Life is Good

We've had a really fun few days around here. I feel refreshed and happy. Here's the series of events that got me to my happy place:

1. Last week my Mom took the boys for an afternoon and Jon suggested we go catch a matinee. There's something so luxurious as a mostly-stay-at-home-mom to go on a date in the middle of the day. We saw 127 Hours. Great movie (although I did have to close my eyes during the last half of "the scene" for fear of fainting right there in the theatre.)
2. Friday evening I squeezed in a mini shopping trip after work with my sister and blew through the rest of my Christmas money. Being at the mall with NO KIDS is always a mood booster :)
3. Saturday my mother-in-law hosted a lunch for all the past and present ladies from America's Family Coaches (where I work). 90% of the reason I love my job is the women I work with. A lot of them are some of my closest friends and it was great to catch up with a few I hadn't seen in a really long time. My MIL had a gorgeous girlie lunch for all of us and again...a few hours with NO KIDS does wonders for a young mom's soul!
4. Then that night, Judie offered to watch the boys for us so we could go out on a date! Holy moly. My weekend just kept getting better. Jon and I met up with some friends and went to Des Moines' improv group, Comedy Xperiment. They put on a hilarious show that's well worth the $10 ticket. Plus Jon's gone to so many that the entire cast and crew know him by name and they all love him (and will probably be asking him to join their troupe any day now).
5. Afterwards we picked up some awesome barbecue at Smokey D's in Ankeny and brought it home to eat while we snuggled in for some SNL. SNL has been hit or miss these days. We're still devoted fans as long as Kristen Wiig's on the cast but this season's been a bit of a let-down with the four new cast mates. Well Saturday night, they made a huge comeback. Dana Carvey hosted and it was so stinkin' hilarious. It was the perfect end to our Saturday night (ok, and Sunday night too since we always fall asleep before its over and have to watch the rest the next day :)
6. And of course to finish off the weekend with a bang...we got to watch the Super Bowl eat awesome food and chit-chat all night with a great group of friends. (No, I couldn't care less about the game. But any excuse to eat good food, and I'm there. Hello guacamole and sangrias!!). And to sweeten an already super sweet deal, we got to leave Dawson with Judie. Which means I got to enjoy myself! (Oops, did I say that out loud?)
7. The temperature is going to be in the 40's next weekend!! WOO HOO!! That's giving me a perma-grin for the rest of this miserably cold week!

This weekend was enough to get me up and out of the winter blues that were starting to sink in. I'm so thankful for all the laughing Jon and I got to do together this weekend. Man, its just refreshing to have so much time together doing fun stuff. With two kids now, I often find myself thinking of how amazing our years together will be after our kids are out of the house. I know, I know, live for the moment, enjoy these years because they go so fast, yada yada. But you know what? My husband is my best friend and I just really look forward to those years when its just the two of us again. (If you have no kids, or just one kid...I'm sorry to sound so cruel. You'll understand too, someday ;)

BUT...to make sure you all know that I love my sweet boys to death, here are a few of their most recent adorable/lovable/smoochable/squeezable moments:

Trying to escape, Mission Impossible style:

This boy loves his blueberries:

Dawson wearing Bennett's monster slippers. This boy is obsessed with wearing shoes and wants me to put different pairs on him all day long.

Cheap entertainment in the wintertime (Its even funnier with the big Dyson vacuum because I can get both of them on at the same time!):

And more cheap entertainment: