OneRepublic

"Haven't Met You Yet" by Michael Buble

"When You Got A Good Thing" by Lady Antebellum

"Slow Moves" by Jose Gonzales

"By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North

"Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's

"Let's Just Fall In Love Again" by Jason Castro

"Smile" by Uncle Kracker

"Make You Feel My Love" by Adele

And got us each a balloon.

And made dinner using this idea from Family Fun.  Yes!  My husband finds ideas all by himself. 

Not to mention, he has single-handedly kept my kitchen clean, bathed the boys, and folded our laundry for over two weeks now since my back has been out.  He is amazing to me.

If you're looking for more great music, here is the CD I made for him this year:

"Brighter Than Sunshine" by Aqualung

"Just You And Me" by Zee Avi

"I Know" by Meaghan Smith

"Never Had Nobody Like You" (feat. Zooey Deschanel) by M. Ward

"The One Who Loves You The Most" by Brett Dennen

"You're So True" by Joseph Arthur

"Only You" by Joshua Radin

"Your Song" by Kate Walsh

"Let My Love Open The Door" by Sondre Lerche

"Umbrella" by Marie Digby

Enjoy!

Happy Hearts Day!

Scrumptious!

Valentine's Day is upon us!  I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes - I know some of you have this one already from our good friend Alyson Matkin.  I actually submitted my favorite variation of it to Gooseberry Patch last year and it was published in their cookbook, 101 Christmas Recipes!  I think cherries and chocolate are a great taste & color combination for the holiday de l'amour, so these would make a great Sunday breakfast this year.  I, however, plan to omit the chocolate & cherries and serve my family plain scones with strawberries & whipped cream!  It's so delicious!  So if you're reading, Alyson, thanks for passing on a great recipe that has become a classic in many homes!

Outing the Uncle

A conversation over dinner last night:

M:  "So Parker, what was your favorite thing you got to do at Grandma's?"

P:  (thoughtful)..."Peeling out with Uncle Mark in Grandpa's truck.  He left smoke!"

Lately

T-bone is finally getting his shot in the sports arena.  We enrolled him in indoor soccer and although he was sick/out of town for the first three practices, he showed no inhibition during his first game last Saturday! 

What a go-getter!  He was so cute to watch.

Our little scrapper couldn't get enough of chasing that ball and he nearly scored twice! 

He even smelled stinky & sweaty when it was all over!  We were beaming with pride!

Parker has been getting in on the action these days with Tae Kwon Do. 

He started a couple of weeks ago and loves it!  We love watching him do his thing!

He has a great instructor who is very fun, but also very good at discipline.  This has been fantastic for Parker.  Here is our little white belt, about to do a back punch...

Ay-yah!  He is so cute when he yells!

We were lucky to have Grandma & Grandpa Brown come over to watch the boys in both sports this weekend.  They are so much fun to have around and now they have taken off with the kids!  We are a free couple for a few days!  Which has been very nice, since I have been dealing with some recent flare-ups with my RA.  This is giving me a chance to catch up on rest AND housework!  The best gift ever!

And forgive me for adding this photo, but it is almost Valentine's Day and I couldn't resist adding this shot of Peter's profile.  He was intently watching his son when I took this.  I think he is H-O-T.

Score!

I got a little crazy at Target a few weeks ago and found this "14 Games in One!" table for half off.  The crazy part was that our playroom is the size of a large closet and we already had the train table in there...

...but it has been SO much fun!  We've already played hours of foosball, air hockey, pool, finger hockey, mini-golf, football toss, baseball toss, and basketball.  We have yet to try out the soccer, table tennis, and whatever the other four games are. We're so impressed with the boys' skills already!  Looks like all the fun times at Chuck E. Cheese are paying off!

p.s. the train table is on its way out...any takers?