It was leap day, but no leaping happened. It almost looks like it might have from the picture of Gideon and Sam above, but they were actually just sharing a moment of great silliness, picking up the red cup and laughing hysterically into the cup. I think it was just getting close to bedtime for the cousins.
No need for oil-- I just love this thing, ancient as it is. It probably sucks up way more electricity than it should, but I enjoy doing popcorn from it. I did a little popcorn and nuts treat for small group that I'd learned about from Jen. You pop some popcorn, add nuts, and then drizzle honey and butter on the whole thing and bake it. Sadly, Jamin didn't get home in time to come to small group with me tonight.
We had fun with a parachute at the baby storytime today, and we saw some familiar faces! Little Asher and Nathalee, whom Zaria knows from the FBC nursery, both came today randomly. Neither one is actually signed up for this storytime and neither one has ever been there before, so it was a fun surprise. Zaria was very active today and wanted to walk around the circle more than she wanted to sit and read. She is really enjoying her new skill and the perspective it gives her.
It was a balmy 26 degrees outside, so I decided to bundle Zaria up and go for a walk. Just as she and I were ready, my mom popped by after work, so she went on the walk with us on some trails nearby. It was fun to see the tracks under this bridge over Shingle Creek-- it looked like someone had been down there with snowshoes. Zaria had a great time. All that peaked out in the cold were her eyes, so she was probably warmer than Mom and I. We didn't have any layers on our legs, so we were very cold when we got back, but Zaria had a full snowsuit and a blanket.
I just love dedication Sundays! I always have, ever since I was a little kid. Except for when I actually was dedicated. Apparently, I always slept through church or was very quiet, but the day I was dedicated I cried through the whole thing. Don't really remember that, but I believe my parents' word on it.
We checked out a library pass to see the Minnesota History Center, so we enjoyed going today as a family, complete with picnic lunch. So of course it was a gorgeous day with all sorts of great views around St. Paul . . . and I forgot my camera again. I took a few shots with my camera phone, including the one below of Jamin looking at the historical MN license plates within the transportation portion of the museum. Interesting reading some of the blurbs on our transportation history when there's an important transportation bill being voted on next week. Surprisingly, Jamin is for an increase in fuel tax to improve transportation even though his paycheck is viciously gouged to pay for his truck's fuel. 
Amazing what a little baby oil will do to add body to hair. We're definitely ready to rock out on that little piano to "La Cucaracha." Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera this evening to the Club 3 Degrees band tournament to catch some real rock stars, like our friend Karin on her bass in the band "In Overflow."
I had to capture this fun part of my day. Zaria is so cute when she wakes up, often with her hair all mussed and rosy cheeks. If she's still waking up, she'll sit and stare, but if she's ready for action she'll pull out her pacifier and hand it to me. If I'm not there to grab it, she'll throw it on the floor. She has fun giving me all of the pacifiers she has available, and then sometimes taking them back if my hand is within reach.
I managed to get one decent picture of the lunar eclipse tonight from our streetlight-flooded urban sky. I understand that if you saw the moon in a more rural area it looked quite red. It was more brown from our perspective, but still really cool. And it was really cool outside--we didn't hang out there for long.
John and Jen ended up acquiring some free tickets to see the Wild play, so we had Maria over this evening. She and Zaria had a good time playing on the drum together. I also was entertaining Cassie and Kami, so it was a real girl-power evening. Jamin got home late and I opted not to go to a political meeting with Cassie to meet a candidate in lieu of putting these girls down to bed while Jamin ate supper. Cassie came over afterwards to tell me about the meeting and we realized we've been friends for roughly half our lives!
I still haven't gotten down a good time to read the Bible every day. I was able to wake up before Zaria for a while and read in the early morning, and sometimes I'll try during a nap time or while she's interested in some books so we can "read together" but I haven't been consistent. I tried during breakfast today, which halfway worked. Zaria enjoyed the cottage cheese while I read about David wanting God to smote his enemies.
It was my first time watching both Emil and Nils. Zaria had a bad cold today, so we missed church and she stayed home with Jamin while I watched the boys. Nils is a very fast crawler and puts absolutely everything straight into his mouth, while Emil is pretty particular about what he watches/listens to and how things are played with. Typical firstborn tendencies. We had a good time, but I have learned that there's only so much Blues Clues an adult can handle paying attention to.
