Valentine's/President's Day

last weekend was a nice 3-day weekend. on Saturday, we went out to visit Grandma Joanie, check on her car, and give her a valentine. we were supposed to bake cookies with Linda but she was sick with the stomach flu. We decided to just drop by and give her a valentine to raise her spirits. :)

Saturday night, we saw Valentine's Day. we thought it was a cute movie. i know the critics slammed it, but really, what were they expecting? it's a cheesy chick flick. i like movies that have multiple stories intertwined, plus it's a Gary Marshall film (and i'm a sucker for the cheesy goodness he makes). the only bad part was Anne Hathaway. freakin' zipperhead. awful actress. and she plays an adult phone entertainer. so, we could've just done without her entirely. after the movie, we enjoyed some Claim Jumper. (which was lovely.)

Sunday, we exchanged gifts and made a delicious dinner at home:

gabe grilled the steaks. i made the salad (w/homemade croutons), twice baked potatoes, and broccoli. we even broke out the fancy plates for the occasion!

We had planned to ride our bikes to disneyland on Monday, but it was a little hot. we decided to drive. and it's a good thing! we were blacked-out. one of my valentine's presents was a cute little gardening set. so we decided to get plants and seeds to plant - hopefully i don't kill the plants! keep an eye out... in 80 dias i'm supposed to have some bell peppers!

here are the valentine's i made...

this one went to grandma joanie.

this one went to gabe.

this one went to elizabeth.

this one went to linda.

aunt-(& uncle) hood.

you know what? i love being an aunt. i remember when brian was born thinking that it was insane that i could be an aunt - but that i was going to love it. it's important, this aunt-hood. i take it very seriously. Elizabeth made a very good point the other day - "why can't we just get paid to be F/T aunts??" then we could expense flights to Bellingham and all our trips to museums, zoos, disneyland...

(seriously, though, i think we should all fly up to watch brian play soccer.)

Gabe has discovered that he loves to be an uncle too. at first, he was nervous. he thought if he held/touched Emily that she would break. He thought Brian and Matthew weren't going to like him. but Brian and Matthew love him - over Thanksgiving, Matthew wanted to hold Gabe's hand more than he wanted to hold mine. Brian was oh so excited to share a birthday with Gabe. and Emily loves to play legos with Gabe and treat him like a jungle gym.

so this post is dedicated to our nephews and niece (soon to be nieces) - my buddy Brian, Choo Choo Matthew, and sweet girl Emily.

here are some pictures from an expedition to the park with sweet Emily. (1/30/2010)

it was hard to get her still for a picture - she was so busy playing!

i told her she could pick one toy to bring to the park. she ran to her toybox and grabbed this book. :)

she LOVED going on the slide.