valentines day and more...

we had a wonderful valentine's day this year, aside from the fact that dan spent the first half of the day working. we started the day with a breakfast of heart-shaped pancakes and strawberries. that afternoon, we made valentine's cupcakes as a family. as i have mentioned before, mary claire loves to help in the kitchen, so, naturally, she was thrilled. that evening, dan cooked dinner for us to give me a little break, which was very sweet of him. he made chicken stuffed with dates, raisins, apples, apricots, and a few spices, cheesy polenta, and green beans. it was all simply delicious! for dessert we had heart shaped ice cream sandwiches with strawberry ice cream that i made the day before. (i just realized that our day was completely centered around food, but i think i am ok with that!) of course we exchanged gifts as well, but nothing too big. we gave mary claire a 'surprise ball' that i made. it was basically a ball of crepe paper with little goodies hidden within the layers. we also gave her a little stuffed animal and some candies.

in other news, mary claire's second birthday is less than a month away, march 15! as of now, we are planning on taking her to seaworld for the day to celebrate in lieu of a big party. i just haven't really felt up to planning anything major. i mentioned this to her about a week ago and now she brings it up every day! she tells me we are going to see the fishies, dolphins, sharks, whales, turtles, alligators, and penguins for her birthday, so i guess that means she approves of the plan.

today was the first really nice day we have had in a while, which i could not be more grateful for. now that we have been living in florida for a while i have become accustomed to warm weather. normally, the average temperature around here this time of year is around 75. i barely know how to handle anything below 70 anymore, so these past couple of weeks of highs in the 60's and even some 50's has just been killing me. luckily, today was in the 70's and we spent the afternoon outside! i just hope this weather sticks around for a while.

i have now entered the third trimester of my pregnancy. it has really flown by! i have been so blessed to have such an easy relaxed pregnancy. i just hope the remainder goes about the same. we are still working on preparations for lilly's arrival. until we transition mary claire from the crib to her new bed, the nursery won't be able to be completed, which is sort of bugging me, but oh well. i recently dug out all of mary claire's old clothes for lilly, and it is hard to believe how tiny mc was and lilly will be. i just can't wait to meet her!

that's all the news i have for now. upon my sister amanda's request, i am posting a picture of me pregnant. amanda, you better appreciate this because, as you know, i don't like taking pictures of myself.....

on the road.

a week ago, from wednesday to wednesday, mary claire and i went on a little holiday. first we flew to tennessee to visit my parents, mams and pop-pop. (on a side note, mary claire is an excellent flier. i guess it is because she has already flown so much in her life.)

the very next day, we all packed up the car and drove to grenada mississippi to visit my dad's parents, memaw and pawpaw. they have a little dog named queenie, and the first words out of mary claire's mouth when we arrived were "the puppy's so cute!" then she proceeded to repeat that for the next thirty minutes or so, it was hilarious! while there, mary claire got to meet my dad's brothers and their families for the first time. she had a wonderful time playing with her cousins. my grandmother is such a great cook, so naturally we ate entirely too much the whole weekend. (i especially love her cornbread, macaroni-and-cheese, and fudge, all homemade of course!) mary claire has still been talking about memaw and pawpaw. she has some toys they gave her while there and every time she plays with them she says "thank you memaw, thank you pawpaw".

on sunday, we got in the car and drove back to athens tennessee. on the way home we stopped in huntsville to have lunch with dan's parents, brother, and uncle. it was great to get to see so much family in one week, especially since we won't be able to travel again for a while now that i am further along in the pregnancy.

while we were in mississippi, it had snowed quite a bit in athens so mary claire got to see it for the first time! for about the last hour in the car she kept pointing out the snow to pop-pop and getting really excited about it. of course, as soon as we got to the house we played in it for a while. afterward, we went inside and had some hot cocoa with marshmallows. we got to spend three more days hanging out with mams, pop-pop, and their dog merlin, which was just great! the entire week mary claire and pop-pop kept "fighting" over her yellow crayon, so now that we are home every time she is coloring with her yellow, or playing with any yellow toy for that matter, she says "pop-pop's yellow".

while away, we didn't do so great with the potty training, which i take full responsibility for. all the traveling just really put a kink in things because mary claire is very much afraid of public potties at the moment. on top of that we were just so busy doing this and that that it was difficult to make sure we took breaks to go to the potty. now that we are back home however, mary claire is doing better then ever. she is now wearing training pants instead of pull-ups. i have been putting her in either dresses, or t-shirts with no pants to minimize the wardrobe changes due to accidents. she also has a little watch called a 'potty watch' that plays a song every 30, 60, or 90 minutes to remind her it is time to go potty. she really seems to have taken well to it and almost gets excited about going to the potty.

i guess that is about it for now, i'll be posting about valentine's day soon i'm sure. to close here are some of mary claire's favorite new phrases... "this is serious", "mommy, can you talk me a minute", and my favorite "hmm, i got an idea"'.