Work Work and Partying

February has been busy but more fun. For the first two weeks of the month we did a Love Challenge for Family Home Evening. Each day we had a way to show love like show patience. Logan would wake up and ask "how are we going to show our love today Mom?" and we would discuss. Some of the ideas were more advanced than our boys, but we adapted them.

We've been done for a few days now and every once in a while I will hear the boys discussing what they learned. For example today at church Dustin's granola bar broke in half (this is devastating, one simply can't eat a broken granola bar). Logan turns to Dustin "you need to look beyond looks Dustin. The bar tastes just as good as it did before, it's just in two pieces." Dustin was not convinced.

Logan loved celebrating Valentines Day at school! He was excited to write his classmate's names on all their valentines, attach the tattoos, and try out a few to make sure they worked. He had fun making his box and partying the day of. For Dave and I Valentines is always low key, but this year more so than ever. We didn't make a fancy dinner, dessert or anything (constructions is still consuming all my free time) but we did get frosties and fries after the boys went to bed.

The weather has been in the 50's to 60's over the past few weeks. It's been wonderful, but especially for us doing construction. It warmed up the week we did tile. It was a little blessing in the nightmare of never ending construction that has been our lives recently. As of this weekend the tile is in and grouted! On Monday the grout will be cured and we're hoping to get the fixtures in so we have a second bathroom again. Or I'm at least hoping for the toilet to be in. We still need to touch up some paint, finish putting the trim around the door (and put it back on it's hinges), install the vanity and sink, the bathtub fixtures, the toilet, toilet paper roll holder & towel rack, medicine cabinet, and Dave is making some kind of built in shelf that needs to be finished. But the hard part is done.

We also celebrated Dave's birthday this week. The boys and I have been preparing all week for the big day. They helped me pick out gifts. Dustin got a bag of Peanut Butter cups "and maybe Dad will share with me". Logan picked out Spicy Cheetos for Dave "I don't like these, but I know Dad will." They helped wrap all the gifts then hid them under the bed in the basement so Dave wouldn't be tempted to open them early. When the boys woke up they rushed to the basement, got the gifts and before I was done feeding Brooklyn they had helped him open them all!

I tried to prep for Dave's birthday in advance, I bought the requested Ice Cream in advance, we ate half of it the day I brought it home, Dave decided on a different flavor ice cream and consumed half of that before the actual day of too. But we had enough left over for peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches on his actual birthday. We also tag teamed dinner. I made red potato salad and Dave made some fancy burgers. Both were fabulous. I haven't had a good burger in a while.

When I asked what he wanted for his birthday Dave responded a date night. His parents were kind enough to watch the three while we went to see Dr Strange in 3D at the Dollar Theater. We didn't plan to see it in 3D, but the showing we wanted to go to was sold out (along with every other show at the same time we were even mildly interested in). So we wondered around the mall for an hour until the 3D showing. Now I'm not a fan of 3D, but this one was pretty cool with the special effects popping out at you. If you have to pay extra for 3D, this was a good one to do it for.

Also on Saturday I spent about 2 hours cleaning out the tub in the basement bathroom (per birthday boy request). We decided not to replace the tub, so it got pretty dirty in the process of tearing out and installing. But it looks great now. There is one chip and some scratches in it, but I'm imagining nobody but Dave and I will notice that. I can imagine how it will all look put together and am so glad we are almost done. The hard parts are done anyway.