March...So Far

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had the leprechauns visit us this morning at home. They left their footprints, gold chocolate, and pretend gold coins.

Later the leprechauns came to both of our classes and left everyone some gold.

After school, we made green french toast and Hayden frosted his own shamrock cookies.

I made these ritz cracker mint patties on Monday and shared them with my co-workers today. Nobody guessed that I had used crackers--some people even thought that I had decorated the girl scout thin mints (thanks for the great idea, Danika).

This is a similar idea to the patties above. This time I put green frosting between the crackers before dipping them in mint chocolate (plus I added the sticks before dipping, too).

Of course we had to make shamrock cookies with green frosting and sprinkles.

Last weekend, Dan and I tried out "Eggs in the City," a local favorite restaurant downtown. I have to say, the omelet was pretty good (and I'm pretty sure Dan liked his breakfast burrito).

Ya, I'm kind of a dork (I think even more so now for using the word dork). I just had to have a pic with me taking a bite.

Build-a-Bear

We also visited Build-a-Bear last Saturday...neither of us had ever been there before. Hayden picked out a dog (he is half dog afterall, so no big surprise there).

Here's his dog getting stuffed. Hayden got to press the petal, plus he continued to push it after his dog was done and got stuffing on the guy who ran the machine.

Hayden got to put a heart and a shamrock insided his dog.

Washing and fluffing "Giba" (yep, that's what he named him) after he was all put together. We also picked out a collar and a leash for the doggy, too.

Bye-bye Build-a-Bear. It was a fun experience!

In the spirit of the recent distribution of girl scout cookies (and because Samoas are Dan's favorite), I decided to try out this bar cookie that is supposed to taste similar to the Samoas (I hope I'm spelling it right). They tasted good, but still different from the actual cookie...I guess nothing beats the original.

The Safe Kids Fair

A few weekends ago, we went and explored the Safe Kids Fair at South Towne Expo. It was free (can't beat that), and Hayden had fun. Can't you tell what a stud he is on the motorcycle I had to force him to sit on (yes, I really did have to force him).

Hayden is much braver than me...I had very little desire to touch this white python, but I knew that Hayden would like it.

Valentine's

Happy Valentine's Day 2010! Hayden had parties at school both Thursday and Friday. Above is a picture with his friend, Kelton, on Friday. The class was getting ready to decorate their heart-shaped cookies. Saturday, Feb. 13, Hayden had a Valentine party at our house.

Here is a picture (clockwise) of Kelton, Davis, Hayden, and Graci. The first thing the kids did (besides play) was decorate Valentine visors.

Graci was such a good big sister helping Sophia with her visor.

The kiddos had a lunch consisting of heart-shaped pbj's, turkey and cheese tortilla wraps, Valentine chex mix, strawberries, pretzels, and cheese and crackers. In this pic are Brennen, Graci, Sophia, Kelton, Hayden, and Davis. Sadly, some of his friends were out of town and couldn't come to the party. We still had fun, though!

I tattooed some of the kids with some Valentine tats, and then they got to frost and decorate cupcakes. I figured they would have fun with the sprinkes--my table probably had more sprinkes then the actual cupcakes.

Hayden with his visor and one of the balloons we had for the party.

I made suckers this year as a treat to distribute to friends and family...plus we gave out suckers to the kids at the end of the party.

I also made some white chocolate covered truffles.

Later that day, Dan came over with roses (how sweet!) and he had planned out a whole night of activites for us. First, we went ice skating at the Cottonwood Rec Center. They had a Sweethearts skate-themed evening going on there with flowers and prizes. Neither of us had skated in quite awhile, but Dan picked it up again pretty well. I was just glad that I didn't fall...although I ended up being clumsy later on by dropping things, so I guess I made up for it.

After skating, we went to dinner at Rodizio Grill. I had never been there before, and I loved having a variety of foods to try.

