I later on sent JJ to the grocery store with coupons for pineapples that were on sale for half price and a redbox code ( DVDONME which should still be working today!) for a free DVD rental. He came home with the pineapples, New Moon and chocolate bunnies and Resse’s Peanut Butter Cups. This is why I don’t have him grocery shop often. He’s not in need of a belly fat reduction but if he did do the grocery shopping our $150 monthly budget would be gone in the first week and a good chunk of that would be spent on Resse’s peanut butter cups.

I got one bag of  little chocolate Eggs for our Family Home Evening activity. During the lesson I talked about Easter story (sacrament, atonement, Jesus dying and being resurrected). I wanted the egg hunt to have a religious message so I reminded Sariah and Rebekah that when Jesus’ friends looked in the tomb they couldn’t find him but then when they saw him they learned that he was resurrected. I told them that I was going to hide chocolate eggs and when they found the eggs they could remember that Jesus is alive again.

While they were in their rooms putting their PJ’s on I hid 6 chocolate eggs. JJ and I helped them to find 3 eggs each. Of course it took hours for them to fall asleep after eating their chocolates. At least it was a fun evening.

Sariah and Bekah had fun at the event. They had different aisles for different age groups. Bekah wanted to stay with Sariah so they both went to the 3-5 age group. They had candy sprawled around the aisle and the kids went crazy picking up the candy. Sariah and Bekah brought little purses for their candy. The candy didn’t last long and they were hyper all day. If  sugar made adults as hyper as it makes kids the adults would probably lose weight fast.

We then spent Saturday and Sunday watching General Conference which was as wonderful as always. They talked a lot of about families, parenting and how wonderful womanhood is. Elder M. Russell Ballard’s talk especially increased my gratitude of raising daughters.

Our valentines weekend started out on Friday evening when JJ gave me a beautiful necklace that is pictured on the left. He gave it to me on Friday night because his request is that I wear it on all of our dates and we had a date planned for the following day. JJ asked if he could get his Valentines gift because he already saw it – I need to hide things better! I got him a big box of 36 packages of Resse’s Peanut Butter Cups. I bought it at a case lot sale of course.

We started Saturday morning out by dropping the kids off at JJ’s brothers and his wife’s apartment for them to babysit (thanks Stephen and Kristina!) and then we went to the Salt Lake LDS Temple.

After the Temple we walked over to a restaurant in Downtown Salt Lake City called One World Cafe. It was the place where JJ took me to on our first date almost 6 years ago! He figured that it was a place that I would like. It is a really neat place. They serve only unprocessed organic and free range foods. When we first went there everything was Vegetarian but now they usually have a meat dish available. It is a buffet style where someone serves your food and at the end you pay what you feel the meal is worth. For people in the community who can’t afford to eat well they offer them an opportunity to work in exchange for a meal. They have a motto of giving people a hand up not a hand out – what a great idea! Rice and Dahl is offered to everyone for free though. The food is good and healthy even my husband likes the food and his idea of a multivitamin for men is cocoa puffs. The cafe has a few different rooms to dine in which allows for privacy  – this led to us having our first kiss at this restaurant back in August 2004!

Sunday I stayed home from church with Sariah because she had a cough and a fever. It was a good thing I stayed home because later on I got a fever as well but no coughing which is nice because that would be very uncomfortable combined with pregnancy. Luckily we are all feeling fine now.  That evening I made JJ a steak dinner with mesquite potatoes (we tried to copy a one world cafe dish but it didn’t taste exactly the same) and broccoli with a cheese sauce.

We had a fairly smooth drive coming up and hopefully it will be the same going back to Utah, however it was snowing in Oregon and Utah yesterday. We got new windsheild wipers yesterday which we really needed. We went to Canadian Tire which specializes in car and truck accessories to buy Armour All wipers which are supposed to withstand really cold weather well.

I will miss the more mild weather of Vancouver when we return the below freezing temperature of Utah. I got an Olympic pullover, hat and scarf for Christmas so I’m prepared for the cold

I really wish I had recorded it because Rebekah’s excitement was priceless.  My mother in law made us a Christmas Countdown with 24 little figures that we can hang up each night of December until Christmas Eve. The tree even lights up!

I just can’t imagine how many hours it took my mother in law to make this and she did such an amazing job on it. This is definitely something that we will always treasure and pass down to our children.

Handmade is always so much more meaningful than store bought. I am making Sariah’s and Bekah’s Christmas gifts this year but I think for next year I will make other family members gifts as well – I’ll have to start in January! I would like to learn how to make beautiful items like Couture Jewelry and toys that children will enjoy. I actually think that taking craft classes with JJ would be a fun date activity!