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Slowly but surely the weather is beginning to improve in this part of the world. Most of the week the high has been in the 50's and we have been trying to get out more. Last year Jeremy really struggled with the weather and I think that a big part of making this year better is getting out whenever the weather is good. We have gone on lots of walks around our neighborhood and I have been reminded of all the beauty around us. When the clouds are low and everything is gray it is easy to forget, but we live on the top of a large hill and when the skies clear the views are amazing.

I took my camera on our last walk. I don't think my pictures do the views justice, but at least it gives a hint of the beauty at our doorstep.

Hero Worship

As of late Merrick has become very interested in superheros. He wants to wear his superhero cape, wants to play superheros, and is always asking questions about superheros, but it seems like lately the biggest superhero in Merrick's mind is daddy. Ever since Merrick was born I have always thought of him as a mommy's boy, but lately time with daddy is gold. He wants to do anything he sees Jeremy doing, he is constantly asking when daddy will be home from school, and anytime he makes something special at preschool he tells me, "I can't wait to show daddy".

It is a lot of pressure having your every move watched and replicated, but Jeremy is definitely up for the challenge.

Valentine's Day 2013

After much build-up and anticipation this week Valentine's Day finally made its appearance. If I had to sum up the day in a word or two it would be "nearly perfect". The reason I say nearly perfect is that Jeremy and I ended the day by watching the worst movie ever ("One Day"...seriously...don't watch it). Other than the unfortunate ending, the day was perfect.

Of course one of the highlights of the day was the delish heart-shaped food. I made heart-shaped coffee cake and smoothies for breakfast while my boys went to buy me flowers, Merrick had a heart-shaped sandwich for lunch while Jeremy and I were out (more on that in a second) and we had heart shaped whole wheat sausage pizza and Martinelli's for dinner.


As I mentioned, Jeremy and I did get to sneak away for a day-time date thanks to my dad watching Merrick. We added to the day's food perfection by heading downtown to Blueplate. For anyone reading this who is not a local, if you ever come to visit P-town, a trip to Blueplate is a must. We then walked to the Chinese Gardens for a romantic stroll. If I am being completely honest the walk would also go in less than perfect column. We should have driven and ended up walking through some of the sketchier parts of downtown. The gardens on the other hand were pristine and serene and it was nice to get away, if even for just a few hours.


That evening we ate dinner as a family and then gave Merrick his Valentine's gift. This year I made both my boys homemade Valentine's scratchers for their gifts. At first Merrick was the most excited by the candy attached, but once Jeremy helped him scratch off the hearts and he discovered the awesome surprises beneath them (a go-kart racing trip with daddy, a trip to the children's museum, a new car from the "Cars" movie, and a fort and movie night) he was a pretty happy camper. In fact, he was so excited we had to have the fort and movie night the very next day.


Like I said, the day was nearly perfect, but the highlight for me came first thing in the morning when the first words out of Merrick's mouth to me were, "Is it morning time? I have a card for you mommy!" and he ran off excitedly to get the cards he had made for Jeremy and I. He was so sweet about it and never asked once the entire day if we got him anything. He was just so genuinely excited to give his gift. How many three-year-olds are that sweet? I have to say that I am one lucky lady to have both my boys.

Count Down to V-day

I am pretty sure that I have blogged about this before, but holidays in my house growing up were the best. My mom always went all out to make sure they were special for us. I have thought about this a lot since becoming a parent. I want my kids to look back and think "wow mom always went above and beyond to make holidays special for us." I am definitely still a work in progress and have a long way to go before I am at my mom's level, but I am working on it. This year though we have added several new dimensions to our Valentine's Day celebration and it seems like preparations have taken over our lives.

First off, we have our usual type of things planned; heart shaped sandwiches at lunch, heart shaped pizza for dinner, decorating sugar cookies with pink frosting, cards, and flowers. This year I also decided to add delivering homemade cookies and special Valentine's quotes to all our visiting teaching and home teaching families.

For the first time this year we also have the preschool dimension. This means coming up with Valentine's themed crafts, snacks, and goody bags for 18 small people.

Also for the first time ever, since Merrick attends both preschool classes, we have classmate Valentine's to prepare.

I feel like I am complaining right now and that was not really my intention. For the most part all the preparations have been fun and maybe even made me feel like a better mom/wife/teacher. It is just that I was looking around today at the goody bags for preschool, the cookies I was making, and watching Jeremy and Merrick work on his Valentine's and could not help but think that for a "smallish" holiday that is still almost a week away, it really has taken over.

Saturday In The Park (I think it was the 4th of July)

Over the last few weeks we have settled back into our typical routine with work and school. This means that when Jeremy is not at school he is typically studying, even on our precious Saturdays. The problem is that the weather has been improving and we have tried to take advantage of that by having some park time with cousins on Saturdays.

Last Saturday Jeremy was finally able to break away from studying and make it to the park about five minutes before we were ready to head home. This Saturday he decided to take a break and join us and then return to the books.

It was a pretty perfect day weather wise and the park was beautiful. I had never been to this particular park before, but it has tons of paths and is right on the river so it has beautiful views and a dock you can walk out on to. All the cousins had scooters or skateboards and they had a great time.

I think we spent about two hours riding the trails, doing tricks, and having races and Merrick was still devastated when it was time to leave. The day was a combination of Merrick's favorite things; being active, being at the park, and being with cousins. It was a win/win/win and I think for Jeremy worth the study time missed.

Date Night

Several weeks ago a little girl at our preschool came to school very excited about the fact that she was getting to go on a special date with her mom that afternoon. Her mom is expecting a new baby and so they decided to take each of their children on a special date to spend some quality time together before the baby was born.

I thought that was such a great idea and have been thinking about doing it with Merrick ever since. As excited as I am to have our new baby girl join our family, it makes me sad to think about how much less time I will have with Merrick. When Jeremy told me last week that he had a meeting for school this past Friday night, I decided it was the perfect time for a special mommy/Merrick date.

My idea was to go to PDX Playdate, a huge indoor play place, to play and have dinner, but since this was Merrick's date I thought he should get to choose the night's activities. It turns out that what he really wanted to do was go get a new "Cars" toy. He still had money from Christmas and he was adamant that this was how he wanted to spend his date night.

With a new "Cars" toy as the end game, our date consisted of first a trip to Target and then a trip to TJ Maxx when we left Target empty handed. TJ Maxx was a success with a "Cars" book complete with action figure cars and play mat of Radiator Springs. By the time we were finished shopping it was getting late and we had just enough time for a quick dinner stop. Again Merrick got to choose and we ended up at Wendy's.

I will be the first to admit that it was not a glamorous night, but Merrick was happy and we were able to spend some quality time together. In the end I guess that is all that really matters.

Baby Bump

So this week our computer crashed. This is bad news for a number of reasons. The first is that Jeremy NEEDS his computer for school and the second is that I have been working on our 2012 blog book and this puts both that and my traditional blogging on hold. This post, for example is being written on our iPad and while it is great, I can't access the photos on my camera. With that in mind, I have decided to use this post to respond to a request from some out of state family.

I am now 26 weeks along with this little baby girl and have yet to post any pictures of myself with my baby bump. My reasons for not have been two-fold, I did not think anyone really cared and until recently there was not much to show. I have now been officially asked to post pictures and my belly has "popped" as of late so I guess my reasons don't really hold water anymore.

Without further ado, here is my baby bump in all of its glory...

I guess the next big baby reveal is the name. We do have a name that we are considering, but have gotten some mixed reviews from family so I guess for right now at least I will keep that to myself. You know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen.