Belated Valentine's and Another Great Visit from Mom!

A cheesecake and card all in one! I got a great recipe from a friend and made the little chocolate hearts by melting chocolate chips in a ziploc baggie and cutting the tip off. This cheesecake was the first I've ever made and it rocked!!!

Riley came home from preschool with all this! He brought me the cookie you see on the plastic bag and was SO sweet when he gave it to me. He gave me a hug and KISS (kisses from him seem to be rationed the days) and said "Happy Valentines Day." My heart absolutely melted! I have already made him promise that when he grows up and is married and a daddy that he will NEVER move far away and that he always has to stay close by to mommy :) There is some four year old little girl out there somewhere that will probably hate me some day :)

Thought I'd throw in a Spring fever picture. This was a couple days ago, before all the depressing storminess. It felt SO good to be outside and play in the yard and dream about the things I want to do with our yard. Last night I went and walked around the soon to be gardening section of Walmart. There are some things already set up for the coming season, and I had to call Ben because I was so excited. I said "Guess where I am?!.......I'm in the gardening section and they are getting it ready for me and it smells like dirt!!!!!!"

My Mom came for a visit, and this time she flew instead of driving. One hour of flying to get here versus six hours of driving. Well worth it! We took the kids to McDonald's, and Riley sat in Ronald's lap for a while to be comforted after the traumatizing experience of his ears being "hurt" by another little boy yelling too loud. I gently reminded Riley that a playland is loud and it's okay to be loud here, and he's loud too sometimes! Ronald apparently had more sympathy.
My Mom made an amazing stir fry with Tofu. I've always made fun of tofu...it seems like a crazy health fanatic food, but man that stuff can be tasty! In fact I'm making a stir fry tonight with tofu, and I can't wait to try my hand at it.
This trip, Riley was GLUED to his Granny. I think he said "You know whaaaaat???" about ten thousand time during her visit. And if I tried to give her a break and say "What Riley?" he would quickly say "I'm not talkin' to you. I'm talkin' to Grandma. Grandma, you know whaaaaat?" In the above picture, they are starting their sleep over on our couches. They watched Night at The Museum, and even though it was very late, Riley made sure my mom didn't miss a minute of it. Every time she dozed off, he would tell her to wake up.
Well this time, my mom was smart enough to not stick her finger in Malia's mouth (last trip Malia made my mom's finger bleed). Rather than her finger, my mom offered Malia french fries! In case you can't tell, that is a french fry hanging out of her mouth.

Riley wants to write something now:

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