Corbin is threeeeee!

(*sigh, isn't he beautiful...er...handsome?)

YAY! It has been so much fun celebrating my little man this the past week!

Let's review:

Saturday The Aunts (Jason's Aunt Dale and Aunt Nancy) came down to visit. They showered us with gifts :) we celebrated mine, Gramma Jan's and Corbin's birthdays. After opening gifts Grampa John treated us all to dinner at Red Robin. We had a great time! Good food, good company, and Gramma Jan seemed to be doing pretty good. She looked so beautiful and seemed to be in high spirits. It just felt like one of those happy-everything-is-right-type of evenings!

Corbin was so cute opening his gifts. He was so serious about it. They got him a cute...er...coooool...outfit and he threw it on the floor as if it was a gift bag full of dirt *LOL* Nancy and Dale just laughed it off. Said it was typical for a boy *whew* well, I really liked it! But we've always joked that buying clothes for kids is more a gift for the parents anyway! So anyhow, then he started unwrapping fun toys like dinosaurs and his favorite gift: the Screamin' Banshee from the show Mater and the Ghost Light. He LOVES it! Oh my gosh, he loves it!
Monday we took Jenalyn to preschool at noon and then me, Jason and Corbin went to P.F. Changs for lunch (Jason's late birthday gift from The Aunts was a gift card for P.F. Changs *woot*). Corbin got the most perfect, accurate fortune in his cookie! It said, "You will bring sunshine into someone's life." Uh, yah! He brings me sunshine every day...even in this grey, rainy Oregon winter!
Tuesday - his actual birthday - was a bust! I had to work a full day. It was so hard for me to be away from him like that on his birthday. I know there are millions of working moms out there who have to work on their kids' birthdays, but it was so hard for me. I was in a bad, rotten mood all day.

So we had planned on making homemade pizza for his birthday dinner. When I called to remind Jason to start the pizza crust in the breadmaker he was up to his eyeballs in client work and just couldn't break away. No problem, I'll just throw it together as soon as I get home and we can eat around 6:30. Super Mom can still salvage this birthday! ...da-da-da-dun-da-dun...

Well...when I walked in the door after a long, grumpy day at work, Corbin came running out of his bedroom STARK NAKED! Yep, no clothes, no diaper. Just the birthday boy in his birthday suit! I asked him why he was naked and he looked down like, huh? I'm naked? *LOL* upon further questioning and investigation, I learned that Jason had put him down for a nap and went back to his work. I walked into Corbin's room to find his clothes and found that he pooped on his floor! *ugh* Are you kidding me? Someone potty-train that kid already! Sheesh! So instead of throwing dough in the breadmaker, I spent the next hour bathing Corbin, cleaning up poop, mopping their entire floor (thank goodness for hardwood), stripping sheets, and Lysol'ing the entire room. *sigh*

I still love that birthday boy more than I can even tell you!

So instead of pizza, we decided to make "3" pancakes and bacon for dinner. I also threw together a little fruit salad for a side. I heated up some frozen blueberries in the syrup for a little sumthin' extra special. It was all quick, easy, and we had everything we needed. And best of all, Corbin loved it!
We'll have one more opportunity to celebrate Corbin's birthday. We're having his very first friends' birthday party this Saturday. Cross your fingers for me! I hope it turns out awesome!

Valentine's Day

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. I thought Valentine's Day was as good a place as any to start.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day this year! Perfect that it was on a Saturday! I made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast and then cut the kids' PB&J sandwiches into hearts for lunch. I also arranged raisins to make the first letter of their names on top of their sandwiches. I wish I had gotten a picture - they turned out really cute.

That evening the Young Women in our ward had a girls' camp fundraiser and provided babysitting at the church. So we got to go on a real-live date for Valentine's Day!!!! It was great! We met our friends, Venessa & Rick at Shoji's for dinner. then we came back to our house, played with the kids a little, put them to bed and then we had chocolate fondue and watched The Rocker. I know, not yer typical Valentine movie, but it was really funny! Especially since Jason is a wannabe Rocker and Rick is a big fan of heavy metal.

So here are a couple pictures from our Valentine's Day. Frist is Jenalyn's hair for her preschool V-Day party. I love the way it turned out! (she's sucking on a sucker, not her thumb by the way)
(don't give me too much credit, I got the idea from someone else.)

There was one picture of me and my hubs on Valentine's Day, but I hate the way I look in it...so I'm not posting it here. If you're on Facebook you've probably already seen it.

