In the month of February...

For Valentine's Day this year, I began February 1st by putting little notes on the kids door each day leading up to Valentine's Day and every couple days I'd do some kind of treat or something. Not sure if it was something they enjoy or they just ENDURE with me being their mom...

YOU are the "LIGHT" of my Life

                     I would "SO BE" your Valentine. XOXO                     

YOU'RE ALL THAT & a bag of CHIPS!

This is what at the end of the 14 days of Valentine's day looked like on their doors. And these Personalized cards I found on Pinterest that it calculates the # of days you have LOVED that person, by birthdate, fell in love, or whatever. I thought it was really fun-

I Truly feel "BLESSED" with these 3 in my life- just a little craft I ordered & finally came.

This was taken after pulling into our church parking lot on a Sunday afternoon, and we had parked by each other, so I asked Bailey to take a picture so we'd have it for later. All that snow it sure makes it look pretty-

36 Days until Tanner enters the MTC

Since Tanner wasn't going to end up leaving at the end of January, he went to work for Mike @ Candlelight Homes, being a laborer. But about the end of February he quit & wanted to make sure he had some free time to chill, hang with his friends & go Snowboarding or whatever he wanted to do-

The picture of the beautiful mountains & flowery field was a picture that his friend Anthony took & posted on IG. I had to post it here, because of the banter that they would give each other on their pics, etc. Pretty FUNNY- The other is a picture of Brad &/or Shelley went snowboarding a number of times & this was just one of those times. I was grateful they (he) had worked so hard that he had the time & money to make sure and have some FUN before he went too-   

As I was going through some things of Tanners, I came across this CUTE picture Tanner had colored when he was in Primary or Nursery. 

My IG post: "Well, if this isn't the *CuTeSt* darn thing I've come across in Tanner's file box of stuff! I sure wish I would've put a date on it, but check out how BiG his SMiLe is, & he made sure to make his eyes Green!  

Mike went down to Las Vegas for the Builders Convention the first week of February with Candlelight Homes. He had a friend that offered for us to stay in their home in St. George over that weekend. We thought it would be a nice getaway for the whole family before Tanner left, however Tanner didn't want to go. So, the girls & I went down and met Mike in Ivins, where his friends home was at.

It was a BEAUTIFUL home with a Wonderful view of Snow Canyon & the RED ROCK

We headed down Friday morning, and stayed all weekend. Liz, Bailey's friend just happened to be down there that same weekend with her parents. So met up with them for dinner one night & Liz came over & sat in the Hot Tub with the girls. It was definitely a nice, relaxing weekend-

This is when we met Liz's parents for dinner at "Peppers" a restaurant they go to often.

On Saturday, we went up to the Dixie Rock overlook, shopping & had to try out "Swig" for their cookies-

We headed home Sunday, and we made sure to let Bailey drive & get some driving HOURS in-

She did really good & of course NOW she's a little "selfie shy" when her mom wants to take a picture-

On Valentine's Day I had seen this first Twitter post of Tanner's, that definitely made me LaUgH! Then I scrolled some more & the second post made me definitely CRY... & grateful!

One day we noticed Spice had hurt his foot/paw and wasn't using it much at all. So we kept a eye on it & watched it closely. It took some time but eventually after about a week & an half Spice starting walking on it again. We had tried calling the Pitchers to see if we could take Spice in to the vet for them, but no one ever returned our calls. So we didn't but Tanner was pretty insistent on taking him. I didn't feel right about it cuz' Spice isn't really our cat. We are grateful he recovered & is doing better now.

This was ANOTHER countdown we had for Tanner- he might have thought we were excited for him to go, but quite the contrary...

Since after Christmas break we had been asking Carlos to take Tanner's Missionary pictures. But he was always too busy, soccer was starting up, or exams. We got to the end of February & were under REAL pressure to get it done & FAST! We had Brother Rogers asking for a picture for the Missionary plaque at the church, and still NO pictures. So Tanner got around to asking another friend of his from school, Abby Keene. She met him at Mt Timp Temple and a area near there & took these pictures. It took a week or so to get the edits back, but after seeing them they were good, but she didn't get Tanner's real smile out & some of the pictures didn't seem too great. So, it took a little convincing & me kinda getting mad at Tanner, but I asked him to call Carlos again or see if I could get someone else to take them again. He finally did it & SO grateful, and NOW we have some Temple ones & some mountain ones, with Tanner's Real SMiLe!     

I really feel LUCKY & grateful to now have not only one set of pictures but two totally different styles-

The days definitely seemed to ONLY be going faster & faster towards the END...17 days & counting

We tried to have some of Tanner's favorite meals that I make before he left. However there's not many things I make that he really likes...but CREPES with Strawberries, is one of them.

We've had some nice weather here & there this Winter (January/February) and I took advantage of them when they were here. And so did Spice...he enjoys sitting out and soaking up the SUN with me on the deck.

The MTC ends up assigning a specific date & time for the arrival of NEW Missionaries, and this was that link to when Tanner was to arrive & report at the MTC on Wednesday, March 12th.  "A-G  12:30 pm"

I hadn't been sleeping well the month previous to Tanner leaving, just because when I'd wake up in the middle of the night, my mind would start "thinking," and then it was hard for me to get back to sleep. This particular Saturday, I was laying on the couch, ready to take a short nap, when Tanner & Carlos walk in. Tanner runs downstairs & changes clothes, comes back up & says that they are headed out to take pictures & Carlos was going to take them!!! I was SO excited, because at that point Tanner had said "NO", he wouldn't take pictures again. After they went & took them, they came back to change clothes & go play Soccer at the HS, Carlos sat down next to me & showed me THIS picture he had taken & said it was just a preview of what was to come. I was SO EXCITED!!! It had totally made my day, I had been worried for a few days that first set of pictures was all I was going to get. Until THIS...he soon posted it on his IG acct. 

And these are just a FEW of the pictures he ended up taking. And this last one here ^, Bailey actually edited it at school for me because I wanted one of his pictures to have it in Black n' white then the flag be in color. I told Bailey what I was looking for & THIS is how it turned out... LOVE it!