Day of Love!

Valentine's Day (A.K.A. "The Day of Love"...as I like to call it) was quite the celebration at the Pierce household.  Reid and I usually do something special to celebrate the holiday, but this year we wanted to make it special for Caeden too!  Of course I don't want him to grow up thinking this is the only day we show our love to others, but I definitely want it to be a special day where we do things that are out-of-the-ordinary for us...just to make it fun!

So yesterday, when Caeden and Ella woke up and made their way to their chairs for breakfast, they found some fun treats!

Caeden immediately wanted to sit down and was ready to play.

 And then ready to dig into the chocolate...He definitely takes after his mama!

And Ella did the same...

 

Finally it was time for breakfast, where I made them heart-shaped pancakes.  Reid was just thrilled to have a hot breakfast on a work day, and Caeden experienced syrup for the first time. :) Usually I don't give Caeden syrup with his pancakes, but yesterday, beacause it was special, he had syrup for the first time!  I put the syrup on the side in case he didn't like it.  I showed him how to dip the pancake and then eat it....but it definitely wasn't a question...He's a fan of syrup!

Once we were dressed for the day in our Valentine colors, we took some fun Valentine pictures. They were so great!

Then came our craft time!  The night before, I had glued four popsicle sticks together to make a square.  Yesterday, they then decorated them with foam heart-shaped stickers.  And finally, we turned them into a magnet picture frame with their picture.  They did so great with them!  And I totally let them do it all by themself....which meant upside down hearts and all.  But that's what made them cute!

Then came lunch....which meant a heart-shaped Grilled Cheese sandwich - of course!  AND I had made Reid's lunch earlier that day, with a heart-shaped sandwich for himself, some heart-shaped cookies I had baked the day before, and a Valentine. :)

And while Ella was still taking her nap (because she sleeps a lot longer than my son ;)), Caeden helped me wrap Daddy's present.  I seriously let him pull the tape off and put it on the present.  One time we ended up with a 14" piece of tape....that was fun pressing down! :) But he did a great job and we had fun wrapping together!  By the way, for his gift, Daddy got some stuff to start his garden.  While we were at the store, I showed Caeden three different types of seeds we could buy, and he picked out the package he wanted to give to Daddy!

For snack time, I made edible play-dough!  They played with it for awhile, using our heart cookie cutters, and then quickly discovered they could eat it.  Mommy had some too and it was delicious!  (For those of you who want to try this at home, it's equal parts of powdered milk, peanut butter, and honey.  And I added a little flour also).

 




















When Reid got home from work, we wanted to do a fun family game to end our "Day of Love!"  So we hid paper hearts around the house and let Caeden look for them.  As minor as it sounds, he loved it!  He was looking under the couch, under toys, under his chair, etc.  He totally got into it and was looking in even harder places than we actually hid them!  Here's a short video clip of our "heart hunt."

Now, after Caeden was in bed, Reid and I had planned to have a nice dinner at home while Caeden was sleeping.  We grilled out pork chops since the weather was nice, and had some other sides to go with them.  I volunteered to put Caeden to bed so Reid could start the grilling.  When I walked out of Caeden's room at 7:30, not only were the pork chops done, but Reid was standing in our kitchen all dressed up, with the table set (complete with tablecloths and cloth napkins) and served ME dinner!  How sweet is that!  Honestly, in my head while I was rocking Caeden, I was thinking "I hope he gets our dishes out so we can eat soon!"  HA!  Little did I know he was going to do all that!  So overall, I would say we had a GREAT Valentine's Day and truly conveyed to each other our love! 

Woooo Pig Sooie! RAZORBACKS!

This is what Caeden heard yesterday as he walked into the Bud Walton Arena for the first time since he was a baby.  Of course it sounds a lot different when thousands of people are calling the Hogs....compared to just Mommy & Daddy at home. :)  The Razorbacks were playing LSU and finished with a 20-point victory!  And Caeden got to see it all!  Thanks to my dad for giving us the tickets, we usually take Caeden to one UofA basketball game a year.  Last year, he was only a baby and slept through half the game.  This year, he loved it!  Of course, it helps that he already has Razorback blood flowing through his veins.  I have to say that Reid and I were very impressed with how well he did, as an 18 month old.  He sat the entire first half without even trying to get off our laps.  He was so amused with all the lights, sounds, and movement.  What was really funny is that he truly stared at the basketball players most of the time as they ran up and down the court.  He'd even move his head to look around someone if he couldn't see.  It's like he was really studying what was going on. 

