A perfect weekend

This has been the BEST weekend.  Having Brandon home on weekdays is great, but weekends with him around are even better.  Thanks to President's day Brandon was home all day on Friday and all day today too.  We made the most (or rather least) of our four day weekend by staying home and unpacking the rest of our stuff.  After the craziness of the last 5 months we were very content to take it easy.  We slept in every day.  And I got to take a nap every afternoon.  That's not to say we didn't do anything.  We still had a lot of fun while keeping everything low key.  

The fun started out on Thursday. It was Valentine's Day.  The only thing I had planned to do with the kids was to make heart shaped sugar cookies.  The girls loved helping with the cookies and eating the dough of course.  Somehow we miraculously got 13 cookies cut out, on to the pan, and into the oven.

 Brandon got off work early and surprised us all with balloons and candy.

 I even got a present. (Just a little aviation innuendo.)

 Derrick loved the rattling sound that his box of conversation hearts made.

 Brandon was able to join in on frosting the heart cookies.

 Here is our finished product.  The girls were thrilled about the "spinkles"

 Like I said, most of the weekend was spent unpacking.  I finally found the picture hanging hooks so I was able to put up all the pictures.  I feel like we live here for real now.  (Pictures of our decorated house will be coming soon.)

Brandon put our big storage shelf back together.  (He hadn't trusted the movers to safely transport it so he'd taken it all the way apart)  He had two little helpers that made sure everything went back together correctly.

Here is a video of the girls helping drill.  Watch the whole movie if you want to see some other fun things that have been happening around here lately.

On Saturday Lydia went down for nap, but Charlotte didn't.  Instead she put on her shoes and asked to go to the park.  For a second I almost told her no.  But then I realized that Brandon could stay home with Lydia and Derrick.  So I put on my shoes and Charlotte and I went to the park together.  We had so much fun.  I loved not having to divide my attention.  And I know Charlotte enjoyed having me (and the park) all to herself. Charlotte was able to swing in the baby swing for as long as she wanted.  She got as many underdogs as she asked for.  When she was done with the swing we went to the slides.  The park has a double slide and we would each go down a side at the same time.  We laughed and talked and held hands.  I don't get a lot of one on one time with each of my kids so it was really special to focus on Charlotte.

Some big boys came and started playing on the equipment.  I told Charlotte she could come home and help me get our little garden plot ready.  So that is what we did.  We have a small raised bed at home that Charlotte and I had fun digging in.  She even helped me plant a few peas.

That evening we all went out to a local lake and roasted hot dogs for dinner.  I've missed these "family dates."  And the girls are so much more grown up now.  They were excited to pick out a picnic table.  They loved watching Daddy start the fire.  They even knew to stay away from the fire ant nest that I pointed out to them.  Dinner was really fun.  When it was over we watched the sun go down. I think it was the first sunset we ever watched as a family.  

Sunday was a broadcast stake conference rather than regular church which meant we got to sleep in.  YAY!  We went to our regular meeting house because we'd been told the broadcast would be shown there.  However, 5 minutes before the meeting started one of the leaders got up and said that they couldn't get the internet connection to work.  He told us that we could go to one of the other two meeting houses in the stake and watch the broadcast there.  

We didn't know where either meeting house was so we just decided to secretly follow another family there.  Well the van that we were following seemed to be going in the right direction at first.  But then they turned down a dirt road and then down a driveway.  We realized that we'd followed them home!  So we just kept driving.  We never did find the meeting house, but all the kids fell asleep in the car.  We just turned it into a nice Sunday drive and enjoyed exploring the area a little bit.  

I was kind of bummed that we didn't get to try our luck with seeing how well we could make it through the two hour meeting.  I'd packed the diaper back with lots of fun stuff and treats and I was hoping we'd make it at least an hour and a half.  Plus the kids looked so cute!  Derrick even wore a white shirt and tie for the first time.       

 Here is Lydia in a cute dress.  My motto the last few weeks has been, "you may not be the most reverent kids in Sacrament meeting, but you will be the cutest."

 Today we went to the park to try to fly some kites that we've had for way too long but never used.  It ended up being too windy to fly them without breaking them.  But the trip wasn't a complete waste because I finally was able to get a picture of everyone in their flight jackets.

 Derrick was modeling a hand me down one that my Aunt Cheryl gave me when I was pregnant with the twins.  (Yes he points every time I pull out the camera)

 Lydia had on one that Brandon's sister Melanie gave us when the twins were born.  She'd actually bought it years ago in anticipation of Brandon one day having a baby.

 And Charlotte had on another hand me down one that my Aunt Lori recently gave us.  All the kids love their jackets.

So there you have it.  After this weekend I'd dare say that life is basically back to normal for us.