Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down - 2012 #7

Happy Valentine's Day!! Hope everyone has someone they love to spend it with!

Kennedy's first Valentine's Day!

Up:

• After much debate I decided that the kids and I needed to come home. I felt like all I was doing was yelling at Jackson because he was getting into everything at my parent's house. Rather than be a grouch all the time, I figured Jackson would be better off at home where he can go to school once a week and tot time twice a week to get rid of some of his energy. It's also much easier to take care of the kids at home where we have all our things. We had a great time at my parent's house; it was just time to come home. We left on Thursday and made it home safely on Saturday night despite a fairly big set back (see downs below). The kids were SO happy to see Daddy and I didn't think we'd ever get Jackson to bed after we got home because he just wanted to play with all his toys.
• Jackson counted perfectly to 10 yesterday all by himself. We've been working on counting for a while by counting the stairs as we go up and down each time - I guess it worked!
• Kennedy has had a major growth spurt over the last week. She went from drinking 4.5oz. every 3 hours to eating cereal and drinking 6 oz. every 3 hours. She loves her cereal and ate it like a pro!

• Valentine's Day really isn't a big deal to us, we usually do a ceremonial nice dinner and Mike usually gets me flowers. This year he went all out and got me a beautiful double heart James Avery necklace and a beautiful bouquet of roses - wow! Can't say I minded a break in the norm! We also got Jackson a Mickey Valentine book that he has already read no less than 20 times today!

Down:

• On the drive back home we ran into some bad weather and hit a patch of ice. The new pick-up (well new to us) took a spin and did a couple of 360 turns across both lanes of traffic. It was very scary having no control over the situation and watching as an 18 wheeler passed us in the left lane. Luckily the truck hit a guardrail and the only damage was to the front end of the truck. We were all okay and we were going slow enough that the airbags didn't deploy. The crappy part was that we had to wait for ~2 1/2 hours in the pick-up with no heat and really cold temperatures outside. On top of that the state trooper decided to give Mike a ticket for going too fast for conditions. He was only going 45 and the speed limit was 75. Whatever! We're all okay and that's what matters most. 

Cooking with MiMi! 

This really cool McDonald's on the edge of Wyoming.

Jackson didn't want to eat on the saddle chairs - party pooper!

Favorite Thing:

As you know I like things clean, neat and organized. The bathtub is always hard to keep clean especially since Jackson loves bubble baths. I found this miracle product from Bed, Bath, & Beyond called Bathroom Stone. It is like a pumice stone for your porcelain. It works great in bathtubs and toilets.

Bathtub before.... 

Bathtub after!