We also celebrated Maria's 29th(!!!) birthday over that weekend. Dinner out and then pedicures for the girls while the big men took the little men home to give them baths and put them to bed. I won't lie. I love pedicures. I only get them done a few times a year, but it's soooooo wonderful. A pampering that is well worth it. Glad we could celebrate Maria's birthday with her! 
Valentine's day. Lovey dovey. Adam and I got a babysitter and went out for dinner and did some shopping. All with giftcards we had. We didn't spend a dime for our date (well, besides to pay the babysitter). We did actually get each other gifts this year. Sometimes we nix that. I got Adam a giftcard to get a massage. We'd had conversations about it before and weren't entirely sure how we felt about someone else massaging the other person. But I'm a pretty awful massager. My wimpy hands and wrists last all of about 5 minutes on his meaty back and shoulders before they are burning and aching. He is still slightly leary about it, but I want him to give it a shot as a special treat. If you're lucky, maybe he'll blog about his experience once he gets it done. He got me an assortment of little things that make me happy - a few cute shirts, a super cute pair of shoes, and my favorite chai tea drink. All at deeply discounted prices - he sure knows the way to my heart. :)
This past weekend we had a Sr.High Youth Conference. Our boys went up to Newaygo for a couple of nights to Moppy and Poppy's. Great speakers (the talking kind and the kind that music comes out of). Passionate worship times. Challenging and encouraging words. Fun times playing extreme spoons. Sleeping in our church. Making sack lunches. Probably the most impactful session for me was hearing the story of Heather Williams. She spent most of the hour sharing her incredibly compelling story. Really, I think I cried 6 different times. She has a song that has gotten play time on radio stations. I'd heard it and loved it before. Now that I know her life story and what she was going through in her life when she wrote it, pretty sure I'll cry every time I hear it. Here's a link to a YouTube video that has the song and lyrics of the song called "Hallelujah."
And we are in a Winter Wonderland again. We got a bunch of snow yesterday. PM Church was even cancelled. Otherwise, our previous Snowmageddon snowfall from a few weeks ago had almost completely melted late last week. We saw what grass looked like again. We've probably got a good 6-8 inches on the ground now. Sigh. I knew it wasn't really gone for good.
Here's a really cute pic of Tate sitting on the toilet. We're not potty-training yet. We've just had a few successful times of getting him on the toilet for an obvious approaching #2.
And Landon has turned a new corner. He likes to sing! Previously, he would request that I would sing song after song, but he would never join me. Now, I'll catch him singing songs by himself. And when I sing, he'll sing with me now also. He's really good at his "ABC's", "Zaccheaus", "Jesus Loves Me", "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." He's pretty cute when he gets in the song mode.