My LOVE

<---------Whew! I love this man. This is STILL my favorite picture of him. So what better to do on Valentine's Day than to dedicate a blog about my sweetheart? I blog so much about the kids, I don't want anyone to think my Jason isn't important to me! He IS! So, to make it easy, I will construct a list of my favorite things about the man I love: [ahem...]

• He is SUCH a good father! Jenalyn was the first baby he ever held. Yeah...ever! So the whole baby-thing was completely foreign to him. It has been amazing to watch him grow into the father that he is today. He plays with them; he teases them (relentlessly - he's an only child so sometimes I think he's making up for not having siblings to pick on); he teaches them interesting things, like how to sword fight, what a ninja says, and the names and skills of his WoW characters *LOL*; and he's the resident bedtime story reader, he even lets them pick which voice he should use for the story every night: scary voice, silly voice, etc.
  
• He makes me laugh EVERY day. His jokes don't seem to get old. He just keeps getting funnier.
• He puts up with ME! I tell ya, this job aint for the weak! Some days I can be a monster! Even on my ugliest days, he still loves me. *shrugs* I don't get it!
  
• He has a way of soothing me. He makes bad days better. Last night I worked a long day, after only getting 5.5 hours of sleep. When I got home I was exhausted and he let me lock myself in the bedroom for a power nap while he made dinner and fed the kids. He woke me up at 6:00, gave me a bowl of his delicious, totally-loaded scrambled eggs (one of his specialties) and a cup of yogurt w/blueberries, and encouraged/forced me out the door to Relief Society Enrichment. He knew I would be upset if I missed it, and feel better if I went. He was right. (Shh...don't tell him I said that.)
• Whenever he helps the kids with a prayer he ALWAYS includes, "We thank thee for mom and for all that she does for us." He never skips that! I love that he teaches the kids to be grateful for me. I hope that doesn't sound vain or conceited to say that, but it makes me feel special and I think it shows them that HE loves and appreciates me. I love that he is teaching our kids gratitude thru his example.
• He LOVES me! He tells me I'm beautiful every day (yes, even on my monstrous days). He says, "I love you" at least a dozen times a day (again, even on my hideous days). He shows me he loves me thru his affections, words and actions (I don't think I have to tell you again).
• I love the way he hugs me. My head fits nicely under his chin. Some days there is no place I would rather be than wrapped in his arms, tucked away under his chin.
• Sometimes he calls me out of the blue because he saw a ladybug and thought of me.
• He is talented (he's learning to play the guitar). He is smart. He is tech-savvy. He is a good writer (one day he e-mailed me a poem at work entitled "I Stacked a Dish" it had me rolling on the floor laughing - yes, I rofl'd in my cubicle that day!) Sometimes he blows me away with all that he can do.
• When I get sick his nuture-mode kicks into overdrive!  He has gotten out of bed in the middle of the night to run to Wal-Mart for anti-nausea medicine or even just Advil or NyQuil and tissues.

Ahhh...it feels good to focus on the things I love about this man I have chosen to spend all eternity with. My weaknesses are his strengths and vice-versa ('cept for some weaknesses we have in common, like Dairy Queen for example). We make a good team.

I love you, Jason. Thank you for picking me!

Fun-filled Saturday

We had SO much fun yesterday! We woke up and had crepes for breakfast *yum* Then we got ready and headed out to Home Depot for their monthly kids' project. This month they made adorable Valentine's jewelry boxes. But, even better, they had extras, free hotdogs (didn't have one though), face painting, and candy everywhere! We had a great time! The kids loved it, of course.

After Home Depot we went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then home for naps.

After naps we had dinner and then took the kids bowling...for the first time... :) It was so much fun! Jenalyn has gotten really good at bowling on the Wii. When we walked into the bowling alley she said, "WOW! This looks just like real bowling!" *har har har* I guess she assumed Wii bowling was the real thing! Good thing we set her straight, huh? Anyhow, here are a couple video clips I got of the kids bowling.




Jason won the game - but only because he used the gutter-guards more than the kids!!! *psh* Yeah, that's how he rolls!

But wait! There's more! After bowling we went to some friends' house for a movie. The kids played for a little while and then we put them to bed and watched Deja Vu on Blu-Ray. Awesome movie, by the way!

So that was our fun-filled Saturday.

(Yes, you read that right - no cleaning got done yesterday! Of course we didn't clean today either, since it's Sunday. So please, no one stop by unannounced tomorrow, m'kay?)