February 2016

February 1

Dreaming about cruises!

February 2

I babysat the Carbone boys in the early morning. For our young women activity we made Valentines Day cards for a homeless shelter. Kaylee brought her friend Elise with her. Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

Stephen & Kevin playing with Play-doh.

February 3

I had a young women presidency meeting at my house. We started planning for New Beginnings! 

New Beginnings invitation design by sugardoodle.

February 4

I went to Hobby Lobby today to shop for Young Women New Beginnings.

February 5

Snow day and a sunset walk.

February 6

James surprised me to look at puppies at the East Greenwich Animal Protection League! Ashley Miller had us over for dinner and we met a family that works with Ashley's family who is in the Scituate ward. Jamie & Matt have 4 cute boys! It was great to visit with them. I babysat baby Vinny tonight too.

Vinny's dog Precious eyeing me on the couch.

February 7

I taught the young women lesson at church. The topic was "why should I treat my body like a temple and why do the choices I make matter?" Then James and I went to Reece and Lauren's place to watch the Superbowl among friends. I made heart and football shaped sugar cookies for the occasion.

Meaghan, Nikki, Chelsea, Liv, Lauren, Foscoe the dog in the bottom right hand corner.

February 8

James' first day of his vacation week! We had a "Bookstore Date" and went to Barnes and Noble with a picnic lunch. We were the only crazies driving around in the snow! We each found a book in the joke section, cooking section, poetry section, children's section, travel section, and magazine section. We spent all afternoon reading our selections with each other. It was a blast and completely free! 

I chose to visit Korea!

 

 James chose Kenya.

 He said he knew I would choose that book!

We chose to read love haikus in the poem section.

We laughed at most of them but we like these two. 

 I chose Amelia Bedelia and he chose Blueberries for Sal.

Both great childhood favorites of ours!

 I chose to make bulgogi kimchi rice for James.

 We loved this cookbook find!

 James decided to make me beef enchilada rice bake.

 Here's the magazine quiz we found haha.

Here's the joke book James chose.

Appropriate for an emergency medicine doctor!

 This joke book was hilarious!

It was snowing pretty hard and we just enjoyed ourselves inside Barnes and Noble!

We had a great time on our day date!

February 9

James and I woke up early to go to the Boston temple. It was wonderful to do an endowment session there. We had lunch at Chili's, then we drove to the East Greenwich Animal Protection League and adopted a puppy! Her name was Carey and she's a beagle mix! She is so soft and completely loving. We brought her home and she explored her new home and the snow outside! We named her Nala Nutmeg, but we call her Nala because her paws look like the lion from Lion King! We are completely smitten!

 Cold & snowy at the Boston temple

 Carey Nala

 Walking her around for a bit after the car ride home.

 Our first family photo with Nala Nutmeg.

 She's so little!

 We love her floppy ears.

 She looks so regal in this one. She has snow on her face haha!

 Do you think she looks cold? Haha.

 She loves her new toy we got her!

 And this one!

 She was so tired her first day home with us.

She's the perfect cuddle buddy.

Trying out the step.

James is so good with her.

February 10

I babysat and James kept an eye on Nala. We set up a barricade around the house so she couldn't get into everything. Let the training begin!

 It's exhausting being a cute puppy 24/7.

To show how small she is to us. She weighs 15 lbs.

(I know there are smaller puppies out there.)

She likes to curl up between my legs.

I love these snow videos of Nala

I'm so happy she loves the snow.

This one is the funniest snow video of her.

So cute.

February 11

5 years ago James proposed to me on this day and now we have a puppy! I babysat and James studied. We both played with Nala and are completely exhausted by her! We ordered pizza for dinner and we fell asleep watching a Cary Grant movie That Touch of Mink.

Snoring.

February 12

Nala consumed our lives today but she is so fun. I went to book club and the theme was Indian food because we read Beneath a Marble Sky. The Nye family in our ward invited us over for a home cooked Korean dinner! Sun Mae is from Korea and she is an amazing cook. I loved the kimchi jjigae!

 That face.

 Sun Mae made sooo much food for us! Look at James' happy face.

James is explaining all the different types of Korean food to me. He was so excited!

James and I get a kick out of her chasing her tail.

February 13

My last day with James before he leaves for his Baltimore rotation. We went to Julia Miller's baptism! We dropped off the valentines the young women made for the homeless shelter. We went over to the Lehnhofs house with Nala and the kids loved her! We celebrated Valentine's Day by dining at The Grille on Main. We ate the crack brownies I made and watched a movie and cuddled.

I made this and attached it to a bag of smores for Julia!

 The worker at the homeless shelter appreciated our valentines.

 Finn giving Nala some new toys and treats!

 Remie & Nala

Livie and Nala. Livie was a little afraid of her but also loved Nala at the same time.

Cuteness all around.

 She is such a good playing pup.

 Her new toy from the Lehnhofs.

 We ordered calamari at the Grille on Main. We had a restaurant gift card.

James ordered the filet mignon with mashed potatoes and asparagus.

 I ordered the corn arepas: pan fried corn flatbread stuffed with slow roasted chiptole chicken, avocado, and cheddar cheese. Served with jasmine rice, black beans and a tomatillo salsa.