He got to walk around the Hog Heaven store with Daddy during halftime.  And the second half was a little harder to sit still, as expected.  But luckily we were prepared with toys, books, and food to entertain him.  We got to stay the whole game....which suprised us.  We were prepared to leave at halftime if we needed to...but he did great!  This is something small that Reid and I have enjoyed doing with our kids for a long time, and we had an awesome time!  Here are some fun pictures for you to enjoy!

Super Bowl, Snow, and Sweets....

This has been a busy week for the Pierce family.  First up....the Super Bowl!  We went Sunday night to a Super Bowl party with all the couples (and kids) from our Community Group.  The guys sat downstairs and actually watched the game, while the moms took the kiddos upstairs to play.  It actually worked out quite nicely.  I have some great pictures from this night, but they're not on my computer yet, so I'll post them ASAP!

Next...the snow!  Tuesday night we went to bed expecting 3-5 inches of snow the next day.  After all, this IS what Dan Skoff, the weatherman said.  WRONG!  We woke up to 20 inches of snow on the ground!  It was honestly the craziest thing I have ever seen.  And come to find out...we set a STATE record for entire history of Arkansas!  That's awesome!  And WE got to be part of it!  Here are some pictures to show how crazy deep the snow was!

And here are some pics of Caeden playing in the snow!

Lastly...Sweets.  This has always been a struggle for me growing up - especially since I love to bake!  Well this week has been very hard on my weight loss journey.  I was really dreading making this post, but I you all are my accountability and I have to be honest.  There have been several times this week I've felt like giving up.  It's just so hard to eat healthy all the time!  And to continue working out several times a week!  When I think of how I've lost 5 pounds, I feel great!  But when I think about how I still have 20 to go, it's so overwhelming!  I know I don't want to quit.  I want to set a good example for Caeden on how to eat and live healthy.  And I know I feel good about myself when I do these things.  It's just really hard right now - I'm praying every morning for God to give me motivation, self-control, and self-discipline.  If you think of me throughout the day, or even as your're reading this, please say a quick 10-second prayer for God to give me these things as well. 

Stuck...

So if you noticed, the title of this post is "Stuck."  This is for two reasons: 1) It describes this week regarding my weight loss journey and 2) It describes this week in the Pierce household.

Sooo....as far as my New Year's Resolution goes, I'm still going for it!  However, I did not lose any weight this week....No gain....But no loss either.  Not really sure why...Did everything normal.  So I'm just going to keep on chuggin' and see what next week holds.  I know it's common to hit these plateau weeks sometimes.

And just like most of you, we received the amazing snowstorm on Tuesday that kept us in the house all week.  Thankfully, Caeden had a drs appt on Monday (b/c had been very fussy and sick the day before) and we found out he had a double ear infection and a virus in his throat.  Obviously, we can't treat the virus but we got 2 antibiotics for his ears.  SO THANKFUL we got to the dr on Monday before the snow storm hit!  He was still pretty fussy all week and didn't really feel better until Friday.  So it was a long week for Reid and I...comforting and tending to a very needy little boy.  So on top of dealing with a sick kid, he was getting bored with his toys, and so were we! :)

We tried to get out Thursday to go to Walmart and after spinning around 360 degrees and getting stuck in the snow in the other lane, we decided to turn around and go home.  So that was it as far as outings go for the Pierce family....stuck in the house...all three of us...for 5 whole days!!

Until yesterday!  The sun came out and the streets started to melt.  So we figured if we're going to get out, this is the day....before the next two weather systems come through.  So where did we go you ask?  Chick-fil-a of course!  We ate lunch, let Caeden play for awhile, and then went to PetCo (A.K.A. "The Zoo").  Caeden loves it everytime we go!  Once we got home, we cleaned house and made dinner for our next-door neighbors who came over to hang out with us.  They have a little boy just a few months older than Caeden so they had fun playing together.

To end this post, here's a picture of Caeden and I warming our feet by the fire this week.  He's such an imitator these days! :)