Photo A Day Feb 9-17, 2013

What an incredible last week this has been!  As I look at the pictures that I took this week, I reminded how lucky I am to have to what I have.  I don't know if my photography is getting better (again all these pictures are taken with my phone) but I am getting an amazing record of my life.  That idea seems particularly important as we get ready to celebrate Taelin's 4th birthday and the idea of time "speeding by" seems to be at the forefront.  I think though, especially as I look at this week's pictures, that we are doing a good job of living our life.  I am incredibly lucky.

feb 9, 2013
I absolutely adorable this picture

feb 10, 2013
spent a glorious sunny afternoon tubing at HooDoo

feb 11, 2013
The blanket fort right before taking it down.
 Note the sleeping bag...Taelin slept there for 3 nights and would
have kept sleeping there for who know how long.
She was so sad when we took it down.

feb 12, 2013
The new blog that I started along with my two co-mentors

feb 13, 2013
A Pinterest idea that I executed horribly (the horrible part was not captured)

feb 14, 2013
chocolate fondue

feb 15, 2013
tulips poking up...thanks Nana!

feb 16, 2013
I went on a major cooking frenzy to cook up some food for a
co-worker that had her baby 4 weeks early.  (Everyone is good!)
As I was finishing cleaning up I quickly snapped a picture.
The beginning of the mess would have been much more impressive!

feb 17, 2013
And speaking of babies, here is a picture from our zoo trip
where we got to see the new baby elephant Lily for the first time.
ADORABLE!

Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back. - Arthur Rubenstein

Today was one of the best days I have had in a long time.  I went to the gym and had a really good run.  I had an eye appointment and then Joe, Taelin and I went out for lunch.  We did some shopping to get a few things we needed around the house.  We then spent about 3 hours in bed.  Joe and I took turns napping while the other entertained Taelin with iPad apps and books.  We got up and went to dinner (I didn't cook a thing today!) and when we got back we built a blanket fort which Taelin decided to sleep in for the night.

Nothing too exciting, right?  Well...probably not too exciting when I just type it out but I honestly wasn't looking for exciting.  I was looking for just "being".  It was absolutely just what I needed.  And, without even really planning it, I was able to check something off my list.  Here are some of the pictures that I snapped during the building of above mentioned blanket fort.

Pre-blanket fort picture

I didn't really know how serious Joe was going to get about this whole thing.

Easily my two favorite people!  Love them!

Adding a door.  She was slightly upset there wasn't a garage.

In case you can't tell, this is a pull-string light.

chillin'

The two things she decided to bring in the blanket fort: books and her lacing cards.

Final product.  Spoken as a true geek, Joe says this is the "beta" version.

I can't really put into words how much I love these two and how much I love my life with them.

EDITED 8:55 a.m. morning after:  Taelin slept in the blanket fort all night and when I woke up and wandered out to the kitchen around 8:00 I hear her call my name.  I go over and stick my head in and she is sitting with her stack of books beside her, a little frustrated that she can't read the words, but mostly enjoying what she called "the quiet morning time."  She is currently sitting in there playing puzzles...