Snow Day

Monday after my girlfriends left we got some snow.  It was so pretty falling down outside.  Nolan and I went to the gym and then stayed home together.  We watched Christmas movies and enjoyed the snow falling outside for most of the day.  He was so excited about it and thought for sure it must be Christmas.  He was happy when Lucy and Garrett came home from school.  The snow had stopped by then and they all bundled up to go outside and play.  They had so much fun playing together in the snow.  I always think that if its going to be freezing cold it might as well snow. 

 Later in the week we had another snow storm come through.  It snowed all night and into the next day leaving us with about 5 inches of snow.  School was canceled and the kids were so excited.  JJ had the morning home with us and they played outside.  The kids played out front with the neighbor kids digging tunnels through the snow mounds the plows made.  We had a relaxing day inside watching movies and playing together.  That afternoon we all bundled up and walked down to the retention area in our neighborhood.  The kids were excited to do some sledding.  The hills were well loved and you could see the neighborhood had all used the same hill.  We went to the other side were there was still snow.  Nolan especially loved it.  He would get a big running start and go down on his stomach face first.  I loved his excitement.  We had a fun snow day together.  Snow days are always so exciting for the kids and I am glad they were able to enjoy it.  They had a fun day playing together in the snow.

Even as the days warmed back up we continued to play in the melting snow.  Nolan loved to ride his bike up into the snow.  He spent a good amount of time building the snow up around his bike so it would stand up by itself. It was nice that it took a while for the snow to melt.  He played in the snow until every last bit melted. 

 

Star Student

 When I picked Nolan up from preschool he was SO excited to tell me he was star student.  He told me he would be able to do all sorts of special things like be the line leader.  It was cute how excited he was.  He even had a special cover on his seat that said he was star student.  On the same day he was so happy to show me he had earned his apple on the tree.  You earn your apple on the tree when you learn all of your personal information like your phone number and address.  We have been working on it together at home and as well as at school.  He has been close for a while and was so excited to tell me he earned his apple.  It meant a lot to him to be able to learn those things.  We still go over it with him so it really gets in his little mind.  He sure is a stubborn and sometimes grumpy little boy but he's a cutie and I love him.    

 

It was sad to have our fun girls weekend come to an end.  Both Cara and Heather flew home Sunday. It was a really enjoyable weekend, relaxing and rejuvenating.  I love how I can relate to them both so much.  Our lives are so similar since our husbands are in the same profession, our kids are the same ages and we have been through so much together.  Friends like these become like family during those years away from our own families.  It meant a lot to be able to spend the weekend with them.  We were able to make so many memories.  We hope to plan our next girls weekend someplace warm and sunny!  Heather didn't leave until the evening.  We had a relaxing afternoon together making cookies, watching a movie and taking naps on the couch.     

Saturday morning we all went to get a massage.  We were able to get massage cards from a friend who owns a few massage envy's.  I loved it and it was so relaxing, perfect after staying up late.  We also stopped and got some more gooey butter cake for them to take home to their families.  I introduced them to the store 5 below, now they want one back home. 

 After our massage we went back home and got ready for the day.  I tried to take a 10 minute power nap so I could stay up late again.  I usually do good staying up late one night but two nights in a row was going to be hard.  We stopped by the other outlet mall and then headed to dinner.  My sister suggested a Mexican restaurant called Rosalita's.  It was close to the West County mall so it was perfect location.  It was really good and a fun atmosphere.  There was a mariachi band playing and walking around to tables.  When they came to our table we asked them sing Happy Birthday to Cara.  She hated and loved every minute of it.  The food was really good, I would like to go back.  I still felt full from lunch so I ordered something off the appetizer menu. 

We did some shopping at the West County mall, I miss walking around the mall.  It reminds me of high school and the early years of our marriage.  When we lived in Provo we loved going to the university mall and walking around for fun.  It was an easy way to get out of the house. 

We stayed at the mall until they closed.  We then decided to stop at the store for some ice cream, a brownie mix and a redbox movie.  We came home just as JJ was coming home with the kids.  Lucy had late basketball games.  It was a late night for everyone.  I got the brownies in the oven and we all put our PJs on.  We sang to Cara again and she did a better job at blowing out her candles.  I think we all enjoyed sitting and relaxing after all that shopping.   

Passport Night

Last year while attending passport night at the kids school JJ knew he waned to help the next year.  He volunteered but then realized it was the same weekend as my girls weekend.  He is super Dad and made it all work out.  While he spent the afternoon with Nolan they worked together putting together posters for his table.  He went through his mission bins and found some Filipino things to display.  He wanted to have some food for them to try but wasn't able to find anything at our Asian market.  It isn't really in our family budget to make a chicken dish for a few hundred people.  He said he felt a little lame not having food to sample.  Most of the other countries have food or candy from their country to sample.  Oh well, he had a fun time participating.  The kids carried the flag during the flag ceremony at the end.  I am glad they were all able to go.  They had a fun time together.   