 We came home to Nala and played.

 She found a nice spot to sit on James. Hah!

 She's so tiny and cute!

 My precious loves.

Playing or praying? haha.

February 14

Happy Valentine's Day! It's -9 degrees outside! James and I went to church. Bielka gave a great young women lesson on "why do we face adversity?" Then James left for Baltimore. He's doing a month-long shock trauma rotation there. I won't see him until March 12! Nala and I were sad to see him go. 

 The car read -2 degrees outside this morning!

 Happy Valentine's Day to my love.

FaceTime once James got to Baltimore.

February 15

Happy Birthday to Nala! She's 3 months old today! She loved playing with her new toys the Lehnhofs gave her!

February 16

James looks cute in his pink scrubs in Baltimore! Today was Young Women New Beginnings! The theme was "Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ." Bielka, Tami, and I all spoke about personal progress. Brother Welles (Bielka's husband) is the second counselor in the bishopric and he gave the closing remarks. Tami made amazing cupcakes, Kaylee made delicious cookies, Bielka made yummy strawberry punch, Bri and I made the donut hole arrows, and I made the gift bags. The evening was a success!

 James looks cute in his pink Baltimore scrubs.

 Each young women received a frame with the theme scripture 2 Nephi 31:20.

 Kaylee's cookies.

Donut Hole arrows. 

 Tami's fresh strawberry cupcakes & chocolate cupcakes

with cute Press Forward cupcake toppers.

 Yummy strawberry punch.

 Gold & white with mint & coral.

 Arrow decor.

 Gift bags with bookmarks, journals, hand sanitizer, & candy.

 The program.

 The food table.

 The front. I love the Press Forward banner.

 We took photos of the young women holding up signs that give a description of their personalities and "I'm a Mormon."

 The theme for 2016!

Tami, Lexi, Amber, McKenna, Kaylee, me, Bielka. Julie had to leave early for swim practice and Hannah was in Canada.

February 17

Took Nala on a walk!

February 18

Nala and I were in the mood to watch Titanic (the edited version).

She was riveted by the music! Haha!

February 19

Nala loves to nap in the sun with the front door open.

Cutest pup.

February 20

The best part of my day is when Nala falls asleep in my lap. She's a handful!

February 21

Church today was good. Tami Ferrell taught the young women lesson "What is the plan of salvation?" The Lehnhofs invited Nala and me over for dinner. We had burrito bowls and the kids loved playing with Nala. She was in heaven! James is doing well in Baltimore.

 She's sleeping in between the couch cushions with her head dangling off the couch haha!

February 22

Life with Nala is sweet but stressful!

She loves to sprawl out on me!

Naps are always needed.

February 23

For the combined young men/young women activity we filmed the youth making a Star Wars movie. It was fun to see the youth come together with it! I'm so proud of them.

 Kaylee played Darth Vader. She watched Star Wars for the first time the night before the filming! She was a perfect Vader even though her natural personality is sweet as pie. Hannah played Princess Leia and borrowed my white & gold skirt I wore to Young Women in Excellence. My two beehives played two important Star Wars characters!

 Beehive Kaylee as Vader & Priest Brandon as Obi-wan Kenobi.

Amber, Kaylee, Hannah, McKenna, Toe (Matt, McKenna's brother goes by Toe), Julie, RJ, Dylan, Ethan, Brandon, Ian, Wesley.

The video turned out SO good!

February 24

I babysat Zoe and Logan today and took Nala for a walk! I also visited McKenna and Amber with the Stake Young Women Second Counselor Sister Sykes!

Logan 

Zoe 

Nala

February 25

I babysat Zoe and Logan again. I went to a going away party for the Storms family at the Smith's house. It was a tropical theme and the Storms sang a Hawaiian goodbye song with Lexi playing the ukulele. We had a limbo competition too and lots of yummy food. I will miss Haidee, Elena, and their family SO much. Good luck to them in England!

Logan makes a snake sound!

Elena my Mia Maid 

Haidee my dear friend and Young Women President mentor!

February 26
I believe today I went to chick-fil-a with Bobbie, Ashley L, Ashley M, Kristie, and Jamie. I'm grateful for good friends! Playing with Nala is so much fun. She's doing extremely well with training. She is completely house trained (she rings the bell to go out). We've only had a couple accidents since we got her! She also doesn't whine very much at all when she is put in her crate. She sleeps through the night! I only get up at 6:30am to take her out and then we sleep for another hour before we start our day!

February 27

I took Nala to the grand opening of the Petco near our house. SHE LOVED IT! She is SO well behaved with other people and other dogs. Everyone adored her and wanted to pet her. She is so loving. I bought her a Kong toy!

Nala trying to sniff under the shelf at Petco.

February 28

We had a great ward conference for church today. Nala still can't go down the basement stairs so I carry her down. She seems to be enjoying the sectional. Haha.

February 29

Ashley Miller and I did our visiting teaching and met with Robin for dinner at El Tapatio! We had a great time chatting and we absolutely love the queso there!

Happy that February is over because I get to see James in two weeks!