A Special Valentine's Day

For some reason I just love Valentine's Day!  Especially since we have a little guy to shower with love now!  I remember loving our Valentine's parties at school growing up and Kori and I always got a special treat from our Mom and Dad on Valentine's Day.  This was our last Valentine's with an only child, so I wanted to make it special for Lane.  

We spent the weeks leading up to V-Day doing some artwork.

He made heart paintings for all of the family using toilet paper rolls bent into a heart, dipped in paint and stamped.  Still sporting our Christmas jammies on a cold morning!

 

The week of Valentine's Day Lane was stylin'!  I had a few V-Day shirts for him to sport each day.

On this day we had a picnic lunch in the park!  It ended up being a little chilly, so we couldn't stay long.

 

Our handsome fella wore this shirt to his class Valentine's party, which was on Thursday the 13th.

Holding his "officers" for the letter "O" show n' tell.

We got to school and Lane was excited to go in, knowing he would be getting treats from all of his friends and getting to pass out his treats to them.  Then, the little toot cried when I left!  So unpredictable!

I was really happy with how his Valentine's cards turned out!  I had seen a picture on Pinterest of a little boy wearing giant sunglasses and decided to incorporate it into his cards this year.  

 

For his school friends, I bagged up some M&M's and a pair of red sunglasses for each kiddo.  I found the glasses for 50 cents each at Party City, created the photo design on photoshop, and just printed the bag tags at Staples.  Very similar to his Hot Wheels ones from last year, but still super cute!

 

On actual Valentine's Day, Lane started his morning with a pink bath!  He loves those bath fizzies that change the color of the water!

 

 

After getting all clean and dressed, we had our very own "Dr. Love!"  So cute!

 

Last year, we tried to beat the night time Valentine's Day crowd and meet Daddy for an early lunch downtown.  We decided to continue the tradition this year and met him at Lavaca St. Bar and Grill.

Lane, Mommy and Ellis (almost 32 wks.)

A mouth full of cookie and a hug for his old man!

 

After lunch, I took Lane to the mall to get his Valentine's Day gift.  I thought it might be fun to take him to Build a Bear to make a stuffed friend!  He had been once before in Arlington and chose a bear, and this time he chose a cute horse!  

Pumping his horsey with stuffing!  He said he wanted it to be "medium stuffed." Haha!

Giving the horse a squeeze.

Cleaning up his pony at the bath station.

He thought it was funny to scrub between his legs to clean "his crotch."  Ugh, boys!

Lane came up with an interesting name for his new friend...

Mrs. Coots Armstrong.

After some negotiating, we decided to skip an outfit for Mrs. Coots Armstrong and just buy a brush like the one he used at the tub station.  When we left, Lane said "Horses don't even really wear clothes anyway," and brushed his horse all the way home.  Let's hope she still has hair left in a month or two!

Got a house for his horse and ready to head home!

Kyle and I had just taken our trip to Chicago and had lots of alone time, so we considered that our big V-Day celebration.  Kyle did, however cook a delicious dinner for us that night at home.  Pesto pasta with sundried tomatoes, asparagus, and mozzarella cheese, plus caramel blondie brownies for dessert!  What a fun week it was!!

January Happenings

We have had a busy and fun January!  Here's a recap of what all we've been up to since my last update....

Daddy took Lane to the driving range one Saturday morning.   We drive by it every day on the way to Lane's school and he always says "Remember when we used to go to the driving range?  When can we go back there?"  Lane was excited to get to go with Daddy, even though the report from Kyle was that Lane hit a few balls and then was more interested in collecting broken tees than practicing his swing.

 

That afternoon Lane had another T-ball game.  This week was team picture week.  The sad part is, it was only week 2 and I don't know anyone's name, including his coach!  :-/

Lane smiled ok in the beginning....

 

Then the photographer said to say cheese and the real CHEESE came out.  Aye, aye, aye Lane!

 

Daddy/Son fun time continued after Lane's T-ball game.  Kyle got free suite tickets to the UT basketball game from his boss, so he took Lane to watch the game.  There were a few of Kyle's co-workers there with their kids, so Lane had a good time running around and playing with them.  I asked Kyle to take a picture for the blog and he said this was about as good as it was going to get!

My mom came in town for a short stay and we enjoyed her visit!  Lane has become obsessed with a new show on TV called Sheriff Callie's Wild West.  He gets so attached to a show and fully commits himself to it!  He has gone from Dino Dan, to Doc McStuffins, to Paw Patrol, and now to Sheriff Callie's Wild West.  Anyway, while she was here, he basically never took this costume off.  He got creative and asked me to get the vest out of his closet so he could use it for  a cowboy vest.  His stick horse rarely leaves his side now, and he has picked up on some major cowboy lingo from the show.  It's a pretty cute phase, I must say!

 

Sheriff Lane, posing with Mums before she left!

That night, after Mums left was Lane's last swimming lesson of the season at Emler.  We are embracing the break from swimming that he will take until summer time.  I know I've mentioned details before, but he just wasn't progressing as he should and is too scared to swim in deep water.  He still had fun, despite being afraid!

Going down the slide at the end of his last class!

He was presented with a ribbon for completing the Advanced Beginners class.  

Last week we finally got to go to San Antonio to meet my college roommate, Riley's new baby boy Carson Brooks.  Lane and I made a short day trip there and I was able to take some newborn pictures of Carson.  He is so, so cute and reminded me so much of Lane when he was a newborn.  They weighed about the same and look a lot alike to me!

Lane was pretty good while we were there, and just as he was getting a little restless, Riley's husband Brandon came home from work and saved the day.  Lane didn't want to leave after his playmate arrived!

Brandon tried to talk Lane into getting a picture with Carson and he was not having it.  After some bribery, we got one decent one.

This is what most of the rest looked like.  I sure hope he does better with tiny babies when his sister arrives!

 

Lane with his amigos

As we were leaving, Brandon stocked Lane up with a backpack full of toys and treats from his work.  He works for a school fundraising company called Fun Run and he gave Lane one of each prize the kids are able to win from their fundraisers.  Lane was most impressed with this headlamp, some fake glasses, and these little rings you put on your fingers that light up.  He kept saying it was his spy kit.  He had so much fun playing that night after we got back!

  

The next day Lane had a special day at preschool.  They were having a teddy bear parade and it was also the letter "L" show and tell day.  Each Thursday they bring an item that starts with a letter from the alphabet.  Lane has participated each time since the letter A, and gets pretty excited to pick an item to take each week.  He took his musical Lamb for L week.  When I picked him up that day he was fast asleep!  This was only the 3rd time this year that he has napped at school.  Most days he will lay down after we get home and nap, but the bear parade must have worn him out!  You can see him snuggling with his bear that he took.  (It was the one Santa brought him that he named David Murphy.)  Haha!

 

After school I had him pose with his bear and the bear hat that he made for the parade.

 

Some cold weather blew in to Austin on Friday.  So much that the streets were iced over and school was cancelled.  Even Daddy got to stay home from work that day!  We stayed in our jammies and played upstairs most of the day.  

By that night, the roads were fine, so we went to dinner at Piranha Sushi as a family.  We took Kyle's sister Sara along and she agreed to babysit Lane after dinner so Kyle and I could go see a movie.  It's been a while since we have done that and we had a good time!  We saw Dallas Buyers Club at Alamo Drafthouse and enjoyed a chocolate chip cookie sundae for dessert while we watched the show!

Lane looked quite dapper and was excited to see his Aunt Sara!

These months sure are flying by!  The coming months will be even busier and more exciting with lots of birthdays, including Lane's, Evin's, and ELLIS'S!!!!!