Cowgirls at Church

I got Leila all dressed up for church yesterday in a cute brown dress and cowboy boots and we couldn't resist taking a picture!

Spur of the Moment Vacay

Due to a chain of events, we ended up in California last week on a quick vacation.  Let's see if I can even recall how it all happened.

Jason had a job interview the week before with Deseret Digital Media--the company behind ksl.com, deseretnews,com, etc.  He had a follow-up interview with the CEO on Tuesday, at the end of which he was offered the job and was set to start March 12!  I can't even tell you how relieved/joyful/grateful we were!  This meant that I would get to put in my notice at work and finally be a stay-at-home mommy!

As we were processing everything, I realized that I had several days of PTO that I'd been saving for a future Disneyland trip that I wouldn't be needing anymore.  Then, we recognized that with Jason starting a new job, vacation time would be hard to come by for a couple months.  So we decided that we should take off and go on one last vacation.

We were torn between going to Arizona or California, but California ended up winning out because Jason's grandpa was in the hospital and we also wanted Grandma Ziebarth to have some Leila time (and it was the cheaper option).  So we packed up and headed out the next morning!

It was a fun trip filled with Disneyland (of course) and family.  Jason's sister, Jessica, even joined us in Disneyland for a day.  Leila stayed with Grandma this time around so we were able to have some time to ourselves.  I had a great time, but was certainly missing my baby girl by the end of each day!

After a rough trip down (due to Leila screaming and crying in her carseat), we opted to split the return trip over two days.  We spent the night in Vegas at the Stratosphere and our hotel room included a trip to the top.  So we took advantage of that before heading out on our last stretch.

Leila still didn't do great in the car and it has made me nervous about going back in a month with my family, but hopefully it is just a stage that she will grow out of fast!  Otherwise, I'm glad we made the trip and even more glad that Jason is once again employed!  Yay!

Valentine's 2012

This year we had 3 days of celebrating Valentine's Day.  Monday night we went over to my parents' for their traditional family candlelit dinner.  I always enjoyed this tradition growing up--one of the only things I did like about Valentine's Day.  I liked that my parents made the holiday a family one instead of one just for them.

At work on Tuesday, on of my shifts decided to decorate Valentine's bags and hand out Valentine's to everyone, just like in the days of elementary school.  Jason and I decided to celebrate the day after Valentine's in an attempt to avoid some crowds. But Jason still gave me flowers and chocolate covered strawberries on the actual day.  Beautiful!

Wednesday evening I got Leila all dressed up in her Valentine's Day outfit which included a skirt and bow I made for her.  We dropped the little cutie my parents' where she messed her outfit within minutes.  Go figure!  At least my parents got to see the whole outfit briefly.

With that, we headed for dinner at Tucanos.  Apparently a lot of people had the same idea we did because we still had to wait 45 minutes for a table!  While we waited, we wandered around a couple of the shops in the Riverwoods including a toy store where we picked out these little beauties:

Okay, so I picked them out and Jason was kind enough to indulge me as I wanted to take various pictures.

Hubba Hubba!

Another Valentine?

"Bike" Riding

Soaking up heat from a heat lamp

We finally got to eat our dinner and it was delicious--albeit a whole lot of meat.  Well worth the wait though.  After we waddled our way away from the restaurant, we made our way to University Mall where Jason got my wedding ring cleaned and we just enjoyed time together.  At the end of the night, I gave Jason his gift: a card explaining that I would be leaving him a love note each day for the next year.

When we finally made it home, we had one tired baby (mommy wasn't far behind her!)

This was our third Valentine's Day together and each one has been wonderful!