Valentine's 2013

Our Valentine's week was very sweet, and eventful, to say the least!! Valentine's fell on a
Thursday this year, and since gymnastics and dance classes take place on Thursday evenings, we generally don't get home until 8:30 pm on those nights. So, Josh and I decided to celebrate a bit early. Last Saturday morning, we headed down to Marriott Marquis in Atlanta to spend the weekend.

The Marriott is a very swell place with 50-something floors....

Unfortunately for Josh (who is not at all fond of heights), ALLL of the elevators are made of complete glass so that you can experience all of these floors while you go up and down. I thought he was gonna barf every time we entered an elevator. :)

When we got to our room, though, the view was amazing...

 We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (we sat near the Willie Nelson and Guns-N-Roses stuff which Josh enjoyed), and we had a couple's massage that was HEAVEN (Josh kept snorting through it like Augustus Gloop). We also had some hot-tub time.....here's my "Oh.My.Gah...It's a Billion-Degrees" Face:

We even got to catch some rays a bit by the cabana, which was pretty neato for February!!

 We also watched "Bill Nye the Science Guy" on the big-screen and had some "refreshments" at the bar for a while.....he was talking about the large meteor passing by the earth. We love Bill Nye...."Bill Nye" is actually one of the names I call Josh on a regular basis when he THINKS he knows more than I do. :)

 We ended the night by walking around ATL and having dinner at Jalapeno Charlies.....I do believe their "seafood queso" was made by an actual angel....

While the weekend was AMAZING, the rest of the week was......just......wow. Monday, I had to go get stitches removed from my gums from a procedure I had the week before.....YOWZA!!! Tuesday, both Ella and Claira got sick, so Wednesday, I stayed home with them and took them to the doctor. Claira had an upper-respiratory virus and laryngitis, so her little voice was just so pitiful. While we had a couple of rough nights with close to a 104-fever, she was so sweet during the day on Wednesday, despite her sickness. I honestly enjoyed staying home and taking care of my babes.....something that I miss desperately. Here's Clairy-Berry on Wednesday, trying so diligently to crawl....

As for Ella, she had a sinus infection that was making her whole face hurt, and since she had so much drainage (I know, TMI), it was also upsetting her tummy....

On Thursday, I returned to work for Valentine's Day, and the students were OFF.THE.CHAIN!!! It was worse than Halloween and Christmas put together. Cupid had definitely gotten to them. Still, they spoiled me with chocolate (they know me so well), so I couldn't be upset for too long. Being a mommy and teacher, I really appreciate all my goodies from my students. We had to buy Valentine's gifts for ELEVEN teachers this year (Nora's 4 kindergarten teachers + Nora's piano teacher + Nora's 2 gymnastics teachers + Ella's 2 gymnastics teachers + Nora's 2 dance teachers). Here's the girls about to give their gymnastics teachers their chocolate roses:

As all Thursdays go, we didn't get home until late, but we had some little surprises waiting for us on Valentine's Day. Since the girls are OBSESSED with stuffed animals, Daddy had surprised each of his girls with a stuffed animal (even me). Claira got the big dog since she still spends a lot of time on the floor. I also got a pot of azaleas which is the longest-standing inside joke between Josh and me.

On Friday, we thought we were all in the clear of sickness, but NOPE!! Nora woke up with a fever and PINK EYE!!

Sooooo, Grandmama had to keep all 3 on Friday and try to nurse them all back to complete health. Grandmama is a special Valentine.....where in the world would I be without her?? She got something a little extra-sweet:

After a week of chocolate, sickness, and life in general, we were BEAT by Friday night. Can you tell?

Now that it's Saturday morning, and we have a WEEK OFF, everybody is starting to feel better!! I will leave you with the very sweet, romantic, and touching Valentine's card that I made for Josh....

He has been my Valentine for 16 years!!

That's more than half of my life....woah.

Excited to see what the next 16 have in store!!

xoxo