Valentine Celebrations

Valentine's this year was a lot of fun. The boys really got into it. We seemed to draw the Valentine's theme out all month.

We started the month off by having a Family Home Evening lesson on Love. For our activity we wrote anonymous letters to anyone in the family, placed the letters on that persons pillow. When we climbed in bed we were all delighted to find the letters and see how many we had received.

The next week for FHE we made hearts and attached them to straws. They were placed in a red tin on the kitchen counter. The rest of the month the boys have been sneaking around doing kind deeds and leaving a heart in the spot where the deed was done.

For one of our Young Women activities, the boys tagged along with me as we took the girls heart attacking people in the ward (covering someone's door with paper hearts). The boys got a real big kick out of this. They hoped so much that our house would be attacked. I of course, told them it would not.

As Young Women leaders we decided to surprise our Young Women by heart attacking them. As leaders we decided to divide and conquer, so I recruited my boys to help me. The boys once again had a blast going and heart attacking the front doors of the Young Women. At each house, one boy would stay behind to ring the door. It was hilarious to watch them dart off the porch and run as fast as they could back to the suburban. They did not want to be caught! And once again, on the way home the boys asked if our house would be attacked. So I decided for Valentine's Day to heart-attack each of my boy's door with hearts and goodies. When the boys awoke on Valentine's Day they were delighted to find the hearts, balloons and goodies.

On Valentine's Day we got a baby-sitter and went out with some friends on the town.



We went to dinner at Marakesh in Washington D.C. It was truly an amazing experience, something I have never experienced. It is a Moroccan restaurant which serves a 7 course meal, during one of the courses you are entertained by a belly dancer. The most unusually thing about this restaurant is you sit on a couch around this little round short table. The server brings out this watering can and dish. He goes around the table pouring water on each of our hands over the dish. (Basically you are washing your hands without the soap.)



Each of the seven courses are served on a large platter in which we all use our hands to eat from. No plates or silverware are provided. I actually like most of the authentic food and especially loved the company.



To top the Valentine's celebration off we had our family Valentine's dinner the Sunday after Valentine's. This year I thought it would be fun to start a tradition of doing a Fondue dinner. Something a little different and exciting for the boys to look forward to in the years to come. We started off our dinner with the traditional cheese fondue. We dipped bread and carrots into the cheese sauce. As most of you know, my boys are extremely picky eaters but to my surprised they loved the whole entire dinner. Our second course was cooking chicken in a broth fondue. Our third and finally course ended 4 hours later with our Chocolate fondue. We dipped strawberries, bananas, apples and pound cake. It was truly delicious!

Super Bowl Sunday

With a house of boys the Super Bowl is something we look forward to every year. As always we enjoyed our picnic dinner watching the game. It's always fun for us to divide up on who we are cheering for, but this year we were all rooting for the same team. The boys stayed up until after the 3D half time show which they were disappointed because it was so short. We then tucked the kids in bed and went back downstairs to finish the game. It wasn't long before Ryan and I were both sound asleep on the couch.

My Mechanic

Ryan is such a handy guy which is one of the things I love about him. When Ryan was a young boy, he would open his Christmas presents. While his dad was reading the instructions of How to put the toy together, Ryan was busy putting it together and usually had it put together before his dad had figured it out. Also when Ryan was little he loved to take things apart. He still, to this day enjoys getting into things and figuring out how they work. Needless to say, very rarely does he read an instruction manual and when things break he loves to tear into it.

Matthew is a lot like his dad. He loves to work with his hands and figure things out. Tonight after the younger kids were in bed, Ryan taught Matthew how to change the brake pads on his car. Ryan taught Matthew how to take off one of the car tires. Then Matthew went to the other tire and using what he had learned from his dad, was able to take off the tire all by himself. I don't even have a clue how to change a tire! I learned once, but I have never had to change a tire so I have forgotten all I have learned. I also think now days if I was to get a flat tire, I would just pick up my cell phone and call my dear sweet husband to my rescue. I was telling Matthew that some day he is going to make one girl very happy because he will be just as handy as his dad is. I of course got that "Oh, MOM!" So for now, I will just be a very proud mom! I'm glad I have four sons that some day can grow up to be just like their dad.

SNOW DAY

Monday night before we climbed into bed, we did our snow ritual. Anytime we think there is a slight chance of snow, our boys will wear their pajamas backwards and we flush a bowl full ice down our toilets. Once, we flush the ice the boys have to climb right into bed and fall asleep quickly otherwise it won't work. If followed correctly, you should wake up to snow on the ground outside.

To my boys' excitement Tuesday morning they awoke at 6:00am when the phone rang. Because the volume was turned up on the answering machine the boys heard that school was canceled due to the weather. The boys quickly ran to the window and to our surprise, (not really a surprise) it was barely snowing. But that didn't seem to phase the boys. They were still EXCITED that we were getting a little bit of snow and they were getting a snow day from school.

By late morning, we put on our snow gear and headed outside. We spent the remainder of the day sledding down the hill in front of our house. The boys couldn't get enough of sledding. They really did spend the entire day outside. It was freezing but they didn't seem to notice. They continued sledding even after it was dark.

White House

After the Monster Truck jam we were walking out of the Verizon Center to our Metro stop and decided to go an extra few blocks to the White House. They actually still had all of the bleachers lined up along the parade route from the Inauguration Parade. In front of the White House was also the Presidential viewing area still intact. We also saw the chapel where the Obama's attended church the morning of the Inauguration Day. It was neat and exciting to actual see these things in person and talk with the boys about the things they had seen on TV earlier in the week.

Monster Truck Jam

Friday night we took the kids to the Monster Truck Jam at the Verizon Center in downtown Washington D.C. The boys are BIG fans! We have watched several Monster Truck Jams on TV, but this was their first time to actually see the show in person. They were in AWE!!! The monster trucks were HUGE! The noise they made was SUPER loud! And the boys LOVED every second!

Inauguration of Barack Obama

Today is a big day in Washington D.C. with the Inauguration of Barack Obama, our first African American President. We live about 45 minutes outside of our nations Capitol. I thought it would be a neat opportunity for my children to be part of this historical event.

However, given the millions of people who have come to Washington D.C. to witness history in the making and not to mention the freezing temperatures. We opted to stay at home and have front row seats and watch history being made on the TV.