Happy Valentine's Day

Fruit bouquet, cookie bouquet, roses bouquet, Godiva chocolates, and a present. No, that is not what I received for Valentine's Day. That is what Olivia received between the grandparents and Joe and I. I think that she did pretty well for her third ever Valentine's Day. Her poor future boyfriends and husband will have a lot to live up to!

This year Olivia made a Valentine's mailbox to put special goodies and letters in for the family. She had a great time making multiple cards for everyone, checking the box for little surprises from Joe and I, and reading and rereading all of her cards that she received. I believe that this is definitely a tradition to continue next year.


A princess and her flowers.

A special cookie bouquet from Grandma and Grandpa.

Mmmmm...cookie.

Just a picture I think is funny. Ethan loves Olivia's dollhouse, almost more than Olivia does. He pulls up on it, moves around the furniture, chews on the dolls, and plays peek-a-boo through the windows. I cannot remember what happened in this picture to make him cry.

The weekend after Valentine's Day we received a visit from Grammy and Uncle Brennan. We took a trip to the Natural History Museum ("animal museum" per Olivia) together. As crazy as Mother Nature has been this winter, I wouldn't be surprised if grasshoppers of this size began to appear in Iowa City this summer.

Olivia and her new friend at the museum.

Making noodle necklaces with Grammy. Kim's trip came at both the right and wrong time. The right time for us in that on the Sunday of her visit, Iowa City received yet another winter storm (by the way, we are at 53.1 inches and counting - more snow expected next week). Joe and I didn't see it as a big deal until Joe went into our garage and found 4 inches of water throughout the entire garage. The water was from faulty sump pump tubes that leaked back into the garage. Luckily, Kim was there to watch the kids while Joe, Brennan, and I worked to clean out the garage and shovel six inches of wet snow (a big thank you to Brennan for the help!). The wrong time in that we didn't get to do any of our plans for Sunday or spend much time with Kim on that day. Anyway, it was a great visit overall.