My Funny Valentine(s)

(By the way, I can't stand that Sinatra song....but I couldn't think of a title for this post.)

We had fun celebrating Valentine's Day all through last week. The girls "helped" me make lots of sugar cookies and frosting for different events...AWANA, Mom2Mom, and personal consumption. By "helped" I mean that they licked lots of beaters and snitched LOTS of dough!

We had a full house at the McCoy's on Friday morning. The kids enjoyed decorating and eating their after lunch treats.

On Saturday morning the girls woke up to a fun Valentine's breakfast...heart-shaped pancakes, of course. Each of them received a little red purse full of goodies: gum, stickers, princess treats, paint, and $5 to spend however they wanted. The rest of the day was spent shopping and visiting cousin Annie.

After church on Sunday morning, we loaded up the car and headed to the cabin for the rest of the long weekend. Since our mighty CRV doesn't make it up and down the last hill very well, we decided to leave it at the bridge and hike in. The girls enjoyed the walk and got to see "the cutest deer in the whole wide world." There was still LOTS of snow to enjoy.

Grandpa and Grandma Cook joined us at the cabin on Monday for their regular "day off." We enjoyed all of our usual activities...reading, watching America's Funniest Home Videos, making pizza, hiking, eating snow and just being together.

Here's Ally "camera smile"... gotta love it!

And here she is after her face met up with a snowball. OOPS!

GOOD TIMES!!!

From Sierra and Ally, With Love

Your Grace Still Amazes Me

If you have a couple of minutes and want to be blessed, watch this.

Be amazed.

Winter Blues

Here's what three months of COLD weather has produced in the Mouser home:

It's time to get back outside, don't you think?!? Blast that silly groundhog.

Random Bits of Information (and pictures)

This weekend, Marc and I discovered the Overland Park Cinemas. I guess we've been living under a rock. Anyway, last week sometime Chuck and Missy asked if the girls could spend the night at their apartment on Friday. We didn't hesitate with our reply. After dropping them off at Wendy's for dinner, Marc and I took off for a 7:00 showing of Australia. We both enjoyed the movie -just enough action to romance ratio! - and had a fun evening together. For a total of $8.00 we both saw the movie, shared a popcorn, had 2 Cokes and a bag of M&M's. A great budget date!

While we were there, I saw an ad for a great, kid-friendly activity. On Tuesday, February 3rd, they are showing Veggies Tales: Abe and the Amazing Promise. All you need for admission is one canned food item per person to be donated to the Boise Rescue Mission. The shows are at 10:00a.m. and 4:00p.m.. I plan to take the girls to the 10:00 showing. Please let me know if you would like to join us! You can get more information here - on their "Community Events" sidebar.

Right next to the theaters is one of my favorite spots for guilt-free treats: Golden Spoon. When we lived in California I single-handedly kept the local shops in business! (Well, I had plenty of help from Janella. :D) Within the last year or so, a new store opened in Boise. Monday nights are Family Nights with a BOGO Free offer on the small cups of frozen yogurt. I ate a coffee/peanut-butter swirl in honor of you, Janella. Here's Ally's review of the new yogurt chain:

"One golden spoon WAY up!"

In other news...we've still been getting several light dustings of snow down here in southern Idaho. Marc created this lovely masterpiece on Sunday morning. The girls thought it was cool!
We still don't have a name for baby girl #3. "Kate" won the little blog contest, but I'm not sure that it's going to stick. I really like it, but I have two girl cousins named Allison and Kaitlyn (sisters) so it might be a little too similar. What else goes with Sierra and Ally.....?


Sierra LOVES to color and draw these days. Here's what I found on the easel a couple of days ago. I love the detail on the ears!

Miss Savannah Jane has learned to crawl and is more fun than ever! She loves to come play with her cousins and really knows how to tell a story. Here are the three princesses at a recent tea-party. (Aren't we glad that we don't have to introduce a boy to this pink and purple mess?!)

I guess that's all the news for today. See you soon.

A Winner....Finally!

After much deliberation...we have finally selected a winner for the baby name contest. Marc and I had to devise a point system to make it as fair as possible. Who knew that it could get so complicated?!?! The name with the most number of points in the final tally was:

KATE

That means that Kelly was our winner! I will bring your prize to church on Wednesday evening. Congratulations!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Daddy and Serena in Brazil (1977)

Here's a little birthday wish for Dad/Pastor Randy/Papa across the miles. He's leading a tour in Israel right now. (Yes, Israel.) We miss you and can't wait to celebrate your birthday when you get back to Idaho. WE LOVE YOU!

Fishing trip in Montana. (1994)

Father of the Bride. (1998)

In the Sawtooths with 2 out of 4 of his granddaughters. (2007)