A Morales Minute

 Annual family Valentine's Day dinner. Kids decided they didn't want a fondue dinner again. Do something different. We've done the mystery dinner before but it'd been awhile so it was fun to do again. I appreciated Jaime's help at fulfilling each order. It was fun to work along side him in the kitchen. I'm grateful he enjoys going along with my more than necessary work to put together fun things for the kids.  This is the menu we handed the kids. They selected what items they wanted.  Jaime and I used the menu guide to make sure we knew what food item went where,  Jaime brought me these beautiful flowers. Perfect centerpiece for our dinner table. I decided to make our own chocolate dipped strawberries. It was too easy for me to do just a few so yeah, I went a little crazy and made a lot. This isn't even all of them. But they were sooo good. I'm glad I made a lot. ;) While setting the table I realized I didn't need to set Lindsey's spot because sh...

We had our monthly family birthday dinner at Mom and Dad's.  Mom gets so much joy from hosting and celebrating our family. :) We were excited to celebrate Olivia.  She's growing in to such a wonderful young woman. She's spunky, funny, beautiful, smart, witty, and my daughter. It truly has been an amazing journey to see how she's grown. I'm excited to see where this girl goes in life. 

  Parker, Olivia, Jakob They all turn 16 just days apart in the same week this month. They've pretty much grown up together. They want to have a big 16th birthday party together. To Heather, Kindra and I are all getting started on birthday plans. Not sure what we're going to be doing but with the three of us all pooling together it should be good! We all said that we spend more for birthday parties for the 16th so yeah, it's gonna be big. :) This unicorn birthday banner was up in the church while they were there for mutual so Kindra said they need a picture in front of it. :D

One of my favorite things to see is my kids all hanging out singing, dancing, eating, just doing great at hanging out together. They had early release from school today so I made sure lunch was ready for all of them when they got home.  I took this picture and a video of them all eating lunch and dancing to music they were listening to. They kept eating while sitting down but bobbed and danced their hands around between bites of eating. It was just so fun to observe and be with them as they were all feeling so happy.   

Sarah signed us up for a flower arranging class. I learned some new things about flowers and how to arrange them. We had a good time. It was fun to visit with her and learn something new. I appreciate Sarah's friendship and her desire to always try new things.   

  I do like having my girls go to the same high school that Jaime works at. Every now and then he will send me information or pictures from work.  He sent me a picture of Lindsey's softball team's state poster. This giant poster is up in the commons room above the trophy case. It's huge. Still so proud of Lindsey and her team for winning state. Such a great memory that Lindsey will have her entire life.  Jaime sent this picture of Olivia's "injury." I look pretty real, no? I knew it wasn't real though. She's too calm. lol She's taking a sports medicine class and is loving it. She's real good at what she's learned to. It really sticks with her. She's considering physical therapy or sports med as a future career path. I'm excited to see where this beautiful young woman of mine goes. 

  We picked out souvenir shirts for each of the kids. I like to find some that seem to reflect my kids. These were all big hits. We also got a solar powered "dancing" Groot and ironman infinity gauntlet. When I first saw someone at Disneyland wearing the gauntlet I knew I had to find it. I wanted to take it home for my kids to see. I bought it and it comes with a drink because it can hold the bottle. Kinda fun.  Olivia got a kick out of using it to hold her phone. :D hahaha I knew the kids would get a kick out of it. And the stones light up! It was my favorite thing to show the kids. They didn't appreciate me telling them which rides I like the most and how fun they were. I really do want to plan a trip for our family to go. I think we'd have so much fun at Disney together. Especially since I'm not so afraid of the rides like I thought I was when we first when when the kids were young. lol It took Brian and his kids begging me to go on rides to get passed it.