Christmas Break

One of the nice things about having a husband who is a teacher is the time off he gets for holidays and summer. We've really been enjoying ourselves these past couple of weeks and it has been really nice to have him home during the tough newborn stage. He is such a great hubby and daddy and has really stepped up in taking over Michaela's care so that I can tend to the baby's needs. Other than adjusting to being a family of four and spending time with extended family, some of the highlights have been taking the kids to the local kids science museum, Rafael getting to play Jesus at the Christmas Eve Mass, and Michaela getting into a jar of Nutella! Here are some pics from his time at home:

Happy Anniversary!

To the man who makes my heart beat a little faster...
To the man who brings out my silliness...
To the man who is so ridiculously stubborn...
To the man who randomly breaks into song and dance which makes me smile every time...
To the man who turns me on just by wearing a tight pair of pants...
To the man who loves my food...
To the man who always knows how to make me feel better when I've had a bad day...
To the man who likes to hum while he eats...
To the man who uses his handyman magic to make our house a home...
To the man who understands that it's more important to work through problems to make our relationship stronger than to never argue...
To the man who feeds my book addiction every chance he gets...
To the man who supports me when I'm trying to lose weight and yet manages to never make me feel fat...
To the man who shares my love of board games...
To the man who is just as happy as I am to play miniature golf on our child-free date nights...
To the man who I know I can trust to protect our daughter and me...
To the man who is such a wonderful daddy...
To the man who shares my faith and helps me to grow in my relationship with God...
To the man who works so hard so that I am able to stay home with our daughter...

You are the love of my life and every day I am married to you is a blessing from God. Te quiero mucho.

Valentines Schmalintines

I've never really been a fan of Valentines Day. It seems like such a silly day to have to force yourself to be extra lovey dovey and mushy with your loved one. I love celebrating our anniversary, but VD has no meaning behind it, nothing to truly mark it as a special day, other than the fact that our calenders say so. Philip & I don't celebrate it at all, and to be honest it just seems like a waste of money.

That being said, I always secretly hope just a little bit that Philip will come home with something cute and simple like a single stem rose or a box of chocolates. And then I will say something along the lines of "You're so silly, you know we don't do Valentines Day!" But really I will be super pleased and he will probably get a little action that night.

The other day (like a couple of weeks ago) we were at Sam's Club and noticed an older man buy a rose to take home. I thought it was the cutest thing in the world. But then later that day, I was in the crabbiest mood in the world. My dinner had not turned out the way I wanted it to, my daughter had been teething and screaming all day, I hadn't finished the cleaning, and I was just feeling like a failure as a wife and a mom. So when I put Michaela in the bath to get her ready for bed and heard the clanking noises that usually indicates dishes are being washed, I almost broke into tears. My husband hates washing dishes. Plus it was the night before he started work again after his break and he wanted to be in bed early. So this was a big, important, romantic guesture, even though it was such a tiny little thing. These are the things that really matter to me, not some rinky dinky little rose he picks up at the gas station on the way home.

To conclude, Philip: I love you very much, and am glad that we are able to show our love for each other every day of the year, not just the day that the card companies want us to. P.S. A chocolate bar is always appreciated. :P

Snow Day!*

Yesterday was a snow day! We got a couple of inches of snow, so schools were closed and Philip was able to stay home from work. Here's a shot of our backyard:

And of Michaela's first snow experience:

And of course of the puppies who loooooved the snow:

*For those of you who live in places where several inches of snow is a common occurence, please don't laugh at us sad little snow loving New Mexicans. :P

To My Husband...

My husband is usually out the door and ready to go by 5:30-6am. This morning he woke up at 7. Yikes. So to counteract his bad start to the day, I want to post this, which I should have done on Sunday, but was being too lazy. I love you honey!

We got new living room furniture! Our old stuff was not bad. Granted it was all stuff we collected from various garage and estate sales when we first got married, they were in good condition and went really well with the wood floors in our old house.

In our new house they kind of looked weird. Nothing here is wood, and the color of wood didn't exactly match the paint colors. So we decided to order some new furniture from Target and Philip spent all weekend putting them together. Now when I say all weekend, I mean all weekend. We bought four pieces: entertainment stand, bookcase, coffee table, and entryway table. It probably took a collective of 7 or 8 hours to put everything together. :(

So.....THANK YOU to my darling husband who dealt with all of the missing pieces, incoherent instructions, room full of boxes, and lack of help to make our living room look nice. And thank you even more for buying me a piece of pizza for lunch when you went to Sam's Club even though I insisted that really, I could find something to eat at home. I love that you can sometimes read my mind and knew that I really really wanted to just eat a slice of Sam's Club pizza. ;)

My Daughter After My Husband Changed Her

Yes, her onesie is on outside of her pants. His reasoning?.................
"It keeps the pants on better!"