Valentine's weekend 2016

We had a great time loving on each other this Valentine's Day. we celebrated all weekend long. James had some work to do in Albuquerque overnight Friday and asked if I would join him. We always jump at the chance to getaway alone. 

The grandparents stepped in for us, big time. Stephanie went to James Henry's party at school and Roland and Dawn did school pick up as well as take James Henry to gymnastics. 

 Stephanie stayed at the house overnight with the kids and sent me this sweet picture of David playing Saturday morning.

 As for James and I, we ate great food, saw the Deadpool movie and played at Dave and Buster's.

 While he worked on Saturday I relaxed, had some Starbucks and did some damage at the mall.

On Sunday we made homemade pizzas with the kids after church and cupid floats.

 That night we went to the banquet at church. The youth served as the wait staff and Makayla was our waitress. She has just grown up right before our eyes. Her outfit came from my closet!

 Everything was beautifully done that night.

 Here we are drinking our sparkling cider.

 Pepperoni bread made to look like roses.

 We had a guest speaker and the youth put on a skit for us. Makayla was the evil queen in their version of Snow White.

 The guest speaker asked the husbands to pray over their wives and when James and I were done, I snapped this picture of the amazing couples we call our friends and James praying with one of the precious older women in our church.

 Then there was the newlywed game.... we almost had to play but a couple was married one more year than us!

 So proud of our youth, they did a great job!

 James and I with our table pals, our associate pastor Greg and his wife Joy.

It was a great weekend. We don't normally do big things on Valentines. Although, I did get James a Fit Bit. Ha!
The kids did get little gifts from us but it is just a day to love on each other and that is what we did.

David~ 18 months

 On the 13th David reached his 18 month birthday. He had his check up the Thursday before. Now that he is mobile, it is much harder to keep him entertained while we wait. Notice where he was storing his tongue depressor!
He weighs 22 pounds and is 32 inches long. He is 31 percentile for weight and 36th for height. He is tiny but asymmetrical and healthy!! He only needed one booster shot that day.

He loves his siblings and he is busy all the time!!!

 He loves rice cakes!

 He sleeps like a maniac!

 He can climb anything! His favorite toys are trucks and cars. He will sit and play with his hot wheels all day long. Some of his new words are cup, bye-bye, "ta-da", and right before he karate chops you he will say "hi-yah".

This week Christopher and I had the fun privilege of taking him to see Sesame Street Live. Christopher is one of David's favorite people.

 Holding our tickets, ready to go....

 He sat completely still just memorized for over an hour. It was so cute to see!

It was a fun afternoon. 18 months has flown by and I find myself cherising  every little moment I can.

David & his tubes

 Yesterday morning, long before most of Amarillo was awake we checked David into the hospital for day surgery. He had tubes placed in his ears to hopefully reduce the number of ear infections he has been getting and to hopefully relief some of his throat issues as well.

 Tuesday night his friend Quentin and his parents came by and give David a gift for having surgery.
It was really sweet of them and David loves his new tractor.

 Tuesday morning I woke up, got myself ready and the big kids prepped for school, woke James up and we grabbed David on the way out the door. Thankfully, Papa John came over and got the big kids up and drove them to school since they were still sound asleep when we left. We got checked in and David played while we waited.

 They called us back and we changed him and got him ready for the OR. The hospital even gave him a stuffed animal.

 It was about this time that he started getting sleepy and wanted some milk. I rocked him for a minute and he was just about asleep when Dr. Wright our ENT, the anesthesiologist and the OR nurse all came in to talk to us and before we knew it the OR nurse was carrying him back. He didn't cry, he had his paci and blanket and was content.
They moved James and I to his recovery room and I checked the time on my watch, it was 7:30am. At 7:50am, Dr. Wright came to see us and tell us everything went beautifully and David would be right out. Five minutes later, James and I were getting anxious waiting on him and then we heard him crying before we ever saw him. One of the nurses carried him in wrapped in his blanket. He put David in my arms and it reminded me so much of that day in the NICU when I held him for the first time. David had a cup of gatorade and by 8:30am we were on our way home.
 He slept for a while that morning but he ate, drank and played with his new toys for the rest of the day. He received new toys from us as well. Our sweet friend Lisa knocked on our door in the afternoon with dinner. It was such a blessing because although James and I napped with David, we were all very tired and out of sorts.

By last night he was back to his normal self and today you wouldn't know anything happened. We were so blessed by every ones calls, texts, gifts and dinner. On Sunday night some of our friends even stopped and prayed over David. We are surrounded by some truly amazing people.