Above is Dan taking a bite of the alligator sausage...neither of us were too crazy about it, but we had to try it. After dinner, Dan had gotten us tickets to an improv comedy show at the Broadway Theater (think "Whose Line Is It Anyway"). It was hysterical--I am amazed at how quick-witted some people are. I was thoroughly impressed at the fun evening Dan had planned for us, and I had a great time.

Sidenote: Last Saturday (Feb. 6) was our 1-year anniversary of our first date. I thought it would be fun to have dinner at the same restaurant we ate at one year ago (Epic), so I made reservations and dropped off a funny magazine picture of us to have at the table for when we arrived later. During dinner I gave Dan tickets to the Jazz game for that night, so that's what we did after dinner. They played Denver, and won (thank goodness).

Here's the dessert I made for us. We didn't end up eating eat it, but I enjoyed making it anyway.

The next day (actual Valentine's Day), I made brunch for Dan and Hayden (and I guess myself, too). I made crepes with a lemon cream cheese filling and strawberries along with some bacon. Afterwards, we all went to the zoo, and then visited Dan's family--it was his mom's birthday and Hayden loves to play with Dan's nephews.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

So in addition to doing our daily advent calendar, I thought that we'd start doing the twelve days of Christmas this year, too. Each day Hayden got to unwrap a Christmas/winter book, and he opened the last one on Christmas Eve. He enjoyed it, and anything I can do to stimulate even more interest in books works in favor of us both.

That afternoon we went to visit my Great Aunt Lila for a lunch and to exchange gifts. Hayden had fun, and he got to play with Selena (we'll call her his cousin although she's probably like his 3rd cousin or something close to that).

Opening gifts from Aunt Lila, and below is a set of Sponge Bob games from Selena.

This year I got to make the Christmas cake for our Christmas Eve dinner. It's a two-layer jello poke cake (the one we have every year). I just love to bake and decorate, so I had fun making it.

We had dinner at my Mom and Bob's house with Brooke, Travis, and Dan.

Hayden got to open a gift early from Brooke and Travis.

Hayden's hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa in his new Christmas pj's. We all got new pajamas that night, too.

Christmas Day

Here's a picture of the pre-unwrapping craziness. We have 3 little trees because I don't have the space to accomodate a large tree.

Christmas tradition dictates that you open the stocking before anything else.

Here's Hayden with all the fun things that he pulled out of his stocking.

This is the dog that Hayden asked Santa to bring him. He named it Lulu (and it's a boy, too).

The all important and ever popular Zhu Zhu pet with the house from Santa.

Some awesome Hess racecars from Hayden's great grandparents.

Playing with the neat jungle from Dan. It even has moving parts and sound effects.

So the last thing Santa left for Hayden was hidden and Hayden had to go on a scavenger hunt to find it. Above is the first note that was in the tree, and the Christmas trees are the rest of the clues.

Hayden found a clue in the refrigerator.

His gift was hidden in the bathtub. Boy, that Santa sure is tricky.

After pulling it out of the tub, Hayden unwrapped it and discovered a Smart Cycle.

Around 7:45 that morning, we got a call from my mom saying that they were on their way to the hospital. Brooke's water broke so it looked like we were going to have a Christmas baby. A couple hours later, we headed to my mom and Bob's house to finish the baking my mom started, and Hayden got to open our stocking. Above is a pic of him pulling things out of the big sock.

He also got to open Aunt Laurie and Uncle Wayne's gift. Hayden got some fun art supplies.
Brooke had baby Gage at 11:11 am, so shortly after that I packed up breakfast and drove Hayden out to Eagle Mountain to visit his dad. Then I headed to the hospital in Riverton.

Here's Brooke and Gage. He is such a darling baby boy.

Later that day I went to Dan's parents house to visit, have dinner, and play games. I wish I had some pictures, but just know that we had fun.

The following day Hayden got to open the presents from Grandma and Grandpa Barnes. A few days later he got to open this present (Gator Golf) from Brooke and Travis.