Spicy Valentine's Day...

hot hot hot! As we'd say to Ava if she was trying to touch something hot.

Valentine's Day really isn't a big deal for us. If we're going to celebrate our love on a special day, why not our anniversary? That said, we didn't do much. On Saturday I made brownies and we ate them warm with ice cream on top while we watched a movie. Sunday was a pretty busy day for us as I had to be at church by 7:30am since I was singing, which meant that Nathan had Ava. That always makes for an interesting day, but luckily, Ava had a new VeggieTales waiting on her. (Na said she smiled and ran to the TV the minute he held it up to show her.) Church went well and afterwards I headed to the grocery store to get a few things we needed for our Spicy Valentine's Day meal, Creole Jambalaya.

Why am I talking about food again? Because we have 100 feet of snow up here and there isn't anything to do but eat! Seriously though, we've been stuck inside for too long and so there isn't too much going on here. Ava is getting her back molars, and even though we've heard that 2yr molars are horrible for toddlers and parents, Ava is working through it like a champ. She did have a meltdown in Costco yesterday and threw my C-card, which I never found, and then threw my cell phone... but oh well. She is only 17-1/2 months after all and that isn't normal behavior for her.

Back to our yummy HOT dinner. My Father-in-law works for a part of the CDC and as funny as it is, they put out a cookbook last year, which we got for Christmas. As I was looking through it for something interesting, this jambalaya recipe caught my attention. I found all the ingredients, halved the recipe, and made it Sunday night for Valentine's Day. Even Nathan, who has no taste buds left and can eat the hottest chicken wings at Keggler's without blinking, had to take his time with this dish. From the get-go, I started off with a glass of milk, and then had to go back for seconds. So it was definitely hot, hot, hot. But oh so good!

If you'd like to try something new, email me or comment and I'll get it to you. And I'll suggest that you start with 1tbsp of creole seasoning and work your way up from there.

Ava and her "prevbul" (pretzel) after a nap on Sunday.

As I said before, we haven't done too much lately with all the snow. It's actually snowing right now... imagine that. Last Saturday we got a surprise as church was canceled for us. The day before was when we had the big snow storm and many of the roads were closed, so for the first time in the 6 year history of our church, we didn't meet. I enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to get up early since I was supposed to sing, but also the fact that we could be incredibly lazy and stay in where it was warm. And that's what we've been trying to do ever since... stay warm.

If you're interested, I added our Pastor's blog to our reel. He is hilarious, and we love getting to hear Toney every Sunday. (Bryan, Ryan, and Ethan too!)