Family Night at the Shoppe

We went to Baskin Robins for our family night on Monday. Mya was in heaven there! That night, to her, the best invention ever was putting bubble gum and ice cream together! Once she got the HUGE ice cream cone, her eyes lit up and she was one happy girl! It was a way fun night!
Parker got to enjoy a little ice cream, too. He fell asleep on the drive there, but luckily woke up when it was ice cream time!

Valentine's Day!

I LOVE holidays!!! Pretty much any of them! I love a good excuse to buy a present, make some good food, or hang out with family! Luckily I got to do all 3 of those for Valentine's Day!

First of all, Justin and I went on a date Saturday night to Applebees for our Valentine's dinner. That way we could get our one-on-one time and beat the crowds. But on Monday we did more of a Valentine's Day for the family. The best part about that morning, I woke up to some beautiful flowers and Dove chocolate from Justin (and there were some there for Mya, too) and then I found out I won a $50 gift card from Picky Palate to Costco! The entire day was awesome...I played games with Mya and made sugar cookies (I'm not sure if that counts since I was going simple this year and just bought the Pilsbury Valentine cookies, but Mya was happy either way)! My goal this year was to keep it simple. I didn't want to be in the kitchen all day and night prepping for our family dinner. We started a tradition of getting LasVegas steaks from Don's Meats and grilling those up. They are delicious! They're goodness wrapped in bacon! Not kidding, they're the best steaks I've ever had! But to keep it simple, I decided on take out to go with our steaks. Mya's favorite food is "white pasta" from LaFerrovia and their carrots, so we placed an order of pasta enough for all of us and some carrots. We had one happy girl. Then I topped it off with homemade slush, chocolate covered strawberries and mint brownies! See why I love holidays now? It's a great excuse for WONDERFUL food! Probably the best meal I've ever eaten.

Hardware Ranch

Last year we never made it up to Hardware Ranch to take Justin, I mean, Mya to see the elk. So this year we weren't going to miss it. We woke up early one Saturday and headed up to see the elk. It was awesome, of course. Tons of elk and family time...Mya didn't love the long drive though. She got car sick on the way home so we had to pull over for a while until she felt better. I was not about to clean throw up out of our car! It was such a fun day though!

25!

My birthday this year was great! Perfect, actually....well, almost. To make it perfect, I would have preferred Justin to be home from work, but considering he had to work that day, it was perfect. That day I woke up, told Justin good-bye and got ready for a fun day ahead! Once Mya woke up, I opened a couple of presents but left the others for when Justin got home (it killed her that I wasn't opening all of them, but I just wanted to wear a new shirt so I opened that one). That morning, we hit a movie. I took Mya to Tangled and dropped Parker off at my parent's. It was so fun going with Mya! A total girls day with my number one girl! She was in heaven and so was I with the one-on-one time I got with her...that never happens! I loved the movie just as much as the first time we saw it. After the movie, we stopped by to see Justin at work during his lunch, then picked up Parker. I had cancelled piano that day, so I actually got a nap in! After nap time, I enjoyed some cheesecake with my parents and Justin and headed out to dinner at the Brick Oven. The entire day was so relaxing and I could do whatever I wanted. Justin took over and got the kids ready for bed while I went and rented a movie for Justin and I to watch after the kids were in bed. It seriously was a Natalie kind of day...

Pictures from dinner...the kids LOVED it:
This got me thinking, 25! 25 sounded old to me when I was 19 and 20. But being 25, I don't feel it at all. I still feel like I'm 20 when I met Justin and it blows my mind that I'm married, have 2 kids and a house and all of the responsibility that comes with that! I met Justin a few weeks after I turned 20, so on my 20th birthday, if you were to ask me where I'd be in 5 years I would have said: maybe serve a mission and hopefully married with one or two kids and a stay at home mom. Well, I'm pretty much there! I didn't serve a mission, but that'll be saved for one day with Justin. It's crazy how fast the last 5 years have flown! I love my life, Justin, and the family we've started!