Once he cheered up, he wouldn’t sit still for long enough to look at the camera. So that idea went out the window and I used some cute pictures Katelyn took at our family shoot a few months back.

Since I didn’t get a job today (teachers like to be in their classrooms on a fun day like Valentine’s Day, I guess), I got to go to a playgroup party with some girls that I’ve been friends with for-eva that have all had kids in the past couple of years, and our kiddos.

Casey’s Valentine was there… so I had to get a picture of them together, you know, just in case it’s ever needed!

Kent is working all evening so we’re celebrating by going out for dinner on Thursday.

And now my wee baby Valentine is awake! Time to go out for a walk! How are you celebrating today?

But my family has been going to this church since my dad was a baby, or something like that, so we are part of the church whether or not we actually go. We missed the first round of church family photos, partly because of Kent’s ridiculously busy schedule and partly because I felt kind of guilty being in the photo book when we barely go to church in the first place. But the new priest seemed to take a liking to our little family, so when retakes came around in November (or should I say Movember), I got multiple phone calls from the church office, as well as from my mom and aunt, saying that our priest wanted us to be in the photo book. Who am I to say no to that request, so off we went.

It was about the middle of November, and since Kent had already had an event that required him to shave his moustache earlier in the month, he chose not to shave it. If he’d left it up to me I would have said shave it, but in the spirit of Movember I didn’t put up a fight (which I more than likely would have lost anyways.) Katelyn had just taken really nice family photos of us the week before so I knew we wouldn’t order any of these anyways – I prefer outdoor and more candid photos to studio portraits, every time.

So OF COURSE my mom drops off our complimentary 8X10 today and it’s totally cute, well, except for one thing (this is a photo of a photo, by the way):

Nice, Kent. Oh well, it makes us laugh and it’s going up on the wall regardless.

We had Casey’s party on a Sunday afternoon. After I invited everyone I realized that I probably invited more people than would comfortably fit in our house. It was cozy in here! Casey was his chilled-out little self:

I totally forgot about taking pictures, but luckily my camera was out and I don’t know who took most of these, but thank you, whoever you are!

When Kent came home and saw that we threw out our cake and all we had were cake pops (among a ton of other dessert items), he said that wasn’t enough and went out and bought a grocery store cake. He was right. I’ve since noticed a couple of my friends pinning some recipes for healthy first birthday cakes. I RECOMMEND DOING THIS. Casey was completely mental that night after eating an entire piece of cake. Is this something everyone knows but me? I don’t do much reading about parenting so this is totally possible. Everything I know has basically come from Katelyn (she knows all) and she never mentioned healthy cakes to me, so maybe it’s not.

Casey tore into his cake like a pro. Unfortunately.


I guess if I had to give my party a theme it would be “green and blue tissue paper flowers.” I’m a little obsessed with these things. So pretty, so easy, so cheap! (and Brianna in this photo – priceless. Poor girl.)

Our niece will be joining us next month!

Casey might marry this sweet little girl someday (Kayla, the daughter of our friends Michelle and Jeff.) Or he might not. But he might!

So now Casey’s one, I’m back to work, and he’s in daycare. Lots of changes around here but we are doing fantastically. I’m not getting as many supply jobs as I’d like to be, but I think that should change soon. Casey just adores the  home daycare we have him in, adores his teacher, and she seems to adore him too. I was a little choked up the first day I dropped him off, but now we are in a good routine.

When I pick him up he bursts into tears when he sees me and I kind of love it because I can scoop him up and he stops crying right away and starts grinning. The second day, he didn’t cry when he saw me. He was eating goldfish crackers in his high chair, looked up at me, and just gave me a little smile of recognition. I sat on the couch beside him and waited for him to finish. When his teacher took him out of his high chair and sat him on the floor, he looked up at me and started bawling his eyes out.

So basically, the amount that he misses me while he’s at daycare is less than the amount that he likes goldfish crackers. So I guess we’re good.

My parents got us a La-Z-Boy recliner. Kent has been lusting after one for years so I forfeited my Christmas present from them so that we could get this chair for the office. I must say though, it’s ridiculously comfortable. It’s also good to have another comfortable spot in our small house – if one of us is playing with the babe or watching TV in the living room and the other wants some quiet it’s a perfect spot. We named her Mariah, after a woman from Florida (from a Timeshare company, we later found out) who called us last night trying to convince us that we had won not one, not two, but three vacations. She even convinced Kent to get me on the other phone, told us about how wonderful our vacations would be for a good twenty minutes (Kent even believed her up to a certain point, I however did not) …and then told us that we needed to pay her $250 a person right then and there over the phone. The conversation went something like this at that point:

Mariah: So I have this Visa that begins with a 4 and I will charge the amount to it now. [No idea how she got that... we do have one Visa but haaardly ever use it. I figured she got our info through the company we booked our trip to Cuba with, but we didn't use a Visa card. I don't know.]
Kent: Oh, no, we’ll need you to email us the information and then we’ll decide.
Mariah: Kent, you don’t want to miss this! The information I said I would email you is the trip itinerary that you get after you pay. So I’ll charge the amount to your Visa now.
Me: Please don’t charge anything to our Visa.
Mariah: $250 for all that we are giving you, plus you can bring two extra couples for free is an amazing opportunity. Did I mention the “swim with the dolphins” experience in the Bahamas? It is truly amazing. So I’ll now be charging that amount to your Visa.
Kent: Mariah, you really aren’t going to get any further with us, so for your sake we should end this conversation now.
Mariah: Many vacation companies book trips just like this one through the phone. It’s a totally legitimate way of doing business. So I’ll now be charging your Visa.
Kent: …Is this a recording?
Mariah: Why would you say that, Kent?
Kent: Because you aren’t listening to a word I’m saying…

We even hung up at one point because it wasn’t getting through to her… AND SHE CALLED BACK and continued right on with this schpiel. This woman was relentless and wanted her commission like no other. It amazes me that people can do this to others and still live with themselves. In the end, Kent let her down gently and basically hung up on her because otherwise I have no doubt we’d be on the phone with her for a few hours. The problem was by the end we both really liked her – her sales pitch skills were incredible and she’d be so much better off working for a legit company and do really well. Oh, well. Afterwards Kent was so disappointed because for a few minutes he had thought we really had won a vacation. He was all, “But people really do win vacations, right?” I said, “Yes.. but we definitely didn’t.”

Anyways! Back to Christmas. I wasn’t expecting to go off on that tangent, making this the weirdest Christmas recap of all time. We didn’t take many pictures – the only ones we took were from Christmas morning. We were at Kent’s parents’ house, in case the house looks unfamiliar.