Valentine's Day love

We had a very fun Valentine's date this year!  I asked my sweet parents if they could watch the girls for us so we could go snowboarding!  They were kind enough to and the girls had a great time with them!!  Thank you again mom and dad!

So, we both loved snowboarding when we were younger in high school, and we have never gone together and neither of us had been since... so after a 12 year hiatus from the sport, we went for it!  We seriously had so much fun!-Despite the first 2 runs completely relearning and crashing a lot!-(It is not like riding a bike).
But after that we are proud to say we still got it!  (Just with a lot more anxiety, going much slower and looking a lot less cool)
And man, it was a real eye-opener that we aren't getting any younger!  My neck and tailbone are still sore!  I seriously woke-up the next day feeling like I was in a car crash hahaha!  We felt so old....So yes, we had a blast and are glad we did it together...but are pretty sure we won't be rushing back to the slopes anytime soon.
I LOVED spending the gorgeous day on the mountain with Tom.  It was such a nice mental break from our usual thoughts, concerns and duties...

 My valentines all set out for my Valentines to find on Sunday morning!

 Tom heart-attacked our bathroom for me and the girls bathroom and rooms too.  So sweet!  And me trying to show off my snowboarding bruise...the picture really does it no justice!

 Our little Rapunzel lover was most thrilled about the braid she got for Valentine's day!    Now what are we to do with all the tape, packing materials, etc that she would use as her pretend hair?

A few random pictures....

My little car wash buddy!!

Jade is so "helpful" walking the dogs!  She is always so confused when she gets all tangled up in the leash!

And who is this little homeless looking baby on the trail?  Oh, mine!  She was beside herself with excitement when I first got her out of the stroller to walk...and then she insisted helping me push the stroller like this!  She seriously held her arm up like that holding on for a 1/4 mile!  I tried to at least switch her arms..but no!  She insisted.

 And my sweet sleeping dinosaur at the music and movement class at the library!  They both loved this class!

Update on the girls:

Jade will be going in for her MRI on Monday to make sure everything is OK with her back.  She has still been mentioning it regularly but acting way better... so who knows!  It will mostly be for peace of mind and closure on the whole thing.  And obviously we hope they find nothing abnormal.
She is at a very sweet and fun stage.  She is very smart and helpful.  She has gotten sooooo much better at controlling her emotions.  She is so fun and my little best friend!  I think she's definitely a little more of a mama's girl.  She always has my back... even when Tom is messing with me like, "No you can't have the last chocolate!", Jade will say, "Yes she can dad!"
She know her letters and the sounds very well!  She still has no interest in coloring or writing.  It's like pulling teeth to have her write some letters for me...and then she switches hands back and forth.  I know she is only 3 but I know she is smart enough to write and color better... we just need to practice more.

Lainey has morphed from our sweet little pudding pie to a stubborn and hilarious little turd haha!  Seriously, whatever we want her to do, she will do the opposite!  "Lainey come here" (runs away laughing). "Take a bite" (throws it down).  Me: "say mama!" Lainey: "DADA!" and visa versa.  When I'm cooking dinner she is literally clinging to my legs crying to be held... "Lainey go play with toys or find Jade"...nope!  She needs me NOW!  There is only so much you can do one-handed...  And then I hold her and she leans, lurches, and reaches for everything and anything saying, "dis? dis?" (This) and don't even think about putting her down!!!   To be fair, she does have 2 more molars coming in which I'm sure can't feel great.
Don't worry she is still sweet and obsessed with books!  She knows lots more words now : duck, dog, cheese, hi, hello, buh bye, oh no, ooookay!, I did it! -(with arms proudly raised straight up), what's dis, neck, nose, eyes, teeth, app (apple), star, fork (doesn't sound like fork hahaha), snack, toys, doll, mom, dad, coke (coat), shoes, etc.  She will be 18 months next week!  We have been introducing her to nursery and she is doing great.

I love and am grateful for this life of mine!

Paint Nite, the Circus, winter and more winter

Just a picture of our 17 month old pounding an entire cheeseburger with no problem!

 Jade was pretty proud to complete this puzzle with only a little help!

 This is what it looks like to go on walks in January!  At least the sun was shining!

 We went to music time at the library with Jenni's fam this week!

And this picture cracks me up so much hahaha!  Despite this picture of them looking bored stiff.... they really did have a lot of fun!

Having a real blast at the library haha

Tom and I went on a hot date at the end of January!  We ate dinner at Oregano in Provo and it was delicious!

Then we went to "Paint Nite" to get our painting on!  I've been begging Tom for us to do this for a while and we found a deal on Groupon and made it happen!  He was a great sport and we both loved it!!  It was so interesting that we were all following along on the same painting with the Artist and how everyone's turned out so different!

Picture I stole from Paint nite's Facebook page

 Not my fault that they cropped out Tom's painting haha

 I kind of expected that the paintings we would make would not be of use...but as we were starting the artist encouraged us to do what ever color we wanted and I ended up doing a purpley-pink and Tom stuck with the red and I realized they would match Jade's bedspread!  So our art has a new home in Jade's room!

Lainey has enough hair for 2 full complete pony-tails!  It's adorable!

 This was after church and Tom was passing on his nintendo knowledge...

 Watching the snow...

The snow has been ridiculous this winter!  This was last week from one storm and it was still coming down

We had a 5th Sunday class at church that Tom and I were able to attend together on 72 hour kits and preparedness that really inspired me!  I have been working on updating and completing our kits and hope to have 2 complete kits by end of Feb!

We had a family date last week to the Circus!  Jordan World Circus was in Orem which was nice to be fairly local!  It was SOO FUN!  We loved it!  And I was very impressed with how good it was!  The performers were ridiculously talented.  The wild animals in the circus kind of tugged at my heart strings a little bit..but I'm hoping they are taken care of wonderfully haha

 The Jone's came too and the girls were so funny together!  During some of the "scary" acts they would turn away and say "I can't look!"

 These "Beijing Acrobats" were INSANE!  One of my favorite acts

Just shooting a bow and arrow like that... no big deal

 Jade loved the "Jasmine's"

Two motorcycles going in there!

 Over-priced pony ride at intermission

We watched the Super Bowl at the Jone's with the Hill's as well on Sunday!  Of course, there was tons of delicious food!  Food and good company is all I care about on Super Bowl Sunday haha