February 2012

Wow, lots of stuff going on in February. Life started kicking in now that Paige was a little older and I could manage to get out of my pajamas more than twice a week! One of the great highlights this month was Paige's blessing. It was a wonderful day surrounded by family and, of course, good food. Ben really took some time to prepare spiritually for this special day and did an awesome job. After church we brought all our family back to the clubhouse here and had a brunch. We did a granola and yogurt parfait bar, fresh fruit, quick breads, some egg dishes and hot chocolate and juice. We loved having everyone there to share the day with us.


Another highlight of the month was going to grandma's house with our Poulsen cousins to make and decorate Valentine cookies and decorations. Grandma always takes such good care of all her grandkids, we love her so much and always have fun at her house. The cousins also had a blast playing in all of Laura's old dress-ups.

Ben had lots of little surprises for me this Valentine's. He usually can't keep surprises because he can't stand when I have a surprise for him and I don't tell him. However, this year, he did 5 days of valentines. I didn't take any pictures, but each day, the five days before the actual day, he brought treats with notes attached (and some of these are some of my favorite treats too!!); Hot Tamales (you are one "Hot Tamale"), a 6 pack of Crush Soda (I have a "Crush" on you), Sweedish Fish (You are o"fish"ally my valentine), Junior Mints (we were "mint" to be together) and donut holes (oops, can't remember what that one said).

We were going to celebrate Valentine's Day together with just a night in but my mom offered to come and watch the girls while we went out to dinner. We ate at a local barbecue place then headed to IKEA to do some window shopping mostly.

Since we had already planned on eating in before my mom called, I had already bought the stuff for our romantic dinner, so we just saved it for that weekend. We made lobster risotto with salad and had yummy chocolate crepes with nutella and coconut whipped cream cheese filling for dessert. It was all wonderful!



Another fun thing I got to do was teach a cooking class to the Young Women from our ward. The YW leader asked me if I could teach the girls how to prepare a meal from start to finish. I decided to do an Italian theme. So I had all the girls and their leaders over to our house and we ended up making Chicken Parmesan with an Italian green salad and Banana Dulce de leche trifle for dessert. It was all so good and I had a fun time teaching the girls. It has been so long since I have been in Young Women's and around girls that age. What fun.