V-day

Dave and I celebrated Valentine's Day by going out to dinner ALL BY OURSELVES on Saturday night. This was the first time we left Riley and therefore, it was the first time we had been on a date for over 3 months. We decided to eat at the Reynolds Tavern in Annapolis. On TripAdvisor, it was ranked as the most romantic restaurant in Annapolis and we had never been there. We set a goal for ourselves this year to branch out and try some new places, so this seemed like the perfect place to start. Reynolds Tavern was built in 1747 (that's what I love about this area!) and it's actually a bed and breakfast, but the dining room is turned into a small restaurant open to the public in the evenings. It was delicious!

And here is a picture of the kiddles on V-day. I tried to get one of Riley with them, but it didn't quite work out! They kept smothering her and you couldn't see her face.

And then.... the highlight of the day. We saw the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile!!!! Dave called on his way home from work and told me that he saw the Weinermobile at our local grocery store. I threw all 3 kids in the car and raced down there and we got there in the nick of time before they left. We got to go inside the giant hot dog on wheels and the kids were thrilled!

Dave sporting his new wheels. :)

This was especially exciting since Tanner recently rented a DVD from the library all about trucks and it features the Weinermobile as "a truck that looks like food." And one of my best friends from high school was a Weinermobile driver for 2 years about 10 years ago, so I texted him this picture.

And, after returning home from the Weinermobile adventure, we settled in for a nice V-day dinner of red-velvet pancakes. Happy V-day!

3 Months

Riley is 3 Months old today...

And I am in so in love with this little girl! Her biggest accomplishments of the past month have been sleeping and growing! In fact, she slept for 10 solid hours 3 separate nights over a 5 day period and I was hopeful we were on to something, but alas, it was just a lucky 3 nights for me! Even so, she still usually only wakes up 1-2 times during the night and will typically nurse and go right back to sleep (hallelujah!). I took her to a wellness check 2 weeks ago and she weighed 13 pounds 1 ounce and was 24 inches putting her in the 95th %ile for both height and weight. I wish I could freeze time and keep her little forever. Well, speaking of my little 13 pound chunka munka, she just woke up and she's hungry!

A Fond Farewell....

Kim, Monica and I doing a human BYU. I love Kim's "B"! Well, it's been a sad week for those of us left behind by Joe and Monica and their crew. Monica (in the middle) has become a dear friend of mine. And Dave and Joe have become good friends as well. Joe was the EQ President in our ward and Dave was his counselor. Joe has been an assistant football coach for the Navy for the past three years. We have loved getting to know them and their family. They have six kids and their #5 is Lacey's age and their #6 is Tanner's age. Well, Joe just accepted the job as an assistant coach for BYU football, so they all just moved out to Utah this past week. :(

Joe and Dave

We decided to send them out with a bang! Dave and I decided to host a going away party for them. Here's the cake....

And here's the spread.....

Bryson and Lacey (I'm hoping they get married in about 20 years)

Bryson and Tanner

It all happened so fast (Joe was out there working within four days of accepting the job and the rest of the family joined him just one week later) that Joe had already moved by the time we could put together a party. And their oldest daughter had plans with her friends, but Monica and her 5 boys were all there and we had a great time! We knew there would be a lot of people, so we reserved the gym at our church. And, as you can see, we had a football theme. Our ward (congregation) is very small, so to lose a great family of 8 is a bit painful. Even so, we are so glad we got to be such good friends with them over the past 3 years and we wish them the best of luck. So, to our friends in Provo (Seth and Cari), our loss is your gain! Go BYU!