Girls Weekend

A few months ago my friend Cara started planning a girls weekend here in St. Louis.  She is a big fan of the musician Ben Rector.  He was coming to concert here and it also happened to be her birthday. It was exciting to look forward to a fun weekend with friends.  They have both been to St. Louis so there wasn't any reason to do a bunch of tourist things.  They both wanted to eat good food that they didn't have back home and do some shopping.  Unfortunately it was really cold and snowy while they were here.  Much colder then normal this time of year.  They flew in town late Thursday night.  Thankfully JJ volunteered to get them so I could sleep and start my weekend rested.  Friday morning they slept in while I took Nolan with me to the gym.  We then all got ready for the day and meet JJ at his office.  I wanted to show them his office and we also dropped Nolan off with him.  We then went to lunch at a restaurant right by his work called the Shack.  I have never been but heard really good things about it.  They mostly serve breakfast food but are open for lunch also.  It was really good, we split their cinnamon roll pancake which was a seasonal item.  I got fried chicken and waffle sliders, they were good. 

 

 After we ate we headed to the chesterfield valley to shop at the outlets.  It has been a while since I have been there and there were a few new stores.  It was freezing cold and there were snow flurries blowing around!  It was fun for Cara to see the snow since she is from Arizona.  We found some good deals and Heather was able to do some shopping for her kids upcoming birthdays. 

 After shopping at the outlets and a few other stores we headed down to the Delmar Loop.  Our concert was at the Pageant.  I wanted to take them to eat at Salt and Smoke, a good BBQ place.  They both said it has been hard to find good BBQ since leaving Memphis.  I have only eaten there once and it was better then I remembered.  I thought it was really good and so did they.   

 It was snowing and freezing cold as we walked down to the concert.  It was crazy because the leaves are still so pretty on the trees.  Many trees haven't even lost all their leaves. 

 

 

I didn't know a lot of Ben Rector songs when we got our tickets.  I started listening to some of his songs so I would know them for the concert.  We were on the first row of the balcony, great seats.  I really like his music and he was so fun in concert.  I like going to concerts, it isn't something I do a lot but I always have a blast.  I am glad I knew his songs and listened to them before hand.  Everyone was singing along to his songs.  I thought he was also entertaining in between songs. 

We got home late but warmed up with some hot chocolate and some gooey butter cake.  I wanted to get some for them since its a St. Louis treat.  I found out that they sell some of the best at Aldi.  It is brought in by a bakery downtown.  It was so good and fun to laugh and visit while we were all so exhausted.  We put a candle on the gooey butter cake and sang to Cara since it was now technically her birthday.  She couldn't blow it out and we laughed and laughed.  It was such a fun day!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween, Nolan especially was really looking forward to it.  He was excited to wear his costume to the gym that morning.  They had some fun Halloween crafts and activities for the kids to do.  As hard as it is to take him with me to run errands I will miss the little activities and crafts he makes.  I made a jack-o-lantern veggie tray to take to JJ's work.  His coworkers loved it!  His staff eats gluten and sugar free so they loved having something they could all eat.  We also ordered a pumpkin pizza from Papa Johns.  It was nice and easy as we were getting ready to go trick-or-treating.  Lucy went trick-or-treating with some friends this year.  We snapped a few pictures before taking her over to her friends house.  She is growing up and little things like that remind me that it isn't long before she doesn't want to hang out with us as much.  JJ and I went down our street together with the boys.  We left a bowl of candy on the porch and trusted people wouldn't take the whole bowl.  After our street I went back to hand out candy.  JJ took the kids down another street and then we traded.  I took the boys down one more street and then things seemed to be slowing down.  Since it was a school night things started and ended earlier.  They were excited to dump out all the candy and see what they got.  They got tons of good candy!  Usually we go through it and put things they don't want back in the bowl to hand back out.  They kept it all and were excited to start eating some.  We handed out all our candy and had fun seeing everyone's costumes.  I really enjoy handing out candy and seeing the excitement on kids faces.  I also heard some fun jokes from some kids.  Lucy got lots of compliments on her costumes and the boys liked being superhero's.  It was another great year!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

PumpkinLand

Every year we take the kids to Thies Farm for their Pumpkin land.  I wanted to take the kids on one of the days they were off school.  I was not feeling well and the weather was cold and rainy.  I was looking at the weather for the week and saw Monday was suppose to be a beautiful day.  I decided to pull the kids out of school for the last hour and take them to pumpkin land.  I could have taken just Nolan but I knew he would have more fun running around and exploring with Lucy and Garrett.  We got new headlamps so they could see as they explored the hay tunnels and forts.  Nolan had so many questions all day about where we were going.  He doesn't remember it and so I spent a lot of time trying to explain all the things there would be to do.  I am so glad we went on a Monday afternoon, it was empty compared to how packed it gets on a weekend.  The kids ran from one thing to another over and over again.  We rode the hayride together, I love hayrides.  We didn't get to do the corn maze but we had done a corn maze already this year.  The kids favorite things were the tower of terror and the zipline that went fast.  We stayed for a few hours and it was so enjoyable.  Perfect weather, small crowds and smiling kids!