Dan, Naomi and Gwendolyn came over to visit us today and eat pizza and play Catan. A fun time was had by all-- they were happy to visit and get a break from staying with Naomi's mom in her 2-bedroom apartment, I think. They'll be moving into their new house in a few weeks but needed a temporary residence until then. The girls were waking up from naps in the shot above, and had fun looking at books in Zaria's room. Zaria enjoyed watching her cousin Gwennie read and warmed up to her uncle Dan in the process. Then she was off to wake up her dad from his nap in the picture below. He did wake up, but didn't respond right away.
It was our annual FNG Valentines exchange tonight! There are some amazing pieces of art that group members have as their Valentines receptacles, as Joel is displaying in this photo. Joe had a new camera and had a lot of fun getting photos of everyone, including baby Elizabeth (with her parents Simon and Michelle) who came to meet everyone at just a few weeks old. This is the fourth annual Valentines exchange for the FNG. Both Joe and Krista still had their old Valentines in their boxes and enjoyed the history. 
Zaria is walking on her own now, but still prefers having things to hold on to. I tried to find her the most Valentinesey outfit for today that I could, but Jamin and I did go out without her this evening. We didn't have small group tonight in lieu of Valentine's day dating opportunities. 
Zaria was having fun playing with Jamin's hat, beard and coat while we all got ready to go to the library this evening. I had a copy of a "Fiddler on the Roof" DVD waiting for me, and Jamin needed some new audiobooks to listen to in his truck. Zaria had a great time wandering around the kid's section, pushing her stroller.
I made some chocolate muffins today for Jamin as a Valentine treat, and put some frosting hearts on a few to have for dessert tonight. Meanwhile, Zaria was busy getting into my pantry and shaking up a box of scalloped potatoes.
Today was KTIS' "Drive Through Difference," which I really would've enjoyed being part of, but we had plans already to take advantage of the Monday deal at Pannekoeken-- buy one, get one for 2.99. We had thought they were buy one-get one, but it's still a great deal and they are so good. I have a recipe for the standard fruit kind that I'm excited to try sometime. I had a meat & veggie one, Jamin had a southwestern one (right side) and across from us, Cassie had her standard Rotterdam pannekoeken with metwurst sausage.
It was beautifully sunny, but bitterly cold today. I stayed in bed a little long, still fighting a cold, so we only made it to the regular church service at First Baptist today. It's interesting going to church downtown and parking in a lot that usually charges. Today we were in a "contract parking only" spot.
Aren't they cute? John and Jen let us sneak in to their schedule for a game of Catan before they went out to the "Couples by Candlelight" date night event at North Heights. I had cookies to drop off anyway, so we let the girls play for a little while as we played and ate a few of the extra cookies. This date was a cool answer to prayer-- they were really wanting to go but short on funds, and somebody called Jen and asked if she wanted tickets the next day. Wow, God is so cool.
You saw on my last Tuesday photos examples of how to do cookies for the annual bake sale for Mothers' Fellowship. Well, today I baked some. I didn't do very many-- Zaria and I were battling a cold and actually stayed home instead of going over to Jen's to bake together. It was tough to make this many as Zaria was very clingy today. As fun as it is to have her "walk" with me by grabbing onto my pant legs, it takes much longer to get things done in the kitchen. We'll just have to meet up with Jen and company tomorrow since she has neighbors that go to North Heights Lutheran Church (where the bake sale was held).
I decided steps are kinda nice with toddlers. Yes, it's a pain carrying ZJ up and down the steps every day, but she does it herself sometimes and gets some great exercise, and my mom discovered that it's a great place to set her while getting ready to go out.
I washed Zaria's bedding today. Yeah, I think it's been a couple of months-- it's such a pain to try to get sheets off the crib with the crib bumpers and everything. She usually sleeps on a blanket that's above the sheet, so it doesn't get dirty all that quickly anyway. Wouldn't you know it, I missed the book with the other bedding items, and this panda had a bath.
I decided to see if Zaria would still fit in her bouncer play gym, and she does, though she is getting a little big for it. It's supposed to snow about 2-6 inches today, so I opened the curtains up wide for us to look out at it while she played. It looked so cold out, I put tights on Zaria after taking this picture.
For the second year, Jamin, Zaria and I have taken the trek to Medicine Lake to see the Art Shanties. It's really fun and I recommend it. Every year in late January to mid-February a bunch of artists put together ice-fishing houses, or shanties that are artwork. Some of them are just normal fish houses that contain art, and others are in fun shapes, like the robot pictured behind Jamin (below). Above was a shanty filled with mobiles. I made the one that has the toy sheep on it while we listened to a car accident story by one of the artists. Zaria had fun crawling around in there and watching their black Labrador. I was surprised at how well our little umbrella stroller did on the lake. There had been just enough melting and re-freezing to make it pretty smooth. 
