Went to see Alexis' cheer competition last night. The kids loved it, and came up with some pretty awesome moves themselves.

The Barragan leg lift

Every time (and I do mean every) our kids get to dancing, they do this move.

We got a letter from Anna!

Valentine's Day

It was all going fine, a delightful day. Chris made me a heart-shaped breakfast and then brought me these giant strawberries when he came home for lunch. We exchanged cute little notes, and the kids and I made Valentine cookies for a few people we love. When Chris was done working we decided to take everyone to get haircuts. Penelope took her first steps at the hair place, and Olive decided to donate her hair. Really, delightful! Then it came time for our date... I wanted to take a nice, hot shower and get all gussied up. My shower was ice cold. We wanted to get the kids to sleep before we left. Olive refused. We had a reservation at Harley & Bucks so we drove up the canyon. There was a car accident on the way up AND on the way down, the hostess was terrible at her job, had the wrong name on our reservation, and then pretty much abandoned her post while we and several other patrons stood there baffled; we and at least 5 other people left. We ended up grabbing some soup at Zupas which did not disappoint. Olive was still awake when we got home, and that was a big bummer. I put her to bed, and then Chris and I cuddled up. Our alone time was interrupted by Olive 5 or 6 more times, so we decided to eat a treat and watch TV until she fell asleep.  She finally did, but then Lucy showed up. She went back to bed a little more easily. So we settled in to finally have alone time around 10:30, and that's when George showed up. Chris put him back to bed, and must've been gone for a while because when I heard him coming back I had fallen asleep. We thought we were in the clear, but by then I had started feeling gassy! And then Georgey showed up again! Chris took him back to bed, and even got in bed with him and they both went to sleep. The last thing I remember was Olive and Lucy coming in and going to sleep on our bedroom floor. Super duper romantic evening, if you ask me...

pops

I had a bunch of leftover cake from cutting out Hello Kitty's head for Olive's birthday cake. So I made cake pops for our young women activity last night. They were a hit!

Chris' 6-month review

Chris had his first review with his boss the other day, and I thought his and my parents would both like to read some of the things his boss wrote about him...

• "He is about as charismatic as anybody whom I've ever met..."
• "There is no doubting Chris' passion, poise or self-confidence. In fact, all of the words above are good descriptors of Chris."
• "I need to be disciplined not to spend a disproportionate amount of time visiting with him (whether work or social) as there are 12 other members of my team who if made the same number of stop-ins as Chris, would keep me from getting anything done in the office."
• "Sometimes it amazes me to think that this is Chris' first development job. He has adapted very quickly to the culture of higher education, yet he has preserved his aggressiveness that he learned over the course of his career in sales. Don't lose that aggressiveness..."
• "Chris has all the tools to become a standout member not only of the team but of the development sector."

Hayley

Now that we live in Utah, that means I'm close to Hayley. She's an hour southwest, but we decided we'd meet once a month for dinner. Bountiful is right in the middle of us, so we met there at a restaurant last night. It is seamless talking with her; we just totally get each other, and we are always on the same wavelength. It probably comes from knowing each other since we were Georgey's age, and having a million shared experiences and surroundings in our upbringing. But anyway, whatever it is, I love it.

it's warm outside

By that I mean like upper 40s. But warm enough that we don't feel like we need our winter coats, and warm enough that the kids had an impromptu running race with the Gruas. Here's a video: http://instagram.com/p/kQMzSmBJpN/

stained glass

Aunt Cathy sent the kids a belated Christmas package. George and Penelope got books, so we read those. Olive and Lucy got this little stained glass kit. It was a fun craft for them today!

Getting Ready for the Olympics

Yesterday we talked about what the Olympics are, and made a craft.  Chris taught them, "This is one of the ways we show the world our country is better than everyone else's." We'll be watching events with them, and cheering on Team USA!

These girls are super.

girls' day

Olive, Lucy and I had a fun girls' day today. First, we went to Lucy's preschool field trip at the library. We read Valentine's books, sang songs, and made a craft. Then we had lunch. And then we went to the Frozen sing-along at the movie theater. I do adore my girls!!

a few recent photos

went to see Daddy at work

playing with Play-doh

Marvel masks @ ToysRUs